EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 9-Nov-2025 02:11 ET (9-Nov-2025 07:11 GMT/UTC)

UBC study shows good B.C. abortion pill access, but gaps remain

University of British Columbia
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Most pharmacies in British Columbia can provide the abortion pill mifepristone within days, but uneven access still leaves some women facing barriers to this time-sensitive medication, according to new research.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

Human stomach cells tweaked to make insulin to treat diabetes

International Society for Stem Cell Research
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Type 1 diabetes is caused by an insufficient production of the hormone insulin by cells in the pancreas called beta cells and estimated to affect 9.5 million people worldwide. Low insulin levels allow glucose levels to remain elevated, which in the long term can damage organs such as the kidneys, the eyes, and the cardiovascular system. People with diabetes require lifelong monitoring of blood sugar levels coupled with insulin injections to keep blood sugar levels at a stable, healthy level.

A potential new treatment option for those patients is the replacement of lost or dysfunctional pancreatic beta cells, either by cell transplantation, or by the generation of new beta cells from existing cells within the body. This latter strategy was pursued by the team of Xiaofeng Huang from Weill Cornell Medicine, USA and Qing Xia from Peking University, China who previously discovered that cells in the mouse stomach can be transformed into pancreatic beta cells by genetic engineering.

Journal: Stem Cell Reports

Mifepristone access through community pharmacies when regulated as a routine prescription medication

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: The results of this study of pharmacies in British Columbia, Canada, suggest that when medication abortion is available as a routine health service and mifepristone is regulated as a routine prescription, pharmacists play a key role in providing geographically distributed access to medication abortion. These findings may inform policy and initiatives to enhance pharmacist referral networks and improve mifepristone access, as well as service planning for international jurisdictions considering a similar medication abortion framework.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

USF Health researcher and international team win multi-million research grant

University of South Florida
Grant and Award Announcement

Yong Xu of the University of South Florida, Sadaf Farooqi of University of Cambridge and Tiago Branco of University College London found that pathways in a key part of the brain called the hypothalamus control a range of instinctive behaviors. In children, genetic mutations which disrupt these pathways can cause overeating, obesity and in some cases, autistic traits, aggression and even severe anxiety.

Funder: European Research Council

Older adults share more political misinformation. Here’s why.

University of Colorado at Boulder
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new international study sheds light on why the 55-and-older set tends to share more fake news on social media— and what can be done about it.

Journal: Journal of Experimental Psychology General

Meta-analysis offers reassurance that pregnant women can safely use acetaminophen

Elsevier
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A rigorous systematic review of the present state of knowledge on the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and the risk of specific neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), such as autism and ADHD, offers reassurance that acetaminophen does not increase the risk of NDDs. The study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP), published by Elsevier, points to methodological inadequacies in previous reviews and studies. It offers reassurance for pregnant women, public health agencies, and healthcare providers in alignment with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), and The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC).

Journal: Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Funder: Center for Truth in Science

National Center to Reframe Aging partners with Maine Council on Aging to host leadership exchange on ageism

The Gerontological Society of America
Business Announcement

The National Center to Reframe Aging — the leading organization for evidence-based communication strategies and tools to effectively frame aging issues — is partnering with the Maine Council on Aging to host a special cohort of the Leadership Exchange on Ageism (LEA), a program for leaders to enhance understanding of ageism and develop strategies to eliminate it.

Funder: John A. Hartford Foundation

9
10
11
12
13