HowStuffWorks Newsletter
Know how to prevent, treat and control the symptoms of various diseases and medical conditions. We explain what's happening in your body when disease strikes, and what you can do to feel better faster.
Topics to Explore:
Naming a disease after a person makes it more memorable than giving it a bland technical moniker. It's also a good way to pay tribute to its discoverer. Who were the people that gave their names to Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other diseases?
There may be more going on with your body than just itchy eyes and a runny nose when you're dealing with seasonal allergies, a small new study finds.
People with non-celiac wheat sensitivity have a weakened intestinal barrier, which leads to a systemic immune response and a non-gluten protein may be to blame.
Advertisement
You know you're going to bid this planet farewell at some point, but what ultimately will cause your death? We have a good guess.
Thanks to a portable driver, Stan Larkin was able to live with an artificial heart out in the real world for 555 days.
Modern cancer treatments can be almost as bad as the disease, but new immunotherapy research suggests we could optimize our own immune systems using donor T cells.
In countries where governments mandate vaccination against chickenpox, a new study finds, online searches for information about symptoms drop.
Advertisement
New approach to treating allergies involves hiding allergen in friendly shell so immune system doesn't attack it.
Are jet air hand dryers the safest way to dry your hands after using the bathroom or are they blasting invisible microbes through the air with every use?
Scientists know that being married makes you more likely to survive cancer. Now they've discovered why.
By Alia Hoyt
A new study finds that babies are surprisingly willing to resist the dark side — to a certain point.
By Robert Lamb
Advertisement
Although scientists knew that birth season affected people's allergy risk, they didn’t know why this happened. A study gets us one step closer.
With the rise of drug-resistant bacteria, scientists are taking a second look at infection treatments that were popular before antibiotics. Which ones might work today, and which ones are just quackery?
Just how common is it for schools, jobs and insurers to turn people away based on their DNA?
By Oisin Curran
New studies find links between regular coffee intake and lowered risks for cirrhosis and multiple sclerosis, but you've got to drink a significant amount.
Advertisement
As the Zika virus spreads, there's still much health experts don't know. So just how bad is the outbreak, and is it really connected with the rising cases of microcephaly?
Only Charlie Sheen knows exactly why he went public with his HIV diagnosis last fall, but public health researchers are glad he did, as more people sought information.
Genetic mutations in ancient Vikings protected them from parasites, but contribute to our modern susceptibility to lung diseases COPD and emphysema.
Studies presented at the 2016 AAAS meeting find an impact on immune system genes and on the potential for artherosclerosis.
Advertisement
Children with chronic fatigue syndrome miss more school and face more adverse environments than healthy peers, finds a new UK study.
The sixth-leading cause of chronic illness in the U.S. remains maddeningly difficult to figure out.
By John Donovan
The WHO has declared such an emergency only three times before. And in the U.S., public health authorities are reporting the first sexually transmitted Zika infection.
By Julia Layton
If you spent the year on the International Space Station, you could drop about 180 pounds of personal payload. That's just one crazy fact we learned about No. 2 in 2015.
By John Donovan
Advertisement
Is surrounding yourself with supercooled nitrogen gas a smart move for pain relief or a bunch of pseudoscience?
By Oisin Curran
While pigeons probably won't be donning lab coats anytime soon, they are proving their prowess when it comes to detecting cancer.