July 6, 2025

Health News

Top Health News — ScienceDaily Top stories featured on ScienceDaily’s Health & Medicine, Mind & Brain, and Living Well sections.

  • Cough medicine turned brain protector? Ambroxol may slow Parkinson’s dementia
    on July 6, 2025 at 1:01 pm

    Ambroxol, long used for coughs in Europe, stabilized symptoms and brain-damage markers in Parkinson’s dementia patients over 12 months, whereas placebo patients worsened. Those with high-risk genes even saw cognitive gains, hinting at real disease-modifying power.

  • Multisensory VR forest reboots your brain and lifts mood—study confirms
    on July 6, 2025 at 12:17 pm

    Immersing stressed volunteers in a 360° virtual Douglas-fir forest complete with sights, sounds and scents boosted their mood, sharpened short-term memory and deepened their feeling of nature-connectedness—especially when all three senses were engaged. Researchers suggest such multisensory VR “forest baths” could brighten clinics, waiting rooms and dense city spaces, offering a potent mental refresh where real greenery is scarce.

  • Pregnancy’s 100-million-year secret: Inside the placenta’s evolutionary power play
    on July 6, 2025 at 11:22 am

    A group of scientists studying pregnancy across six different mammals—from humans to marsupials—uncovered how certain cells at the mother-baby boundary have been working together for over 100 million years. By mapping gene activity in these cells, they found that pregnancy isn’t just a battle between mother and fetus, but often a carefully coordinated partnership. These ancient cell interactions, including hormone production and nutrient sharing, evolved to support longer, more complex pregnancies and may help explain why human pregnancy works the way it does today.

  • New tech tracks blood sodium without a single needle
    on July 6, 2025 at 8:16 am

    Scientists have pioneered a new way to monitor sodium levels in the blood—without drawing a single drop. By combining terahertz radiation and optoacoustic detection, they created a non-invasive system that tracks sodium in real time, even through skin. The approach bypasses traditional barriers like water interference and opens up potential for fast, safe diagnostics in humans.

  • Scientists reverse Parkinson’s symptoms in mice — Could humans be next?
    on July 6, 2025 at 3:13 am

    Scientists at the University of Sydney have uncovered a malfunctioning version of the SOD1 protein that clumps inside brain cells and fuels Parkinson’s disease. In mouse models, restoring the protein’s function with a targeted copper supplement dramatically rescued movement, hinting at a future therapy that could slow or halt the disease in people.

  • Tiny twitches, big breakthrough: New clues to catch Parkinson’s sooner
    on July 6, 2025 at 2:51 am

    These findings highlight the significance of rearing behavior and behavioral lateralization as potential behavioral markers for tracking the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

  • The surprising link between hearing loss, loneliness, and lifespan
    on July 5, 2025 at 2:25 pm

    People who treat hearing loss with hearing aids or cochlear implants regain rich conversations, escape isolation, and may even protect their brains and lifespans—proof that better hearing translates into fuller living.

  • Frozen light switches: How Arctic microbes could revolutionize neuroscience
    on July 5, 2025 at 1:10 pm

    In the frozen reaches of the planet—glaciers, mountaintops, and icy groundwater—scientists have uncovered strange light-sensitive molecules in tiny microbes. These “cryorhodopsins” can respond to light in ways that might let researchers turn brain cells on and off like switches. Some even glow blue, a rare and useful trait for medical applications. These molecules may help the microbes sense dangerous UV light in extreme environments, and scientists believe they could one day power new brain tech, like light-based hearing aids or next-level neuroscience tools—all thanks to proteins that thrive in the cold and shimmer under light.

  • Scientists discovered how a scent can change your mind
    on July 4, 2025 at 9:57 pm

    Mice taught to link smells with tastes, and later fear, revealed how the amygdala teams up with cortical regions to let the brain draw powerful indirect connections. Disabling this circuit erased the links, hinting that similar pathways in humans could underlie disorders like PTSD and psychosis, and might be tuned with future brain-modulation therapies.

  • New IQ research shows why smarter people make better decisions
    on July 4, 2025 at 9:37 pm

    Smarter people don’t just crunch numbers better—they actually see the future more clearly. Examining thousands of over-50s, Bath researchers found the brightest minds made life-expectancy forecasts more than twice as accurate as those with the lowest IQs. By tying cognitive tests and genetic markers to real-world predictions, the study shows how sharp probability skills translate into wiser decisions about everything from crossing the road to planning retirement—and hints that clearer risk information could help everyone close the gap.