Having a furry friend can add fun and companionship for anyone — but for children with autism, it can be life-changing.

A recent study from the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine evaluated the impact of service dogs on autistic children and their caregivers in 75 families.

Working with nonprofit service dog provider Canine Companions, the researchers found that having a service dog was associated with “significantly better child sleep behaviors,” including less sleep anxiety and better sleep initiation and duration.

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In an interview with Fox News Digital, lead researcher Dr. Maggie O’Haire, associate dean of research at the university, said the research was sparked by the growing number of programs that pair service dogs with autistic children.

The sleep improvements are particularly important for the child and the entire family, O’Haire said.

Children were able to sleep in their room more independently when the dog was present, the researchers found.

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“The dog provides that source of calm and comfort, which probably reduces the anxiety,” she said. “And also, if they wake up a little bit in the night and their service dog is there, they’re probably more easily able to fall back to sleep on their own.”

Families also reported experiencing less stigma and judgment and making more positive social connections when out in public with a service dog, according to O’Haire.

Making a ‘huge difference’

Washington mom Amanda Harpell-Franz shared that her son, Evan, who has autism, has also enjoyed the many benefits of having a service dog.

“Evan is vibrant, curious, compassionate — he just lights up our lives,” Harpell-Franz described her 7-year-old son in an interview with Fox News Digital. “Most people who meet him say there’s something about him that is just so endearing and engaging.”

Evan, 7, is pictured with his service dog, Kalvin. Since the family welcomed Kalvin, Evan’s mother said he is attending school and extracurricular activities consistently and without struggle. (Canine Companions)

“He’s very active, loves being outside, loves connecting with his friends,” she said. “He loves to swim … He’s just a life-giving kid. He notices things other people don’t notice. Very empathetic, sweet kid.”

Evan was born a week early and experienced seizures, which have since stabilized, but left him with hemiplegic cerebral palsy.

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Harpell-Franz later noticed signs of severe anxiety, difficulty understanding social cues, and regressed speech, ultimately leading to his autism diagnosis.

“It definitely shapes how Evan sees this world and how he takes in this world,” she said. “We definitely do not see it as a deficit or something bad, but it does have its challenges.”

Evan struggled in social settings before he was placed with his service dog, Kalvin, through Canine Companions.

Harpell-Franz, who is a previous foster parent and longtime dog owner, spoke of the “huge difference” that Kalvin — a lab and golden retriever mix — has made for her son and his relationships.

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Evan has also slept better since receiving his own service dog, his mother said. Kalvin sleeps next to him every night, the physical pressure helping the boy get better rest.

“Evan and Calvin sleep back-to-back,” said Harpell-Franz. “Evan will reach over and lay his head on Kalvin. Kalvin puts his arm on Evan.”

Kalvin is trained to apply deep pressure when needed, even while Evan is sitting in a chair, with either a paw or his whole body. (Canine Companions)

Since Kalvin joined their family, Harpell-Franz said Evan has been attending school and extracurricular activities consistently and without struggle.

Kalvin also takes some of the attention off Evan in social spaces, she added, which can relieve social pressure.

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Kalvin is trained to apply deep pressure when needed, even while Evan is sitting in a chair, with either a paw or his whole body.

“Kalvin lying across his body, it actually really calms him,” Harpell-Franz said. “It’s honestly been beautiful seeing that happen so naturally — it was one of the things we hoped for.”

The Harpell-Franz family has three dogs at home, including Kalvin. (Chris Kittredge)

Overcoming barriers

Theadora Block, research program manager at Canine Companions in California, shared with Fox News Digital how service dogs are specially trained to calm and protect their owners and are placed to suit a family’s specific needs.

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The dogs — which are mostly labs, golden retrievers or a combination — are “mellow, really stable, love interacting with humans, and genuinely love doing their jobs,” she said.

Service dogs are specially trained to calm and protect their owners and are placed to suit a family’s specific needs, said a representative of Canine Companions. (Canine Companions)

As the wait for service dog placement can sometimes be up to two years, Block encouraged people to sign up if there is any interest for the future.

O’Haire emphasized the need for more research into how service dogs can better accommodate families.

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“We’ve seen anecdotes over the years of many incredible changes for children with autism and their families,” she said. 

“We’ve seen barriers they’ve faced in terms of access policy and insurance support, and those changes are going to require evidence.”

