Health

Daniel Merino, The Conversation and Nehal El-Hadi, The Conversation Its a great day when you find a piece of clothing that fits perfectly. A good shirt, the right pair of shoes or a well-cut dress is comfortable, looks nice and feels like it was made just for you. Now imagine a world where every shirt was the same size, every shoe was the same design and there weren’t even differences between the cut of men’s and women’s clothing. Getting dressed in the morning would be clunky, and clothes would be uncomfortable. In other words, one size does not fit all.

Gissel Marquez Alcaraz, Arizona State University and Athena Aktipis, Arizona State University The microbes living in your food can affect your risk of cancer. While some help your body fight cancer, others help tumors evolve and grow. Gut microbes can influence your cancer risk by changing how your cells behave. Many cancer-protective microbes support normal, cooperative behavior of cells. Meanwhile, cancer-inducing microbes undermine cellular cooperation and increase your risk of cancer in the process. We are evolutionary biologists who study how cooperation and conflict occur inside the human body, including the ways cancer can evolve to exploit the body. Our

Andrew Stokes, Boston University; Dielle Lundberg, Boston University; Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, University of Minnesota, and Yea-Hung Chen, University of California, San Francisco Since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020, a recurring topic of debate has been whether official COVID-19 death statistics in the U.S. accurately capture the fatalities associated with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Some politicians and a few public health practitioners have argued that COVID-19 deaths are overcounted. For instance, a January 2023 opinion piece in The Washington Post claims that COVID-19 death tallies include not only those who died from COVID-19 but those who died

Michael Baker, University of Otago; David Durrheim, University of Newcastle; Li Yang HSU, National University of Singapore, and Nick Wilson, University of Otago Imagine it is 2030. Doctors in a regional hospital in country X note an expanding cluster of individuals with severe respiratory disease. Rapid whole-genome sequencing identifies the disease-causing agent as a novel coronavirus. Epidemiological investigations suggest the virus is highly infectious, with most initial cases requiring hospitalisation. The episode bears a striking resemblance to the COVID outbreak first detected in December 2019. Regional and national health authorities are notified quickly. The national contact point for the International

Mark R. O’Brian, University at Buffalo Media outlets have reported the encouraging findings of clinical trials for a new experimental vaccine developed by the biotech company Moderna to treat an aggressive type of skin cancer called melanoma. Although this is potentially very good news, it occurred to me that the headlines may be unintentionally misleading. The vaccines most people are familiar with prevent disease, whereas this experimental new skin cancer vaccine treats only patients who are already sick. Why is it called a vaccine if it does not prevent cancer? I am a biochemist and molecular biologist studying the roles

Chengsheng Wu, University of California, San Diego; David Cheresh, University of California, San Diego, and Sara Weis, University of California, San Diego As with weeds in a garden, it is a challenge to fully get rid of cancer cells in the body once they arise. They have a relentless need to continuously expand, even when they are significantly cut back by therapy or surgery. Even a few cancer cells can give rise to new colonies that will eventually outgrow their borders and deplete their local resources. They also tend to wander into places where they are not welcome, creating metastatic

Wendy Tzou, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Damar Hamlin, a safety for the Buffalo Bills, collapsed on the field during a Monday night football game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Jan. 2, 2023. Medical staff gave Hamlin CPR and shocked him with a defibrillator, restarting his heart’s normal rhythm. News outlets immediately began speculating that Hamlin may have suffered from commotio cordis – a potentially lethal stoppage of the heart caused by a strong impact to a person’s chest. The next day, the Bills announced that Hamlin had indeed experienced “cardiac arrest” but did not confirm whether the cause

Erika Bocknek, Wayne State University Everyone knows that sleep is critical for growing children and their mental and physical health. Regular, high-quality sleep habits help children consolidate memory and learn better. A lack of sleep contributes to childhood depression, anxiety and even risk of suicide, along with physical health problems, including risk of injury. The challenge is making sure kids log those valuable zzz’s. There are three main components of high-quality sleep for children. First, they need enough total hours – sleep duration. Sleep quality is important, too – sleeping soundly during the night with few disruptions or awakenings. And,