All posts tagged: infections

How viral infections disrupt memory and thinking skills

How viral infections disrupt memory and thinking skills

Published by José Betancourt

Viral infections often leave lasting marks on human memory and thinking skills by altering the balance of the immune system. A recent comprehensive review of medical data reveals that specific inflammatory immune responses slow down mental processing and impair memory across a variety of different viral illnesses. These findings were published in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. When a virus invades the body, the immune system launches a defense mechanism that involves an array of cells and chemical messengers. Some of these messengers are known as pro-inflammatory cytokines. These are small proteins that sound the alarm and promote inflammation to clear the infection. Once the threat passes, the body normally releases anti-inflammatory signals to calm the response and restore normal operations. Sometimes this defensive response does not turn off correctly, leading to lingering systemic inflammation. Medical professionals routinely observe this phenomenon in people recovering from viruses like the one that causes COVID-19. Patients often report persistent brain fog, which includes trouble concentrating, slowed thinking, and memory lapses. Similar cognitive issues frequently appear in people …

Chronic Pain Can Make Noise Unbearable By Rewiring The Brain, Study Says

Chronic Pain Can Make Noise Unbearable By Rewiring The Brain, Study Says

Published by Sam Flores

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, March 6, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Everyday sounds add to the torment of a person with chronic back pain, apparently because pain rewires how the brain responds to noise, a new study says. People suffering from back pain process sounds differently and more intensely, adding to their agony, researchers recently reported in the Annals of Neurology. “Our findings validate what many patients have been saying for years that everyday sounds genuinely feel harsher and more intense,” said senior researcher Yoni Ashar, co-director of the Pain Science Program at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine. “This tells us chronic back pain isn’t just about the back,” Ashar said in a news release. “There’s a broader sensory amplification happening in the brain, and that opens the door for treatments that can help turn that volume down.” For the new study, researchers compared 142 adults with chronic back pain to 51 pain-free folks. All of the participants underwent MRI brain imaging, during which they were asked to perform tasks such as …

Measles cases are rising. Other vaccine-preventable infections could be next.

Measles cases are rising. Other vaccine-preventable infections could be next.

Published by skeptic

The vast majority of these cases have been children who were not fully vaccinated. Vaccine hesitancy is thought to be a significant reason children are missing out on important vaccines—the World Health Organization described it as one of the 10 leading threats to global health in 2019. And if we’re seeing more measles cases now, we might expect to soon see more cases of other vaccine-preventable infections, including some that can cause liver cancer or meningitis. Some people will always argue that measles is not a big deal—that infections used to be common, and most people survived them and did just fine. It is true that in most cases kids do recover well from the virus. But not always. Measles symptoms tend to start with a fever and a runny nose. The telltale rash comes later. In some cases, severe complications develop. They can include pneumonia, blindness, and inflammation of the brain. Some people won’t develop complications until years later. In rare cases, the disease can be fatal. Before the measles vaccine was introduced, in …

Dr. Oz begs Americans to take the measles vaccine as infections soar

Dr. Oz begs Americans to take the measles vaccine as infections soar

Published by Sam Flores

The U.S. is in the grips of a historic measles surge, with more than 3,000 measles cases reported in 45 states across the country since the start of 2025. So far, two unvaccinated children have died from the disease. At least 920 people have been infected in South Carolina, and a similar number in Texas. In both states, nearly all infected individuals were unvaccinated. Now Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is urging Americans to get the measles vaccine as the country is on the brink of losing its measles elimination status. “Take the vaccine, please. We have a solution for our problem,” Oz said on CNN’s State of Union on Sunday. “Not all illnesses are equally dangerous, and not all people are equally susceptible to those illnesses. But measles is one you should get your vaccine [for],” Oz said. Mehmet’s urging comes almost a year after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. called in April 2025 for supplying Texas with “needed” measles vaccines in the wake …

A new mouse model links cleared viral infections to ALS-like symptoms

A new mouse model links cleared viral infections to ALS-like symptoms

Published by José Betancourt

Recent research suggests that a person’s unique genetic makeup may determine whether a temporary viral infection triggers a permanent, debilitating brain disease later in life. A team of scientists found that specific genetic strains of mice developed lasting spinal cord damage resembling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) long after their immune systems had successfully cleared the virus. These findings were published in the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology. The origins of neurodegenerative diseases have puzzled medical experts for decades. Conditions such as ALS, often called Lou Gehrig’s disease, involve the progressive death of motor neurons. This leads to muscle weakness, paralysis, and eventually respiratory failure. While a small percentage of cases run in families, the vast majority are sporadic. This means they appear without a clear family history. Researchers have hypothesized that environmental factors likely initiate these sporadic cases. Viral infections are a primary suspect. The theory suggests a “hit and run” mechanism. A virus enters the body and causes damage or alters the immune system. The body eventually eliminates the virus. However, the pathological …

Nasal spray could prevent infections from any flu strain

Nasal spray could prevent infections from any flu strain

Published by skeptic

Nasal sprays target flu viruses at their main point of entry into the body Tatiana Maksimova/Getty Images An antibody nasal spray has shown promise for protecting against flu in preliminary human trials, after first being validated in mice and monkeys. It may be useful for combatting future flu pandemics because it seems to neutralise any kind of influenza virus, including ones that spill over from non-human animals. The main tool we have for stopping the spread of flu is the annual vaccine, which stimulates our immune system to make antibodies against recently circulating strains of influenza virus. However, because influenza strains are constantly morphing, vaccines are only moderately effective. To address this, pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson developed a special antibody called CR9114 that can neutralise any of these strains. It does this by recognising and binding to a part of the virus that always stays the same, regardless of how other parts of it are changing. When CR9114 was initially injected into animals’ bloodstreams, it failed to provide robust protection against flu. This was …

To halt measles’ resurgence we must fight the plague of misinformation

To halt measles’ resurgence we must fight the plague of misinformation

Published by skeptic

Vaccine uptake is critical for public health Robin Utrecht/Shutterstock When I read the 1998 study falsely claiming there was a link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism, I was shocked. Shocked by how bad the paper was, shocked that it was published in a high-status journal and shocked that journalists reported it so uncritically. And back then, I didn’t even know the study was fraudulent. Nearly three decades later, the consequences of those bad decisions by doctors and journalists are still reverberating around the world. Due to low vaccination rates driven at least in part by the anti-vax movement, fuelled by that fraudulent paper, six countries have lost their measles-free status, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), including the UK (for the second time), Spain and Austria. Meanwhile, the US is battling its worst outbreak in many decades, and would have lost its own measles-free status soon, had it not withdrawn from the WHO. Measles is one of the most contagious viruses on the planet. It causes severe complications in …