Diabetes is known to cause many medical issues, from heart disease to vision problems — and now a new study suggests it could also impact memory and other cognitive functions.

After observing brain activity and behavior in rodent models, researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) determined that type 2 diabetes can “rewire” the brain in ways similar to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

“Diabetes may be altering the brain similarly to early stages of Alzheimer’s disease,” said lead researcher and UNLV psychology professor James Hyman in the release. 

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“Further research is needed, but these findings have the potential to help researchers unlock clues to improved diagnostic or treatment strategies for the disease.”

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

Previous studies have shown that people with type 2 diabetes have a higher risk of developing neurodegenerative disorders.

“Diabetes may be altering the brain similarly to early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.”

The reason, the researchers hypothesized, is that high blood sugar levels may impact the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a part of the brain that is involved in cognitive and emotional functions, according to a UNLV press release.

The ACC is linked to key cognitive processes like motivation, decision-making, goal-tracking, pleasure-seeking, reward processing and regulation of emotions, according to the researchers.

In people with diabetes, high blood sugar impairs reward signals from the hippocampus (the part of the brain that controls memory and learning) to the ACC.

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“Rewards, or achieving goals, are important to helping us make future decisions, so if our brains are responding differently, it’s likely our future decisions will be different,” Hyman told Fox News Digital.

“This has big implications for those managing their type 2 diabetes, since compliance with testing and lifestyle changes are key aspects.”

Researchers determined that type 2 diabetes can “rewire” the brain in ways similar to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. (iStock)

This could also explain why it is so hard for many people to stick with new diets and exercise regimens, Hyman noted, because their brains don’t respond to normally rewarding events due to the disease. 

“This knowledge can help people persevere and remain diligent, since their failures are not due to personal weakness, but altered brain physiology,” he said.

“This kind of research opens new avenues not just for Alzheimer’s patients, but also for other diseases that impact the brain.”

Dr. Adam Scioli, chief medical officer at Caron Treatment Centers in Pennsylvania, said it is known that the reward system of the brain helps to imprint memory. 

“It makes sense that any substance – like sugar – that impacts and overwhelms that reward system can have lasting impacts on cognitive and working memory,” Scioli, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.

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The concept of reward and memory in type 2 diabetes has some similarities to addiction, according to the expert.

“Both conditions also involve altered hippocampus-ACC connectivity, which affects goal-oriented behavior and memory processing,” he said.

High blood sugar levels may impact the anterior cingulate cortex, a part of the brain that is involved in cognitive and emotional functions, the study found. (iStock)

“This kind of research opens new avenues not just for Alzheimer’s patients, but also for other diseases that impact the brain,” Scioli added. 

“It also provides an avenue where we might be able to intervene earlier in these diseases and prevent or mitigate cognitive decline.”

More research needed

There were some limitations to the study, the researchers acknowledged.

“This was a study in rodents, so the translation to human conditions is challenging,” Hyman told Fox News Digital.

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“Additionally, we only modeled one aspect of type 2 diabetes — chronic hyperglycemia — and in humans there are more symptoms than that. It’s possible those other aspects may have different, either compounding or allaying, impacts.” 

Hyman’s team plans to conduct further research into the connection between diabetes and brain function.

“Be patient and understand that the disease has rewired your brain.”

“Alzheimer’s disease goes undetected for decades because our brains are good at finding ways to compensate,” he said. 

“Before diagnosis, people behave normally despite having changes in information processing. We even observed that in this study.”

Based on these findings, the researchers recommend that people monitor their own blood glucose levels.  (iStock)

Based on these findings, Hyman hopes that people will be more likely to monitor their own blood glucose levels. 

“If diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, be sure to follow doctors’ orders closely and keep blood glucose levels stable,” he advised. “We think it’s the spikes of extremely low and high blood glucose that make people more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s.”

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For those having trouble with lifestyle changes, Hyman urged them to “not be so hard on yourself.”

“Be patient and understand that the disease has rewired your brain.”

A baby in Colorado has contracted measles, according to state health officials.

The child, who is under 1 year old and lives in Denver County, was unvaccinated due to age, according to a statement from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Denver Health, and the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment.

The infant recently traveled internationally to Chihuahua, Mexico, where there is an active measles outbreak, according to the same source.

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This is the state’s second confirmed case of measles in 2025. Officials said this new case is not related to the first one, which was reported in Pueblo.

