Authored by: Mia Bakota Art by: Sandy Kong Think of the Ivy-bound student with a perfect GPA, the analyst promoted ahead of their peers, the artist whose output never falters, the doctor who has had the perfect career. High academic and professional achievement is often interpreted within healthcare settings as evidence of resilience and psychological stability. Patients who maintain strong performance are frequently presumed to be coping effectively, even when reporting chro

Authored by: Mel Drossos Art by: Edsel Ou Most of us have probably heard it hundreds of times — that’s not healthy — either from a parent hovering over our shoulder as we eat, a doctor showing concern over our dietary choices, or a well-meaning friend who recently discovered kale. We likely nodded, felt a little bit of guilt, and moved on with our day without fully understanding the rationale behind their concerns. And the thing is, most of us have experienced this more than

Authored by: Maya Gowda Art by: Kaitlyn Truong As climate change worsens each year, more and more people struggle to find nutritious foods. Many farmers struggle to grow nutritious crops and livestock due to catastrophic extreme weather events perpetuated by climate change [1]. The lack of nutritious foods can lead to food insecurity, disproportionately affecting countries already affected by higher hunger levels [2]. Individuals may rely on ultra-processed and other unhealth

Authored by: Kanae Funabiki Art by: Ariana Desai Public consciousness surrounding anesthesia is formed by rare yet devastating events. A botched epidural taking a pregnant woman’s life, a patient feeling pain while being given a paralytic [1][2]… Michael Jackson overdosed on propofol, which is actually a common anesthetic used in surgery. In a sense, anesthesia related deaths are similar to plane crashes; accidents rarely happen, but when they do, they are drastic. Whether fo

Authored by: Josh Chelliah Art by: Caitlin Sweeney The United States' neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) represents a global leader in the advanced care of newborns, with highly specialized technology and multidisciplinary teams that have markedly improved survival for babies born extremely premature and/or with medically complex conditions. However, despite these clinical advances, significant challenges remain. Extensive research has made it clear that substantial disparit

Authored by: Isabella Flutak Art by: Rachel Jacob My grandparents from Milan still climb mountains. At almost ninety years old, they have an active social life and bike to the farmer’s market for fresh food. My grandmother still cooks for the whole family whenever we stay with her. Still, when I think of aging, I think of a stagnant, almost vegetative state—the opposite of my grandparents’ lifestyle. Perhaps this discrepancy is because the United States has the largest health

Authored by: Hayoon Kim Art by: Ava Shi Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that disrupts the motor system, causing symptoms such as slowness of movement, muscular rigidity, and tremor [1]. These motor impairments significantly affect daily life. The disease is primarily associated with the degeneration of dopamine-producing neurons in the basal ganglia, a midbrain structure that regulates voluntary movement, and more specifically, the substantia nigra [1

Authored by: Hanni Yang Art by: Rachel Jacob As a college student, opening Canvas and bank accounts is the most nerve wracking thing ever. College students are often stacked with dozens of assignments, projects, quizzes, and preparation for prelims along with constant socializing with peers. To keep up with all of these demands, students’ best choice is to consume energy drinks to stay up late to catch up on work. While the energy drinks do keep the students awake and perhaps

Authored by: Grace Bian Art by: Kain Wang The subreddit “r/Noctor” is full of individuals lamenting on their experiences with physician assistants (PAs), nurse practitioners (NPs), and other mid-level practitioners. Users of this sentiment generally share the sentiment that mid-level practice expansion (MLPE) has gone too far. MLPE refers to a changing shift in health care labor dynamics. Within the United States, NPs and PAs have been given the right to diagnose, treat, and

Authored by: Emma Robinson Art by: Joyce Wang Anyone who is familiar with Huntington’s Disease has likely heard of its life-altering effects. It is a particularly destructive neurodegenerative disease that leads to cognitive and motor deficits in those impacted [1]. The disease is relatively rare with only 2.7 per 100,000 individuals diagnosed, but has gained attention due to its severity [1]. While the age of onset differs depending on the type from young childhood to later

