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The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has spread to a city, the World Health Organization said Thursday, raising concern the deadly virus may prove tougher to contain. “One new case of Ebola virus disease has been confirmed in Wangata, one of the three health zones of Mbandaka, a city of nearly 1.2

Attempted suicides and suicidal thoughts are on the rise among school-age children and teenagers, according to a new study published in Pediatrics. Based on data from 31 children’s hospitals around the country, the percentage of emergency room visits related to suicidal thoughts or attempts more than doubled over an 8-year period—from 0.66% in 2008 to

A Vermont health care organization working to keep patients healthier while reducing costs is being closely watched because of its rate of success—it was within 1 percent of meeting its financial target in its first year and has now been expanded to cover about 18 percent of the state’s population, officials said. Last year, OneCare

Older people who enjoy a sexually active and emotionally close relationship with their partner tend to perform better at memory tests than sexually inactive older adults on a short-term basis, but this is not the case over a longer period of time. This is according to a study using data from more than 6000 adults

A new tool developed by researchers at the National Institutes of Health has determined, for the first time, how two distinct sets of neurons in the mouse brain work together to control movement. The method, called spectrally resolved fiber photometry (SRFP), can be used to measure the activity of these neuron groups in both healthy

Danielle and Tyler Dick never thought that a small brush with skin cancer would change their lives forever. In 2012, doctors found a cancerous mole on Danielle’s back, but told the woman there was likely nothing to worry about. They quickly removed the growth, and Tyler and Danielle went on their way. “We were thinking,

  Rowan Blanchard was 14 years old when she made headlines for a social media post in which she shared that she struggles with depression. The activist and actor, then starring on Girl Meets World, posted a personal essay reflecting on her year on New Year’s Eve 2015, in which she wrote how she’d come

Inflammation can be good. It’s part of the body’s innate immune system, our first line of defense against illness and injury. However, if the inflammatory response goes on for too long, it can lead to a condition called chronic inflammation, where the body essentially attacks itself, wreaking biological havoc on our organs and systems. Chronic

Kendra Plumley didn’t spend her childhood running around with other kids on her street, having friends over for sleepovers, or spending lazy summer days by the pool. Instead, she spent most of her time indoors. It wasn’t a choice. She had to protect her new heart. Today, the 29-year-old from Midlothian, Texas, is making up

Sleep is known to be important for creative thinking, but exactly how it helps and what role each sleep stage—REM and non-REM—plays remains unclear. A team of researchers have now developed a hypothesis, outlined in an Opinion published May 15 in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, to explain how the interleaving of REM and

A meditation and stress reduction program may be as effective at getting people to move more as structured exercise programs, according to a new study led by an Iowa State University researcher. The study compared two intervention programs—mindfulness-based stress reduction and aerobic exercise training—with a control group and measured changes in exercise, general physical activity

In the age of Instagram models and fashion bloggers, more people want to look their best whenever the camera lens shutter and flash. Getting the right pose and caption is as important as ever. However, no matter how well dressed for an occasion one may be, sometimes, the greatest asset in any photo is the

Researchers at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) are asking governments in the developing world to adopt a low-cost, community-based approach to prevent acute attacks that occur in patients with a devastating neglected tropical disease. A new study published in The Lancet Global Health shows that a simple package of self-care significantly reduced “acute attacks”

The introduction of the contraceptive pill in the 1960s was a major milestone for female empowerment. It allowed women to separate sex from procreation, and to increase their participation in work outside the home. Now, more than 100 million women worldwide use the oral contraceptive pill to prevent pregnancy or control their menstruation. But the

By analyzing reported physical activity levels over time in more than 11,000 American adults, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers conclude that increasing physical activity to recommended levels over as few as six years in middle age is associated with a significantly decreased risk of heart failure, a condition that affects an estimated 5 million to 6

Effective intervention can reduce medication overuse in Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACF’s), the latest University of Tasmania research shows. Led by The Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre’s Dr. Juanita Westbury, the research published in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) today focuses on the results of the RedUSe (Reducing Use of Sedatives) intervention aimed

Currently, there are around 30 million people in the United States living with type 2 diabetes, a lifelong condition that cannot yet be cured. Obesity, one of the major risk factors, is steadily rising, meaning that the number of people with type 2 diabetes is likely to follow suit. The condition is caused by faulty

Understanding the biology behind consciousness (or self-awareness) is considered by some to be the final frontier of science. And over the last decade, a fledgling community of “consciousness scientists” have gathered some interesting information about the differences between conscious and unconscious brain activity. But there remains disagreement about whether or not we have a theory

Researchers from Columbia University have developed a new technique for the powerful gene editing tool CRISPR to restore retinal function in mice afflicted by a degenerative retinal disease, retinitis pigmentosa. This is the first time researchers have successfully applied CRISPR technology to a type of inherited disease known as a dominant disorder. This same tool

A stem cell is one with infinite possibilities. So, for decades, scientists have puzzled over how the cell chooses to keep being a stem cell and continue dividing, or specialize into a specific cell type, like a heart or brain cell. The same type of decision is made by HIV. When the virus infects a