Health Sciences

It’s well established that humans maintain a symbiotic relationship with the trillions of beneficial microbes that colonize their bodies. These organisms, collectively called the microbiota, help digest food, maintain the immune system, fend off pathogens, and more.

The first study to look extensively at sexual function in women who underwent bariatric surgery found that significant improvements in overall sexual function, most reproductive hormones and in psychological status were maintained over two years following surgery.

Many people decide to go back to school later in life to pursue an entirely different career. At the University of Pennsylvania, one non-traditional student’s experiences revolutionized his way of thinking about humanity, and he says the switch from chasing bad guys in Afghanistan to healing sick patients isn’t really so different, after all.

The costs of medical education must be reduced as part of efforts to rein in health care costs more generally, according to a Perspective published online this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

A study of over 750 kidney transplant patients over a five-year period conducted by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has found that 90 percent of early rehospitalizations (within 30 days of surgery) were caused by complex medical factors related to the transplantation process.

The combined toll of occupational, recreational and environmental noise exposure poses a serious public health threat going far beyond hearing damage, according to an international team of researchers writing this week in The Lancet.

The Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council today released a comprehensive report on sports-related concussions in youth, detailing factors associated with increased rates of the brain injury, the effectiveness of protective devices and new screening, diagnosis, treatment and management techniques, as well as the long-term consequences of concussions.

For nearly 300 years, investigators have known that body temperature follows a circadian, or 24-hour, rhythm, with a peak during the day and a low at night.

For the first time, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown the predictive power of a group of overlooked lymph nodes--known as the posterior intercostal lymph nodes--that could serve as a better tool to stage and ultimately treat patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.

The largest international Alzheimer's disease genetics collaboration to date has found 11 new genetic areas of interest that contribute to late onset Alzheimer's Disease (LOAD), doubling the number of potential genetics-based therapeutic targets to interrogate.