Pain Control News

January 17, 2026

Top Headlines

Vitamin a May Be Helping Cancer Hide from the Immune System

Jan. 16, 2026 A vitamin A byproduct has been found to quietly disarm the immune system, allowing tumors to evade attack and weakening cancer vaccines. Scientists have now developed a drug that shuts down this pathway, dramatically boosting immune responses and ...

Millions with Dementia Still Prescribed Drugs Linked to Falls and Confusion

Jan. 13, 2026 Despite longstanding guidelines, many dementia patients are still prescribed brain-altering medications that can raise the risk of falls and confusion. A new study shows that while prescribing has decreased overall, people with cognitive impairment ...

MIT’s Smart Pill Confirms You Took Your Medicine

Jan. 13, 2026 MIT engineers have developed a pill that can wirelessly report when it’s been swallowed. Inside the capsule is a biodegradable antenna that sends a signal within minutes of ingestion, then safely dissolves. The system is designed to work with ...

Long COVID May Be Fueled by Inflammation and Tiny Clots

Jan. 8, 2026 Long COVID affects an estimated 65 million people worldwide and can damage the brain, heart, blood vessels, and immune system long after infection. Researchers now link symptoms to lingering virus, inflammation, micro-clots, and disrupted energy ...

Scientists Find a Safer Way for Opioids to Relieve Pain

Jan. 6, 2026 Researchers at USF Health have discovered a new way opioid receptors can work that may lead to safer pain medications. Their findings show that certain experimental compounds can amplify pain relief without intensifying dangerous side effects like ...

Diabetes Drugs May Be Changing Cancer in Surprising Ways

Jan. 2, 2026 Common diabetes drugs may do more than regulate blood sugar—they could also influence how cancers grow, spread, or slow down. Researchers are now unraveling how these medications affect immune function, inflammation, and tumor biology, with ...

ADHD Drugs Don’t Work the Way We Thought

Dec. 29, 2025 ADHD stimulants appear to work less by sharpening focus and more by waking up the brain. Brain scans revealed that these medications activate reward and alertness systems, helping children stay interested in tasks they would normally avoid. The ...

A Massive Scientific Review Put Alternative Autism Therapies to the Test

Dec. 28, 2025 A major new review has put hundreds of alternative autism treatments under the microscope—and most didn’t hold up. Scientists analyzed decades of research and found little reliable evidence that popular approaches like probiotics, acupuncture, ...

Stanford Scientists Uncover Why MRNA COVID Vaccines Can Trigger Heart Inflammation

Dec. 27, 2025 Stanford scientists have uncovered how mRNA COVID-19 vaccines can very rarely trigger heart inflammation in young men — and how that risk might be reduced. They found that the vaccines can spark a ...

A New Drug Could Stop Alzheimer’s Before Memory Loss Begins

Dec. 22, 2025 New research suggests Alzheimer’s may start far earlier than previously thought, driven by a hidden toxic protein in the brain. Scientists found that an experimental drug, NU-9, blocks this early damage in mice and reduces inflammation linked to ...

He Ate a Hamburger and Died Hours Later. Doctors Found a Shocking Cause

Dec. 17, 2025 A rare tick-borne allergy linked to red meat has now been confirmed as deadly for the first time. A healthy New Jersey man collapsed and died hours after eating beef, with later testing revealing a severe allergic reaction tied to alpha-gal, a sugar ...

Ozempic May Offer a Surprising Bonus Benefit for Brain Health

Dec. 13, 2025 A new analysis suggests that people with type 2 diabetes who use GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, Trulicity or Victoza may be less likely to develop epilepsy than those taking DPP-4 inhibitors. Semaglutide showed the strongest connection to lowered ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:53am EST

Menopause Symptoms Are Common Even in Elite Endurance Athletes

Jan. 2, 2026 Menopause symptoms are common among female endurance athletes and often interfere with training and performance. A survey of women aged 40–60 who train regularly found high rates of sleep problems, ...

