Health & Medicine News

July 12, 2025

Top Headlines

Florida Cat Sniffs out Another New Virus—and Scientists Are Listening

July 12, 2025 — A cat named Pepper has once again helped scientists discover a new virus—this time a mysterious orthoreovirus found in a shrew. Researchers from the University of Florida, including virologist John Lednicky, identified this strain during unrelated ...

Scientists Just Found 200+ Hidden Proteins That May Drive Alzheimer’s

July 12, 2025 — A surprising new study has uncovered over 200 misfolded proteins in the brains of aging rats with cognitive decline, beyond the infamous amyloid and tau plaques long blamed for Alzheimer’s. These shape-shifting proteins don’t clump into visible ...

It’s Never Too Late: Just Moving More Could Add Years to Your Life

July 12, 2025 — Adopting a physically active lifestyle at any stage of adulthood significantly lowers your risk of dying from any cause, especially from cardiovascular disease. A sweeping analysis of 85 studies confirms that those who stay active consistently ...

Researchers Grow 400+ Brain Cell Types—a Leap for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Research

July 12, 2025 — Scientists at ETH Zurich have broken new ground by generating over 400 types of nerve cells from stem cells in the lab, far surpassing previous efforts that produced only a few dozen. By ...

This Tiny Brain Molecule Could Hold the Key to Learning, Memory—and Alzheimer’s Treatment

July 12, 2025 — A team of researchers has discovered that a protein called cypin plays a powerful role in helping brain cells connect and communicate, which is crucial for learning and memory. By uncovering how ...

Breakthrough Microchip Reveals How Your Body Fights Viruses—in Just 90 Minutes

July 12, 2025 — A team at Scripps Research has created a microchip that can rapidly reveal how a person's antibodies respond to viruses using only a drop of blood. This game-changing technology, called mEM, ...

The First Pandemic? Scientists Find 214 Ancient Pathogens in Prehistoric DNA

July 11, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered DNA from 214 ancient pathogens in prehistoric humans, including the oldest known evidence of plague. The findings show zoonotic diseases began spreading around 6,500 years ...

In Seconds, AI Builds Proteins to Battle Cancer and Antibiotic Resistance

July 11, 2025 — Artificial intelligence is now designing custom proteins in seconds—a process that once took years—paving the way for cures to diseases like cancer and antibiotic-resistant infections. Australian scientists have joined this biomedical frontier ...

How a Hidden Brain Circuit Fuels Fibromyalgia, Migraines, and PTSD

July 10, 2025 — What if your brain is the reason some pain feels unbearable? Scientists at the Salk Institute have discovered a hidden brain circuit that gives pain its emotional punch—essentially transforming ordinary discomfort into lasting misery. This ...

This Tiny Implant Could Save Diabetics from Silent, Deadly Crashes

July 10, 2025 — MIT engineers have developed a tiny implantable device that could revolutionize emergency treatment for people with Type 1 diabetes. The device contains a powdered form of glucagon and can be remotely triggered—either manually or automatically by ...

The Sleep-Heart Link Doctors Are Urging Women Over 45 to Know

July 10, 2025 — Midlife sleep habits may matter more than previously thought. A large study finds that poor sleep, alongside high blood pressure and nicotine use, sharply increases the risk of heart problems in menopausal women yet only 1 in 5 score well on overall ...

Your Brain’s Hidden Defenses Against Alzheimer’s

July 10, 2025 — Scientists at UCSF combined advanced brain-network modeling, genetics, and imaging to reveal how tau protein travels through neural highways and how certain genes either accelerate its toxic journey or shield brain regions from damage. Their ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:36am EDT

Lemurs Age Without Inflammation—and It Could Change Human Health Forever

July 10, 2025 — What if humans didn’t have to suffer the slow-burning fire of chronic inflammation as we age? A surprising study on two types of lemurs found no evidence of "inflammaging," a phenomenon long ...

