Health

All Health

  • Proven opioid treatment faces roadblocks

    A Harvard Chan School study reveals that buprenorphine-naloxone, a highly effective, evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder, is difficult to access in states with high rates of death associated with opiates.

  • Novel protocol improves pancreatic cancer outcomes

    Adding the blood-pressure drug losartan to the intensive chemo and radiation protocol for treating locally advanced pancreatic cancer allowed complete removal of the tumor in 61 percent of trial participants and significantly improved survival rates.

    Surgeons performing an operation
  • The IBD–gut bug connection

    A new study is the first to have observed the complex set of chemical and molecular events that disrupt the microbiome and trigger immune responses during flare-ups of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

    Gut bacteria microbiome. 3D illustration.
  • Shorter shifts lead to better-rested doctors

    In a multiyear randomized clinical trial, investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that senior resident physicians who work no more than 16 consecutive hours get an average of 8 percent more sleep than those who work extended-duration shifts of 24 hours or more.

    Medical resident sleeping on hospital ward
  • Catch a virus by the tail

    Scientists uncover a key mechanism that allows some of the deadliest human RNA viruses to replicate, and it resides in the tail end of the viruses. The findings identify new targets to inhibit viral replication and may inform the development of a new class of antiviral drugs.

    Influenza virus
  • Tackling high Rx prices

    The HarvardX online platform is offering a free course on the FDA and prescription drug prices. Three faculty members behind the course discuss the issues.

    four people talking outside the Harvard Ed Portal building
  • Broccoli and Brussels sprouts: Cancer foes

    Broccoli, Brussels sprouts and other cruciferous vegetables have long been thought to be good for you, new research finds a mechanism for its cancer-fighting abilities and points the way to a new anti-cancer drug.

    researcher in the lab
  • Pharma-to-doc marketing a vulnerability in opioid fight

    A University of Michigan-Harvard University summit brought experts from the two universities as well as outside organizations to consider ways to address the opioid epidemic.

    Pills spilling from a bottle
  • Mini-gut reaction

    Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have created miniature, simplified versions of the intestine in vitro to explore how the gut lining and microbiome respond to gluten in both healthy and celiac patients.

    Bread
  • Improving cell therapy for diabetes

    A team of researchers led by Harvard University scientists has improved the laboratory process of converting stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells from 30 percent to 80 percent.

    two multicolored cell clusters
  • Dietary link found to drug-resistant breast cancer

    Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School have linked a common dietary element to breast cancer drug resistance, raising the prospect of a new way to attack a major cause of breast cancer death.

    meats, fish, dairy, eggs, white meat on a wooden table as background
  • In the cold and rain, a sprawling lesson on caring

    About 250 faculty, students, and volunteers descended on Massachusetts’ Harold Parker State Forest last weekend for a disaster simulation aimed to prepare students studying humanitarian disaster response for the real thing.

    Participants learn to treat injuries in a humanitarian disaster simulation.
  • Bugged by vaping

    New research from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has examined 75 popular e-cigarette brands and found that 27 percent contained traces of bacterial and fungal toxins associated with myriad health problems.

  • The dietary factor

    Based on new research, a randomized placebo-controlled trial in humans indicates that a popular food ingredient called propionate may raise the risk of diabetes and obesity.

    Supermarket aisle with empty shopping cart
  • Sparking a national debate

    Environmental protection is not a goal to achieve but a task to be undertaken by one generation and handed to the next, Gina McCarthy, the former EPA administrator and current director of Harvard’s Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, told the Gazette in an Earth Day interview.

    A 1967 photograph, showing old cars used as rip-rap along the banks of the Cuyahoga to protect it from erosion is held in front of the river decades later.
  • Calculating genetic risk for obesity

    A “polygenic score” for obesity, a quantitative tool that predicts an individual’s inherited risk for becoming overweight, may identify an opportunity for early intervention.

    Person getting ready to weigh themselves on a scale.
  • Seeing brain activity in ‘almost real time’

    Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, King’s College London, and other institutions have developed a technique for measuring brain activity that’s 60 times faster than traditional fMRI.

    Measuring brain function image of scans
  • As the end nears, who’s in control?

    Advocates and opponents of medical-aid-in-dying laws, also called physician-assisted death, gathered at Harvard Medical School for a two-day conference organized by the HMS Center for Bioethics.

    Dan Diaz discusses medical aid in dying with Mildred Solomon.
  • Weighing in on workplace wellness programs

    In the first major multisite randomized controlled trial of workplace wellness programs, researchers found that while they may help people change certain behaviors, they do little to improve overall health or lower health care spending.

    Workout equipment for wellness program.
  • Detecting DNA defects

    A new algorithm designed by HMS scientists can be incorporated into standard genetic tests to successfully identify patients harboring a tumor-fueling DNA repair defect found in multiple cancers treatable with existing drugs.

    DNA strand and Cancer Cell
  • Vitamin D may slow progression of metastatic colorectal cancer

    The first randomized clinical trial of vitamin D in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer found that high doses of supplements combined with chemotherapy delayed disease progression.

  • Healthy diet helps older men maintain physical function

    A new study shows that older men who maintain healthier diets are 25 percent less likely to develop physical impairment with aging.

  • Hold the soda, hold the fat shaming

    Health and policy expert Sara Bleich has found that when trying to change the way people eat, being prescriptive isn’t always the answer.

    A tower of junk food including fried chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, and cupcakes.
  • Inoculating against misinformation

    A new survey by Harvard researchers shows that trust in leaders and institutions are at a low ebb in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, highlighting the importance of gaining trust as part of the response to the growing Ebola epidemic there.

  • Homeless, hopeless, and sick

    Humanitarian workers from around the globe will visit Harvard to discuss how best to treat the increasing number of diabetics among refugee populations. Symposium organizers talk about the problem and what they hope the symposium will accomplish.

    Sylvia Kehlenbrink (left) and Lindsay Jaacks.
  • DNA testing could save young lives through early intervention

    During her Radcliffe fellowship, pediatric oncologist Lisa Diller is studying the implications of genetic testing in newborns, and planning research that focuses on testing babies for gene changes associated with cancers known to strike the very young.

    Lisa Diller at her desk
  • How to feed 10 billion by midcentury

    A panel of experts at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health discussed how the globe might feed an estimated human population of 10 billion by midcentury and suggested a diet high in plant foods, low in red meat, as well as a host of reforms to how food is produced and distributed today.

    Anna Sortun, David Bennell, Gina McCarthy, and Walter Willett.
  • Cells recall the way they were

    Study in mice reveals that adult tissues retain a memory of which genes are activated during very early development, and that that memory can be recovered. Under certain conditions, adult cells play their developmental “movie” in a slow rewind, reactivating fetal genes. These findings have important implications for regenerative medicine and cancer research.

    Illustration of sand forming DNA in hourglass.
  • Cutting skin cancer risk by 75 percent

    A treatment previously shown to clear the precancerous skin lesions called actinic keratosis now appears to reduce the chance that the treated skin will develop squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs), the second-most-common form of skin cancer.

    Precancerous actinic keratosis cells –
  • Sleep, heart disease link leads from brain to marrow

    New research from Massachusetts General Hospital traces a previously unknown pathway from poor sleep to an increase in the fatty plaques that line blood vessels in atherosclerosis, a key feature of cardiovascular disease.

    Cameron McAlpine and Filip Swirski.