“Infants under 12 months are especially vulnerable to measles because they are typically too young to be vaccinated,” said Dr. Rachel Herlihy, state epidemiologist and deputy chief medical officer at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, in a press release. 

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“This case is a stark reminder that families traveling internationally should delay unnecessary travel or talk to their healthcare providers about early MMR vaccination for infants, especially when visiting areas with known measles outbreaks.”

Initial symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes, later followed by a facial rash that spreads to other parts of the body. (iStock)

Anyone who has visited the Denver Health Emergency Department on Sunday, April 6, between 10:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. MT should monitor for symptoms and consider avoiding public gatherings or high-risk settings, Colorado health officials recommended. 

This is especially important for people who have not received the MMR vaccine, which can prevent infection if given within 72 hours of exposure, according to the above source.

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Symptoms typically begin seven to 21 days after exposure, per health officials.

Initial symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes, later followed by a facial rash that spreads to other parts of the body.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children receive two doses of MMR vaccine, starting with the first dose at 12 to 15 months of age and the second dose at age 4 through 6. (Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children receive two doses of MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, starting with the first dose at 12 to 15 months of age and the second dose at age 4 through 6.

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As of April 3, a total of 607 measles cases were confirmed by 22 jurisdictions, per CDC data.

Those include Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, New York State, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Washington.

Daily exercise might not be as necessary as you think.

Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says adults should get at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week – which equates to 30 minutes a day, five days a week – including two days of muscle-strengthening activity. 

But a new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) found that working out just one to two days a week could have the same benefits as exercising every day.

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Researchers in China investigated the impact of concentrated activity compared to evenly distributed activity, also referred to as the “weekend warrior” pattern, where most activity is completed in one to two days.

The researchers used data from the U.K. Biobank to look at participants’ physical activity measurements from 2013 to 2015, with patterns including inactive, active, weekend warrior and active regular.

Within an eight-year follow-up, 3,965 participants died from all causes, 667 died from cardiovascular disease and 1,780 died from cancer, according to a press release.

“The study shows that getting any exercise is better than none, but weekend warriors should be cautious about injuries.”

There was “no discernible difference” in mortality risk between the “active regular” and “active weekends” groups, the researchers noted.

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“Engaging in [physical activity] concentrated within one to two days was related with a similar reduction in mortality risk as more evenly spread activity,” the study concluded.

“Our findings are particularly significant for individuals who find it challenging to engage in regular [physical activity] due to time constraints.”

People with time constraints can still reap the benefits of working out when time allows, according to the researchers. (iStock)

Jess Hiestand, training manager at Rumble Boxing in Los Angeles, shared her observation of the study results in an interview with Fox News Digital.

“The weekend warriors had a lower risk of death compared to those who were inactive, but the difference was small enough that it wasn’t statistically significant when compared to the ‘regularly active’ group,” she mentioned.

“I think it’s great that people who struggle to fit in activity during the week can still see benefits.”

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While exercising can have a positive impact on the body regardless of frequency, Hiestand cast doubts that weekend warriors see similar benefits.

“Based on my observations with my clients, I doubt weekend warriors see the same benefits in mental health, healthy body composition and athletic performance as those who are active throughout the week,” she said.

One fitness trainer recommends strength training three times a week and at least 30 minutes of walking per day. (iStock)

“While my recommendations vary depending on a person’s goals, for general health, I typically recommend strength training three times a week. For cardio, I suggest a minimum of 30 minutes of walking daily (it doesn’t necessarily need to be all at once).”

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For people who seek change in body composition or athletic improvement, Hiestand recommended increasing the duration or intensity of the exercise.

“Something is better than nothing, and if you truly can’t meet the movement recommendations from doctors or trainers, start with what you can do,” she said. “What’s optimal is not the only option.”

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Family physician Dr. Mike Richardson, who is based in Boston, also reacted to these findings in an interview with Fox News Digital, warning of the dangers of too much exercise at once.

“Weekend warriors” should be sure to warm up and stretch, especially with age, one physician advised. (iStock)

“The study shows that getting any exercise is better than none, but weekend warriors should be cautious about injuries,” he said. 

“Before diving into a workout, it’s important to warm up and stretch so your body is ready for the activity.” 

Richardson added that this preparation is especially important as people age.

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“For example, the textbook case of an Achilles rupture is a man in his 30s who plays basketball on the weekends,” he said. “A good warm-up can help reduce your risk of injury and keep you active longer.”