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Live Well Editorial Team
The Live Well News editorial team reports on human-health, physiology and aging research - what the evidence actually says, properly cited. This is science reporting, not medical advice.
Articles
Paracetamol matched anti-inflammatories for arthritis pain
A Japanese trial randomized 400 people over 65 with hip or knee osteoarthritis to acetaminophen or an anti-inflammatory for eight weeks. Pain fell almost identically. The trial still failed its own non-inferiority test.
Aug 16, 2026
NewsModerate exercise tracked 21% less cataract, more did not
In 77,123 UK Biobank participants wearing accelerometers, 150 to 600 minutes a week of moderate-to-vigorous activity came with a fifth less cataract. The curve was U-shaped, and vigorous activity alone showed nothing.
Aug 16, 2026
NewsAcupuncture and massage moved insomnia by the same amount in advanced cancer
234 people with advanced cancer and insomnia got ten weeks of acupuncture or massage. Both improved by about 3.85 points on a 28-point scale. Neither arm was a placebo, so what the needles or the hands added is unknown.
Aug 24, 2026
NewsNearly twice as many autistic children with ADHD waited over a year to start medication
Guidance on treating ADHD in autistic children is thin and inconsistent. Across 24,117 Swedish young people with both conditions and 79,830 with ADHD alone, treatment started later, switched more, and no alternative beat the standard drug.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsA second AI-guided look at the right colon found precancerous growths in 8.5% more patients
The right side of the colon is where colonoscopy misses the most, and where cancers are hardest to catch. A randomized trial of 606 patients added one AI-assisted second pass and lifted the detection rate from 27.9% to 36.4%.
Aug 31, 2026
NewsAir pollution tied to worse memory at 'safe' levels
A McMaster study of 6,878 middle-aged Canadians found higher everyday exposure to particle and traffic-gas pollution tracked with worse memory and mental speed, and small signs of brain injury on scans, even where the air is rated clean.
Jul 23, 2026
NewsModerate drinking tracked lower heart risk and higher cancer risk in the same 438,442 people
The alcohol argument usually picks one disease and stops there. Following 438,442 US veterans, moderate drinking sat at the bottom of the curve for heart events and death, while cancer risk climbed in a straight line from the first drink.
Sep 2, 2026
NewsCutting alcohol in midlife showed no breast cancer benefit yet
EPIC researchers tracked drinking changes in 123,679 European women. Four years after the change, postmenopausal breast cancer risk had not moved either way.
Jul 31, 2026
NewsAlcohol tied to cancer risk below one drink a day
A re-analysis of 843 studies across 20 health conditions tied alcohol to higher risk for ten cancers at any level, while its links to heart and metabolic disease were mixed. These were observational studies, so associations, not proof.
Jul 23, 2026
NewsHeavy drinking and obesity both raised diabetes risk, separately
A Diabetologia study followed 7,817 Korean adults for 16 years and found obesity and heavy drinking each raised diabetes risk, but combined less than adding them up would predict.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsPhysical activity tracked 23% less motor neuron disease across 384,836 UK adults
Exercise has long been suspected of raising motor neuron disease risk, mostly from studies of elite athletes. An Oxford team followed 384,836 people for 14 years and found the opposite, with the lowest risk mid-range.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsPeople with a common cause of brain bleeds had 16 times the odds of possible depression
Cerebral amyloid angiopathy is known for strokes and cognitive decline. Comparing 85 patients against 83 controls found a mood signal so large it reframes what the condition does.
Sep 7, 2026
NewsAnti-inflammatory diet linked to longer life after cancer
In 7,686 Swedish patients with cancer of the prostate, bladder or kidney, those eating a more anti-inflammatory diet beforehand were less likely to die of anything. The link to dying of the cancer itself was weak.
Aug 4, 2026
NewsExpressing milk before birth more than doubled exclusive breastfeeding after gestational diabetes
Babies of mothers with gestational diabetes often get formula in the first hours for low blood sugar, and breastfeeding rarely recovers. Collecting milk before the birth changed how many were still feeding weeks later.
Sep 6, 2026
NewsAntihistamines helped eczema too little for patients to notice, across 47 trials
Antihistamines are routinely added to eczema treatment for the itch. Pooling every randomized trial found an effect that is real, measurable, and smaller than the smallest change a patient would call worthwhile.
Sep 4, 2026
NewsWhy apoB may be a better cholesterol test than LDL
A Northwestern simulation of 250,000 statin-eligible US adults found guiding treatment by apoB, a count of harmful cholesterol particles, prevented more heart attacks and strokes than standard LDL goals. It is a projection, not a trial.