Bigger Crops, Fewer Nutrients: The Hidden Cost of Climate Change

July 10, 2025 — Climate change is silently sapping the nutrients from our food. A pioneering study finds that rising CO2 and higher temperatures are not only reshaping how crops grow but are also degrading their ...

This Muscle Supplement Could Rewire the Brain—and Now Scientists Can Deliver It

July 9, 2025 — Creatine isn’t just for gym buffs; Virginia Tech scientists are using focused ultrasound to sneak this vital energy molecule past the blood-brain ...

Doctors Say We’ve Been Misled About Weight and Health

July 9, 2025 — Losing weight isn’t always winning at health, say experts challenging the long-standing obsession with BMI and dieting. New evidence shows that most people with higher body weight can’t sustain ...

Matching Your Workouts to Your Personality Could Make Exercising More Enjoyable and Give You Better Results

July 9, 2025 — Less than a quarter of us hit WHO activity targets, but a new UCL study suggests the trick may be matching workouts to our personalities: extroverts ...

Hate Exercise? Neuroscience Maps the Routine Your Personality Will Love

July 8, 2025 — A new UCL study reveals that aligning workouts with personality boosts fitness and slashes stress—extroverts thrive on HIIT, neurotics favor short, private bursts, and everyone benefits when ...

Alzheimer’s Doesn’t Strike at Random: These 4 Early-Warning Patterns Tell the Story

July 7, 2025 — UCLA scientists mined millions of electronic health records and uncovered four distinct “roadways” that funnel people toward ...

Study Finds Tummy-Tuck Patients Still Shedding Pounds Five Years Later

July 7, 2025 — Patients who undergo tummy tuck surgery may be in for more than just cosmetic changes — a new study shows they often keep losing weight for years after the procedure. Researchers followed 188 ...

Feeling Mental Exhaustion? These Two Areas of the Brain May Control Whether People Give Up or Persevere

July 7, 2025 — When you're mentally exhausted, your brain might be doing more behind the scenes than you think. In a new study using functional MRI, researchers ...

New Research Shows Monday Stress Is Etched Into Your Biology

July 7, 2025 — Feeling jittery as the week kicks off isn’t just a mood—it leaves a biochemical footprint. Researchers tracked thousands of older adults and found those who dread Mondays carry elevated cortisol ...

Frozen Light Switches: How Arctic Microbes Could Revolutionize Neuroscience

July 5, 2025 — In the frozen reaches of the planet—glaciers, mountaintops, and icy groundwater—scientists have uncovered strange light-sensitive molecules in tiny microbes. These “cryorhodopsins” can ...

Multisensory VR Forest Reboots Your Brain and Lifts Mood—study Confirms

July 6, 2025 — Immersing stressed volunteers in a 360° virtual Douglas-fir forest complete with sights, sounds and scents boosted their mood, sharpened short-term memory and deepened their feeling of ...

Pregnancy’s 100-Million-Year Secret: Inside the Placenta’s Evolutionary Power Play

July 6, 2025 — A group of scientists studying pregnancy across six different mammals—from humans to marsupials—uncovered how certain cells at the mother-baby boundary have been working together for over 100 ...

The Surprising Link Between Hearing Loss, Loneliness, and Lifespan

July 5, 2025 — People who treat hearing loss with hearing aids or cochlear implants regain rich conversations, escape isolation, and may even protect their brains and lifespans—proof that better hearing ...

New Research Confirms That Neurons Form in the Adult Brain

July 4, 2025 — Researchers from Sweden have discovered that the human brain continues to grow new cells in the memory region—called the hippocampus—even into old age. Using advanced tools to examine brain ...

Scientists Just Found a Major Flaw in a Key COVID Drug Study

July 4, 2025 — A promising path to fighting COVID and other coronaviruses may have been based on a serious mistake. Scientists had zeroed in on a part of the virus called the NiRAN domain, believed to be a powerful ...

