Don’t need high cholesterol to benefit from statins

New studies provide additional context to debate about whether there are benefits to initiating statin use in people who don’t already have high cholesterol or cardiovascular disease.

Miles Martin • harvard
Dec. 6, 2023 ~5 min

Scorecard reveals risk of dementia, stroke

Researchers develop 12-step list to gauge how modifiable behaviors — physical, lifestyle, and social — affect stroke, dementia risk.

Harvard Gazette • harvard
Dec. 1, 2023 ~5 min


Legacy of heading off deaths from industrial air pollution

Professor Francesca Dominici details decades-old Harvard roots of latest findings showing particles from coal-fired power plants deadliest.

Alvin Powell • harvard
Nov. 30, 2023 ~10 min

AI may be just what the dentist ordered

Dental practices, dental schools, oral health researchers, and policymakers are rapidly positioning themselves to evolve in step with the dawning AI movement in oral healthcare, say experts.

Kat J. McAlpine • harvard
Nov. 29, 2023 ~9 min

Headache or sore all over after bad night’s sleep?

Sleep loss heightens pain; pain can cause sleep loss. But why one begets the other has been largely clouded in uncertainty — until now.

Caitlin McDermott-Murphy • harvard
Nov. 28, 2023 ~7 min

After decades of improvement, cardiovascular health rates on worrying path

Researchers, CDC report trend is stagnating — and for middle-aged, even declining.

Jacqueline Mitchell • harvard
Nov. 27, 2023 ~3 min

‘It’s much more harmful than we thought, and its mortality burden has been seriously underestimated’

Researchers found that between 1999 and 2020, 460,000 deaths were attributable to fine particulate air pollutants emitted by coal-fired power plants (coal PM2.5); 10 of these plants each contributed at least 5,000 deaths.

Maya Brownstein • harvard
Nov. 23, 2023 ~6 min

Uncovering the culprit behind the itch

Harvard scientists show for the first time that a common microbe can cause itch by activating nerve cells in the skin. They may also have a solution to the problem.

Ekaterina Pesheva • harvard
Nov. 22, 2023 ~9 min


Smart trackers may predict health risks in older adults

Wearable devices that measure circadian rest-activity rhythms may be able to assess frailty-related health risks more than six years before an incidence occurs, according to a new study.

Harvard Gazette • harvard
Nov. 20, 2023 ~4 min

‘When you’re with a patient … their suffering counts more than your suffering’

“The Uses of Haiti: Paul Farmer and the Origins of the Global Health Equity Movement” honored the late Harvard Med professor and co-founder of Partners In Health.

Alvin Powell • harvard
Nov. 16, 2023 ~7 min

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