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Disease Update

Collage juxtaposes silhouettes of overweight people with unlabeled graphs, a BMI (height-weight ratio) chart, scale and measuring tape.
Society

She saw the obesity epidemic coming. Then an unexpected finding mired her in controversy.

Katherine Flegal was a scientist who found herself crunching numbers for the government, until one day her analyses set off a firestorm. What does she make of her decades as a woman in public health research?

Sketch of fetus in womb by Leonardo da Vinci, circa 1510-13
Health & Disease

Break on through: How some viruses infect the placenta

A few rare viruses can reach the fetus when pregnant women are infected, with tragic result. As explored in this Q&A, researchers are figuring out how the placenta acts as protector and how some pathogens slip through.

Illustration showing childbirth position
Health & Disease

Labor of love

Flipping the scientific thinking on our species’ “difficult childbirth”

Photo shows a 2016 image of a woman who lives with chronic pain laughing with friends at her dining table while creating Zen tangle art.
The Mind

Living with chronic illness: Why some cope and others don’t

What helps some people diagnosed with cancer, heart disease or diabetes stay relatively happy and healthy, while others are devastated? Psychologist Vicki Helgeson explains the traits and mindsets that can make the difference.

A depiction of a synapse features two slender fibers that end in two cup-like structures facing each other, with many tiny dots in the space between the cups.
Health & Disease

Making and breaking connections in the brain

The links between nerve cells, called synapses, allow us to learn and adapt, and hold clues to conditions such as autism, schizophrenia and more

Conceptual illustration of a person suffering from back pain
Health & Disease

Managing pain in a time of opioid abuse

Other therapies, more training, a new mindset: Can doctors bring relief to patients without putting them at risk for addiction?

Photo shows a woman smiling while doing meditation with others. Staying cheerful can be protective against stress and some illnesses.
Health & Disease

Always look on the bright side of life

How a positive outlook may buffer us from stress and ward off health problems 

Collage shows a silhouette of surgeons working on a patient, surrounded by graphics denoting measurement and ratings.
Health & Disease

Measuring surgical quality

Not all surgeons are equally skilled with a scalpel. Doctors are developing new ways to test — and improve — operating room performance.

“Still life: Balsam Apple and Vegetables,” James Peale
Health & Disease

Balance, not carbs or fat, is the key to healthy eating

An expert’s view on a common-sense diet: Don’t fuss over details, and put more plants on the plate

Graphic shows conceptual illustration of a microrobot on a blue background. It has five golden grasping arms and a curly, teal-colored tail, plus other components including visible microcircuitry inside a lightbulb-shaped body.
Technology

Making microbots smart

What would it take to create a truly intelligent microbot, one that can operate independently? A roboticist describes the fascinating minutiae and the medical jobs these tiny machines could do for us.

A girl receives a vaccination from a health-care professional.
Health & Disease

Vaccinating the world against Covid-19

Lower-income countries haven’t gotten an equal share of lifesaving coronavirus vaccines. Older, more familiar vaccine technologies may hold the key to more equitable use, says Maria Elena Bottazzi.

Illustration of a doughnut on a mousetrap
Society

In promoting health, when to tiptoe — and when to stomp?

Inform, incentivize, legislate: There’s a ladder of escalating approaches for changing citizens’ behavior — and nudges for every rung

Abstract art shows a complex system. The immune system is similarly complex.
Health & Disease

Humanizing immunology

The field has long been more mice than men. New technologies and systems-based approaches with human cells may soon fill gaps in our understanding of autoimmune disease and health, Mark Davis says in a Q&A.

Artwork showing neurons along with the tangles of tau protein and clumps of amyloid-beta plaques that are typically found in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Investigating when and how these proteins form might lead to new therapies.
Health & Disease

Watching Alzheimer’s in action

A look inside the brains of engineered mice suggests therapies might need to target two key proteins — tau and amyloid-beta — at the same time

Photograph of a row of skeletons in a trench.
Health & Disease

Profiling the perpetrators of past plagues

The ancient pathogens in old graves are as dead as the people they once infected. Still, they tell a vivid tale.

Conceptual illustration of a child sitting cross-legged, surrounded by a set of shapes and squiggles meant to signify all the stimuli they encounter in their young lives.
Health & Disease

Studying poverty through a child’s eyes

Research on early-life adversity should pay more attention to the perspective of children themselves

Conceptual illustration showing a set of linked, papercut human figures, each with differing red areas on parts of their bodies — and in some cases, flames — to signify pain.
Health & Disease

Chasing the genes behind pain

New treatments for chronic pain face a long road despite promising developments. Research in people with rare diseases is pointing the way to genes that influence how we experience pain — and might lead to new medications.

Conceptual illustration of migrant farmworkers. Migrants often work in hazardous jobs.
Society

Unhealthy work: Why migrants are especially vulnerable to injury and death on the job

A mysterious kidney disease is just one of the many health risks faced by immigrant laborers. In a Q&A, occupational health expert Marc Schenker discusses the hazards and a few potential solutions.

Mouse-rat chimera
Health & Disease

Organs grown to order

Genetic advances may make it possible to grow transplantable tissues in other species. That could solve immunity and availability issues, but raises ethical concerns.

Photograph of an elderly woman lying in bed. Standing and sitting around her are family members, two of them holding her hands. A hospice aide and a bottle of lotion are seen at the foot of the bed.
Health & Disease

Going gentle

A sociologist explains how to get the most out of the final months of life

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