Category: 4. Health

Certain natural plant compounds can interfere with nutrient absorption or cause symptoms in sensitive people, but preparation, balance, and diet diversity usually shift the equation toward benefit.

The Rise of Anti-Nutrients in the Wellness Conversation

For years, public conversations about vegetables were dominated by pesticides, particularly the commonly referenced “Dirty Dozen” list of produce most likely to carry residues. More recently, attention has shifted toward the vegetables…

In this week’s edition of InnovationRx, we look at the shutdown’s impact on healthcare, the Nobel Prize winners in medicine, Amgen’s direct-to-consumer effort, and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here.

New antiviral drugs in development could offer the strongest line of defense yet against COVID-19 and other coronaviruses, including future strains that have not yet appeared. The pace of viral evolution over the past five years has challenged vaccines and eroded the effectiveness of current treatments such as Paxlovid. Variants like Omicron have proven adept at evading immune protection and outmaneuvering…

When I sat down to write this story, I remembered the gummy worms in the snack drawer of my kitchen. So I got up and grabbed a handful. I should add that I had just finished lunch, and I don’t really like gummy worms.

And yet, I ate them.

That’s not an unusual moment in my life, and maybe in yours too: eating a treat that serves almost no nutritional purpose. My treat, for instance, had sugar but little else of substance on the ingredient list: gelatin, natural and…

Seasonal allergies – triggered by pollen – appear to make deaths by suicide more likely. Our findings, published in the Journal of Health Economics, show that minor physical health conditions like mild seasonal allergies, previously thought not to be an immediate trigger of suicide, are indeed a risk factor.

To evaluate the link between seasonal allergies and suicide, my co-authors and I combined daily pollen measurements with daily suicide counts across 34 U.S. metropolitan…

It will be important to mind the gap here—the gap between how much women and men may be spending on mental health prescription medications. A GoodRx analysis estimated that in 2024, women spent around 50% more out of pocket than men did on mental health prescriptions. That’s $5.4 billion for women compared to $3.6 billion for a $1.8 billion…

China’s biotech sector is surging. For the first time, it now leads the world in clinical trials and new drug licensing. The U.S., once the undisputed leader in pharmaceutical innovation, risks losing its competitive edge unless decisive action is taken.

To safeguard both our economy and national security, the U.S. must make biotechnology a strategic priority: rebuilding domestic capacity, aligning incentives and fostering an…

Genetic inheritance may sound straightforward: One gene causes one trait or a specific illness. When doctors use genetics, it’s usually to try to identify a disease-causing gene to help guide diagnosis and treatment. But for most health conditions, the genetics is far more complicated than how clinicians are currently looking at it in diagnosis, counseling and treatment.

Your DNA carries millions of genetic variants you inherit from your parents or develop by chance. Some are common…

Most people are familiar with the microbes on our skin or in our gut, but recent discoveries have revealed that tumors also host unique communities of bacteria. Scientists are now…

The application of AI technology in healthcare is likely one of the most important and substantial contributions of human kind in the 21^st century. The work in this arena has been monumental, with large language models that are now competitive with (and often can out-compete) human physicians in reasoning, aptitude and breadth of knowledge. For example, Med-Gemini was found to be 91% accurate…