Medical Xpress news

Medical Xpress / How early-life stress leaves a 'scar' inside brain cells

Experiencing severe stress during childhood can make a person more vulnerable to anxiety, depression and other mood disorders when faced with hardships as an adult. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine ...

Aug 7, 2026
Medical Xpress / Household hums below hearing range damage mouse kidneys in five-day experiment

Previous studies have hinted that people surrounded by more environmental noise—low, deep rumblings from air-conditioning units, elevator motors, distant traffic and ventilation ducts—tend to have worse kidney function. But ...

Aug 7, 2026
Medical Xpress / Everyday packaging plastic may compound fatty liver risk from burgers and sodas

Microplastics have become nearly impossible to avoid. They have been detected in oceans, drinking water and even the human body, but scientists are still uncovering how they affect human health. Now, researchers at the Texas ...

Aug 7, 2026
Medical Xpress / Barbie and Ken get a reality check after 30 years

She's the blonde bombshell and he's her square-jawed sidekick. But nearly 70 years after the impossibly perfect Barbie and Ken made their debut, a new study from Adelaide University and UNSW Sydney shows the iconic pair are ...

Aug 7, 2026
Medical Xpress / Parkinson's-linked α-synuclein blocks protein transport in neurons, disrupting cells' waste recycling

Parkinson's disease affects more than 10 million people worldwide. The disease is characterized by the buildup of abnormal clumps of the protein alpha-synuclein inside brain cells, but scientists have long struggled to understand ...

Aug 7, 2026
Medical Xpress / Radiopharmaceutical may benefit patients with metastatic prostate cancer sooner

Earlier use of a targeted radionuclide therapy delays metastatic prostate cancer progression when administered as part of a trio of drugs, according to a Phase III clinical trial led by Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, ...

Aug 7, 2026
Medical Xpress / Brain activity reveals two stages of visual processing before conscious perception

Seeing feels immediate; we open our eyes and the world seems to appear as a continuous stream. But some visual illusions show that events occurring later can change how we perceive what happened earlier, suggesting that the ...

Aug 7, 2026
Medical Xpress / Deep learning refines how bionic eyes communicate with the brain

Researchers from three institutions, including UC Santa Barbara, have demonstrated that artificial intelligence has the potential to make future visual prostheses, like a bionic eye, more precise, predictable and responsive ...

Aug 7, 2026
Medical Xpress / Rising temperatures linked to higher risk of homicide and suicide in Mexico and Brazil

As temperatures on Earth continue to rise, some researchers have been trying to understand how climate change influences people's physical and mental health. Some past studies have found an association between warmer weather ...

Aug 7, 2026
Medical Xpress / Ketamine triggers morning cortisol surge tied to fewer suicidal thoughts—but the link remains uncertain

In 1970, ketamine was approved as an anesthetic. It works by blocking receptors in the brain. Suicidal tendencies are among the dangers that accompany severe depression. Doctors have found that a low dose of ketamine, much ...

Aug 7, 2026
Medical Xpress / Wildfires now the dominant contributor to unhealthy levels of air pollution for pregnant women in the US

Wildfires are well-known health risks. Now, in a new Frontiers in Environmental Health study, researchers in the U.S. have—for the first time—evaluated how prenatal PM2.5 exposure has changed over space and time on a national ...

Aug 7, 2026
Medical Xpress / D-serine accelerates gastric tumor growth by suppressing killer T cells

One of the crucial steps in cancer proliferation is evading killer immune cells. Cancer cells use a variety of signaling molecules to evade the immune system. Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy interferes with some ...

Aug 7, 2026