A receding hairline can start to develop in men as they age. It is a common phenomenon and as per a 2023 study titled Male Androgenic Alopecia, 50% of men experience it by the time they are 50 years old. This is also the most common form of hair loss, where men would notice a receding hairline.

For women too, this could happen and it could lead to hair thinning rather than a receding hairline. A receding hairline is a gradual process where the hair around the temples and forehead thins out and shifts back over time. This makes the forehead appear larger and changes the overall shape of your hairline.

What Can Cause It?

As we age, hair naturally goes through cycles of growth and shedding. However, over time, these cycles slow down and hair structures become weaker. This causes hair to grow back thinner or in some cases, not grow back at all.

Family History And Genetics

If you have a family history of hair loss, then your risk of experiencing a receding hairline increases significantly. "Pattern baldness" or androgenic alopecia is often hereditary and could be linked to genes that make hair follicles sensitive to certain hormones, leading to gradual thinning and hairline recession over time.

DHT

Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is a hormone in the body that plays an important role in hair loss. In people with pattern baldness, DHT binds to hair follicles and causes them to shrink.

Over the course of time, it prevents the follicles from producing strong, healthy hair. As a result, your hair comes out thinner, and weaker and falls out along the hairline.

Hormonal changes including menopause too can lead to thinning hair, however, the hairline does not always change. Stress can lead to hormonal changes and it can take a toll on your hair.

Lifestyle

You are what you eat. This is why whatever you consume also affects your bod, including your hair. Smoking reduces blood flow to hair follicles, while poor sleep and a lack of nutrients weaken hair, making it more likely to fall out.

A diet which is low in protein, vitamins, and minerals can leave your hair malnourished, and affect's its ability to grow.

How Is It Diagnosed?

You should consult a dermatologist to determine the kind and cause of your hair loss. They will ask for your personal and family medical history before visually inspecting your scalp.

Pull tests are one type of test that your doctor may perform. They will gently pluck on a few hairs to determine how many or how quickly they fall out.

A sample of scalp tissue or hairs can also aid a doctor in determining whether a scalp infection is causing hair loss. During a biopsy, your doctor takes a little sample of tissue from the damaged area of the body. The tissue sample will be examined in a laboratory for indications of infection or disease.

How are receding hairlines treated?

If your receding hairline is merely the product of aging and not an infection or other medical problem, you will not require treatment. If your hair loss is caused by a medical problem, you may need to take medication.

Medications

If you experience hair loss, your doctor may suggest prescription drugs to help. You can also buy various medications over the counter (OTC). Here are some drugs a doctor may recommend:

Minoxidil (Rogaine): It is a popular antihypertensive medication used to treat hair loss. You can take it by prescription in tablet form or as over-the-counter creams and foams.

Prednisone: If you have an immunological problem, a medication like prednisone can help decrease an excessive immune response.

Finasteride (Propecia): This oral medicine may stimulate hair growth. Finasteride's side effects include decreased sex drive and an increased risk of prostate cancer.

Surgery: Hair restoration surgery is one option for treating a receding hairline. A surgeon transplants small portions of scalp and hair follicles from the back of your head to locations where hair no longer grows.

These skin plugs may continue to grow hair in a healthy manner in their new place. Hair may continue to grow normally in the regions that supply the plugs.

Squirrels could be natural hosts of the mpox virus (MPXV) -- that causes monkeypox disease -- according to a recent study by German researchers.

The team from the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH) identified the fire-footed rope squirrel (Funisciurus pyrropus) as a likely natural reservoir of the MPXV.

The study published in the journal Nature revealed that sooty mangabeys – a primate found in West Africa -- can contract mpox by eating infected squirrels. The disease may present mild lesions, but it can also cause more severe skin lesions or even be fatal.

"Identifying the animal sources of the virus and the exposure routes that lead to inter-species transmission are key steps towards understanding spillover mechanisms and developing effective prevention measures to mitigate the risk of transmission to humans," said Livia V. Patrono, one of the senior authors at HIOH.

Squirrels Suspected MPXV Hosts

While squirrels have long been suspected as potential reservoirs for MPXV, their role was confirmed after an investigation of an mpox outbreak among wild sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) in Côte d'Ivoire.

During the outbreak, reported in early 2023, nearly one-third of the primates showed clinical signs of disease, and four infants died.

The team conducted viral genome sequencing and found that the infected monkeys carried a virus that was nearly identical to an MPXV strain identified in a fire-footed rope squirrel found dead 12 weeks earlier nearby.

Further, the team analyzed fecal samples from the mangabeys. A sample collected eight weeks before the outbreak's onset contained DNA from both the virus and the rope squirrel. This provided strong evidence of interspecies transmission at that moment.

Sooty mangabeys have been previously observed catching and eating fire-footed rope squirrels, which provide a direct route for the transmission of viruses.

Mpox Continues To Spread Globally

Although mpox is no longer a public health emergency, outbreaks of clade I and clade II strains of the mpox virus are continuing in many countries around the world, especially in Africa.

Last week, Madagascar announced the country's first death from mpox, a 3-year-old girl from the island nation’s eastern city of Toamasina.

The WHO has also confirmed that two cases of the recombinant strain – combining genomic elements of clades Ib and IIb of the monkeypox virus (MPXV) – have been identified to date: one in the United Kingdom and one in India.

Mpox is an infectious disease caused by the monkeypox virus (MPXV), part of the Orthopoxvirus genus, which also includes the virus that causes smallpox.