Jul 22, 2026
NewsAngiotensin receptor blockers tracked 8% less dementia than calcium channel blockers
If a blood pressure drug protects the brain, the obvious explanation is the blood pressure. Emulating a trial across 52,019 older Japanese adults, one class tracked less dementia than another despite both reaching the same pressure.
Sep 2, 2026
NewsArtificial sweeteners linked to worse blood-sugar control
A Tufts meta-analysis of 21 randomized trials found even against water or a placebo, non-nutritive sweeteners were tied to higher fasting insulin and a worse long-term blood-sugar marker. These are metabolic markers, not proof of disease.
Jul 23, 2026
NewsTherapy animals eased depression in older adults across 20 studies, but not loneliness
A review in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association pooled 20 studies of live and robotic animals in older adults. Depression and thinking scores improved. Anxiety and loneliness did not move.
Aug 26, 2026
verdictAshwagandha: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Ashwagandha has real evidence for stress and sleep, thinner evidence for strength, and a liver problem that arrived in 2017. The list of people who should avoid it is unusually long, and now includes thyroid patients.
Aug 3, 2026
NewsAtrial fibrillation sped up muscle loss over 12 years
A Swedish study of 2,048 older adults found people with the common heart rhythm disorder lost strength faster, and lost it fastest when inflammation markers were high.
Jul 31, 2026
NewsStarting autism intervention earlier predicted better outcomes across 582 children
Parents are pushed to maximize therapy hours, often at great cost. Pooling individual data on 582 autistic children across five countries, intensity was largely unrelated to progress, while age at start was among the strongest predictors.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsGenetic risk fell as autism and ADHD diagnoses rose in Denmark
A JAMA Psychiatry study of 37,000 Danes found people diagnosed more recently carried less genetic liability, pointing at broader criteria rather than a new environmental cause.
Aug 1, 2026
NewsDaily aspirin did nothing for healthspan in 19,114 older adults
The ASPREE trial randomized healthy over-70s to low-dose aspirin or placebo and tracked the first serious illness. The two groups were indistinguishable.
Aug 2, 2026
NewsAn old antibiotic beat a newer drug at preventing COPD flare-ups, 17% fewer
Two maintenance drugs for chronic lung disease have never been compared head to head. An analysis built to imitate that missing trial, across 15,100 matched patients, found a clear winner.
Sep 4, 2026
NewsAutism diagnoses rose only in women and girls after 2020
Tracking 171,134 patients in a US health system, JAMA Network Open found male autism diagnoses flat or falling while female rates climbed 19% a year.
Aug 1, 2026
NewsB vitamins tracked slightly less breast cancer, but not in women drinking more than a glass a day
Folate and its relatives have been circling breast cancer research for decades without resolving. A nested study found small protective associations, and found they disappeared above a specific drinking threshold.
Sep 6, 2026
NewsAn antibody blocking B12 from reaching the brain was found in over half of unexplained spinal cord cases
Idiopathic myelopathy means the spinal cord is failing and nobody knows why. Testing 32 such patients turned up an autoantibody against the receptor that carries vitamin B12 into cells, in 18 of them.
Sep 7, 2026
NewsBaduanjin qigong eased anxiety in people with glaucoma, but no eye pressure was measured
112 people with primary glaucoma were randomized to eight weeks of Baduanjin or to routine care alone. Anxiety, depression and sleep scores improved in the exercise group. No eye pressure or vision outcome was measured.
Aug 24, 2026
NewsPerturbation training topped 19 exercises tested for balance in 423 trials of 33,901 older adults
A Bayesian network meta-analysis pooled 423 trials and 33,901 older adults to rank 19 kinds of exercise for balance. Deliberately being knocked off balance came top. Stretching was the only one that did nothing.
Aug 25, 2026
NewsWhat blocks nutrition security: time, transport and cost
A JAMA Network Open survey of 3,000 US adults counted the obstacles to eating well and found people facing more of them had higher rates of diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
Jul 27, 2026
NewsA statin alternative cut serious leg artery events by 36% in people who cannot take statins
Peripheral artery disease ends in amputation often enough that limb outcomes are the ones patients care about, and cholesterol trials rarely report them. This one did, in 1,624 patients who could not tolerate statins.
Sep 6, 2026
verdictBerberine: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Berberine is sold as nature's Ozempic, a comparison it does not earn. It genuinely lowers blood sugar and some lipids, on small and limited trials; the weight-loss claim driving the marketing is the weakest part.
Aug 3, 2026
NewsFusing an arthritic big toe cut walking pain from 5.7 to 1.3 in the first trial to test it
Hallux rigidus is common and its main operation had never been compared against simply waiting. A Finnish randomized trial of 90 adults found fusion beat watchful waiting by 5 points on a 10-point walking pain scale at 12 months.
