Chronic inflammatory bowel disease is challenging to treat and carries a risk of complications, including the development of bowel cancer. Young people are particularly affected: when genetic predisposition and certain factors coincide, diseases such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease usually manifest between the ages of 15 and 29 — a critical period for education and early career development. Prompt diagnosis and treatment are crucial. Researchers have now discovered a therapeutic target that significantly contributes to halting the ongoing inflammatory processes.

Aortic valve narrowing (aortic stenosis) with concomitant cardiac amyloidosis is a severe heart disease of old age that is associated with a high risk of death. Until now, treatment has consisted of valve replacement, while the deposits in the heart muscle, known as amyloidosis, often remain untreated. Researchers have now demonstrated that combined treatment consisting of heart valve replacement and specific drug therapy offers a significant survival advantage for patients.

A trial of an interactive game that trains people to alter their brain waves has shown promise as a treatment for nerve pain — offering hope for a new generation of drug-free treatments.

Making a discovery with the potential for innovative applications in pharmaceutical development, a microbiology student has found a long sought-after fungus that produces effects similar to the semisynthetic drug LSD, which is used to treat conditions like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction.

Researchers have synthesized a new compound called infuzide that shows activity against resistant strains of pathogens.

A new way of thinking about Alzheimer’s disease has yielded a discovery that could be the key to stopping the cognitive decline seen in Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS and Parkinson’s.

Scientists have reported use of antibacterial coatings made from resilin-mimetic proteins to fully block bacteria from attaching to a surface. A protein that gives fleas their bounce has been used to boot out bacteria cells, with lab results demonstrating the material’s potential for preventing medical implant infection.

Since 2021, nearly half the states in the U.S. have passed bans on medical treatments for transgender minors. The Trump administration is now targeting the care, and in the coming weeks, the Supreme Court is expected to weigh in.“The Protocol” is the story of youth gender medicine — where it came from, who it was meant to help, and how it got pulled into a political fight that could end it altogether.Introducing ‘The Protocol’Listen to the trailer.All six episodes coming June 5. You can listen to them here, or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, iHeart, Amazon Music, Pandora, the New York Times Audio app or wherever you get your podcasts.Source images: Sarah Wong/Inside Out-Portraits of Cross-gender Children, Getty Images, Alamy, The New York Times, David Rumsey Map Collection/David Rumsey Map Center/Stanford Libraries

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More older people are using cannabis products regularly, but research suggests their cannabis-related health problems are also on the rise.Dr. Benjamin Han, a geriatrician and addiction medicine specialist at the University of California, San Diego, tells his students a cautionary tale about a 76-year-old patient who, like many older people, struggled with insomnia.“She had problems falling asleep, and she’d wake up in the middle of the night,” he said. “So her daughter brought her some sleep gummies” — edible cannabis candies.“She tried a gummy after dinner and waited half an hour,” Dr. Han said.Feeling no effects, she took another gummy, then one more — a total of four over several hours.Dr. Han advises patients who are trying cannabis to “start low; go slow,” beginning with products that contain just 1 or 2.5 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient that many cannabis products contain. Each of the four gummies this patient took, however, contained 10 milligrams.The woman started feeling intense anxiety and experiencing heart palpitations. A young person might have shrugged off such symptoms, but this patient had hypertension and the heart arrhythmia called atrial fibrillation. Frightened, she went to an emergency roomLab tests and a cardiac work-up determined that the woman wasn’t having a heart attack, and the staff sent her home. Her only lingering symptom was embarrassment, Dr. Han said. But what if she’d grown dizzy or lightheaded and was hurt in a fall? He said he has had patients injured in falls or while driving after using cannabis. What if the cannabis had interacted with the prescription drugs she took?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

15 minutes agoShareSaveShareSavePA MediaA corporate manslaughter investigation has been opened into failings that led to hundreds of babies dying or being injured at maternity units in Nottingham.Nottinghamshire Police said they were examining whether maternity care provided by the Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS trust had been grossly negligent.The trust is at the centre of the largest maternity inquiry in the history of the NHS, with about 2,500 cases of neonatal deaths, stillbirths and injuries to mothers and babies being examined by independent midwife Donna Ockenden.The police investigation will centre on two maternity units overseen by the trust, which runs the Queen’s Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital.In a statement on the force’s website, Det Supt Matthew Croome, from the investigation team, said corporate manslaughter was a “serious criminal offence”.He said detectives were “looking to see if the overall responsibility lies with the organisation rather than specific individuals”.The police’s investigation into deaths and serious injuries related to NUH’s maternity care – called Operation Perth – has seen more than 200 family cases referred.The force said it expects about 2,500 to be submitted in total.