Mayo Clinic Neurosurgeon Reveals 8 Back Pain Myths to Stop Believing

Dec. 15, 2025 Back pain is wrapped in persistent myths, but many are far from the truth. From misconceptions about heavy lifting and bed rest to confusion over posture, exercise, and surgery, Dr. Meghan Murphy ...

Her Food Cravings Vanished on Mounjaro Then Roared Back

Dec. 8, 2025 Deep-brain recordings showed that Mounjaro and Zepbound briefly shut down the craving circuits linked to food noise in a patient with severe obesity. Her obsessive thoughts about food disappeared as ...

Inflammation Turns Bone Marrow Into a Breeding Ground for Disease

Nov. 19, 2025 Researchers discovered that chronic inflammation fundamentally remodels the bone marrow, allowing mutated stem cell clones to quietly gain dominance with age. Reprogrammed stromal cells and ...

How to Keep Ozempic/Wegovy Weight Loss Without the Nausea

Nov. 18, 2025 Scientists are uncovering how GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy act on brain regions that control hunger, nausea, pleasure-based eating, and thirst. These discoveries may help create treatments ...

Chronic Pain May Dramatically Raise Your Blood Pressure

Nov. 17, 2025 Chronic pain might quietly push people toward developing high blood pressure—and the more widespread the pain, the greater the danger. A massive analysis of over 200,000 adults uncovered strong ...

GLP-1 Drugs Like Ozempic Deliver Huge Weight Loss but New Research Reveals a Hidden Catch

Nov. 16, 2025 GLP-1 drugs like tirzepatide and semaglutide offer powerful weight-loss effects but come with unanswered questions about long-term safety, side ...

Common Antidepressant Found to Work in Just Two Weeks

Nov. 8, 2025 Sertraline (Zoloft) may relieve emotional symptoms of depression and anxiety within two weeks, while physical side effects stabilize later. The research highlights how antidepressants can act on ...

Wegovy in a Pill? Massive Weight Loss Results Revealed

Nov. 6, 2025 Novo Nordisk’s oral semaglutide 25 mg achieved up to 16.6% weight loss in a landmark study, rivaling injectable Wegovy. The pill also improved cardiovascular risk factors and physical activity ...

Ozempic and Wegovy Protect the Heart, Even Without Weight Loss

Oct. 31, 2025 Semaglutide appears to safeguard the heart even when patients lose little weight. In a massive international trial, heart attack and stroke risk dropped by 20% regardless of BMI. The benefit seems ...

Exercise Might Be the Key to a Younger, Sharper Immune System

Oct. 14, 2025 Endurance exercise may train the immune system as much as the muscles. Older adults with decades of running or cycling had immune cells that functioned better and aged more slowly. Their inflammation ...

Two Common Drugs Could Reverse Fatty Liver Disease

Oct. 12, 2025 Researchers at the University of Barcelona found that combining pemafibrate and telmisartan significantly reduces liver fat and cardiovascular risks in MASLD models. The drug duo works better ...

This European Treatment for Joint Pain Just Passed a Major Scientific Test

Oct. 15, 2025 Korean researchers found that low-dose radiation therapy eased knee pain and improved movement in people with mild to moderate osteoarthritis. The treatment, far weaker than cancer radiation, showed ...

Oct. 13, 2025 Finasteride, a common hair-loss drug, has long been tied to depression and suicide, but regulators ignored the warnings. Prof. Mayer Brezis’s review exposes global data showing psychiatric harm and ...

New Inhaler Halves Childhood Asthma Attacks

Sep. 28, 2025 A groundbreaking international study has shown that a 2-in-1 budesonide-formoterol inhaler is far more effective than the standard salbutamol inhaler in children with mild asthma, cutting attacks by ...

Scientists Uncover How to Block Pain Without Side Effects

Sep. 26, 2025 Scientists have discovered a way to block pain while still allowing the body’s natural healing to take place. Current painkillers like ibuprofen and aspirin often come with harmful side effects ...

