Health

All Health

  • Good genes are nice, but joy is better

    Harvard study, almost 80 years old, has proved that embracing community helps us live longer, and be happier

    Aging
  • Bringing big data to the farm

    Digital technology and big data will power the next big advance in the business of farming, the head of a “digital agriculture” firm told a Harvard audience.

  • Understanding life, here, there, and everywhere

    Harvard’s Origins of Life Initiative has grown along with the rise in interest in how life first arose on Earth and whether it exists on other planets.

  • Plotting the demise of Alzheimer’s

    New study is major test for power of early action

    Harvard Alzheimers Research
  • Mimicking life in a chemical soup

    An Origins of Life researcher has created a chemical system that mimics early cell behavior.

  • Solving the mystery of the Arctic’s green ice

    Researchers have found that due to warming temperatures, phytoplankton can now grow under Arctic sea ice, dramatically changing the ecology.

  • Why weeping willows bend and poison ivy doesn’t

    A mathematical framework can explain how a plant stem’s “sense of self” contributes to its growth upward or downward.

  • Critical step found in DNA repair, cellular aging

    The body’s ability to repair DNA damage declines with age, which causes gradual cell demise, overall bodily degeneration, and greater susceptibility to cancer. Experiments in mice suggest a way to thwart DNA damage.

  • The machinery of hearing

    New research not only sheds new light on how hearing works, but could help clarify how it deteriorates over time.

  • Progress in treating hearing loss

    Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers have developed a drug cocktail that unlocks the potential to regrow inner-ear hair cells, which could help combat hearing loss.

  • Study flags later risks for sleep-deprived kids

    Children ages 3 to 7 who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to have problems with attention, emotional control, and peer relationships in mid-childhood, according to a new study led by a Harvard pediatrician.

  • How a child made scientists think of cytokines as knobs instead of switches

    A rare anemia is opening scientists up to a new way of thinking about how to adapt and employ cytokines, messenger molecules of the blood and immune system, as tools for treatment and the promise of precision medicine.

  • Brain-training app creators join in the genetics game

    The Wyss Institute and Harvard Medical School’s Personal Genome Project are collaborating with Lumos Labs, the makers of Lumosity, to investigate the relationship between genetics and memory, attention, and reaction speed.

  • Poking at consciousness

    Biologist Brian D. Farrell gave a lecture at the Harvard Museum of Natural History exploring the roots of consciousness.

  • The grateful life may be a longer one

    Psychiatrist Jeff Huff is leading an MGH effort to determine whether positive thinking can promote better health.

  • Underwater photography inspires conservation

    Keith Ellenbogen captures the ecosystems deep within the oceans, bringing them to life through his underwater photography.

  • Study shows differences in effects of ‘real’ and ‘sham’ acupuncture 

    Researchers saw improvement in carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms after “real” acupuncture and brain remapping. The study also found no physiologic improvements from “sham” acupuncture.

  • The changes in drug research, testing

    In December, Congress passed a bipartisan law to boost federal medical research spending and to ease the approval of new drugs. In a panel discussion, experts at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health talked about its pros and cons, including whether it will be funded, and whether the relaxed drug approval guidelines are too easy.

  • For better health, reduce greenhouse gases

    The “Harvard Chan: This Week in Health” podcast sits down with Aaron Bernstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard Chan School, to discuss how climate change will impact health and health care costs.

  • Gut details

    New findings have the potential to help researchers more accurately identify microbiome enzymes and quantify their relative abundance.

  • Study confirms vitamin D protects against colds and flu

    Researchers find vitamin D helps the body fight acute respiratory infection.

  • The confused future of health care

    At a Kennedy School panel on the future of health insurance, the analysts disagreed on many key points, but did agree that any new national plan, if there is one, will take time to create.

  • A case against the drug war

    Ayelet Waldman stopped at Harvard Law School to talk about her new book, “A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference In My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life.”

  • Cocoa for pleasure — and health?

    A study by Harvard Medical School faculty members at Brigham and Women’s Hospital is exploring the health benefits of cocoa in a massive, 18,000-person study that may provide answers hinted at in smaller studies.

  • Patients’ cells provide possible treatment for blood disorder

    Harvard researchers were able, for the first time, to use patients’ own cells to create cells similar to those in bone marrow, and identify potential treatments for a rare blood disorder.

  • Playing catch-up on marijuana

    The Gazette speaks with the Medical School’s Staci Gruber, who thinks that state marijuana legalization policy has run ahead of science.

  • Where lead lurks

    A Harvard Chan School researcher has launched a website to connect citizens with data on the water coming through their taps.

  • New gene-delivery therapy restores partial hearing, balance in deaf mice 

    Harvard Medical School scientists and colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital have partly restored hearing in mice with a genetic form of deafness. The new approach overcomes a longstanding barrier to gene therapy for inherited and acquired deafness.

  • New hope for children with brain tumors

    A new study out of Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center suggests that precision medicine can provide vital care in treatment and diagnosis of pediatric brain tumors.

  • Sugar stands accused

    Science journalist Gary Taubes brought his “Case Against Sugar” to Harvard Law School.