UTMB News Articles

According to Dr. Alfred Lea at the University of Texas Medical Branch, the rotting sargassum found on beaches can emit both ammonia and hydrogen sulfide gasses, which can irritate your nose and throat, or cause breathing difficulties if you have asthma or other sensitivities. But the breezes at most beaches will naturally dilute these gasses, he said, greatly reducing the risk.

In their Vaccine Smarts column, Drs. Megan Berman and Richard Rupp explained why some vaccines are only given once while others must be repeated.

Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel wrote about the flu, RSV and SARS-CoV-2 in Medical Discovery News. 

Dr. Sally Robinson detailed what life expectancy means, how being rich can help it and that it has been getting shorter in the United States, not longer.

Aloe does more than heal sunburns. Dr. Samuel Mathis discussed other medical uses for the plant’s gel. “What I find works best is to keep a small planter with an aloe vera plant at home,” he wrote.

Physicians have joined the conversation about medical gaslighting on TikTok to raise awareness that dismissing a patient's healthcare concerns is not only short-sighted, but it's bad medicine. Shannon Clark, MD, an OB-GYN and maternal-fetal medicine specialist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, was one. "I want to say something that just might blow your mind," Dr. Clark said. "It is possible for someone to have a medical condition or complaints or symptoms that are not related to any mental health condition they might have. It's true. So automatically attributing any complaint a patient might have to their mental health condition is just plain bad medicine."

Dr. Leila Wood, a researcher and social worker at UTMB’s Center for Sexual Violence Prevention, spoke about healing from sexual trauma on Dan Savage’s podcast.

The likelihood of developing dementia increases with age in the general U.S. population, as well as in people living with HIV in the US. However, a new study suggests that people with HIV who are over 75 may experience a higher prevalence of dementia compared to the general population—with the largest gap seen in women. A study authored by Dr Xiaoying Yu of the University of Texas Medical Branch analyzed data from Medicare.

On KPRC’s hurricane special program, Dr. Gulshan Sharma and Russell Rodecap spoke to KPRC’s Frank Billingsley about how UTMB improved infrastructure after Hurricane Ike and is better prepared for future hurricanes.

Ryan Labbe spoke to the newspaper about his liver-transplant experience. The article also quotes his wife, Dr. Trine Engebretsen, a transplant surgeon at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Dr. Samuel Mathis, assistant professor of Family Medicine at UTMB Health, discussed a possible resurgence of mpox this summer and the effectiveness rates of the mpox vaccine. He also talked about how to tell the difference between cold, flu, and COVID-19, the record low hospitalization rates for COVID and if people should get COVID boosters in coming months.

"Healthcare professionals need to make engaging content to post on social media platforms like YouTube and especially TikTok, to reach wider audiences and combat misinformation about (dissociative identity disorder)," fourth-year UTMB student Isreal Bladimir Munoz tells Medscape.

What to do when 7 to 11ish year olds are moody, angsty and mean? UTMB’s Dr. Jeff Temple spoke to Scary Momy about how to help with the mood swings of the post-toddler and pre-pre-teen stage.

People with Alzheimer’s disease who don’t also have dementia are protected by autophagy, a natural physiological process that removes toxic proteins from living cells, according to new UTMB research. “Those fortunate individuals are telling us there is a natural way for the human brain to protect itself against dementia,” UTMB’s Dr. Giulio Taglialatela told the Daily News.

Unlike the last round of bivalent vaccines, the next Covid booster may only have main ingredient, reports The Atlantic. UTMB’s Dr. Vineet Menachery spoke to the magazine about his latest research on the efficacy of the vaccine.