Planets & Transits
New Moon in Leo August 12, 2026
The New Moon arrives in Leo August 12 at 8:36 PM UTC, and with it comes a singular...
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- Written by: Angie Hunt
Researchers surveyed college students about their frequency of video game play, coping strategies, anxiety, and symptoms of various mental illnesses including gaming disorder and discovered that using video games as a coping mechanism for anxiety predicted symptoms of gaming disorder. Further, higher levels of stress increased the risk.
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- Written by: Mollie Rappe
Just a few drinks changes how memories are formed at the fundamental, molecular level, according to a new study with flies. The new research finds that alcohol hijacks a memory formation pathway and changes the proteins expressed in the neurons, forming cravings.
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- Written by: Cathy Thompson and Tara Thompson Lewis
Injury and any trauma that occur more or less simultaneously are connected by the illogical lower brain. For example, a baby doesn’t know, or reason, that the pain of a bitten lip isn’t caused by the adult who is holding her bottle, but is coincidental to it. Her young, magical, mythic mind, the dreaming part of the mind, makes relationships and patterns where none may actually exist...
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- Written by: Lorie A. Schleck, MA, PT.
Strength training, especially when combined with aerobic exercise, is a surefire way to control body weight. Why? Because muscle burns calories and fat. But left to its own devices, the body loses about a half pound of muscle every year after age 30. If we don't keep ourselves strong...
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- Written by: Cecilie Krabbe
Stimulating the body’s cold and nicotine receptors burns energy, suppresses appetite, and may lead to weight loss, a study with mice shows. Inspired by everyday life, researchers wondered whether they could pharmacologically imitate some of the effects from winter swimming and smoking.
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- Written by: Debra Waterhouse
Chances are, this question "Why do I feel so tired?" has crossed your mind more than once... You felt the wave of fatigue come crashing over your body, and the question hit you like a ton of bricks. But having neither the energy to figure out why nor the time to let yourself be tired, you grabbed another cup of coffee...
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- Written by: Mihiri Silva, Katrina Scurrah, and Nicky Kilpatrick
A quarter of children have dental decay by the time they start school. This occurs when bacteria in the mouth break down sugar to produce acid, which attacks and dissolves the teeth.
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- Written by: Andres Pumariega
Suicide rates in the United States have increased by 25-30 percent since 1999. This is particularly true for youth ages 12-24, with increases of approximately 30 percent over the same period. In Alachua County, Florida, where I teach and practice at the University of Florida, the base rate for suicides among youth ages 12-17 had been about five per 100,000 for many years, below the base national rate of 13 per 100,000. However, in the year 2017 that rate of completed suicides increased to 27 per 100,000, and for 2018 we are at a pace that will likely equal 2017.
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- Written by: Jim Dryden
It may be possible in the future to screen patients for Alzheimer’s disease using a simple eye exam, according to new research. Using technology similar to what is found in eye doctors’ offices, researchers have detected evidence indicating Alzheimer’s disease in older patients who had no symptoms.
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- Written by: Jim Dryden
A new study involved nearly 600 patients with depression that taking four or more antidepressants, taken either separately or in combination could not be alleviate. Researchers evaluated vagus nerve stimulators, which send regular, mild pulses of electrical energy to the brain via the vagus nerve. The nerve originates in the brain, passes through the neck and travels down into the chest and abdomen.
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- Written by: Richard Gunderman and Lily Wolf
Picture two different families, each dealing with a diagnosis of dementia in one of its members. In one case, the patient is a retired executive, whose family tries as long as possible to keep the diagnosis secret, relying primarily on professional caregivers and eventually a nursing home. In another case, the patient is a grandmother. As soon as the diagnosis is suspected, her family pulls together, bringing her into their home and surrounding her with affection.
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- Written by: Krista Conger
People who develop abnormally frequent cases of a skin cancer known as basal cell carcinoma appear to be at significantly increased risk for the development of other cancers, including blood, breast, colon, and prostate cancers, according to a new, preliminary study. “Skin is the best organ to detect genetic problems that could lead to cancers.”
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- Written by: Sarah Anne Shockley
By facing pain, listening to it, and allowing it the room it was demanding anyway, my body began to relax a bit around the pain. I stopped clenching quite so much, I stopped saying no, no, no, and I began to accept. I learned that constantly saying no to pain locks things in place. Relaxing into acceptance allows the possibility for the body to regenerate.
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- Written by: Emil Jeyaratnam and Wes Mountain
Alcohol is a depressant, a diuretic, and a disinfectant. These generally aren’t pleasant attributes, but people have been drinking alcohol for thousands of years...
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- Written by: Hannah Kirk
The new JAMA study, from researchers at the University of Southern California, investigated the link between digital media use and the development of ADHD-related behaviours among 15- and 16-year-olds.
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- Written by: Joel Finkelstein
Since Richard Nixon famously called for an ‘all-out offensive’ on the war on drugs in 1971, the US government has funnelled a trillion dollars into the effort.
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- Written by: Michael Freeman
Many people have an appearance of dark circles on the lower eyelids, and they have many different causes.
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- Written by: Mark Guthridge
Around 200,000 people in Australia suffer from a debilitating illness often branded with the unfortunate name of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). I say “unfortunate” because this implies patients are simply tired, run-down, burnt-out or overly stressed.
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- Written by: Matthew Campbell
There is a widespread belief that sugar is the sole cause of diabetes. After all, the disease is characterized by high levels of sugar in the blood.
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- Written by: Kavitha Chinnaiyan, MD
When we are in pain, it takes over our identity and clouds our perception until it is relieved. Some of this is a natural physiological response—pain is unpleasant and universally unwanted. Quite often, chronic pain becomes the story of our lives, where all our interactions with the world are colored by it.
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- Written by: Barbara Moran-Boston University
Playing youth tackle football may lead to earlier onset of cognitive, behavior, and mood symptoms in later life, according to a new study.
