National Geographic | Mind, Body, Wonder

This week: Saggy skin and undereye pouches say as much about your health as your age; how traditional medicine is leading to cutting-edge cures; scientists want to create personalized diets; the truth about 35-year-old women and their fertility; the end of the COVID-19 "emergency"; breast milk banking.

IMAGE BY JING-DONG JACKIE HAN, PEKING UNIVERSITY

How old are you, really? The answer is written on your face.

Our "biological age" reflects the health of our cells and organs, and can differ from our actual age by years—but it's slippery to pinpoint. Now, inspired by a centuries-old Chinese practice of "reading" the face, scientists have developed a tool that calculates that number. For many of us, that "could be a wake-up call."

SAGGY SKIN = INFLAMMATION?

PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE U.S. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE

‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ FROM THE ARCHIVES‌ ‌ ‌

How ancient Chinese remedies are changing modern medicine

"People forget that one of the oldest, most effective, scientifically proven drugs came from traditional medicine: aspirin."

CUTTING-EDGE CURES

IMAGE BY MARY L. MARAZITA, CENTER FOR CRANIOFACIAL AND DENTAL GENETICS, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ FROM THE ARCHIVES‌ ‌ ‌

What can your lip prints reveal about your health?

Scientists are studying subtle patterns in lips for clues to certain genetic traits.

THE ANSWER LIES IN THE 'WHORLS'

PHOTOGRAPH BY NATASHA BREEN, REDA&CO/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY IMAGES

A diet personalized for us? It could be a game-changer.

One of the trickiest things about figuring out the perfect diet for each person is the complex interplay between our genome, microbiome, and lifestyle factors. An ambitious and inclusive nationwide health study aims to predict which diets will yield the best nutrition based on those factors.

HOW TO JOIN THE STUDY

More on diet and nutrition:

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Can fasting help you live longer? Here's what the science says.

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This American diet could add 10 years to your life

WHAT HAPPENS TO FERTILITY AT 35

PHOTOGRAPH BY GIOVANNI GAGLIARDI / ALAMY

It doesn't quite drop off a cliff. Instead, experts say, "fertility lies on a continuum." And while age delivers the harshest blow to a woman's odds of conceiving, many other factors are also at play.

WHAT ELSE AFFECTS YOUR FERTILITY?

Women's health news:

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Millions of women have uterine fibroids. Now we know what makes them grow.

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For Aztec women, childbirth in the 16th century was thorough and hygienic.

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Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are finally starting to ask why.

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How COVID-19 can harm pregnancy and reproductive health

THE COVID 'EMERGENCY' IS ENDING

NG STAFF

The Biden Administration plans to end the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11. Although new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are now declining in America, nearly 400 people in the U.S. still die from the viral infection every day.

TRACKING COVID-19 IN THE U.S.

IN 2020, THE WORLD WENT VIRAL: An intimate look at how the virus upended our lives +

HEALTH NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

PHOTOGRAPH BY PILAR OLIVARES, REUTERS/REDUX

"To know that my milk could be saving someone is very important to me." While the ongoing formula shortage affected families of infants who couldn't find supplies at the store, it also renewed interest in donation of breast milk. Here's how one of the world's leading milk-banking countries does it.

AVERTING THE NEXT FORMULA CRISIS

6 million hogs are running wild in the U.S.—carrying diseases that could spread to humans

A robot that can fold into a pill? See how origami is transforming medicine.

Redheads aren't going extinct. Here's why.

Why 'wash your hands' was once controversial medical advice

The little-known parasite that infects 300,000 people in the U.S.

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