Regular cannabis users had 9% fewer extra heartbeats on days they were randomly assigned to inhale
UC San Francisco cardiologists set out to test whether cannabis adds extra heartbeats. In 108 regular users the count fell instead, and the team warns that is no evidence cannabis is good for the heart.
Sep 14, 2026
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High midlife fitness tracked 31% lower dementia risk, independent of coronary artery calcium
Cooper Institute and Tel Aviv University researchers linked 10,933 treadmill-tested adults to Medicare records. A coronary calcium score of 100 or more tracked about a quarter higher risk, and the two signals barely overlapped.
Sep 14, 2026
Hemoglobin just over the anemia cutoff linked to more deaths in half a million UK adults
University of Glasgow researchers followed 477,876 UK Biobank adults for a median 13.6 years. Death risk was lowest 1 to 3 g/dL above the WHO anemia cutoffs, but the study cannot say whether low hemoglobin does harm or signals illness.
Sep 14, 2026
Hormone therapy for hot flashes tied to lower heart risk when started within 10 years of menopause
University of Pittsburgh and Virginia Commonwealth University researchers tracked 2,737 women with hot flashes for 20 years. Starting hormones went with a fifth fewer heart events, but the authors warn against taking them for the heart.
Sep 14, 2026
Hemoglobin just over the anemia cutoff linked to more deaths in half a million UK adults
University of Glasgow researchers followed 477,876 UK Biobank adults for a median 13.6 years. Death risk was lowest 1 to 3 g/dL above the WHO anemia cutoffs, but the study cannot say whether low hemoglobin does harm or signals illness.
Sep 14, 2026
Blood mutations that accumulate with age tracked faster progression to advanced heart and kidney disease
Most people over 60 carry some cells with age-acquired mutations, usually treated as harmless. Following 451,460 adults for a median of 13.5 years, some of those mutations lined up with organ damage.
Sep 8, 2026
Cardiology professionals were less likely than the public to take recommended blood pressure drugs
Heart specialists spend their working lives telling other people to manage risk factors. Screening 1,366 of them at a cardiology congress and comparing against 2,732 matched members of the public.
Sep 8, 2026
Nurse-led heart failure care cut deaths by 22% across 22 centers in India
Heart failure care in low-resource settings depends on specialists who are scarce and appointments patients cannot reach. A cluster-randomized trial of 1,507 adults moved the work to nurses and phones.
Sep 8, 2026
MYTH diet score tracked 21% lower aging-related death risk, level with an older healthy-eating index
China Medical University researchers had machine learning rank the foods eaten by 191,689 UK Biobank adults. Most of the 10 rules that emerged match familiar advice; the exceptions reward refined grains and a large glass of wine a day.
Sep 14, 2026
Ultra-processed diets tracked with 40% more type 2 diabetes in 25,214 Australian adults
Deakin University researchers analyzed 25,214 Melbourne adults followed for about 12 years. Each extra 10% of their food by weight that was ultra-processed went with 16% more diabetes, and body size explained under a fifth of that.
Sep 14, 2026
Feeding adults with type 2 diabetes a DASH-style diet lowered three separate blood sugar markers
The DASH diet was built for blood pressure. A version tailored for diabetes was tested by cooking every meal for 101 people, which removes the usual problem of not knowing what anyone actually ate.
Sep 8, 2026
Extra protein failed to build muscle in cancer patients whose inflammation was already high
Protein advice for cancer patients is given as a single number for everyone. Tracking 50 people with colorectal cancer found that what their blood was doing beforehand largely decided whether it worked.
Sep 8, 2026
Vitamin D at 1,600 or 3,200 IU a day did not cut fractures in older adults, most of whom were not deficient
University of Eastern Finland researchers gave 2,495 older adults a placebo or one of two vitamin D3 doses for five years. The higher dose matched placebo on fractures; the lower one came with an unexplained excess.
Sep 14, 2026
A selenium supplement lowered long-term blood sugar by 1.2 points in eight weeks
That is a drug-sized change from a mineral sold in pharmacies. It came from one small trial in patients with diabetic nerve damage, and the size of the effect is the reason to be careful rather than excited.
Sep 6, 2026
Vitamin K from leafy greens tracked 14% less dementia over 28 years; the other form went the wrong way
Vitamin K comes in two forms and the supplement industry prefers K2. Following 54,968 Danes for up to 28 years, higher K1 intake tracked lower dementia risk while higher K2 tracked higher, which is the opposite of the marketing.
Sep 1, 2026
Zinc cut infections by 38% in young children with sickle cell disease in a Ugandan trial
Zinc is one of the most-bought supplements in the world and one of the least-tested against hard outcomes. A JAMA trial randomized 100 Ugandan children under five and counted every infection for six months.
