Latest Medical research News

'We fall and we rise': Some amputees in Sierra Leone turn to farming to combat discrimination

Dec. 27, 2024 00:44 AM EST

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Lahai Makieu struck the bamboo with a machete until it cracked and fell. Balancing on his crutch, he reached to pick it up. But colleagues pulled the bamboo's other end, and he tumbled into the dense grass. “They forgot I had one leg,” the...

Peyote sacred to Native Americans threatened by psychedelic renaissance and development

Dec. 26, 2024 14:19 PM EST

HEBBRONVILLE, Texas (AP) — In this corner of southern Texas, the plump cacti seem to pop out of arid dust and cracked earth, like magic dumplings. It’s only here and in northern Mexico that the bluish-green peyote plant can be found growing naturally, nestled under thorny...

What Americans think of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his health stances

Dec. 18, 2024 13:54 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The kids seen by Dolores Mejia around suburban Phoenix have been growing heavier in recent years. Their parents, too, she says. Mejia, a 75-year-old retiree, says she's also had her own weight struggles on the scale. That's why Robert F. Kennedy...

The fate of the first-ever White House Gender Policy Council is uncertain in Trump's administration

Dec. 18, 2024 13:42 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — During the transition period between President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump, there has been at least some coordination on West Wing affairs. But not when it comes to Biden's Gender Policy Council, which has worked to defend reproductive health care in the face of...

Billion-dollar donation from Netflix's Reed Hastings leads 2024's list of biggest gifts

Dec. 17, 2024 11:05 AM EST

The Chronicle’s annual list of the biggest charitable donations from individuals or their foundations totaled nearly $6 billion in 2024, with half of that coming from three contributions of $1 billion or more each. Two of those three gifts went to medical schools to provide financial aid....

Two Virginia women who came to Congress on a mission prepare to leave at a critical moment

Dec. 13, 2024 07:15 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Reps. Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton roared into Washington six years ago as part of a record wave of women vying for House seats, many on a mission to push back against the politics of Donald Trump. “We were part of that 2018 class, and we...

Some breast cancer patients can avoid certain surgeries, studies suggest

Dec. 12, 2024 10:03 AM EST

Some early breast cancer patients can safely avoid specific surgeries, according to two studies exploring ways to lessen treatment burdens. One new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, examines whether removing lymph nodes is always necessary in early breast...

Biden says healthy women help US prosperity as he highlights White House initiative on their health

Dec. 11, 2024 15:33 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he is “so proud” that a women's health research initiative he launched last year at his wife's urging has already invested nearly $1 billion because a healthy female population improves U.S. prosperity. “That's a...

US first lady Jill Biden in the capital of the United Arab Emirates on her last solo foreign trip

Dec. 05, 2024 12:18 PM EST

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Jill Biden used a tour of the United Arab Emirates' capital Thursday to praise efforts to fight cancer and call for more attention on women's health issues as part of her final solo foreign tour as first lady. Biden, 73, arrived in Abu Dhabi...

Prenatal blood test can sometimes hint at cancer in moms-to-be

Dec. 04, 2024 17:35 PM EST

Many moms-to-be opt for blood tests during pregnancy to check for fetal disorders such as Down syndrome. In rare instances, these tests can reveal something unexpected — hints of a hidden cancer in the woman. In a study of 107 pregnant women whose test results were unusual, 52 were...