Malaria(疟疾) is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite (寄生虫). People with malaria often experience fever, and flu-like illness. Left untreated, they may die. A new study suggests that some homemade soups might help fight malaria.

Jake Baum of Imperial College London led the research. He asked children at a London school to bring in home-made clear soups that their families would make to treat a fever. The children were from many different cultural backgrounds. And the soups were then given to the parasite that created 99.7 percent of malaria cases in Africa.

Of the 56 soups tested, five were more than 50 percent effective in containing the growth of the parasite. Two were as effective as one drug now used to treat malaria. And four soups were more than 50 percent effective in preventing parasites from aging to the point when they could infect (感染) mosquitoes that spread the disease. The soups came from families from different places, including Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. They had several main ingredients (成分), including chicken, beef and green vegetables. Baum said the vegetarian soups showed similar results to the soups with meat.

Baum and his team reported their results recently in the publication Archives of Disease in Childhood. “When we started getting soups that worked - in the lab under very limited conditions - we were really happy and excited,” Baum said. Baum also added that it was unclear which foods made the soups effective against malaria. “If we were serious about going back and finding the ingredients, like good scientists, we’d have to do it in a better way,” he said.

Baum said his aim was in part to show children that scientific research can turn a herbal (草本的) cure into a man-made medicine. Now the drugs that treat the disease are becoming useless for more and more people, and about 400,000 people are killed by the disease every year. That means scientists will have to find new                                                     drugs.

We all know the saying, “Nobody is perfect.” It has been planted in our brains since we were children, and of course, it is the truth. So if nobody is perfect, why do we have such a hard time admitting when we are in trouble or need help?

Like many other young people trying to get through their first year of college, I felt anxiety, and it had its grips on me pretty tight. It began getting in the way of my life, and I had to sit down and tell myself that my behavior was not healthy and there was a solution. Finally, I decided to turn to therapy(精神疗法).

Therapy. It has such a negative stigma (污名), but why? Does going to therapy mean that you are failing as a person or that you cannot fix your problems on your own? No. Going to therapy means that you are strong enough to recognize that something inside your head is not working correctly, and you are brave enough to try to fix it.

After a couple of weeks, many parts of my life became so much clearer. I began to understand that I, myself, am my worst enemy, which was pretty frightening. But, although frightened, I knew that it was only I who could guide me towards feeling better, and that was extremely empowering.

I have been guided towards a healthier mindset, one that is positive and powerful. I have been able to understand that no matter what happens in my life. I will always be okay.

A lot of people do not understand that it is normal to have negative feelings and sometimes to feel like we have lost control over certain parts of our lives. Seeing a therapist can greatly change your way of thinking about something if you keep your mind open and I am so thankful that I decided to go and do something for myself.

If you are in need of help, you can go to therapy and then everything will be okay.

In early July, FDA granted traditional full approval of Leqembi for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This is the first approved medication proven to slow the progression of AD’s clinical symptoms. A phase three trial among 50-to-90-year-old patients with early AD showed that it can do so by about 27% over an 18-month period. While we cannot extrapolate (推断) beyond 18 months, this represents about a six-month delay in progression of AD symptoms.

A second disease-slowing drug, donanemab, has recently shown similar effects and may get FDA approval by the end of the year.The development of Leqembi is a notable success for medical science in that a disease previously impervious to any disease-modifying medical intervention now has an available, effective treatment. However, paraphrasing Winston Churchill, this is not the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning. The drug does not reverse disease symptoms or prevent progression, it slows progression. And there are considerations that make it inappropriate for many patients with AD. It does, however, lay the groundwork for future AD medications that could alleviate (减轻) suffering from this devastating disease for generations to come.

An important factor for new drugs is their cost. Leqembi’s price tag is $26,500 per year — much more than the current symptomatic medications for AD but comparable or less expensive than new medications for other conditions, for example multiple sclerosis or ALS.

Medicare has announced that it will provide coverage for this medication, although it is requiring that physicians perform certain clinical measures and enter the patient’s data in a registry in order for the drug to be covered, which will increase physician and patient burdens. What’s more, traditional Medicare only covers 80% of outpatient costs, so for those patients without supplemental insurance, a 20% copay for the drug and required MRI scans (核磁共振扫描) might amount to up to $10,000 or more per year out of pocket, but still only a fraction of the cost of a year of in a nursing home.