The Latest Breaking News from Lisa Jarvis

In the largest study of its kind in the US, researchers found that gender-affirming hormones have a positive effect on transgender teens’ mental health: The more trans teens’ appearance aligned with their gender identity, the more satisfied they were in life and the less depressed and anxious they felt.

A leading organization of pediatricians is recommending that teens with obesity be offered weight-loss medication as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. But unless barriers to access fall, it won’t move the needle on the U.S. childhood obesity epidemic — something that affects more than 1 in 5 kids in…

The long-awaited cancer vaccine revolution is getting a little closer to reality. New data from Moderna Inc. and Merck & Co. suggest that after decades of failures, researchers are finally figuring out the right way to design a vaccine that can teach immune cells how to recognize and combat tumors.

There’s good news and bad news when it comes to teen drug and alcohol use. The good news is that fewer teens are drinking, a trend that has been steadily improving over the last two decades. The negative is that cannabis seems to be picking up alcohol’s slack.

Biogen Inc. and Eisai Co. caused a stir in September when they announced positive results in a late-stage trial for a closely watched Alzheimer’s drug, lecanemab. Doctors tempered their excitement, though, until they could scrutinize the full peer-reviewed data.

In a first, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a therapy that slows the onset of Type 1 diabetes. Teplizumab, developed by Provention Bio, typically delays the need for insulin shots, blood-sugar monitoring, and diet control by about two years. For some, the effect lasted years longer.

A surge in cases of a common respiratory virus is filling up pediatric hospital beds around the U.S. The early and swift arrival of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is stretching the limits of an already exhausted health care system. Layer on COVID and the flu, and you’ve got the…

A new study confirms what experts in transgender medicine have known for years: The overwhelming majority — 98% — of adolescents who begin gender-affirming treatment continue that treatment into adulthood.

Some rather alarming headlines recently circulated about the newest members of the omicron family. “Nightmare COVID variant,” read one. “The most immune-evasive COVID variants yet.” Or, as one would-be pandemic influencer said in a tweet shared thousands of times: “MOTHER OF GOD… #COVID variants worse than CDC has been admitting.”

Many people in the U.S. may now be thinking that they’ve received a blessed reprieve from a middle age rite of passage: the colonoscopy. After all, a large study just made headlines for suggesting the procedure isn’t nearly as effective at lowering the risk of colon cancer as previously thought.…

The price of “living with COVID” in a free and open society is turning out to be much heftier than public health experts predicted.