Month: September 2023

Scientists Have Identified the Lyme Disease Genes Responsible for Severe Symptoms

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Lyme disease was first identified in 1975, in Lyme, Conn., but scientists still have more questions than answers about how the bacteria responsible for the condition that wreaks such havoc for some people, leaving them with debilitating symptoms for years, while causing relatively mild disease for others. Tests for Lyme have high false negative rates, … Read more

There’s Now an At-Home Menopause Test, But Does Anyone Need It?

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COVID-19 changed many things about medicine, not the least of which is how we think about do-it-yourself testing. Before the pandemic, health experts weren’t convinced people would accept, much less embrace, the utility of testing themselves at home for SARS-CoV-2. Pregnancy tests pretty much dominated the at-home testing landscape, although a few recent additions, for … Read more

The Danger of ‘Invisible’ Biolabs Across the U.S.

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Recently, many California residents were disturbed to learn that a small, privately-operated bio lab in the Central Valley town of Reedley was shut down by Fresno County Department of Public Health officials after they found that it had been improperly managing almost 1,000 laboratory mice and samples of infectious diseases including COVID-19, rubella, malaria, dengue, … Read more

Behavior Is a Miracle Drug for Our Health

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Healthcare is broken. Chronic diseases are eating up an increasing share of healthcare resources in every healthcare system across the world in ways that are not sustainable. Yes, there is a golden age of innovation happening in the form of new technologies like gene therapy, neural technology, immunotherapy, and increasingly the impact of AI on … Read more

These Are the Shots You Should Get This Fall and Winter

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It used to be relatively easy and straightforward to navigate the fall and winter respiratory disease season in the U.S.—get a flu shot. Then came COVID-19, and another vaccine was added to the mix. Now, for the first time, there will be a third shot for some groups: a vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), … Read more