What happens to the millions of microbes on your earlobes when you get your ears pierced? Body piercings are a uniquely human practice—one which we have been practicing for thousands of years. But exactly how this practice influences the millions of microbes on our skin has been largely unstudied, until now. Our skin is covered … Read more
States in the Great Lakes and northern Midwest regions are among those that have the highest prevalence of COVID-19 infections recorded in the most recent week, maps produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show. The federal agency’s northern central administrative regions had, on average, a prevalence of antigen tests returning positive … Read more
My freshman year of college marked my introduction to alcohol. I remember my first drink—a good old fashioned beer at a bar—what most might call a safe entry into the social practice as an eighteen-year-old. I am an Irish-American, and was raised as such, so I was no stranger to drinking, but growing up through … Read more
I have wanted to lose weight for a long time, but it is easier said than done. In 2022 I weighed 195lbs and my eating habits were inconsistent. One day, I’d order a salad, but the next day, I’d order a milkshake. I felt like the majority of my meals were fast food. I knew … Read more
Most of us tend to think we are protected from traffic-induced air pollution when we are in our cars. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Both short- and long-term exposure to air pollution have been linked to a wide range of diseases, including strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, diabetes, obesity and even Alzheimer’s, … Read more
COVID-19 infection during pregnancy increases a child’s risk of being born prematurely, a new study has found. But this impact disappears after maternal vaccination, suggesting that the vaccine may have prevented thousands of premature births. “Preterm birth is the leading cause of infant mortality in the United States, and it predicts worse health in childhood … Read more
Scientists may have figured out a brand new way to treat lung cancer by using a protein that inhibits tumor growth. This previously unknown molecule pathway could help researchers develop personalized lung cancer treatments, a new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reveals. The researchers found that a protein … Read more
Modern life is affecting our bodies more than we realize. Everything from the air we breath to the food we eat has been shown to disrupt the delicate balance of our biology. One area that is particularly underappreciated is the impact of our lifestyles on male fertility. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), roughly … Read more
Jellyfish are helping scientists develop futuristic materials for medicine and biological research. The material, based on jellyfish collagen, would act as a cellular scaffold to support a range of applications, from tissue regeneration to the production of lab-grown humanlike organs for use in medical research. Jellyfish are thought to have evolved roughly 500 to 700 … Read more
It’s not uncommon for doctors to have to remove numerous bizarre objects from unsuspecting places in the human body. One such strange foreign body found recently was an entire housefly that was discovered inside a 63-year-old patient’s colon during a colonoscopy, a recent case report in the American Journal of Gastroenterology revealed. The doctors were … Read more