Aug 28, 2026
NewsBenefits 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
NewsBinaural beats did not calm dental anxiety in a trial
Ninety people having a wisdom tooth removed were randomized to binaural beats, isochronic tones, or silence. The anxiety scores came out the same in all three groups. Most still said they would want the audio again.
Aug 18, 2026
NewsYounger generations are aging faster, and cancer tracks it
Across 154,169 UK Biobank adults, a blood-based measure of biological age was higher in each successive birth cohort, and people who were biologically older for their years had more early-onset cancer.
Aug 4, 2026
NewsLight weights with a blood flow cuff matched heavy lifting for strength in 45 rehab trials
A British Journal of Sports Medicine review pooled 45 trials and 1,652 people in musculoskeletal rehab. Low-load exercise with a blood flow cuff beat low-load exercise alone for strength, and drew level with heavy lifting.
Aug 25, 2026
NewsErgothioneine topped 991 blood markers of brain health
A Nature Aging study measured 991 blood metabolites in 1,082 middle-aged adults and found ergothioneine, a mushroom-derived compound, had the strongest link to cognition.
Jul 27, 2026
NewsBlood 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
NewsFalling blood pressure tracked with memory loss in women
Following 4,719 older adults for about nine years, researchers found that when blood pressure drifted down, thinking scores fell alongside it in women. In men there was no such link at all.
Aug 4, 2026
NewsBlood pressure that swings tracked with faster memory loss
Pooling 11,104 participants from two major blood pressure trials, researchers in Alzheimer's & Dementia found that how much systolic pressure moved between visits tracked with cognitive decline, independently of the average.
Aug 3, 2026
NewsA blood test told three dementias apart, not just detected one
A Nature Aging study of 1,318 plasma samples found protein signatures separating Alzheimer's from Lewy body and frontotemporal dementia, then validated a 21-protein panel in 805 more.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsEach 20-point drop in blood pressure tracked 24% fewer kidney failure deaths
Kidney disease kills more people in Mexico than almost anywhere, and blood pressure was suspected rather than measured. Following 133,470 adults in Mexico City, the relationship ran in a straight line with no threshold to hide under.
Sep 2, 2026
NewsBlood sodium in the upper normal range tracked up to 3 times the dementia risk
About half of adults do not drink enough, and blood sodium creeps up when they do not. Across 409,000 people followed for up to 30 years, dementia risk began climbing at levels a doctor would read as perfectly normal.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsBrisk walking lowered blood pressure, but the benefit peaked near 460 MET-minutes a week
17 trials and 1,493 people with high blood pressure. Brisk walking lowered both numbers, and the systolic dose-response curve turned back on itself: around 460 MET-minutes a week was the peak, and more did less.
Aug 25, 2026
NewsUnsteady breathing in sleep tracked death risk
Across 43,611 overnight sleep studies, researchers writing in the journal SLEEP tested a measure of how steadily people breathe at night and found it tracked death risk in two hospital cohorts, though not in the community one.
Aug 3, 2026
NewsLeft-side breast radiotherapy raised heart risk only in women who already had three risk factors
Radiotherapy to the left breast puts the heart in the field, and modern technique was supposed to have solved it. Across 23,305 women, the residual harm turned out to sit almost entirely in one group.
Sep 6, 2026
verdictCalcium supplements: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Calcium is taken for bones, and a 2026 BMJ review found little to no benefit for fractures or falls. Its best evidence is somewhere almost nobody looks: preventing pre-eclampsia in pregnancy.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsCalcium and vitamin D did little for fractures or falls
A review of 69 randomized trials and more than 150,000 people found that for healthy older adults, calcium, vitamin D, or both together did little to prevent fractures or falls.
Jul 17, 2026
NewsCannabinoids cut insomnia severity and added 34 minutes of sleep across 10 trials
A Sleep Medicine meta-analysis pooled 10 randomized trials and 2,134 people. Cannabinoids improved insomnia severity, sleep quality, total sleep time and efficiency against placebo or melatonin. Side effects were four times more common.
Aug 26, 2026
NewsCardiology 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
NewsRegular 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
NewsA blood 'fitness signature' tracked much lower death risk
A pattern of blood molecules that mirrors physical fitness tracked much lower death and disease risk across about 354,000 UK Biobank participants over nine years. The pattern travels with fitness; shifting it may not change outcomes.
Jul 24, 2026
NewsTwo 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
News4 in 10 people with confirmed celiac disease had no symptoms at all, across 394,274 people
Celiac disease is imagined as a dramatic reaction to bread. Pooling 87 population studies, roughly 1 in 120 people has biopsy-confirmed disease, and 41% of them had nothing that would send them to a doctor.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsChildhood fruit juice tracks with high blood pressure at 36
A Circulation study followed 25,749 Americans from age 12 to age 36 and found daily sugary drinks and daily fruit juice both tracked with higher rates of high blood pressure, while whole fruit did not.