Sep 1, 2026
High midlife fitness tracked 31% lower dementia risk, independent of coronary artery calcium
Cooper Institute and Tel Aviv University researchers linked 10,933 treadmill-tested adults to Medicare records. A coronary calcium score of 100 or more tracked about a quarter higher risk, and the two signals barely overlapped.
Sep 14, 2026
Weekend warrior exercise tracked 36% lower death risk in adults with two or more cardiometabolic conditions
South China Normal University researchers tracked 15,079 US adults with at least two of heart disease, diabetes and stroke through national death records. Regular exercisers fared similarly, but only 272 people fit the weekend pattern.
Sep 14, 2026
One osteoporosis drug came with 17% less new osteoarthritis than the standard alternative
Denosumab and bisphosphonates both treat thin bones. Comparing new users in Japanese insurance records, one of them also came with fewer new osteoarthritis diagnoses over three years, at 2 fewer cases per 100 people.
Aug 31, 2026
Only the group that lifted weights kept its diabetes-risk gain a year after the diet ended
221 women dieted to a healthy BMI, then regained about a third of it. Predicted heart and diabetes risk fell and then bounced back in every group but one: the arm that had added resistance training held on to its diabetes benefit.
Aug 31, 2026
Sleep apnea linked to about 2 more brain cancer cases per 1,000 people over 15 years
Aarhus University researchers compared 114,264 people with sleep apnea in Danish registries to the general population and to people with overweight or obesity. Only brain and spinal cord cancer stood out, and both stayed uncommon.
Sep 14, 2026
Sleep problems worsened years before a psychiatric diagnosis in working-age Swedes and partly eased after it
Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University researchers matched eight years of sleep surveys from about 25,000 Swedes to health registers. Mental fatigue had the strongest link to a later diagnosis, yet fewer than 3 in 100 got one.
Sep 14, 2026
Two kinds of sleep apnea that look alike in heart failure split apart once breathing control was measured
Which type of apnea a heart failure patient has decides their treatment, and the two are currently told apart by eye. Measuring 122 patients found the physiology underneath differs sharply.
Sep 8, 2026
Evening cycling protected memory after a short night, and deep sleep carried the effect
Sleeping badly and then needing to remember something is an ordinary predicament with no good remedy. Randomizing 88 adults to a single evening ride found one, and identified how it worked.
Sep 8, 2026
Memory was the most damaged ability in 33 NFL players whose CTE was confirmed at autopsy
The disease behind the football concussion debate can still only be identified after death. Testing 33 former players while they lived, then examining their brains, produced the clearest profile yet.
Sep 8, 2026
Ketamine beat a sedative comparison by 7 points in bipolar depression that had resisted two treatments
Ketamine's antidepressant effect is established in ordinary depression and largely untested in bipolar disorder, where the fear is tipping someone into mania. A trial of 68 patients looked for both.
Sep 8, 2026
Kidneys filtering faster than normal tracked more small-vessel damage in 7,254 stroke patients
Failing kidneys are known to accompany brain small-vessel disease. Pooling scans and blood tests from 7,254 stroke and mini-stroke patients found the overworking kidney carries a signal too.
Sep 8, 2026
Stroke was far less common in Black adults born outside the US than in those born in it
American health statistics treat Black adults as one group. Splitting 64,717 survey respondents by where they were born found stroke rates that differ several-fold within it.
Sep 8, 2026
Regular cannabis users had 9% fewer extra heartbeats on days they were randomly assigned to inhale
UC San Francisco cardiologists set out to test whether cannabis adds extra heartbeats. In 108 regular users the count fell instead, and the team warns that is no evidence cannabis is good for the heart.
Sep 14, 2026
Hormone therapy for hot flashes tied to lower heart risk when started within 10 years of menopause
University of Pittsburgh and Virginia Commonwealth University researchers tracked 2,737 women with hot flashes for 20 years. Starting hormones went with a fifth fewer heart events, but the authors warn against taking them for the heart.
Sep 14, 2026
Benefits of a type 1 diabetes pill faded within a year of patients stopping it
Baricitinib preserved insulin production in newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes, raising hopes of a course of treatment rather than a lifetime of it. Following 88 patients after the drug stopped answered that.
Sep 8, 2026
Turning on glucose monitor alarms helped hospital patients; making them predictive added nothing
Continuous glucose monitors are moving into hospital wards, with no agreement on whether their alarms should be switched on. Randomizing 533 inpatients tested the alarms rather than the sensor.
Sep 8, 2026