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Move over mosquitos. There's another blood-sucking biter Americans need to guard against because it can spread disease: the sand fly.Sand flies are tiny tan flies — about a quarter of the size of a mosquito — that live in warm, wet, rural and forested areas. In other parts of the world, they are known to transmit a parasite — a single-celled organism — that causes an infectious disease called leishmaniasis. They're most active at night, and they're so tiny they can slip through ordinary mosquito nets on tents or window screens. "Sometimes you don't even notice that you've been bitten,"...

Taylor White was only 21 when her face was tattooed with obscenities against her will, leaving her with no other option than to cover up the unsightly markings with dark, black ink. Now, more than a decade later, the Florida resident is finally removing her blackout face tattoo with the help of a generous stranger, Karridy Askenasy, otherwise known as TheDadBot. White, who formerly worked in the body-modification industry and is attempting to transition into the mental health field, said her face tattoo became an obstacle for her to land a job, and she was hurt by the rejection. “I’ve...

Is a suntan just as bad as a sunburn? Isn’t it good to get some Vitamin D from sun exposure?How bad is a suntan, really? And how do UV rays affect your skin? Although rates of indoor tanning have been dropping in the United States, many people still try to get a tan outdoors. According to a National Cancer Institute analysis of data from the 2020 National Health Interview Survey, about 39 per cent of women and 29 per cent of men in the United States had intentionally sought an outdoor tan in the past year. Yet while bronzed skin...

More than eight million people in the U.S. experience psoriasis, a condition in which skin cells build up and form itchy dry patches. A person's vitamin D levels could play an important role in psoriasis severity, according to one of the largest studies to date. The analysis, which included almost 500 psoriasis cases from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), showed a linear relationship between increasing psoriasis severity and decreasing vitamin D levels measured through blood tests. "Topical synthetic vitamin D creams are emerging as new therapies for psoriasis, but these usually require a doctor's prescription," said Rachel...

Could muscadine wine help perk up sagging skin? According to a new study, women who drank two glasses of dealcoholized muscadine wine daily showed significant improvements in the elasticity and water retention of their skin compared with those who consumed a placebo. The study is the first time scientists have studied the impacts of nonalcoholic wine consumption on skin health in a randomized clinical trial. Researchers attribute the beneficial effects to chemical compounds called polyphenols that naturally occur in many plants. Muscadine grapes are native to the Southeastern United States and are commonly used to make wine. Previous clinical trials...

New research indicates that for patients with advanced skin cancer, it may be important to maintain normal vitamin D levels when receiving immunotherapy medications called immune checkpoint inhibitors. Vitamin D has many effects on the body, including regulation of the immune system. To see whether levels of vitamin D might impact the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors, investigators analyzed the blood of 200 patients with advanced melanoma both before and every 12 weeks during immunotherapy treatment. A favorable response rate to immune checkpoint inhibitors was observed in 56.0% of patients in the group with normal baseline vitamin D levels or...

...Prostate Cancer Illustration Researchers have found that a single enzyme called PI5P4Kα can be targeted to kill prostate cancer. The discovery is the first of its kind and could help tackle treatment resistance in prostate cancer. Additionally, it could lead to better treatment options for other types of cancer, including those affecting the breast, skin, and pancreas. By inhibiting one enzyme, scientists from Sanford Burnham Prebys can kill prostate cancer cells when other treatments can’t. For the first time, researchers have discovered that prostate cancer can be killed by targeting a single enzyme, called PI5P4Kα. The findings, published recently in...

Researchers in the U.K. have developed a way to reverse the aging process in skin cells, turning back the biological clock by about 30 years. De-aging cells has become increasingly common in the last decade, with researchers reprogramming multiple mouse, rat and human cell types. But never before have cells been de-aged by so many years and still retained their specific type and function. The method, developed by Diljeet Gill, a postdoctoral candidate at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, and his colleagues, was published April 8 in the journal eLife, and has been dubbed "maturation phase transient reprogramming." The researchers...

It's not quite the mythical fountain of youth but it is, perhaps, a start: Scientists have managed to engineer human skin cells to reverse 30 years of aging, resetting them to a much more youthful state in terms of certain molecular measurements. While it's very early days for the research – so we shouldn't get carried away too quickly – the technique could play a major part in efforts to produce rejuvenative medicine that's able to undo some of the damaging consequences of our bodies getting older. What makes the research particularly notable is that the skin cells were reprogrammed...

