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Inflammation can feel like a localized fever, with redness, pain, heat and swelling. It’s how the body works to protect you after an injury, removing damaged tissue or invading bacteria and beginning the healing process. Usually, that fever dies down as healing progresses, but for millions of people with inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and lupus, the inflammation lingers, damaging healthy tissue. (Hille, 2/2)

Men develop a greater risk of cardiovascular disease years earlier than women — starting at around age 35, according to a new long-term study. The report, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, followed more than 5,000 adults from young adulthood and found that men reached clinically significant levels of cardiovascular disease about seven years earlier than women. (Koda, 2/2)

Blood pressure control remains elusive for most adults in the U.S. with hypertension, although they are typically close enough to make control fairly straightforward, nationally representative data showed. In the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2021-2023 data, 79.1% of adults with hypertension didn't have their blood pressure within the 130 mm Hg systolic and 80 mm Hg diastolic threshold recommended by guidelines, Shakia T. Hardy, PhD, MPH, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues reported in JAMA. (Phend, 2/2)

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have more in common with cigarettes than with fruit or vegetables, and require far tighter regulation, according to a new report. UPFs and cigarettes are engineered to encourage addiction and consumption, researchers from three US universities said, pointing to the parallels in widespread health harms that link both. (Lay, 2/3)

Twenty-five years later, James Dalton proudly recalled “that euphoric moment” when the rats were dissected and he saw their prostate glands had shrunk. “It still gives me goose bumps,” he said, pointing at his arm. Dalton, 63, is a drug discovery scientist by trade with more than 100 patents under his name in the United States, and more than 500 internationally. This is a man who has dissected many, many rats. (Stallman, 2/2)

Dr. Ellen Foxman still remembers her young son struggling to breathe as he battled an asthma attack that tightened his small airways. For any parent, it’s a frightening moment – one that has stayed locked in her memory. But for a scientist, that experience sparked a deeper question. (Howard, 2/2)

The sudden death last week of Catherine O’Hara, beloved for her roles in “Home Alone” and “Schitt’s Creek,” is raising awareness of congenital heart conditions, particularly the rare one called dextrocardia, which the actress learned she had only in adulthood. (Cooney, 2/2)