Rare disorder causes man to see people’s faces as ‘demonic’

Rare disorder causes man to see people’s faces as ‘demonic’

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Victor Sharrah had always had sharp vision. But one life-altering day in November 2020, he noticed out of the blue that people’s faces around him looked demonic. Their ears, noses and mouths were stretched back, and there were deep grooves in their foreheads, cheeks and chins.“My first thought was I woke up in a demon world,” said Sharrah, 59, of Clarksville, Tennessee. “You can’t imagine how scary it was.”Someone he knew taught visually impaired people and suggested he might have prosopometamorphopsia, or PMO. The extremely rare neurological disorder of perception causes faces to appear distorted in shape, size, texture or color. Sharrah felt the symptoms were a match, and he was formally diagnosed last year.The distortions appear only when he sees people in person — not in photographs or through…
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First over-the-counter birth control pill hits store shelves

First over-the-counter birth control pill hits store shelves

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Opill, the first birth control pill approved to be sold without a prescription, has landed on shelves at some Walgreens stores.The pill is also available to order online from Amazon, CVS, Walgreens and the Opill website.It’s the first time that U.S. residents are able to buy birth control pills over the counter — the same way they would purchase Tylenol or Advil — though many states allow pharmacists to dispense birth control pills to patients without a prescription.Sriha Srinivasan, 21, said she plans to start taking Opill as soon as she can find it at a store near her home in Fairfield, California — both for its convenience and because she wants to support a product that’s expanding access to contraception. Srinivasan, a contraceptives activist, said she tried to schedule appointments at…
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Wyoming governor vetoes abortion restrictions and signs trans medical care ban for minors

Wyoming governor vetoes abortion restrictions and signs trans medical care ban for minors

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CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming’s governor on Friday vetoed a bill that would have erected significant barriers to abortion, should it remain legal in the state, and signed legislation banning gender-affirming care for minors.The abortion bill rejected by Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, would have required facilities providing surgical abortions to be licensed as outpatient surgical centers, adding to their cost and the burdens they face to operate.Women would have had to get ultrasounds no less than 48 hours before either a surgical or pill abortion to determine the fetus’s gestational age and location and viability of the pregnancy.Abortion is legal in Wyoming pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging new laws to ban the procedure. The bill was aimed at the state’s only full-service abortion clinic, Wellspring Health Access. The…
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England is limiting gender transitions for youths. U.S. legislators are watching

England is limiting gender transitions for youths. U.S. legislators are watching

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Legislators in at least two U.S. states are citing a recent decision in England to restrict gender transitions for young people as support for their own related proposals.They weren’t the first to turn to other countries, notably in Europe, for policy and research ideas. Lawmakers across the U.S., where at least 23 states now have tightened or removed access to transgender health care for minors, have routinely cited non-U.S. research or policies as justification for their legislation.Yet leading health organizations in the United States and Europe continue to decisively endorse gender-affirming care for both transgender youths and adults.Among other things, they argue that restrictions on things like hormone therapy tend to single out transgender youths, even though other young people also can benefit from them. And transgender advocates and allies see a…
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A new type of bacteria was found in 50% of colon cancers. Many were aggressive cases.

A new type of bacteria was found in 50% of colon cancers. Many were aggressive cases.

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A type of bacteria that causes dental plaque may be behind a treatment-resistant form of colorectal cancer, a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature found.Sasirin Pamai / Getty ImagesThe particular bacterium, which appears to shield tumor cells from cancer-fighting drugs, was found in 50% of the tumors tested in the study. The discovery, experts say, could pave the way for new treatments and possibly new methods of screening.Colon cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and is expected to kill more than 53,000 people in the nation in 2024, according to the American Cancer Society. Rates are rising sharply among younger people: The percentage of people younger than 55 diagnosed with colon cancer almost doubled between 1995 and 2019, leaping from 11% to 20% of…
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