As another busy holiday season wraps up, pause to spare a thought for your brain. (Lorena Spurio/The New York Times) By CHRISTINA CARON and DANA G. SMITH As 2025 comes to a close, and another busy holiday season wraps up, pause to spare a thought for your brain. Does it need some TLC? These tips can help you take care of — and improve — your mental and cognitive health now and throughout 2026. Here is some of the best advice we learned from experts in 2025 about showing ourse

Ray Hester with his wife, Sandy Hester, at home in Versailles, Ky., in June 2025. On its own, LATE dementia is less severe than Alzheimer’s, but in combination, it makes Alzheimer’s symptoms worse, scientists say. (Morgan Hornsby/The New York Times) By Pam Belluck A recently recognized form of dementia is changing the understanding of cognitive decline, improving the ability to diagnose patients and underscoring the need for a wider array of treatments. Patients are increasin

The bicycle and pedestrian bridge known as Byggebroen in Copenhagen, Denmark on June 13, 2021. Denmark, a country of six million, has universal health care, so Danes can get treated more easily for diseases than Americans and often seek medical help earlier. (Charlotte de la Fuente/The New York Times) By AMELIA NIERENBERG and MAYA TEKELI The United States, a nation of 343 million people with a complex and overburdened health care system, is poised to adopt the childhood vacci

A measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine is prepared at Seminole Hospital District in Seminole, Texas, Feb. 24, 2025. The Trump administration is expected to announce in the 2026 that American children should be immunized according to a different schedule with fewer vaccines — on used by the much smaller, largely homogenous country of Denmark. (Desiree Rios/The New York Times) By APOORVA MANDAVILLI Over the last year, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his appointees hav

A person with diabetes uses a glucose monitoring system in Berkeley, Calif., Aug. 23, 2025. People with prediabetes who get their blood sugar under control may cut their risk of death from heart disease or heart failure by half, according to new research. (Rachel Bujalski/The New York Times) By NINA AGRAWAL People with prediabetes who get their blood sugar under control may cut their risk of death from heart disease or heart failure by half, according to new research. Prediab

A measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine is prepared at Seminole Hospital District in Seminole, Texas, Feb. 24, 2025. In South Carolina, parents struggle to deal with infections that have brought quarantines and remote learning as health workers are bracing for an increase in cases. (Desiree Rios/The New York Times) By EDUARDO MEDINA and NICK MADIGAN Late-night emails sent to parents informing them that someone in their child’s classroom has been infected with measles. Pediatric

Over the last few years, a growing body of research has suggested that people who eat more ultraprocessed foods have higher risks of developing certain conditions that affect the stomach and the intestines. (Jiaqi Wang/The New York Times) By ALICE CALLAHAN Walk into a typical supermarket in the United States, and much of what you see — breakfast cereals, frozen meals, processed meats, sodas — is considered ultraprocessed food. These products, typically defined as foods and dr

Alzheimer’s disease is the most commonly diagnosed form of dementia, but it’s far from the only one. (Robert Samuel Hanson/The New York Times) By DANA G. SMITH Alzheimer’s disease is the most commonly diagnosed form of dementia, but it’s far from the only one. In fact, most people who have dementia (including Alzheimer’s) show signs of several different types of neurodegenerative disease in their brains. That can include the amyloid plaques and tau tangles that are hallmarks