By the first week in September this year, US health officials had already tallied 247 cases of measles, a highly contagious illness. For perspective, in 2023, 59 measles cases were reported during the full year. This isn’t surprising, as vaccination rates for preventable childhood illnesses have decreased, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Between the 2019–2020 school year and the 2022–2023 school year, the percentage of fully immunized kindergarteners dropped from 95% to 93%. Even a small decline like this affects herd immunity that helps protect our communities. (Herd immunity occurs when there are enough immunized…

By fighting off pathogens, the specialized cells of our immune systems help to keep us healthy and free of infectious diseases. Immunotherapies teach those same cells to recognize and destroy cancer. The drugs have been remarkably successful in treating melanoma — a type of skin cancer — as well as cancers of the lung, bladder, kidneys, and blood. Just one form of immunotherapy, a type of cancer vaccine, is currently approved for prostate cancer. A new approach Researchers at City of Hope Hospital in Duarte, California, are now reporting promising results with a different method called CAR-T cell therapy. It…

Are online gambling and sports betting new to your area? Are gambling advertisements catching your eye? Have you noticed sports and news shows covering the spread? Recent changes in laws have made gambling widely accessible, and its popularity has soared. Occasional bets are rarely an issue. But uncontrolled gambling can lead to financial, psychological, physical, and social consequences, some of which are extreme. Understanding whether gambling is becoming a problem in your life can help you head off the worst of these issues and refocus on having more meaning, happiness, and psychological richness in your life. Gambling screening is a…

When experts talk about the dangers of excessive drinking, we often assume those warnings apply mostly to people with alcohol use disorder, a health issue sometimes referred to as alcoholism. But people who don’t meet formal criteria for this disorder can still experience toxic effects and suffer other serious harms from alcohol, says Dr. John F. Kelly, professor of psychiatry in addiction medicine at Harvard Medical School. And as research turns up new evidence about alcohol, many people are considering the benefits of drinking less, even if they’re not ready to stop imbibing entirely. How does alcohol affect the body?…

Parents often wonder: What can we do to keep our children healthy? Are there ways to boost the immune system and ward off illnesses? The answer is yes — but there are no magic wands or magic supplements. The best way to keep the immune system healthy is, basically, to take necessary steps to keep healthy. As boring as that sounds, it’s tried and true. Here’s what you can do to help keep your children healthy this school year. Give them a healthy diet By healthy I mean a diet with lots of fruits and vegetables (five servings a day…

Quelling the discomfort of atopic dermatitis, the most common form of eczema, can be a daily quest. This inflamed, itchy skin condition can interfere with sleeping, socializing, and many other activities. If home remedies such as gentle cleansing and regular moisturizing don’t provide relief, your doctor might recommend a prescription treatment to apply to your skin. Which prescription cream is most effective? A new study boils it down to a few overall winners. What is atopic dermatitis and the itch-scratch cycle? Atopic dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. The areas commonly affected include the face, hands, feet, or the…

As the adage goes, the eyes are the windows to the soul. So what does it mean to wish yours were a different color? Apparently enough people share this desire to create a bustling market for color-changing eye drops, which are making the rounds through social media and online retailers. Personalizing eye color might sound tempting, especially for younger people and those who enjoy experimenting with elements of fashion or style. But are over-the-counter, color-changing eye drops safe? The answer is a hard no, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), which recently issued a warning against “eye color-changing…

It’s easy to say you simply don’t have time to be mindful. With so much going on in daily life, who has time to stop and be present? But everyone has at least 10 minutes to spare to practice mindfulness. The point of these brief, daily reflections is to help you tap into calmness whenever life gets too hairy. Practicing everyday mindfulness can also improve your memory and concentration skills and help you feel less distracted and better able to manage stress . And mindfulness tools have been successfully incorporated into treatments for anxiety and depression. There is more than…