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Conventional wisdom tells us that, to be healthy, we should exercise and limit fatty foods. Exercise helps us lose weight, build muscle, strengthens our hearts and boosts how we take in and use oxygen for energy — one of the strongest predictors of health and longevity. But people with high blood sugar often don’t enjoy those benefits from exercise, especially the ability to use oxygen efficiently...

Not all cases of epilepsy are the same. Some people suffer a few seizures, begin taking one of 30 or more epilepsy medications available, and live a typical life. But for about a half million U.S. children with treatment-resistant disease, it’s far worse. Their seizures keep coming, making them more likely to die young. They’re at greater risk for learning problems, social and emotional difficulti...

Lining the vessels that carry blood and oxygen to your brain, there’s a protective filter than keeps bad stuff from getting out of the bloodstream and into the brain where it can do harm. It’s called the blood-brain barrier. But this feature becomes a problem when doctors need to get chemotherapy to a brain tumor. That protective barrier then stands between cancer and drugs that could treat it. Ph...

The cerebellum hasn’t gotten much love from brain scientists historically, but neurobiologists today are discovering how it works to control motor functions, and how problems in that brain region cause movement disorders. Research by ⁠ Meike van der Heijden ⁠, neurobiologist and assistant professor at the ⁠ Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC ⁠, has found that disorders like dystonia and t...

Sound has been harnessed for uses from medical imaging to SONAR. Now, scientists are exploring how ultrasound can be focused and used to treat conditions as varied as chronic pain, addiction, and cancer. Wynn Legon explains the evolution of focused ultrasound and how his lab is contributing to the growing list of whats the technology can benefit our health. Wynn Legon is an assistant professor at...

Human beings are mostly water, and about a fifth of that water is interstitial fluid, flowing in the spaces between our cells.  ⁠Jenny Munson⁠ , a world leader in the study of interstitial fluid flow, explains how fluid flow changes in diseases like brain cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, and how that understanding is being used to improve treatments of those conditions and others. Munson is a profe...

Your heart will beat billions of times, with incredible reliability, if you live a typical lifespan. But a handful of abnormal beats could be fatal.  ⁠Steve Poelzing⁠ , a groundbreaking cardiovascular scientist, divulges the complex mechanism behind a single heartbeat, how it can go awry, and what his research is discovering about identifying conditions that can disrupt healthy heart rhythms in or...

A compact guide to the human body and how it works, powered by the world-class scientists of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.

More than half of the calories consumed in the United States are ultra-processed. At the same time, food-related ailments, including heart disease and diabetes, are on the rise. Yet we struggle to resist foods that are the worst for us. ⁠ Alex DiFeliceantonio⁠ , an assistant professor and interim co-director of the Center for Health Behaviors Research at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute ,...