A preemie from Connecticut who weighed just 11 ounces when he was born is finally home after growing to nearly 11 pounds during nine miracle months at two Westchester hospitals. Connor Florio could fit in his dad John’s hands when he was born in just the 27th week of his mom’s pregnancy on July 13, 2018, at Westchester Medical Center, where he was the tiniest baby ever treated.

A new study demonstrates how children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience long-term improvements in gut health and autism symptoms after undergoing a new fecal transplant technique known as Microbiota Transfer Therapy (MTT). MTT improves gastrointestinal (GI) distress by introducing key strains of beneficial bacteria and helping to raise levels of biodiversity within the gut, boosting health overall. At the start of the study, 83 percent of participants were rated as having severe autism. At the end of the study, only 17 percent were severe; 39 percent were mild/moderate; and 44 percent were below the cut-off for mild ASD.

The routine vaccination of girls with the HPV vaccine in Scotland has led to a "dramatic" drop in cervical disease in later life, new research suggests. Human papilomavirus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted infection and some types are linked to cervical cancer. Researchers said the vaccine has nearly wiped out cases of cervical pre-cancer in young women since an immunisation programme was introduced 10 years ago.

After years of misdiagnoses, Stephen Hopkins learned that lead in his bones was making him sick. Now he’s calling for the military to increase testing for metal poisoning in troops.

Although the 65-year-old woman had a rare type of endometrial cancer that had spread to her liver and was expected to be fatal, she still felt well enough to work and swim. As a last hope, her doctors gave her a type of immune-stimulating drug that had had near-miraculous results in some patients with advanced cancer. But 3 weeks after she began the drug, the woman's liver tumors had grown, and her abdomen was swollen with tumors as big as oranges.

A form of cancer treatment Lauren Krelsham credits with giving her another chance to live will be made more widely available, with the Federal Government announcing $80 million towards a facility in Melbourne. The $105 million treatment centre will be housed at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and will offer CAR T-cell therapy, Health Minister Greg Hunt said. The treatment involves removing some of a patient's immune system cells so they can be re-engineered in a lab, before they are reinserted to attack cancer cells.

Every parent’s worst fear is not being able to keep their child safe. And a mysterious condition known as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is enough to keep any new parent awake at night. What’s so troubling about SIDS is that no one really understands why a seemingly healthy baby goes to sleep and never wakes up. But a new review paper suggests that SIDS and other forms of sudden death syndromes — which impact people of all ages and seem to strike without warning or cause — may share a common, neurological cause.

A study that examined older Americans’ well-being before and after medical marijuana laws were passed in their state found reductions in reported pain and increased hours worked. The study, co-written by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Temple University, suggests medical marijuana laws could be improving older Americans’ health.

Breast milk offers excellent, balanced, and healthy nutrition for babies providing all the proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that young bodies need to stay healthy. Mothers create new antibodies in real time, which help strengthen young immune systems. But that’s not all. Recent studies have shown that breast milk is more beneficial than we think.

The operation is a daring one: To replace a failing heart valve, cardiologists insert a replacement through a patient’s groin and thread it all the way to the heart, maneuvering it into the site of the old valve. The procedure, called transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), has been reserved mostly for patients so old and sick they might not survive open-heart surgery. Now, two large clinical trials show that TAVR is just as useful in younger, healthier patients.

In April 2016, Venus Lockett was about to give a speech at an event she volunteered for near her home in Atlanta. She was already stressed. The previous night, she had stayed up late making her presentation, and then deleted it by mistake. As she stepped up to the podium to give her remarks, she noticed that her words were slurring. She tried to speak into the mic, but the words that came out didn’t make sense.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s esketamine on Tuesday for treatment-resistant depression; the drug is the chemical cousin of ketamine, the powerful anesthetic that has been used illegally as the club drug Special K. It will be sold as Spravato. More specifically, it's for patients who have tried at least two other medications without success, and it should be taken with an oral antidepressant.

Donna Kaye Hill realized that her 80-year-old mother was faltering cognitively when her phone suddenly stopped working. When Ms. Hill called the phone company, “they told me she hadn’t paid her bill in three months.” Finding other alarming evidence of memory gaps, she took her mother, Katie, to a memory clinic. A geriatrician there diagnosed dementia and recommended two prescription drugs and a dietary supplement, a form of vitamin E.

Houston Methodist infectious disease scientists have discovered a previously unknown trigger that turns a relatively run-of-the-mill infection into a devastatingly ravenous, flesh-eating disease. Group A streptococcus is an organism that causes more than 700 million cases of human infection every year globally. While most of those cases are strep throat, which most people have had, it's also a common cause of severe invasive diseases.

Dylan Melancon estimates that he was going 70 miles an hour when he crashed his motorcycle on a hot New Orleans highway this past June. He wasn’t wearing leathers or other protective clothing. Melancon's virtually unprotected body slid along the concrete at high speed for yards. “I was wearing dress pants and a T-shirt. Afterwards, I was wearing no pants,” the 26-year-old nursing student said.

The anti-vaccination movement made the list of the World Health Organization's top threats to global health in 2019. The organization said some people's reluctance or refusal to vaccinate threatens to reverse progress made against a host of preventable diseases. "Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways of avoiding disease — it currently prevents 2-3 million deaths a year, and a further 1.5 million could be avoided if global coverage of vaccinations improved," WHO said in a statement.

Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence system that can automatically differentiate between different types of cancer cells and their sensitivity to radiotherapy. A team of researchers in Japan have devised an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can identify different types of cancer cells using microscopy images. Their method can also be used to determine whether the cancer cells are sensitive to radiotherapy. The researchers reported their findings in the journal Cancer Research.

The world’s first genetic study of people with acne has raised the prospect of new treatments for those with severe cases of the skin condition. The study of almost 27,000 people, including 5,602 with severe acne, identified genetic differences that were more common in people with the skin condition. Scientists found that many of the genetic variants influenced the formation of hair follicles, which was previously an unknown risk factor for the condition. The researchers think that differences in the shape of hair follicles may make some people’s skin more prone to harbour bacteria, creating the conditions for acne.

A Missouri nurse was terminated from her job after she refused to get flu shot, sparking a backlash. A group of protesters rallied outside of the Mercy Hospital South in St. Louis on Monday after one nurse at the facility was fired due to her refusal to be vaccinated due to religious reasons. Nelia Aubuchon, who organized the protest, said that the nurse was terminated after she violated the hospital's policy that requires employees to receive a flu shot.

Shining a light onto the skin could become a new test to see if people are in the earliest stages of diabetes and heart disease. The approach may offer a way of screening people for these health conditions that’s quicker and easier than current methods that include blood tests, and assessing risk factors such as people’s weight and family history.