It spreads through close physical contact, including sexual contact, and in some cases through contaminated materials or respiratory droplets.

Symptoms typically include fever, swollen lymph nodes, rash, and/or lesions.

The global health body has also urged all countries to “remain alert to the possibility of MPXV genetic recombination.” It has also urged for continued epidemiological surveillance, sequencing, vaccination of at-risk groups, and infection prevention and control measures.

An international group of scientists has created an artificial intelligence tool that can estimate a woman’s likelihood of developing breast cancer within the next four years.

The AI tool, known as the BRAIx risk score, analyzes mammogram images to generate an individualized risk assessment and flag women who may face a higher chance of developing the disease.

It may not only show the current risk but also predict the future risk, enabling early detection and treatments for a better outcome.

According to the findings published in The Lancet Digital Health journal, nearly one in 10 women ranked in the top 2 percent of risk by the AI tool were diagnosed with breast cancer within four years. This was despite previously receiving a clear screening result.

“These risk scores enable future development of personalized screening pathways to transform population breast cancer screening and save lives,” said corresponding author Helen M. L. Frazer of the University of Melbourne.

Frazer noted that identifying women who appear cancer-free but carry very high risk -- comparable to those with inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations -- will unravel both hereditary and non-hereditary causes of breast cancer.

From one-size-fits-all screening to personalization

Breast cancer screening programs have significantly lowered mortality rates -- by roughly 40-50 percent among women aged 50 to 74. However, most screening systems still apply the same approach to all women, regardless of individual risk.

Traditional screening tools use genetics, breast density, and questionnaires to estimate breast cancer risk. On the other hand, new AI-based screening tools, such as BRAIx personalizes screening by gathering information already present in breast scan images to better identify who is at higher risk.

“Our results show that conventional mammographic density is a far weaker predictor of breast cancer risk than the BRAIx risk score, even for interval cancers,” the researchers said in the paper. Interval cancers are aggressive tumors diagnosed after a negative mammogram.

The BRAIx Tool

The BRAIx risk score was developed using mammograms from nearly 400,000 women. To prove its efficacy, the AI tool was tested on data from almost 96,000 women from Australia and then confirmed in an independent Swedish population of over 4,500 women.

The findings showed that:

• The BRAIx risk score estimated breast cancer risk more accurately than the traditional risk factors, such as breast density, country of birth, and even family history.

• For the top 2 percent of women with the highest BRAIx risk score, the probability of a cancer diagnosis within 4 years was 9.7 percent -- a risk level exceeding that typically seen in women with inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.

The BRAIx risk score can:

• Make breast screening more personalised,
• Improve early cancer detection,
• Reduce false alarms,
• Save lives without increasing costs

Global Breast Cancer Burden

Breast cancer continues to be the most common cancer among women worldwide.

A recent study published in The Lancet Oncology journal predicted that the number of new cases of the deadly disease will reach more than 3.5 million globally in 2050 -- rising by a third from 2.3 million in 2023.

Annual deaths from the disease will also rise by 44 percent -- from around 764,000 to 1.4 million.

However, not smoking, getting sufficient physical activity, lowering red meat consumption, and having a healthy weight can help prevent over a quarter of healthy years lost to illness and premature death from breast cancer.

People who survived a COVID-19 infection can be at significant risk for kidney disease, acute kidney injury, and chronic kidney disease. compared to individuals who were not infected, according to a study.

The study, published online in the journal Communications Medicine, revealed that COVID patients have

• a 2.3-times higher risk of acute kidney injury
• a 1.4-times higher risk of chronic kidney disease
• a 4.7 times higher risk of kidney failure

“While we’re in the post-pandemic era, this shows that COVID-19 history is an important variable when considering the long-term impact of the infection on kidney function and disease,” said first author Yue Zhang, who was at Pennsylvania State University, US, while conducting the study. Zhang is currently a postdoctoral scholar at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

How Was The Study Conducted?

For the study, data on over 3 million working-age adults in the United States were analyzed.

The team compared the effect of influenza, another common viral infection that affects kidney health, and people with a history of COVID infection on kidney infections.

Using a machine learning model, the individuals were followed between 180 and 540 days for the emergence of new acute or sudden kidney disease.

The results showed that:

• Both COVID and the flu can worsen kidney health
• Flu caused a mild and temporary effect
• COVID increased the risk of acute kidney injury for a longer duration
• COVID survivors developed kidney disease within a few hours to a few days
• COVID patients had a longer-term chronic and end-stage kidney disease.

How COVID Worsens Kidneys Health

The Penn State researchers explained that kidney cells express high levels of the primary protein receptors that SARS-CoV-2 uses to enter and infect cells. Kidney cells also produce specialized enzymes that help viruses enter cells.

According to Kidney Health Australia, an acute COVID infection can impact the kidneys with fevers and respiratory symptoms, and/or worsening blood sugar control.

The US National Institutes of Health stated that renal dysfunction is an increasing clinical indicator of COVID propagation.

Citing several studies, the NIH said that the most common clinical manifestation is proteinuria -- found in more than half of the COVID patients. In addition, hematuria, elevated blood urea nitrogen, and elevated serum creatinine are other common features in Covid survivors with poor kidney health.

Nasr Ghahramani, Professor of Medicine at Penn State College of Medicine, stressed the need for COVID survivors, especially those with diabetes and high blood pressure, to take "more frequent and more prolonged monitoring of their kidney function" to enable early detection and better outcomes.