Jul 25, 2026
NewsThe traditional Chinese diet tracked with fewer deaths, more obesity
A European Journal of Nutrition study of 11,158 Chinese adults found high adherence to the traditional diet linked to lower heart disease and death rates, and higher obesity rates.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsDark chocolate cut 13 seconds off a standard attention test across 16 randomized trials
Cocoa research has produced a decade of enthusiastic small studies and no settled answer. A GRADE-assessed pooling of 16 trials and 2,847 people found the clearest gains on tests of executive function and processing speed.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsA brain structure few have heard of tracked with dementia
A Molecular Psychiatry study of 45,306 UK Biobank brain scans found a larger choroid plexus tracked with 61% higher dementia risk, and a brighter one with much lower risk.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsMorning people had more heart attacks, not fewer
In 4,578 adults from the Sleep Heart Health Study followed for a decade, both morning and evening types had higher rates of heart attack than the people in between. The pattern sat almost entirely in those with sleep apnea.
Aug 14, 2026
verdictCoenzyme Q10: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
CoQ10 has decent evidence for the serious condition almost nobody buys it for, and it fails at the one thing almost everybody buys it for. Statin muscle pain is the claim that does not hold up.
Aug 5, 2026
NewsClimate labels on menus shifted what 10,000 people ordered
A JAMA Network Open randomized trial gave 10,342 US adults a fast-food menu with one of six label designs and found graded climate labels cut selection of high-impact items by up to 8 percentage points.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsWhat coffee does to your gut and mood, beyond the caffeine
Irish researchers compared 31 coffee drinkers with 31 non-drinkers, then tracked what changed when people took up caffeinated or decaf coffee. Both shifted the gut microbiome. Decaf was linked to better memory, caffeine to sharper focus.
Jul 22, 2026
NewsCoffee tracked higher total testosterone but lower free testosterone
A Finnish study of 2,264 people at age 46 found heavier coffee drinkers were leaner and had a distinct hormone pattern in men, with a catch buried in which testosterone rose.
Jul 31, 2026
NewsPractice at brain tests hides a year of cognitive decline
Older adults get better at cognitive tests simply by taking them again. In 977 people across 2,571 assessments, that practice gain was large enough to cancel out about a year of age-related decline.
Aug 17, 2026
NewsMild cold lowered blood sugar. Colder did nothing.
A Diabetologia trial put people in a water-cooled suit until they shivered. In type 2 diabetes, the gentler cold cut 24-hour glucose. The harder cold did not.
Aug 1, 2026
NewsNurse-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
verdictCollagen: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Collagen is sold for skin and works better for joints. A 2025 review found that industry-funded studies showed a skin benefit and independently funded ones did not.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsCombining cardio and weights lowered deaths by 60% in coronary heart disease trials
Cardiac rehabilitation has long meant a treadmill. A Sports Medicine Open meta-analysis of randomized trials found adding resistance training beat aerobic exercise alone on fitness and quality of life, and cut mortality against usual care.
Aug 26, 2026
NewsCOPD patients left hospital without guideline inhalers in more than one in five cases
A severe flare-up is the moment lung disease treatment is supposed to be corrected. Auditing 3,928 admissions across 85 German hospitals found the discharge prescription often was not.
Sep 8, 2026
NewsA whole-food exclusion diet put 69% of Crohn's patients into remission across 17 studies
Crohn's disease is normally treated with drugs, and the liquid-only diet that works is almost impossible to stick to. Pooling 17 studies, a diet built from ordinary food matched it, and beat both a control diet and the Mediterranean diet.
Sep 1, 2026
verdictCreatine: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Creatine builds strength and lean muscle alongside resistance training, and the evidence is unusually strong and consistent. The kidney and hair-loss fears are not supported. Memory effects are promising but unsettled.
Jul 22, 2026
NewsCOVID vaccine tied to fewer heart events in over-75s
A JAMA Internal Medicine study of 1,039,659 US veterans found the 2024-2025 COVID vaccine tracked with fewer heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular deaths, with the benefit concentrated in the oldest.
Jul 28, 2026
NewsMemory 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
NewsFeeding 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
NewsNearly 4 in 10 dementia cases tied to modifiable risk factors
A Lancet Public Health study of 1.75 million Danes put 37.8% of dementia down to 16 modifiable risk factors, with infections and depression topping the list, not the usual suspects.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsOne 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
NewsPharmacist deprescribing cut 2.5 drugs per patient, but six-month totals held steady
A Dutch trial trained pharmacists to strip back prescriptions for 318 people aged over 75 on long medication lists. They cut or stopped more drugs than usual care did. Six months on, the total count and quality of life were unchanged.
