Health News

Ozempic-like drugs appear to weaken more than hunger—they may also reduce cravings for alcohol and other addictive substances. Scientists are increasingly tracing this effect to the lateral septum, a brain region that helps connect memories and surroundings with rewarding experiences. Packed with GLP-1 receptors, it may act as a crucial control point between thinking about a reward and feeling compelled to pursue it. The discovery could open new approaches to treating addiction as well as obesity.

Scientists have pinpointed a brain network—and its distinctive electrical rhythm—that appears to drive the benefits of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease. The discovery could lead to more precise, personalized stimulation settings and better results for patients.

Ancient remains from Vietnam suggest diseases like yaws may have been passed from mother to child thousands of years ago, a form of transmission often assumed to indicate syphilis. The discovery could overturn how scientists interpret ancient infections and complicate the long-running mystery of syphilis’s origins.

The adult brain may be far better at repairing itself than scientists once believed. In mice, researchers discovered a special group of support cells called astrocytes that respond to damaged brain tissue by rebuilding lost cellular networks. Rather than simply moving into the injured area, these cells perform a remarkable maneuver: they create new nuclei and send them traveling through long cellular extensions to repopulate damaged regions.

Keratin extracted from sheep’s wool helped damaged bone regenerate in animals, producing tissue that was more organized and structurally similar to healthy bone than tissue grown with conventional collagen scaffolds. The discovery could turn an abundant agricultural byproduct into a promising new material for regenerative medicine.

MIT neuroscientists have found striking evidence that language and logical reasoning are powered by separate systems in the brain. Even people with severe language impairments caused by stroke were able to solve challenging logic puzzles as well as people without those impairments, while brain scans showed that language-processing regions stayed largely quiet during reasoning tasks.

Marine heatwaves are emerging as a threat not just to coral reefs and fisheries, but to human health and well-being. Researchers warn that unusually hot oceans can fuel stronger storms, trigger harmful algal blooms, reduce seafood supplies, disrupt livelihoods, and contribute to anxiety, grief, and depression in coastal communities.

UCLA researchers have created a blood test that can scan DNA signals for multiple cancers, liver diseases, and signs of organ damage—and even indicate where trouble may be developing. Early results suggest the inexpensive approach could bring medicine closer to a single blood test capable of catching a wide range of diseases before they become harder to treat.

Regular exercise may help the brain clear away harmful waste that can build up with age. Researchers found that physical activity supports several processes linked to the brain’s glymphatic cleanup system, including better sleep, lower inflammation, and healthier blood vessels. Because this waste-removal system becomes increasingly important as we get older, exercise could play a meaningful role in protecting against cognitive decline.

An experimental GLP-1 pill helped people with obesity or overweight lose as much as 12.1% of their body weight in just 36 weeks. Unlike injectable drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic, aleniglipron is a small molecule that can be taken once daily with or without food and could potentially be produced more easily at scale.