Loaded, Unlocked Guns Common in American Homes, Study Finds

In half of American homes containing a loaded gun, that gun is kept unsecured and ready for potential use, often with children in the home, new research shows.

The finding is especially troubling given the link between gun accessibility and accidental child deaths, as well as rising rates of gun-related suicides in the United States, resea...

ADHD Patients Could Face Disrupted Access to Meds Following Fraud Case

The two top officers of a telehealth company that began to distribute ADHD drugs widely during the pandemic have been charged with health care fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

The arrests will likely worsen ongoing shortages of Adderall and another ADHD medications, Vyvanse, experts said.

“Th...

FDA Tells Vaccine Makers to Target New COVID Variant for Fall

COVID vaccine makers will be advised to update their shots to target the KP.2 variant, an offshoot of the JN.1 variant that spread widely last winter, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday.

It's a turnaround for the agency: The new recommendation follows an FDA advisory panel vote last week that unanimously recommended C...

Poll Finds Many Young Workers Feeling Stressed, Isolated

Many younger workers feel stressed, isolated and unappreciated at their jobs, a new survey has found.

The 2022 Work in America survey, conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA), found that young adults are struggling in the workplace:

• Nearly half (48%) of workers ages 18 to 25 feel people not close to their ag...

GLP-1 Meds May Help Extremely Obese Qualify for Weight-Loss Surgery

Taking a cutting-edge weight-loss drug could help extremely obese patients drop enough pounds to be eligible for bariatric surgery, a new study shows.

Patients with extreme obesity -- a BMI of 70 or more -- are at higher risk of complications from surgery compared to people who weigh less.

Weight loss prior to surgery can lower that ...

Dolphins Off Florida, Georgia Have High Levels of Mercury

Dolphins living off the coasts of Georgia and Florida have elevated levels of mercury in their bodies, new research shows.

That could have implications for people, said a team led by Colleen Bryan, a research biologist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Charleston, S.C.

“As a sentinel species, the bottlenose d...

Even Temporary Loneliness Can Harm Physical Health

You don't consider yourself a lonely person generally, but sometimes have days where feelings of loneliness set in.

If you're one of those people, even that transient loss of connection with others could be impacting your physical health, a new study finds.

“A lot of research is focused on loneliness being a binary trait -- eithe...

Just 1 in 20 Animal Studies Yield Treatments That Make it to Humans

Animal studies are often considered a first step in finding new drugs and treatments for human diseases, but a new review has discovered that precious few actually produce real-world therapies.

Only 5% of therapies tested in animals wind up being approved by regulators for human use, according to an analysis of 122 articles involving 54 di...

New Form of Psychotherapy Might Help Ease Chronic Pain

A new form of psychotherapy appears to work even better at treating chronic pain in older adults than gold-standard cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a new study finds.

U.S. veterans who received emotional awareness and expression therapy (EAET) experienced a longer and more significant reduction in chronic pain than those who underwent ...

Animal Studies Suggest New Treatment Target for Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injuries can cause the body to go haywire, with misfiring nerves causing dangerous “fight-or-flight” responses.

This makes typical and normally harmless problems like having a full bladder prompt life-threatening complications like heart attack, stroke and severe infections like pneumonia.

But researchers think they�...

Swimming 'Microbots' Could Speed Meds to Lung Tumors, Early Study Suggests

Scientists have developed microscopic robots capable of swimming through the lungs to deliver chemotherapy directly to lung cancer cells.

In early testing, these microbots  extended the average survival time of lab mice with melanoma that had spread to the lungs, according to a report published June 12 in the journal Science ...