Aug 17, 2026
NewsSwinging mood predicted dementia better than low mood
Following 11,951 older adults for up to 19 years, researchers found that fluctuating depressive symptoms predicted later cognitive impairment better than how depressed someone was at any single visit.
Aug 4, 2026
NewsFour healthy eating patterns each tracked about 12% less acid reflux across 183,878 adults
Reflux advice is a list of foods to avoid. Following 183,878 UK adults for 13 years, the Mediterranean, MIND and DASH patterns and a gut-focused diet index each tracked lower risk, while an inflammatory pattern tracked more.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsUS supplement use hit 60% as multivitamins fell and ashwagandha rose, across 25 years of data
A JAMA Network Open analysis of 63,442 adults across 25 years of national survey data found supplement use rose from 51% to 60%, with multivitamins falling and ashwagandha, collagen and elderberry rising.
Jul 25, 2026
NewsDiet tracked with dementia risk despite Alzheimer's markers
A JAMA Network Open study of 1,865 older Swedes found an anti-inflammatory diet was linked to lower dementia risk even in people whose blood already showed Alzheimer's disease markers.
Jul 25, 2026
NewsUltra-processed food tied to more depression in over-70s
A Molecular Psychiatry analysis of 7,220 older adults found high ultra-processed food intake tracked with more depressive symptoms, and genetic risk made no difference either way.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsExergames beat doing nothing for older adults' thinking across 51 trials, on very low certainty
A JMIR network meta-analysis ranked four kinds of digital exercise across 51 randomized trials and 3,673 older adults. Screen-based exergames helped global thinking most consistently. Remote exercise produced the only robust memory gain.
Aug 26, 2026
NewsDigital self-help cut anxiety and depression in chronic illness, coach or no coach
A PLoS Medicine trial randomized 825 adults with chronic conditions across 13 countries to a digital program with human support, the same program self-directed, or a waitlist. Both versions beat usual care, and they matched each other.
Aug 26, 2026
NewsA THC pill cut PTSD nightmares in a 171-person trial
A Nature Medicine trial gave 171 adults with PTSD either dronabinol or placebo nightly for ten weeks. Nightmares improved more on the drug. Seven serious adverse events occurred in that group and none on placebo.
Aug 17, 2026
NewsApitegromab kept muscle on during tirzepatide weight loss
A Nature Medicine trial of 102 adults found adding the antibody apitegromab to tirzepatide cut lean-mass loss by 1.9 kilograms over 24 weeks, without slowing total weight loss.
Jul 25, 2026
NewsSemaglutide led the field for antipsychotic weight gain
A JAMA Psychiatry network meta-analysis of 95 trials ranked 39 drugs for reversing antipsychotic weight gain, and semaglutide came out well ahead at nearly 11 kg.
Jul 27, 2026
NewsLosing 15% early after a diabetes diagnosis cut complications
A Diabetes Care study of 72,480 UK patients found those who lost at least 15% of their weight within two years of a type 2 diabetes diagnosis had fewer heart and kidney complications later.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsWeight lost early in prediabetes still counted 34 years on
The Da Qing study followed 540 Chinese adults with impaired glucose tolerance for 34 years. Those who lost at least 5% of their weight in the first six years later had a third fewer deaths and half as many heart failure admissions.
Aug 14, 2026
NewsEndometriosis tracked more blood clots, from a low base
A Danish registry compared 63,999 women with endometriosis against 255,996 matched women. Clots ran at 2.18 per 1,000 women a year against 1.54, which is about one extra clot a year for every 1,500 women.
Aug 17, 2026
NewsSmoking and waist size beat every epigenetic clock tested
An Aging Cell study followed 1,108 middle-aged Finns for up to nine years and found a model built from age, sex, smoking, alcohol and body shape predicted disease better than any aging clock.
Jul 31, 2026
NewsA cholesterol drug cut deaths from any cause by 20% in people who had never had a heart attack
Cholesterol drugs are judged on heart attacks and strokes, and rarely move the count of deaths at all. Across 12,301 people with no prior event, this one moved it, and moved deaths that had nothing to do with the heart.
Sep 6, 2026
NewsExercise improved arteries where liraglutide did not
A Nature Metabolism analysis of 130 adults keeping weight off found exercise thinned artery walls and cut inflammation, while the drug liraglutide alone did neither despite similar weight control.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsThe sweetener in your sugar-free label is also made by your body, and its level tracks insulin resistance
Erythritol is sold as a sweetener and quietly produced inside us from glucose. In 802 adults on a weight-loss trial, the people whose blood erythritol fell furthest were the ones whose insulin resistance improved most, two years on.