Scientists Finally Explain the Real Reason Pregnant Women Get Morning Sickness

Sep. 29, 2025 Morning sickness isn’t just random misery—it’s a biological defense system shaped by evolution to protect the fetus. By linking immune responses to nausea and food aversions, UCLA researchers ...

Thousands Fall Ill as Mosquito Fever Explodes Across Southern China

Oct. 10, 2025 China’s Guangdong Province is battling its worst-ever chikungunya outbreak, with thousands of infections spreading across major cities and nearby regions. Transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, the ...

Doctors Stunned by a Cheap Drug’s Power Against Colon Cancer

Oct. 3, 2025 A Scandinavian clinical trial has revealed that low-dose aspirin can halve the risk of colon and rectal cancer recurrence in patients with specific genetic mutations. The research, involving over ...

Cocoa Supplements Show Surprising Anti-Aging Potential

Sep. 27, 2025 Daily cocoa extract supplements reduced key inflammation markers in older adults, pointing to a role in protecting the heart. The findings reinforce the value of flavanol-rich, plant-based foods for ...

Scientists Reveal Pill That Helps Shed 20% of Body Weight

Sep. 24, 2025 A massive international study has shown that the experimental oral obesity drug orforglipron can help patients shed over 10% of their body weight, with nearly one in five losing 20% or more. Unlike ...

Daily Eye Drops Could Make Reading Glasses Obsolete

Sep. 15, 2025 Eye drops combining pilocarpine and diclofenac helped patients read extra lines on vision charts, with effects lasting up to two years. The treatment could revolutionize presbyopia care as a safe, ...

Scientists Find Brain Circuit That Traps Alcohol Users in the Vicious Cycle of Addiction

Oct. 6, 2025 Addiction often isn’t about chasing pleasure—it’s about escaping pain. Researchers at Scripps Research have discovered that a tiny brain region called the paraventricular nucleus of the ...

Common Medications May Secretly Rewire Your Gut for Years

Oct. 9, 2025 Drugs taken years—even decades—ago can leave lasting imprints on the gut microbiome, reshaping the community of microbes long after treatment stops. Scientists analyzing over 2,500 Estonian ...

New Pill Could Finally Control Stubborn High Blood Pressure

Oct. 8, 2025 A new pill called baxdrostat may offer hope for people whose blood pressure stays high even after taking standard medications. In a recent study, the drug lowered blood pressure and also seemed to ...

Why So Many Young Kids With ADHD Are Getting the Wrong Treatment

Sep. 16, 2025 Preschoolers with ADHD are often given medication right after diagnosis, against medical guidelines that recommend starting with behavioral therapy. Limited access to therapy and physician pressures ...

Common Painkillers Like Advil and Tylenol Supercharge Antibiotic Resistance

Aug. 26, 2025 Painkillers we often trust — ibuprofen and acetaminophen — may be quietly accelerating one of the world’s greatest health crises: antibiotic resistance. Researchers discovered that these drugs ...

A $2 Gold Nanotech Test That Detects Deadly Diseases in Minutes

Aug. 15, 2025 Arizona State University scientists have unveiled NasRED, a revolutionary one-drop blood test that can detect diseases like COVID-19, Ebola, HIV, and Lyme with incredible speed and precision. Using ...

Powerful New Painkiller ADRIANA Shows Promise in Ending Opioid Dependence

Sep. 2, 2025 Japanese scientists have developed ADRIANA, a non-opioid painkiller that could provide powerful relief without the dangers of addiction. With successful trials already completed, large U.S. studies ...

Brain Fog, Falls, and Fatigue? This App Helps Seniors Cut Risky Meds

Aug. 5, 2025 McGill's MedSafer tool helps doctors identify and eliminate risky or unneeded medications in seniors, significantly improving patient outcomes. It aims to prevent harmful "prescribing ...