In today’s Good News, a landmark genetic study sheds light on what might trigger myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome, a debilitating illness affecting an estimated 3.3 million Americans. And in other health news, better research has resulted in a new medication that "freezes" patients at an early stage of heart failure. 

Catherine Garcia
The Week Digital

Surgeons in Liverpool, England, successfully performed a first-of-its-kind surgery on a toddler with vein of galen malformation, or VoGM, a rare congenital brain abnormality that was previously untreatable. Specialists were in a "fight against time" to help 3-year-old Conor O'Rourke, surgeon Conor Mallucci said to PA. The team came up with a new technique that gave them access to the brain's veins and arteries through the skull and fixed the malformation. O'Rourke recovered well, and doctors say he's "99% cured."

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People with myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) have eight significantly different genetic regions compared with those who do not, new research has found. This discovery, made during the University of Edinburgh's landmark DecodeME genetic study, is "huge for the patient population," co-investigator Andy Devereux-Cooke told The Guardian. ME/CFS is an often misunderstood ailment, and the finding will hopefully "turn the tide" toward more research.

Potential new treatments could use small amounts of the common metal

Cardiac amyloidosis, a type of heart failure, was long considered a death sentence, but new medications are giving patients hope. When amyloid proteins build up in the heart, they make the muscle stiff and pumping blood more difficult. New research shows that drugs targeting transthyretin, one of the proteins that can cause cardiac amyloidosis, stop production before it can penetrate the heart. This "freezes" patients at their stage of heart failure, making early detection still key, said The New York Times.

Biochar, a type of charcoal made from human waste, could be an unlikely triple threat, curtailing pollution and energy use while also helping with fertilizer shortages, according to new research from Cornell University. To create biochar, the waste is treated at a high heat, which allows "nutrient proportions to be adjusted" based on the "needs of individual crops," said The Guardian. The process also reduces waste volume by 90% and avoids contaminants in sewage sludge.

Home is where the heart is 

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