AI Spots Deadly Heart Risk Most Doctors Can't See

July 3, 2025 — An advanced Johns Hopkins AI model called MAARS combs through underused heart MRI scans and complete medical records to spot hidden scar patterns that signal sudden cardiac death, dramatically ...

Sweet-Smelling Molecule Halts Therapy-Resistant Pancreatic Cancer

July 3, 2025 — A compound best known for giving almonds and apricots their aroma may be the key to defeating hard-to-kill cancer cells. Japanese researchers found that benzaldehyde can stop the shape-shifting ...

Deafness Reversed: Single Injection Brings Hearing Back Within Weeks

July 2, 2025 — A cutting-edge gene therapy has significantly restored hearing in children and adults with congenital deafness, showing dramatic results just one month after a single injection. Researchers used a ...

This Sun-Powered Sponge Pulls Drinking Water Straight from the Ocean

July 3, 2025 — In a leap toward sustainable desalination, researchers have created a solar-powered sponge-like aerogel that turns seawater into drinkable water using just sunlight and a plastic cover. Unlike ...

The Fatal Mutation That Lets Cancer Outsmart the Human Immune System

July 2, 2025 — Scientists at UC Davis discovered a small genetic difference that could explain why humans are more prone to certain cancers than our primate cousins. The change affects a protein used by immune ...

Parkinson’s Reversal? One Drug Brings Dying Brain Cells Back to Life

July 3, 2025 — Stanford researchers discovered that dialing down an overactive enzyme, LRRK2, can regrow lost cellular “antennae” in key brain cells, restoring vital dopamine communication and neuroprotective ...

Even Low Levels of Air Pollution May Quietly Scar Your Heart, MRI Study Finds

July 3, 2025 — Breathing polluted air—even at levels considered “safe”—may quietly damage your heart. A new study using advanced MRI scans found that people exposed to more air pollution showed early signs ...

A Midlife MRI That Spots Rapid Aging and Signals Disease Long Before Symptoms

July 2, 2025 — A new brain scan tool shows how quickly your body and mind are aging. It can spot early signs of diseases like dementia, long before symptoms begin. The scan looks at hidden clues in your brain to ...

The Pandemic Pet Boom Was Real. The Happiness Boost Wasn’t

July 2, 2025 — Locked-down Hungarians who gained or lost pets saw almost no lasting shift in mood or loneliness, and new dog owners actually felt less calm and satisfied over time—hinting that the storied “pet ...

Tiny Gut “sponge” Bacteria Found to Flush out Toxic PFAS “forever Chemicals”

July 2, 2025 — Cambridge scientists have spotted gut bacteria that greedily soak up PFAS “forever chemicals,” then ferry them safely out of the body in animal tests, removing up to three-quarters of the toxins ...

Researchers Tested 200 Toddlers — 96 Chemicals Were Lurking in Their Bodies

July 2, 2025 — Researchers testing urine from 2- to 4-year-olds in four U.S. states uncovered 96 different chemicals, many of them unmonitored and linked to hormone and brain disruption. Legacy toxins like ...

Ultrafast 12-Minute MRI Maps Brain Chemistry to Spot Disease Before Symptoms

July 2, 2025 — Illinois engineers fused ultrafast imaging with smart algorithms to peek at living brain chemistry, turning routine MRIs into metabolic microscopes. The system distinguishes healthy regions, grades ...

Is Cheese Secretly Fueling Your Nightmares? Science Weighs in

July 1, 2025 — Over a thousand students revealed a striking link between lactose intolerance and nightmare-filled nights, hinting that midnight stomach turmoil from dairy can invade dreams. Researchers suggest ...

Synthetic Storm: What’s Really in Your Teen’s Vape — and Why Scientists Are Alarmed

July 1, 2025 — Teen vaping is changing fast — and not in a good way. A large national study found that more adolescents are vaping THC, CBD, and especially synthetic cannabinoids, which are often unregulated and ...