Health
Why Stress May Be Your Heart’s Worst Enemy

It all starts in the brain’s fear center, the amygdala, which reacts to stress by activating the so-called fight-or-flight response, triggering the release of hormones that over time can increase levels of body fat, blood pressure and insulin resistance. Furthermore, as the team explained, the cascade of reactions to stress causes inflammation in the arteries, […]

Updated: Jan 3, 2022
Hockey Fan Spots Cancerous Mole at Game and Delivers a Lifesaving Note

Nadia Popovici kept shifting her eyes from the hockey game to the back of Brian Hamilton’s neck. Mr. Hamilton, an assistant equipment manager for the Vancouver Canucks, had a small mole there. It measured about two centimeters and was irregularly shaped and red-brown in color — possible characteristics of a cancerous mole, signs that Ms. […]

Updated: Jan 2, 2022
These Prenatal Tests Are Usually Wrong When Warning of Rare Disorders

A big market for rare conditions Between 2011 and 2013, a small Silicon Valley-based biotech company, Sequenom, tripled in size. The key to its success: MaterniT21, a new prenatal screening test that did remarkably well at detecting Down syndrome. Older screening tests took months and required multiple blood tests. This new one generated fewer false […]

Updated: Jan 2, 2022
Alzheimer’s Drug Aduhelm Faces Crucial Medicare Decision

Posts supporting coverage include comments from people who have consulted for Biogen, like Dr. Jeffrey Cummings, a research professor in the department of brain health at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He wrote that the drug “prolongs the mental life of our declining patients,” adding, “Medicare should unequivocally support coverage for aducanumab, and they […]

Updated: Dec 31, 2021
Omicron Doesn’t Infect the Lungs Very Well, Animal Studies Find

A spate of new studies on lab animals and human tissues are providing the first indication of why the Omicron variant causes milder disease than previous versions of the coronavirus. In studies on mice and hamsters, Omicron produced less damaging infections, often limited largely to the upper airway: the nose, throat and windpipe. The variant […]

Updated: Dec 31, 2021
The Plane is Boarding, Where Are Your Test Results?

Christine Yi held out hope that the test results would come through until the doors to her flight’s boarding gate closed. Ms. Yi, 45, a content creator in New York, was attempting to fly to Grand Cayman in the Caribbean over the Christmas holiday weekend with her boyfriend, James Tracey, 47, the executive chef at […]

Updated: Dec 31, 2021
F.D.A. Plans to Allow 12- to 15-Year-Olds to Receive Pfizer Boosters

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is planning to broaden eligibility for coronavirus vaccine booster shots on Monday, allowing 12- to 15-year-olds to receive third doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine, according to people familiar with the agency’s deliberations. Regulators are also expected to authorize an extra shot of Pfizer’s vaccine for both adolescents and adults […]

Updated: Dec 31, 2021
J. & J. Booster Protects Against Severe Omicron, Study Says

A Johnson & Johnson booster shot provided strong protection against the Omicron variant, greatly reducing the risk of hospitalization, according to a clinical trial in South Africa. The study, which compared more than 69,000 boosted health care workers with a corresponding group of unvaccinated South Africans, found that two shots of the vaccine reduced the […]

Updated: Dec 30, 2021
At-Home Covid Tests Raise Questions About Accurately Counting Cases

Millions of rapid at-home Covid tests are flying off pharmacy shelves across the country, giving Americans an instant, if sometimes imperfect, read on whether they are infected with the coronavirus. But the results are rarely reported to public health departments, exacerbating the longstanding challenges of maintaining an accurate count of cases at a time when […]

Updated: Dec 30, 2021
As Omicron Spreads, Officials Ponder What It Means to Be ‘Fully Vaccinated’

Goldman Sachs and Jeffries, the investment banks, are demanding that employees get booster shots. The University of Oregon and other institutions are requiring that students and staff members get boosters. New York State has said it plans to stop considering residents fully vaccinated unless they’ve gotten the shots. As the highly transmissible Omicron variant spreads […]

Updated: Dec 30, 2021