John Leguizamo admitted that he tries to stay out of the sun in order to stay “light-skinned” for film roles. The 57-year-old Latino actor was recently interviewed for the Academy Awards’ “Seen series,” during which he opened up about his experiences in Hollywood. “I definitely would not go in the sun for years. It was a conscious thing because I could work,” the “Romeo + Juliet” star said. “And all the Latinos that made it so far, a lot of them were all light-skinned,” he added. “What happened to all the Afro-Latinos and the majority of indigenous Latinos? They don’t...

PHOENIX (AP) — Skin tone impacts the everyday lives and the long-term success of Latinos in the United States, according to a Pew Research Center finding that comes as the issue of colorism has become more mainstream. The nonpartisan research center surveyed 3,375 Latinos who live in the U.S., finding that 62% say having darker skin hurts their chances of getting ahead while 59% say having light skin helps them. The study was released Thursday. It comes just months after colorism — discrimination based on skin tone, often from within someone’s own ethnic group — captured wide attention with the...

For decades, the beauty industry has sold the narrative that lighter skin is more beautiful. Movies, television, print magazines, and nearly every other medium convey the subliminal message that your value is tied to your skin-tone. We’ve seen the media lighten and retouch images of celebrities of color, from Beyoncé and Priyanka Chopra to Kerry Washington and Lupita Nyong’o. This message sends ripple effects around the globe that lighter skin is more desirable; and this leads to real-life consequences. Many women use creams and soaps to fit into societal expectations of what they should look like. It’s important for us...

We have covered the concept of electronic skin (e-skin) quite a bit, reporting on everything from e-skin that self-heals to one that feels like the real thing. However, we have yet to see any of these products become mainstream. Will this next invention by the King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) be the one to finally take e-skin from the lab to actual practical applications? KAUST researchers are reporting a novel e-skin that can mimic the strength, stretchability, and sensitivity of real human skin. Cai and colleague Jie Shen have now engineered a new more realistic e-skin using...

Wearable sensors are evolving from watches and electrodes to bendable devices that provide far more precise biometric measurements and comfort for users. Now, an international team of researchers has taken the evolution one step further by printing sensors directly on human skin without the use of heat. Led by Huanyu "Larry" Cheng, Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Professor in the Penn State Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, the team published their results in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Cheng and his colleagues previously developed flexible printed circuit boards for use in wearable sensors, but printing directly on skin has been...

Pop star Demi Lovato says she’s ashamed that she’s benefited from “privilege” while working in the entertainment industry, writing in an open letter that she hated sharing “the same skin color as the people accused of committing heinous crimes” against black people in recent months. “At first, I was self-conscious about speaking out about these issues because I didn’t want anyone to feel like it wasn’t genuine,” said Lovato in an open letter published in Vogue on Tuesday. “I also felt like I wanted to call every person of color that I knew and apologize, which I know isn’t the...

When 69-year-old Marietta Jinde died in September 2016, police had already been called to her home several times because of reports of possible abuse. A detective described conditions at the woman’s home in Gardena as “horrendous.” She was so emaciated and frail that the hospital asked Los Angeles County adult protective services officials to look into her death. Yet by the time a coroner’s investigator was able to examine Jinde’s 70-pound body, the bones from her legs and arms were gone. Also missing were large patches of skin from her back. With permission from county officials and saying they did...

A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions across the U.S. has found a connection between a skin microbiome imbalance and eczema flareups. In their paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the group describes their study of the skin microbiome and the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, which has been associated with eczema. Prior research has shown that S. aureus is more abundant on the skin of people who suffer from eczema. It has also led to the discovery that people who have eczema tend to have lower concentrations of cells that assist in building up skin barriers—this is why...

That's why she ended up signing a deal with Adidas Before Beyoncé became the new Queen of Athletic Wear over at Adidas, as was announced yesterday, she was courted by a number of brands. Jordan, Under Armour, and Reebok all had meetings with the pop star before she eventually partnered with the three stripes. Now, it’s been reported that the reason Reebok lost out on the disposable income of Hive members is because of a humiliating lack of a diversity in their pitch meeting. According to ESPN’s Nick DePaula, Beyoncé went into a meeting with Reebok in good faith. She...

**SNIP** “Skin care is straight-up a hobby of mine,” she explained on her Instagram Stories. “I’m a science nerd and I truly enjoy the science of it, reading about compounds and studies. It’s like that.” Another major influence for Ocasio-Cortez has been her mother, who she says used to break out a lot in her twenties and has imparted wisdom accordingly. “She taught me since I was a kid not to touch my face,” she explained. Making a point to highlight that everyone’s skin is different and ever-evolving, she divulged that she considers her personal approach a blend between K-beauty...

American singer, actor Frankie Avalon celebrates 78 today.