Aug 31, 2026
NewsA blood pressure spike on the treadmill depends on fitness
Across 5,087 people having an exercise stress echo, a high peak blood pressure came with a heavier heart muscle in the fit and the moderately fit, but not in the unfit. The unfit had the most adverse hearts anyway, at the same peak reading.
Aug 14, 2026
NewsExercise improved the mental fog that follows cancer across four domains and 2,809 patients
27 trials and 2,809 cancer patients. Exercise improved how clear-headed people felt and measurably improved executive function, working memory and processing speed, with the gains still there at follow-up.
Aug 25, 2026
NewsExercise twice a week tracked with lower dementia risk
In 9,714 older Americans, those keeping up at least moderate activity - roughly 20 minutes, twice a week or more - were less likely to develop dementia. Less frequent activity showed no clear benefit. It points to a link, not proof.
Jul 21, 2026
NewsExercise for muscle loss peaked near 690 MET-minutes a week, then the benefit fell away
A Geriatric Nursing network meta-analysis of 29 randomized trials modeled dose curves for sarcopenia. Grip strength and walking both improved from 140 MET-minutes, both turned over at the top, and each preferred a different exercise.
Aug 26, 2026
NewsExercise delayed ovarian aging. In mice, not in women.
A Nature Aging paper reports that physical activity delays ovarian aging. Its 164,853 human participants were compared at a single moment, which cannot show that. The delaying was demonstrated in mice.
Aug 17, 2026
NewsExercise kept older muscle young at the molecular level
A Nature Aging study of muscle samples from young and older adults found that half the molecular differences normally caused by age were simply absent in older people who had trained for years.
Jul 25, 2026
NewsIntervals ranked best for belly fat, but more was not better
Pooling 60 trials in 3,308 adults, researchers ranked four kinds of exercise against the fat packed around the organs. Intervals came top, and the dose-response curve turned back on itself past a moderate weekly load.
Aug 4, 2026
NewsEye drops improved vision in diabetic macular swelling, a condition normally treated by injection
Treatment for diabetic macular edema means a needle into the eye, repeatedly, for years. Drops had never been considered effective. In 148 patients, a steroid suspension beat placebo drops on reading-chart letters.
Sep 4, 2026
NewsAdding family coaching to GP care worked for child obesity
A randomized trial across 41 US primary care practices gave 730 children either enhanced usual care or that plus family behavioral treatment. The families who got the coaching saw more than double the reduction in relative weight.
Aug 3, 2026
NewsPhysical and mental decline began years before a first fall, not after it
A PLoS Medicine study matched 5,495 older adults who fell against 5,495 who did not, in cohorts across China, the UK and the US. Physical function, mood and memory were already diverging up to five years before the fall.
Aug 14, 2026
NewsThe fastest walkers over 80 had half the cognitive decline
A Neurology study of nearly 5,000 adults over 80 found the fastest walkers had half the risk of cognitive impairment, yet autopsies showed no less Alzheimer's pathology in their brains.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsFecal transplant protocol improved sleep in chronic insomnia
In a trial of 80 adults with chronic insomnia, a gut-bacteria protocol beat placebo for sleep quality. It also included antibiotics, so the trial cannot say a stool transplant alone did it.
Jul 24, 2026
NewsFenofibrate tracked 68% less diabetic macular edema across 4,571 matched patients
A cheap old cholesterol drug has been tied to slower diabetic eye disease since two trials noticed it by accident. Across matched patients with early retinopathy, fenofibrate users developed less of every problem studied but one.
Sep 2, 2026
ExplainerViscous soluble fiber eased constipation on the strongest evidence in 17 trials of 1,423 adults
A Food & Function review pooled 17 randomized trials and 1,423 adults to rank fiber against fiber rather than against nothing. Viscous soluble fiber beat placebo on difficulty passing stool at high certainty, the strongest grade in the paper.
Aug 26, 2026
NewsA newer drug slowed kidney decline in people whose damage came from blood pressure, not diabetes
Kidney trials are built around diabetes, so the second-largest group has been treated on borrowed evidence. Within a trial of 1,584 patients, the 459 with blood-pressure-driven damage were examined on their own.
Sep 7, 2026
NewsMore fish was not better: the lowest deaths sat mid-range
A Japanese cohort of 90,944 adults found the lowest all-cause mortality in women eating the second-highest amount of fish, not the highest. In men the benefit appeared only for stroke deaths, and only for unsalted fish.
Aug 14, 2026
NewsArriving at 70 fit mattered more than getting fit after
A Generation 100 study of 1,491 Norwegians aged 70 to 77 found those with higher measured fitness had roughly half the Alzheimer's risk, while a year of improvement added little.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsHigh 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
NewsInherited blood pressure risk tracked dementia in women only
In 9,145 Norwegians aged 70 and over, women in the top fifth for genetic blood pressure risk had higher odds of dementia. Men with the same genetics did not. Among fitter women the association was weaker.
