Brain scans suggest the pandemic prematurely aged teens’ brains

Living through the COVID-19 pandemic may have matured teens’ brains beyond their years. From online schooling and social isolation to economic hardship and a mounting death count, the last few…

These 5 biomedical advances gave 2022 a sci-fi feel

COVID-19 may continue to dominate headlines, but this year’s biomedical advances weren’t all about “the Rona.” 2022 saw fruitful and seemingly fantastical research that could one day mean good news…

Medical racism didn’t begin or end with the syphilis study at Tuskegee

“We were all hard-working men … and citizens of the United States.” Herman Shaw, 1997 Born in Alabama in 1902, Herman Shaw was a farmer and a cotton mill worker.…

2022 was the year long COVID couldn’t be ignored

This year, the world had to face the growing burden of long COVID. A tidal wave of people with lingering symptoms — some mild, some profoundly disabling — commanded attention.…

Some common medical terms may be more confusing than doctors think

Medical language can sometimes stump patients. And some common sayings are straight-up head-scratchers. Calling a patient’s neurological exam “grossly intact,” for example, might not sound so great, says Michael Pitt,…

How 4 major coronavirus tools impacted the pandemic in 2022

The third year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States introduced vaccines for very young children and an updated booster, plus wider availability of an antiviral drug and at-home…

Viruses other than the coronavirus made headlines in 2022

This year delivered many sobering reminders that the coronavirus isn’t the only viral threat out there. Mpox went global The mpox virus, a relative of the virus that causes smallpox,…

How much water should you drink a day? It depends on several factors

Are you drinking enough water? The question seems like it should have a straightforward answer — a specific amount of water you need to drink daily to combat dehydration.      But…

Why pandemic fatigue and COVID-19 burnout took over in 2022

2022 was the year many people decided the coronavirus pandemic had ended. President Joe Biden said as much in an interview with 60 Minutes in September. “The pandemic is over,”…

Brief bursts of activity offer health benefits for people who don’t exercise

Making day-to-day activities more vigorous for a few minutes — such as briefly stepping up the pace of a walk — could offer people who don’t exercise some of the…