When Le Thi Bich brought her soon-to-be husband, Ben Mitchell, to visit her parents’ village of Phong Nha in 2007, tourism essentially consisted of day-tripping Vietnamese exploring a government-run cave by boat. In the narrowest part of Vietnam between Laos and the sea, the region is a captivating, almost prehistoric landscape of sweeping valleys and…
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This fall, Sierra Riddle queued up at security at Los Angeles International Airport with a tincture bottle of THC oil — the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis — in her purse. Ms. Riddle, 31, a nursing assistant from southern Oregon, was traveling with her son Landon, 9, and uses medical marijuana to treat his severe nerve…
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ImageA volunteer delivering produce donated by local grocery stores to a food pantry at South Congregational Church in Pittsfield, Mass., this fall.Credit…Ben Garver/The Berkshire Eagle, via Associated Press The Department of Agriculture recently finished work on a new rule that may take food stamps away from nearly 700,000 Americans by tightening work requirements. Several times…
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“I don’t think anyone’s ever won an argument with a person with Alzheimer’s,” says Ruth Drew, who worked as a counselor in a hospital’s geriatric psychiatric ward before becoming a director with the Alzheimer’s Association, where she oversees the 24-hour 1-800 help line. Drew’s grandfather was afflicted with the degenerative brain disease. He would often…
DetailsA new study spanning nearly 2 decades has found a link between an unhealthful diet and vision loss in older age. Should we be keeping more of an eye on what we eat? Share on PinterestA diet rich in fats and red meat may contribute to AMD. A robust body of research has shown that…
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Writing in the December 30, 2019 online issue of Neurology, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System report that accumulating amyloid — an abnormal protein linked to neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) — occurred faster among persons deemed to have «objectively-defined subtle cognitive…
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Parasites in the genus Plasmodium, which cause malaria, are transmitted to humans through bites from infected mosquitoes. The parasites manage to acclimatize to these two completely different hosts because the plasticity of their genome enables them to adapt as necessary. Scientists at the Institut Pasteur and the CNRS decided to investigate the epigenetic mechanisms behind…
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A new study led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that human noroviruses, the leading viral cause of foodborne illness and acute diarrhea around the world, infect cells of the small intestine by piggybacking on a normal cellular process called endocytosis that…
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For sick or prematurely born babies spending their first days of life in a hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the soothing voice and gentle touch of a loving parent can have a tremendous impact toward a positive outcome — that is, unless mom or dad’s visit leaves the infant with something extra: a dangerous…
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The reconstitution of the blood system in humans holds great therapeutic potential to treat many disorders, like blood cancers, sickle-cell anemia and others. Successful reconstitution requires the transplantation and engraftment of hematopoietic (or blood) stem cells (HSCs), which after reaching their niche, start producing all types of blood cells, including platelets, white and red blood…
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