Aug 9, 2026
NewsFitter 46-year-olds cost the Finnish health system 11% less a year, and grip strength mattered too
Fitness studies usually stop at disease risk. Researchers linked step-test and grip-strength results for 4,468 Finns to six years of national spending records, then used genetics to test whether the link was causal.
Aug 30, 2026
NewsFlossing tracked 23% fewer strokes in 98,866 Korean adults followed for nine years
A Korean study followed 98,866 adults for nine years. Those who brushed twice daily and used floss and interdental brushes had 23% fewer ischemic strokes. Nobody has ever run a trial that randomizes people to floss.
Aug 17, 2026
NewsFlu vaccination tracked 20% less new atrial fibrillation across 276,888 matched adults
Flu is known to trigger heart events, but whether the shot affects heart rhythm was untested. A European Heart Journal team matched 276,888 adults on 65 characteristics and found the vaccinated developed less irregular heartbeat.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsThree additive types tracked about 45% more depression; five others tracked nothing
Ultra-processed food is usually condemned or defended as one block. Following 171,818 UK adults for a decade, only three of ten additive categories tracked depression, and they did so in proportion to how much was eaten.
Sep 2, 2026
NewsFood insecurity tracked with missed cancer screening
A JAMA Network Open analysis of 251,107 US adults found people facing food insecurity were less likely to be up to date on cancer screening, and looked at whether SNAP narrowed the gap.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsFood-as-medicine groceries improved blood sugar in diabetes
A Circulation randomized trial gave 460 Medicaid-insured adults with type 2 diabetes six months of weekly grocery deliveries and saw a modest but real improvement in long-term blood sugar.
Jul 25, 2026
NewsFrail kidney patients had triple the odds of cognitive impairment across 129,868 people
Whether frailty and thinking problems travel together in chronic kidney disease had produced conflicting findings. A Journal of Nursing Scholarship meta-analysis of 17 studies settles the direction: frail patients had three times the odds.
Aug 26, 2026
NewsGarlic lowered average blood sugar by half a point across 27 trials, but fasting glucose barely moved
27 randomized trials and 1,619 people. Garlic supplements lowered long-term average blood sugar by about half a percentage point, a shift comparable to some drugs. Fasting glucose barely moved, which is hard to square.
Aug 25, 2026
NewsA midlife blood marker tracked dementia 25 years ahead
Across several cohorts, a protein called GDF15 measured in midlife lined up with dementia risk 15 to 25 years later. The link was stronger for vascular dementia than for Alzheimer's disease.
Aug 4, 2026
NewsEvery extra 100g of fruit and vegetables a day after diagnosis tracked 9% fewer bladder cancer recurrences
Bladder cancer comes back more often than almost any other cancer, and patients are given no dietary advice at all. In 1,396 Dutch patients followed nearly five years, what they ate after diagnosis tracked their recurrence risk.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsOne in three healthy middle-aged adults was prefrail
A GeroScience study of 117,163 UK Biobank participants with no diagnosed chronic disease found 32.8% met criteria for prefrailty, alongside changes across nine body systems.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsBariatric surgery cost less downstream than GLP-1 drugs
A JAMA Network Open study matched 2,721 pairs of Israeli patients over up to 12.5 years and found those on GLP-1 drugs ran up $109 more per month in other health costs than surgery patients.
Jul 27, 2026
NewsGLP-1 drugs tracked with fewer fractures, but only with diabetes
A JAMA Network Open study of 133,606 matched patients found GLP-1 drugs linked to lower fracture risk in type 2 diabetes, and higher risk in people without it.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsSemaglutide and tirzepatide tracked half the femoral fractures of another diabetes drug
The worry about weight-loss drugs is that fast loss costs muscle and bone, which should show up as broken hips. Comparing 27,896 matched over-65s against a rival diabetes medicine, fractures and falls both ran lower over a year.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsSudden vision loss hit 3 more GLP-1 users per 10,000 over 18 months than two rival diabetes drugs
An Annals of Internal Medicine target trial emulation compared GLP-1 users against two other diabetes drug classes. Ischemic optic neuropathy was more common on GLP-1s, concentrated in men, over-50s and those with eye or heart disease.
Aug 28, 2026
NewsGLP-1 drugs carried higher hair loss risk than two rivals
Comparing 12,004 people starting a GLP-1 drug against those starting other diabetes medicines, researchers found more diagnosed hair loss. The absolute risk stayed low.
Aug 2, 2026
NewsGum disease tracked 18 to 25% more new diabetes across 28 studies and 300,000 people
A WHO-funded Lancet Public Health review found the link between oral disease and diabetes runs both ways. Periodontitis predicted later type 2 diabetes, and so did tooth loss. The reverse direction was real but less consistent.
