Author: Healthcare Propulsion Staff

New research suggests that a protein the body relies on to manage appetite and energy levels cannot function on its own. Instead, it depends on a partner protein to work properly. This discovery could help scientists better understand how genetic factors contribute to obesity. In a study published in Science Signaling on December 16, an international research team led by scientists at the University of Birmingham examined how a helper protein known as MRAP2 supports an appetite regulating protein called MC3R. MC3R plays a key role in deciding whether the body stores energy or uses it. Building on earlier hunger…

Some doctors are testing new approaches, seeing if tweaking the way NHS works can deliver better health. Dr David Blane is a GP in Glasgow’s Possilpark, and academic lead for GPs at the Deep End, an organisation led by doctors in Scotland’s most deprived communities.He says patients in these neighbourhoods typically develop multiple long‑term conditions 10 to 15 years earlier than those in wealthier areas.”Not only is there a good chance that you’ve got more long‑term health problems, but there’s also other things going on in your life impacting on your mental health – lots of low mood, depression, chronic pain… These things have…

Mass General Brigham investigators led a nationwide study that found that financial hardship, food insecurity, lack of healthcare access, and other social risk factors are linked to higher risks of long COVID. Long COVID includes a wide range of symptoms that present or persist three or more months after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Although in recent years researchers have gained greater insight into the prevalence, symptoms and effects of long COVID through the longitudinal Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative, social risk factors for developing long COVID remain incompletely understood. In a new analysis of the RECOVER-Adult cohort, Mass General Brigham…

As a wound heals, it goes through several stages: clotting to stop bleeding, immune system response, scabbing, and scarring. A wearable device called “a-Heal,” designed by engineers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, aims to optimize each stage of the process. The system uses a tiny camera and AI to detect the stage of healing and deliver a treatment in the form of medication or an electric field. The system responds to the unique healing process of the patient, offering personalized treatment. The portable, wireless device could make wound therapy more accessible to patients in remote areas or with…

Researchers from the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), part of City of Hope, and the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center have identified a potential biomarker for long COVID. If the findings of their study are confirmed by other research centers, the biomarker could be the first specific and quantifiable indicator for confirming long COVID. Currently, clinicians confer a diagnosis of long COVID based upon a collection of symptoms that patients develop after SARS-CoV-2 infection. “If a patient arrives in clinic and they relate the persistence of typical signs and symptoms of long COVID, 12 weeks or…

Drinking any amount of alcohol likely increases the risk of dementia, suggests the largest combined observational and genetic study to date, published online in BMJ Evidence Based Medicine. Even light drinking — generally thought to be protective, based on observational studies — is unlikely to lower the risk, which rises in tandem with the quantity of alcohol consumed, the research indicates. Current thinking suggests that there might be an ‘optimal dose’ of alcohol for brain health, but most of these studies have focused on older people and/or didn’t differentiate between former and lifelong non-drinkers, complicating efforts to infer causality, note…

As marijuana becomes legal in more states, many people assume it is relatively safe. But when it comes to cancer, the picture is far less clear. While tobacco smoking has long been established as a major cause of lung cancer, scientists are still working to understand exactly how marijuana affects cancer risk, according to Brooks Udelsman, MD, a thoracic surgeon with USC Surgery at Keck Medicine of USC. Researchers continue to investigate whether smoking marijuana increases the likelihood of developing cancer. A recent Keck Medicine study led by Niels Kokot, MD, an otolaryngologist at the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology…

What drives someone to keep drinking alcohol even when it harms their health, relationships, and overall wellbeing? A new study from Scripps Research offers an intriguing clue: a small brain region near the midline appears to be deeply involved in how animals learn to drink as a way to escape the discomfort and stress of withdrawal. Published on August 5, 2025, in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science, the study focused on a cluster of neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) in rats. The researchers found that this brain area became increasingly active and strongly promoted relapse when…

The human body is often described as a marvel of “perfect design”: elegant, efficient and finely tuned for its purpose. Yet, when we look closer, a rather different picture emerges. Far from being a flawless machine, the body reads more like a patchwork of compromises shaped by millions of years of evolutionary tinkering. Evolution does not design structures from scratch. Rather, it modifies what already exists. As a result, many aspects of human anatomy are just “good enough” solutions – functional, but far from perfect. Some of the most familiar medical problems and ailments arise directly from these inherited constraints.The…

A second pregnancy changes the brain in ways that are both familiar and distinct from a first pregnancy, according to new research from Amsterdam UMC published in Nature Communications. Building on earlier work showing that a first pregnancy reshapes the brain, the researchers found that each pregnancy leaves its own unique imprint on the maternal brain. In an earlier study, Elseline Hoekzema and colleagues became the first to demonstrate that pregnancy changes the structure of the human brain. They also showed that pregnancy affects how the brain functions. For this latest research, the team followed 110 women over time. Some…