Health

Obsessive compulsive disorder has many unknowns, including what causes it, why symptoms can differ so much between people, how medication and therapy for it actually work, and why treatment is effective for some people and not for others. In our newly published research, my colleagues and I made a step toward unraveling some of these mysteries by shedding light on the genetics of OCD.

Listening to others is a key part of making connections — but what if you can’t hear them? For those who struggle with hearing loss, effective care may empower them to overcome this obstacle, which could in turn ease the loneliness epidemic among older adults.

Trying to kick a drinking or smoking habit? Living in an area with ample green spaces may be the answer. A new study out of the University of Exeter found that people with more nature in their neighborhoods had a lower likelihood of smoking and consuming alcohol daily. After evaluating residents in 18 countries and […]

A campaigner who climbed Mount Everest to install a defibrillator has revealed the device saved a woman’s life — just three weeks later. David Sullivan founded Code Blue CPR, an organization that teaches people lifesaving CPR and installs defibrillators across England, after he lost four close friends, all under the age of 45, to cardiac arrest.

More than 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, and while most adults are familiar with the outward signs, the inner experience is in large part a mystery to those without the condition. Moreover, memory loss, which is most widely associated with the disease, is just one symptom. Many people who have dementia caused […]

Back in April, we wrote about the power of forgiveness and the scientific reasons it can pay to let things go. But after you enjoy the increased peace, meaning, and purpose that forgiving someone can offer, should you take it a step further and try to reconcile? Well, that’s where it gets a bit tricky. […]

How many times have you used the words “good” or “bad” today? From checking your weather app to monitoring the progress you’ve made on your to-do list, to scrolling through social media, opportunities to make snap evaluations abound. And the more you sort things into these categories, the more instinctive making these judgments becomes. You may find yourself filtering everything that comes your way in terms of “good” or “bad.”

When archaeologists opened King Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt in the 1920s, the unexpected deaths among members of the excavation team that followed sparked rumors of a “pharaoh’s curse.” Decades later, doctors speculated that fungal spores may have contributed to those deaths. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found a new way to harness that fungus: using it to treat leukemia.

The last time I had my heart broken — I mean truly smashed, shattered, destroyed — I couldn’t fathom a future in which I was “over it.” For what felt like forever, a dull, aching pain gripped me during the day and haunted my dreams at night. It was brutal. I did get over it, eventually, […]

It starts out small — a pile of yearbooks here, a box of old photos there. But before you can turn around (if you can turn around), all the surfaces in your home are overflowing with “things,” and finding a clear walkway is like finding a needle in a clutterstack. It’s natural to want to […]

By age 35, 66% of U.S. men experience noticeable hair loss, according to the American Hair Loss Association — and only two licensed drugs are FDA-approved to treat male and female pattern baldness, or androgenetic alopecia: minoxidil and finasteride. But some promising recent research breakthroughs are offering hope for more effective alternatives. For instance, earlier […]