Authored by: Evelyn Caputo Art by: Fiona Reilly Walking into a room only to forget your reasoning for doing so is truly a universal human experience. After all, memory, while being a very precious part of life, can be extremely fickle. The human brain is one of the most complex organs in the body and, therefore, one of the most heavily studied. As neuroscience research continues to develop, researchers have struggled to discover potential treatments to slow the cognitive decl

Authored by: Evan Wong Art by: Laura Lee Humans are widely considered to be the most moral, ethical creatures on Earth, yet so many of our actions seem to directly contradict this generalization. One of the most prevalent examples of this contradiction is our tendency to cry over the deaths of fictional characters while turning a blind eye towards real-world humanitarian crises. A vast majority of people agree that real-world tragedies bear much greater weight, but this ratio

Authored by: Eden Park Art by: Lindsay Wang Historically, researchers and professionals have treated the oral cavity and gut microbiome as mutually exclusive systems of study. The mouth has been the domain for dentists, while the gut belongs to gastroenterologists. However, emerging evidence suggests that these ecosystems have a notable connection called the oral-gut axis. Scientists increasingly describe the mouth as the “front door” to digestive and systemic health systems

Authored by: Daniel Jung Art by: Sophia Liu A home away from home. Defined as locations outside of work and home, third places serve a critical role in building a community’s economy, connectedness, and civic pride [1]. Whether they’re public locations like parks or commercial locations like gyms, cafes, and barber shops, third places offer relatively affordable, easily accessible avenues to engage in social interaction. With over half of American adults citing societal divis

Authored by: Clarice Xu Art by: Allison He The government’s long campaign of selective incarceration told generations of people that addiction was their fault because they supposedly lacked the gumption to “just say no.” Yet, none of this punitive messaging was true, because many people affected by the crisis were voiceless victims from the beginning of their lives. Pharmaceutical companies saw the Appalachia region as a gold mine. Many people work in dangerous labor, includi

Authored by: Charlene Lin Art by: Fiona Reilly Precision medicine, also known as personalized medicine, is a revolutionary approach that tailors medicine to genetic factors, environment, lifestyle, and many more [1]. But what if I told you that many personalized treatments are only precise for people of European descent? Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are at the very core of precision medicine approaches, in which large scale biobank data is used to identify genetic d

Authored by: Celine Kim Art by: Chloe Lee At 6AM, the day begins before the sun rises. The kettle hums while pill bottles are lined in careful rows across the kitchen table. Breakfast must be soft enough to swallow easily, warm enough to comfort, and simple enough not to overwhelm. By 7AM, it is time for a short walk—slow steps, steady hands, constant vigilance. At 9AM, there are medications to administer. By noon, there are reminders to eat, to drink, to sit, to rest. By eve

Authored by: Catherine Meng Art by: Rachel Jacob Imagine you are on your phone, taking a scrolling break. You begin to scroll down your Tiktok or Instagram feed when you begin to notice something weird. Each new video feels like something that you’ve seen before. The same products and content style lie in every video you watch. Eerily, even the creators look very similar. What’s even more concerning is that if you go outside and walk around, this trend repeats itself. Stores

Authored by: Castine Hardesty Art by: Stefanie Chen In an age when fresh produce is available year-round and purchasing food has never been made more convenient, it may be easy to believe that food insecurity is a shrinking problem in America. However, the opposite is true for many older Americans. Since the early 2000s, the rate of food insecurity in households with at least one adult over age 60 has more than doubled, and nearly one quarter of all families with older adults

Authored by: Armaan Vaswani Art by: Vanessa Chen Hsieh Inherited eye disorders (IEDs) are the leading cause of progressive vision loss and blindness worldwide. Some common IEDs, such as retinal degeneration and macular degeneration, develop very gradually. As a result, patients are often not diagnosed until much later in life, making lifestyle changes and modifications both sudden and difficult. Recently, researchers at the Harvard Ocular Genomics Institute developed a new ge