The Galveston County Daily News society reporter was on hand for the UTMB Health President’s Cabinet Award Celebration & Member Appreciation Reception last month. During the rodeo themed event, the six newest programs supported by the President’s Cabinet were introduced.

Murine typhus, once largely eradicated in the U.S., is on the rise, warns the CDC. UTMB’s Dr. Lucas Blanton told Medpage he’s seen many cases of murine typhus and patients tell him the headaches associated can be "the worst of one's life." Blanton urged medical professionals to not delay treatment for patients suspected of having the disease.

Six projects that address pressing health needs in the region received a University of Texas Medical Branch President’s Cabinet award at the recent UTMB Health President’s Cabinet Award Celebration & Member Appreciation Reception.

“We know that weight loss generally has a positive effect on testosterone levels and sexual function, and as it turned out, the data showed the exact opposite,” Dr. Joseph Sonstein told Australian Men’s Health. Sonstein was an author on a study that found that men who took semaglutide for weight loss, but not diabetes, were more likely to develop erectile dysfunction.

Dr. Gregory Gray joined the Texas Standard to discuss the latest bird flu development – its jump to sheep in the UK. “Well, it’s odd in the sense that there’s been so many spillovers to new species, so the viruses have adapted characteristics that make that possible,” Gray said.

In his column, Dr. Samuel Mathis wrote about the health benefits of ginger. Along with calming the stomach, ginger also affects metabolism and glucose control, Mathis writes.

As part of its dedication to enhanced professionalism and law enforcement excellence in public safety and community relations, the University of Texas Medical Branch Police Department voluntarily became a Nationally Accredited Law Enforcement Agency through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) in 2012.

New research has overturned the scientific belief that the brain is a sterile place devoid of microbes, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their weekly Medical Discovery News column. Scientists now estimate that more than 170 different bacteria and viruses could be present in the brain.

According to a new study, people with colorectal cancer have a higher risk of dying from heart-related problems, which may be associated both with the cancer and cancer treatment. UTMB’s Dr. Salim Hayek was not involved in the study but told Everyday Health that it could be that a younger population faces a higher risk of death because early onset colorectal cancer is more aggressive, requiring more intensive treatment that impacts the heart.

UTMB Health has officially opened its new Primary and Specialty Care Clinic in Friendswood, expanding access to high-quality health care for the growing community.

Even just low levels of daily physical activity can lead to significant improvements in fitness level, social responsiveness, cognitive flexibility, and planning and organizing abilities in autistic adolescents according to a recent study by Dr. Claudia Hilton.

Even low levels of daily physical activity can lead to significant improvements in fitness levels, social responsiveness, cognitive flexibility, and planning and organizing abilities in autistic adolescents, according to the latest research from UTMB’s Dr. Claudia Hilton. She discussed the findings with the GCDN.

The Galveston newspaper was on hand to capture the smiles, tears and excitement as UTMB’s fourth-year medical students, joined by family and friends, opened their Match Day letters at Levin Hall.

League City police officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel worked alongside UTMB employees from the Clear Lake, League City and Galveston campuses to support the event that featured 8 to 14 year old children from over 15 countries.

UTMB’s Dr. Natacha Cough spoke to NPR about what astronauts go through when they return to earth after an extended stay in outer space. "Your inner ear kind of shuts off more or less in weightlessness," Chough told NPR. "So when you reintroduce that sense of gravity, it can be a little bit disorienting." Along with her role as an assistant professor in aerospace medicine at UTMB, Cough is also a NASA flight surgeon and part of the team that oversees astronaut health care.

“For me, it has been the relentless focus on our values and culture,” Dr. Jochen Reiser, UTMB President and CEO of the UTMB Health System, tells Becker’s. Reiser was among the 36 C-suite executives Becker’s spoke to about lessons learned in the past year.

Becker’s also spoke to UTMB’s Dr. Salim Hayek for a separate story on lessons learned over the past year. “The most profound lesson I’ve learned is that our traditional RVU-centric physician compensation models are fundamentally misaligned with academic medicine’s multi-faceted mission — they’re financially unsustainable and directly contribute to the high proportion of low-value care in our health systems,” Hayek told Becker’s.

Where a person lives can influence their recovery from a traumatic brain injury, according to a new study by UTMB’s Dr. Monique Pappadis and a team of researchers. “The intricate relationship between healthcare access and community socioeconomic factors necessitates sophisticated strategies to increase equity,” the research team concluded.

While Vitamin A has an important role in supporting the immune system, it is no substitute for a vaccine, write Drs. Megan Berman and Richard Rupp in their Vaccine Smarts column.

In recent years, the simple act of gardening has gained recognition not only for its aesthetic appeal but also for its remarkable health benefits, writes Dr. Hasan Yasin in his column for the Daily News.