EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 4-Aug-2025 08:11 ET (4-Aug-2025 12:11 GMT/UTC)

Psychedelics and non-hallucinogenic analogs work through the same receptor, up to a point

University of California - Davis
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research led by UC Davis researchers found that non-hallucinogenic versions of psychedelic drugs promote neuroplasticity through the same biochemical pathway as psychedelics. However, unlike psychedelics, they don’t activate genes long thought to be key players in that process.

Journal: Nature Neuroscience
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Hellman Foundation, Boone Family Foundation, Woodnext Foundation, Delix Therapeutics

Announcing The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics

Monterey Bay Aquarium
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new report published in The Lancet issues a fresh clarion call: plastic pollution is a grave and growing danger to human and planetary health. As Ministers and diplomats arrive in Geneva for the final round of talks to conclude a global plastics treaty, the report provides the most up-to-date assessment of the links between health and plastic pollution across the full life cycle of plastic.

Journal: The Lancet

The Lancet: Plastic pollution is an underrecognised threat to health, experts warn as they launch a project to track plastics’ health impacts and monitor progress

The Lancet
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Ahead of the expected finalisation of an UN global plastics treaty [1], a group of international experts call for a greater focus on health impacts when considering plastic pollution. The Health Policy published in The Lancet reviews the current evidence on how plastics – including microplastics and plastic chemicals - impact health and announces the launch of a new project tracking these impacts: the Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics.

Journal: The Lancet

The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics to track impact of plastic production and pollution on human health

Boston College
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Boston College researchers co-lead the launch of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics, an online dashboard that will track the health and environmental impacts of plastic pollution and monitor UN-guided efforts to curb plastics’ use and mitigate their harms.

Journal: The Lancet
Funder: Minderoo Foundation, Centre Scientifique de Monaco

Editorial urges deeper focus on heart-lung interactions in pulmonary vascular disease

National Jewish Health
Reports and Proceedings

A new editorial published in Comprehensive Physiology underscores the critical importance of understanding heart-lung interactions in pulmonary vascular disease (PVD). Tim Lahm, MD, a pulmonologist and researcher at National Jewish Health, along with a team of esteemed colleagues from institutions across the country, urges the scientific community to confront the major knowledge gaps that hinder progress in improving patient outcomes. The editorial, titled "Towards a Better Understanding of Heart-Lung Interactions in Pulmonary Vascular Disease,"(Opens in a new window) serves as a call for papers for an upcoming special issue of Comprehensive Physiology dedicated to this topic.

Journal: Comprehensive Physiology

Uncertainty remains, but more turn to cannabis for chronic health issues

Texas A&M University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Cannabis use is gaining popularity in the United States, driven by growing legalization, public acceptance and diverse methods of consumption.

More people than ever before support its legal medicinal and recreational use, and more adults — mainly men — are turning to cannabis for relief from physical and mental health symptoms.

Now, health behavior experts from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, along with collaborators from three other universities, have taken a closer look at this dual use among Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black men living with chronic health conditions.

Journal: Journal of Community Health
Funder: Texas A&M University

New insights about brain receptor may pave way for next-gen mental health drugs

The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a discovery that could guide the development of next-generation antidepressants and antipsychotic medications, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have developed new insights into how a critical brain receptor works at the molecular level and why that matters for mental health treatments. The study, published in the August 1 online issue of Science Advances, focuses on the 5-HT1A serotonin receptor, a major player in regulating mood and a common target of both traditional antidepressants and newer therapies such as psychedelics. Despite its clinical importance, this receptor has remained poorly understood, with many of its molecular and pharmacological properties largely understudied—until now.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health

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