Health

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  • Smelling sweetheart’s shirt may lower stress

    Reducing stress might be as simple as sniffing a loved one’s T-shirt, according to new research from Harvard Business School.

    Dirty laundry
  • What’s behind high U.S. health care costs

    A Harvard study confirmed that the U.S. has substantially higher spending on health care, worse population health outcomes, and worse access to care than other wealthy countries; but there’s more to it than that.

    doctor and nurse looking at chart
  • ‘Switch’ that could improve memory identified

    A neural circuit mechanism involved in preserving the specificity of memories has been identified by investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Regenerative Medicine and the Harvard Stem…

    dentate gyrus cell
  • Vexing health problems can be solved, Gawande believes

    Tackling complex issues such as opioid addiction, gun violence, and uneven access to medical care seems daunting, but surgeon and author Atul Gawande says history shows that over time, the nation can solve its public health challenges.

  • A new model for an old killer

    Failure rates in clinical trials have left a cure for sepsis virtually untouched for 30 years. A new model, however, may bring scientists closer to drug treatments.

    E Coli
  • Race bias seen in breast-cancer screening

    A new analysis urges guidelines that account for racial differences in development, aggressiveness of breast cancer.

  • What’s another hour of lost sleep? For some, a hazard

    An interview with Jeanne Duffy, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a sleep researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, on links between sleep and health.

  • When disease strikes, gender matters

    Experts in Harvard Chan School discussion call for more sensitivity to differences between men and women in study and treatment of disease.

  • Hip replacement needed a ‘light bulb moment.’ Getting there was painful.

    In his new book, “Vanishing Bone,” Harvard surgeon William Harris described setbacks on the path to breakthrough collaboration that corrected a major problem in hip replacement surgery.

    William Harris
  • Electronic health records don’t cut administrative costs

    A new study finds electronic health record systems doesn’t reduce costs for bill processing, leaving primary care services with an average $100,000 tab per provider.

    Stethoscope over a computer keyboard.
  • Fighting the flu at less than full strength

    Panelists focused on gaps in vaccination in a Harvard Chan School discussion on the flu.

  • Your building might be making you sick. Joe Allen can help.

    On his first day at Harvard Chan School, Joe Allen was challenged by one of his bosses to do world-changing research. He’s been on working on it ever since.

  • When love and science double date

    They suggest that couples share goals and aspirations, stay curious about each other, and, for pity’s sake, go out once in a while.

  • Ahead for health care, a likely mixed bag

    The repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate will likely mean that some healthier and higher-income people leave the rolls of the insured, but it won’t mean the law’s doom, says Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Associate Professor Benjamin Sommers. Still, the dilution and unenthusiastic administration of the law likely means the country has passed peak enrollment numbers.

  • Study tracks mercury sources in seafood

    Harvard researchers have mapped geographic sources of methylmercury in seafood, with tuna and shrimp big factors.

    Fish on ice.
  • Songs in the key of humanity

    A new Harvard study suggests that people around the globe can identify lullabies, dancing songs, and healing songs — regardless of the songs’ cultural origin — after hearing just a 14-second clip.

  • Opioid epidemic top priority for surgeon general

    U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the opioid crisis is his top priority, but that showing the effects of the nation’s poor health on economic growth and national security are also key.

    erome Adams, MD, MPH, the 20th Surgeon General of the United States
  • Everywhere you look, flu

    Answers from Yonatan Grad, an assistant professor of immunology and infectious disease, on why this year’s flu season has been so severe.

  • A volume control for the brain 

    The brain is awash in sights, sounds, smells, and other stimuli every moment. How can it sort through the flood of information to decide what is important and what can be relegated to the background? Harvard researchers found evidence that oxytocin, popularly known as the “love hormone,” plays a crucial role in helping the brain process social signals.

  • Researchers probe stomach surgery’s ‘miracle’ secrets

    Harvard researchers are bringing an engineer’s perspective to a medical mystery — how does gastric bypass surgery do so much more than reduce weight?

  • Driven by ego? This book’s for you

    Harvard-trained psychiatrist Mark Epstein talks about his new book, “Advice Not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself.”

  • Mapping brain lesions for clues to criminal behavior

    Harvard researchers worked with colleagues to map brain lesions in 17 patients who exhibited criminal behavior after — but not before — the lesions appeared.

  • Researchers work to fill gaps in Chinese health care

    Harvard researchers are collaborating with government officials in China on an experiment aimed at improving quality of care at hospitals in some of the country’s poorer regions.

    arvard Professor Winnie Yip and Burke Fellow Jose Figueroa
  • Discerning bird

    To look at him, Griffin doesn’t seem like he’d be smarter than your typical 4-year-old — he’s a bird, after all. But the African grey parrot can easily outperform young children on certain tests, including one that measures understanding of volume.

    Griffin the parrot
  • Study identifies hundreds of genetic ‘switches’ that affect height

    Researchers discovered hundreds of genetic “switches” that influence height, then performed tests that demonstrated how one such switch altered the function of a key gene involved in height difference.

    Terence Capellini, researcher in Human Evolutionary Biology
  • When the doctor’s away

    When fill-in physicians take over care in hospitals temporarily, mortality levels remain stable, a new study says.

    Image of doctor walking down corridor
  • For family, doctors, life and death were inseparable

    Surgeons at MassGeneral Hospital for Children faced a wrenching decision in a procedure to separate twins conjoined at the abdomen and pelvis.

    Doctors at MGH
  • New clues to Alzheimer’s disease

    McLean Hospital researchers have found energy dysfunction in the cells of late-onset Alzheimer’s patients, which may be a piece of the disease’s complex puzzle.

  • A passion for nature, in beetles

    A collection of 150,000 beetle specimens, donated by businessman and longtime Harvard benefactor David Rockefeller, arrives at the Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.

  • Alarming obesity projections for children in U.S.

    If current trends continue, more than 57 percent of U.S. children will be obese at age 35, according to a new study from the Harvard Chan School.