Health

New York City will host its very first National Urban Rat Summit this fall, Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday.The summit will invite experts like academic researchers and municipal pest control managers to come together and share strategies on rodent mitigation and “advance the science of urban rat management,” the city said in a press release. Experts from across the country—including Boston, New Orleans, and Seattle—will be invited to attend the summit, which will be held on Sept. 18 and 19.“New Yorkers may not know this about me—but I hate rats, and I’m confident most of our city’s residents do as well,” Adams said in the press release. “The best way to defeat our enemy is to know our enemy. That’s why we’re holding this inaugural summit, to bring experts and leaders from across the ...

Rare but deadly blood clots tied to Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 shots were caused by an autoimmune reaction that some people are predisposed to, researchers found, a discovery that they say will shape development of future vaccines.Adenovirus-based vaccines, like the J&J and AstraZeneca shots that were later pulled from the market, contain a component that, in genetically susceptible people, can trigger the production of unusually structured antibodies against a protein involved in blood clotting, scientists said Wednesday in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers plan to identify the culprit and then try to remove it using genetic engineering.Read More: How COVID-19 Vaccines and Infections Are Tweaking Our ImmunityAn extremely similar del...

Recently, I was catching up with a friend who’d just given birth to her first baby. I thought about all of the changes I’d experienced since having my 1- and 3-year-old daughters. “I feel like I’m a completely different person,” I said. As soon as the phrase came out of my mouth, I questioned it. Nearly 2 billion people in the world are mothers. Surely they didn’t all feel completely different after giving birth. Or did they?Most people are familiar with the term “mommy brain,” a phrase that describes the brain fog and forgetfulness that many pregnant women and new moms experience. But it turns out there’s way more going on than just forgetting the name of your college professor, and it’s something called matrescence. Coined by medical anthropologist Dana Raphael in 1973, matrescence is, q...

Wildfires burning in Canada started sending smoke across the border on Sunday and into the week, prompting U.S. officials to issue air quality warnings in several northern states—and experts say people should be prepared to experience more air quality alerts this summer.Parts of Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin suffered from poor air quality on Sunday and Monday because of smoke from wildfires continuing to burn in British Columbia and Alberta. While skies in the U.S. mostly cleared by Tuesday, experts say they’re expecting another active wildfire season this summer. Last summer was Canada’s most devastating wildfire season on record, and researchers found that it was also the worst season in recent history for smoke exposure per U.S. resident. “We still think that last year ...

Striking up a conversation—especially with a stranger—is a lot like adding kindling to a fire pit and hoping it ignites. Choose the wrong starter, and the flame will fizzle out. But when you get it right, conversation and connection can spark.Conversations play an essential role in our well-being. Having just one quality talk a day, especially face-to-face, can increase happiness and lower stress levels by the end of the day, research has found. You don’t even have to know the person. In one study, people overestimated how awkward deep, meaningful talks with strangers would be, and found that instead, these conversations uplifted them and made them feel more connected than they expected. Plus, asking questions makes people like us more, which can be a boon to self-esteem.But what should yo...

TIME celebrated on Monday the 100 most influential people leading change in health at a special dinner. The first TIME100 Health list spotlights doctors, scientists, business leaders, advocates, and others at the forefront of big changes in the industry.After a panel discussion on prioritizing women’s health, three TIME100 Health honorees gave toasts about surviving noma, a severe gangrenous disease of the mouth and face; the healthcare advocates pioneering research and treatments related to COVID; and hospitals under attack in conflict zones.Surviving nomaFidel Strub, a survivor of Noma, has led an awareness campaign on the disease, which mostly affects malnourished young children living in extreme poverty. In 2023, the WHO officially recognized noma as a neglected tropical disease, notin...

The weight room at the gym can be an intimidating place. The equipment looks like it could crush you if you use it wrong. People grunt as they haul heavy things up and down. And why don’t these machines come with instruction manuals, anyway?Figuring out how to start strength training as a beginner can be tough, but it’s worth the effort. Modern exercise science shows that strength training offers a host of benefits, like stronger bones, decreased inflammation, lower risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease, plus better sleep, mental health, and cognitive function. And, of course, stronger muscles. “We start to lose muscle tissue as early as our 30s if we don't [work to] maintain it,” says exercise physiologist Alyssa Olenick. That’s why current federal guidelines recommend that adults wor...

Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he suffered memory loss and severe brain fog more than a decade ago, potentially related to a parasite in his brain, according to the New York Times.In a 2012 deposition reviewed by the Times, Kennedy said a worm “got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.” He said the cognitive issues later resolved. Around the same time, the Times reports, Kennedy was also diagnosed with mercury poisoning, which can also result in cognitive issues.Though they sound like something straight out of a horror movie, parasites can and do affect the human brain. Here's what to know.How do parasites get into the brain?According to the Times' reporting, Kennedy said he did not know which type of parasite affected him, but experts told the Times it l...

BOSTON — The first recipient of a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died nearly two months after he underwent the procedure, his family and the hospital that performed the surgery said Saturday.Richard “Rick” Slayman had the transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital in March at the age of 62. Surgeons said they believed the pig kidney would last for at least two years.The transplant team at Massachusetts General Hospital said in a statement it was deeply saddened by Slayman's passing and offered condolences to his family. They said they didn't have any indication that he died as a result of the transplant.The Weymouth, Massachusetts, man was the first living person to have the procedure. Previously, pig kidneys had been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead donors. Two m...

In March 2023, the Japanese medical authorities announced that the new weight loss drug Wegovy—which was in staggering demand across the world, causing shortages everywhere—had been approved to treat obesity in their country. It sounded, at first glance, like great news for Novo Nordisk, the company that makes Ozempic and Wegovy. But industry outlet the Pharma Letter explained that this would not in fact turn out to be much of a boost. They predicted that these drugs would dominate the market in Japan, but that won’t mean much, for a simple reason: there is almost no obesity there. Some 42% of Americans are obese, compared with just 4.5% of Japanese people. Japan, it seems, is the land that doesn’t need Ozempic.I wondered how this could be, and if the answer might offer me a way out of a d...