CNN – Health

By Jen Christensen, CNN (CNN) — A genetic tendency toward certain forms of higher blood pressure and cholesterol is linked to a potential increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, a new study finds. The exact cause of Alzheimer’s is unclear, and although there are medications available to slow the progress of the disease, there is still no cure.

By Meg Tirrell, CNN Most parents wouldn’t be thrilled with the idea of their kids getting hooked up to an IV bag filled with trillions of viruses. But for Melanie Hennick, whose son, Connor, has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, it was an opportunity she hoped would change his life. “We knew this wasn’t a cure,” Hennick

By Katia Hetter, CNN The national public health emergency around Covid-19 officially ends in the United States on Thursday, May 11, more than three years after it was first declared. This comes as the World Health Organization announced last week that Covid-19 no longer constitutes a global health emergency. What does all this mean about

By Katherine Dillinger, CNN A “peanut patch” showed promising results in a late-phase clinical trial in toddlers with peanut allergies, according to a new study. Researchers from the French biopharmaceutical firm DBV Technologies and institutions around the world conducted randomized double-blind trial of the Viaskin Peanut patch in children ages 1 through 3 years old

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN The Covid-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is no longer available in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All remaining doses expired last week, and the CDC directed providers to dispose of any that they had left over. About 19 million people in the

By Elizabeth Cohen and Amanda Sealy, CNN When Caitlyn Pace moved from the United States to Hong Kong three years ago to take a teaching job, she loved the food, the sights and the birth control. She was was pleasantly surprised to find that in Hong Kong, she could get oral contraceptives at her neighborhood

By Brenda Goodman and Betsy Klein, CNN In March, the White House reached out to about a dozen Covid-19 experts who are closely following the evolution of the coronavirus to ask a simple question: What did they think were the chances of the world seeing a highly mutated variant, akin to Omicron, within the next

By Katia Hetter, CNN The pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly announced last week that a medication developed to treat diabetes, tirzepatide, also had a substantial effect on reducing weight. Among the more than 900 adults with obesity and diabetes in a study, tirzepatide not only controlled their blood sugar but also helped those on the higher

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN Covid-19 was the fourth leading cause of death in the United States in 2022, according to provisional data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was the third leading cause of death in the first two years of the pandemic, but there were about half as many deaths

By Nadia Kounang and Amanda Sealy, CNN A team of doctors in Boston successfully performed a novel fetal surgery to treat a rare brain condition known as vein of Galen malformation. Although in utero surgery — performed before a baby is born — has been used for other conditions, this ultrasound-guided procedure was among the

By Meg Tirrell, CNN An experimental Alzheimer’s medication slowed declines in patients’ ability to think clearly and perform daily tasks by more than a third in a large clinical trial, drugmaker Eli Lilly said Wednesday. Based on the results, in people with early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease, Lilly said it plans to file for approval from

By Elizabeth Cohen, Carma Hassan and Amanda Musa, CNN A Florida woman, unable to get an abortion in her state, carried to term a baby who had no kidneys. Deborah Dorbert’s son Milo died in her arms on March 3, shortly after he was born, just as her doctors had predicted he would. “He gasped

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN The US Preventive Services Task Force is proposing that all women at average risk of breast cancer start screening at age 40 to reduce their risk of dying from the disease, according to a new draft recommendation statement. It’s an update to the 2016 recommendation, in which the task force recommended

By Katherine Dillinger, CNN US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released an advisory Tuesday addressing the “epidemic of loneliness and isolation” affecting the country and laying out a framework for a “National Strategy to Advance Social Connection.” The advisory is part of the Biden administration’s broader efforts to address mental health, White House press secretary

By Brenda Goodman, CNN Disease detectives with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating a cluster of rare and serious brain abscesses in kids in and around Las Vegas, Nevada, and doctors from other parts of the country say they may be seeing a rise in cases, too. In 2022, the number

By Elizabeth Cohen and Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN Later this spring, a little girl in California who essentially has no immune system will receive a lifesaving treatment for “bubble boy disease” thanks to the persistence of a dogged group of parents, a pediatrician, a veteran newsman and a few episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy.” Five-year-old Seersha Sulack

By Jacqueline Howard and Tierney Sneed, CNN A woman who is suing the state of Texas after being denied an abortion told lawmakers Wednesday that not receiving abortion care harmed her mental health and might prevent her from having children in the future. Addressing her senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, Amanda Zurawski said her

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN The US Supreme Court decision that revoked the federal right to an abortion led to significant restrictions to abortion access, but hasn’t affected public support, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center. About a year after the court’s Dobbs decision, 80% of US adults say that their views

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN Class sizes, available majors and extracurriculars aren’t the only things going into college decisions this year. A new poll shows that incoming and current college students are also thinking about whether their school is in a state with reproductive health access. Among adults in the United States ages 18 to 59

By Jen Christensen, CNN About 1 in 4 people in the United States — more than 119 million residents — live with air pollution that can hurt their health and shorten their lives, according to a new report from the American Lung Association. People of color are disproportionately affected, as are residents of Western cities.

By Jamie Gumbrecht, CNN New data from a trial of an investigational mRNA vaccine shows that it reduced the risk of recurrence of the serious skin cancer melanoma when combined with immunotherapy, according to drugmakers Moderna and Merck. In a trial of 157 people who had had surgery to treat melanoma, 78.6% of those who

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN As more communities reel from deadly mass shootings — including Dadeville, Alabama, where four people were killed and 28 injured at a Sweet 16 birthday party over the weekend — there’s evidence that the trauma of gun violence in the United States is taking a collective toll on the nation’s mental

By Kristen Rogers, CNN Since Tupperware, the iconic kitchen brand that’s been a household name for decades, signaled recently that it might be going out of business, you might be wondering how long your stash of its food storage containers is safe to use — especially if it’s vintage. Figuring out the answer to that

By Brenda Goodman, CNN A lab test that can tell doctors if someone has Parkinson’s disease is a long-sought goal of researchers. Doctors currently diagnose the progressive condition by looking for telltale physical symptoms: tremors, a halting gait, stiffness or trouble balancing. About 90,000 Americans are diagnosed on the basis of these symptoms each year,

By Jen Christensen, CNN What happened in one judge’s courtroom in Texas could have drastic effects for the United States’ entire drug approval process, experts warn. US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s ruling that suspended the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the medication abortion drug mifepristone was an unprecedented one, the first time a

By Jen Christensen, CNN With an eye on the courts, a growing number of Democratic-led states are stockpiling the pills that can be used for a medication abortion, the most common form of the procedure in the US. The officials want to be prepared, in case US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s decision to suspend the

By Matt Villano, CNN Some individuals with autism have challenges processing senses. Others struggle to communicate. Still others might have a tough time socializing, thinking, physically moving or just going about daily living. People with autism have their own ways of interacting with the world, because autism is a developmental disability that affects everyone who

By Brenda Goodman, CNN The US Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed a set of new restrictions on facilities that use the cancer-causing chemical ethylene oxide, a colorless, odorless gas that is used to sterilize medical devices and spices. The agency said the new rules, which have not been finalized, would help to reduce ethylene