Aug 28, 2026
NewsTreating gum disease lowered blood pressure by 4.64 mmHg across 12 randomized trials
A Journal of Periodontology meta-analysis pooled 12 randomized trials of periodontal therapy. Systolic pressure fell 4.64 mmHg, diastolic 1.84, and C-reactive protein dropped alongside them. Evidence certainty was moderate to low.
Aug 28, 2026
NewsGut bacteria tracked with frailty in 2,081 older women
A Nature Communications study of Swedish women aged 75 to 80 found frailty was linked to a less diverse gut microbiome, with 404 bacterial species implicated and most of it repeating in a Chinese cohort.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsTurning 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
NewsSqueezing a handgrip for 12 weeks lowered blood pressure in medicated hypertensive women
Isometric handgrip training is already in clinical guidelines, but its effect during physical stress was untested in women. A Journal of Human Hypertension trial found 12 weeks lowered resting pressure and the pressure reached under strain.
Aug 26, 2026
NewsFollowing the official diet advice tracked with a firmer grip
A GeroScience analysis of up to 157,457 UK Biobank participants found people who ate closer to the UK's Eatwell Guide had more muscle, a brisker walking pace and fewer falls.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsHearing loss tracked frailty, but not in hearing aid users
Across 2,644 older Americans with measured hearing, worse hearing came with more frailty. Among people wearing hearing aids, that link disappeared entirely.
Aug 1, 2026
NewsHearing loss tracked worse memory and smaller brain regions; tinnitus tracked neither
Hearing loss is on every list of things that raise dementia risk, and the usual explanation is a brain starved of sound. Scanning 2,144 German adults found the damage sitting partly in the blood vessels instead.
Sep 2, 2026
NewsHeart deaths halved since 1990. The causes swapped places.
A JAMA Cardiology analysis of US deaths from 1990 to 2023 found the heart disease death rate down 58.7%, with smoking and air pollution receding as causes while high body weight and blood sugar climbed.
Aug 3, 2026
NewsA raised heart-strain marker that came back down carried no extra risk eight years later
Most risk markers are measured once and treated as a verdict. An Annals of Internal Medicine analysis of 8,454 adults measured one twice, three years apart, and people whose reading normalized ended up where those who never had it did.
Aug 30, 2026
NewsHeat and wildfire smoke together tracked more heart deaths than either alone
Heat waves and smoke days are studied as separate hazards and increasingly arrive on the same day. Across 5.9 million cardiovascular deaths in six countries, the overlap was worse than adding the two together.
Sep 4, 2026
NewsLight weights to failure grew more muscle than heavy ones
A 201-person trial in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise had untrained adults lift heavy or light until they could not manage another repetition. The light group gained slightly more muscle, about a millimeter of extra thickness.
Aug 1, 2026
NewsHemoglobin 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
NewsThe high-dose flu shot cut flu hospital admissions by 31% in French care homes, average age 88
Older immune systems respond weakly to vaccines, so one product carries four times the antigen. A nationwide French analysis matched 76,858 pairs of care home residents and found the stronger shot kept fewer of them out of hospital.
Aug 30, 2026
NewsHigh-impact exercise did not wreck knees with osteoarthritis
A British Journal of Sports Medicine analysis of 17,661 Danes with hip or knee osteoarthritis found those doing high-impact activity were less likely to need a hip replacement, not more.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsSitting at the top of the 'normal' BMI range carried 78% more type 2 diabetes across 1.8 million people
Guidelines draw the risk line at a BMI of 25 and treat everything below it as fine. Pooling 11 cohorts, researchers found people at 22.5 to 24.9 already carried substantially more diabetes than people lower in the same band.
Aug 31, 2026
NewsInterval training changed brain structure in cannabis users
A Molecular Psychiatry trial put 59 people with cannabis use disorder through 12 weeks of high-intensity intervals and found measurable changes in white matter and cortical thickness.
Jul 27, 2026
NewsHIIT cut fat and held muscle in older adults, but barely
In a six-month trial of more than 120 healthy older adults, high-intensity interval training cut fat while holding onto muscle, unlike moderate exercise. The authors say the differences between intensities were small.
Jul 17, 2026
NewsHormone 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
NewsWomen who used estrogen-only hormone therapy had less Alzheimer's damage in 2,959 autopsied brains
Hormone therapy and dementia have been argued about for 25 years, mostly from questionnaires. A Neurology team went to the tissue instead, and found lower odds of Alzheimer's pathology at autopsy among women who had used estrogen.
Aug 30, 2026
NewsHospital takeovers cut heart attack deaths in Germany while leaving stroke deaths unchanged
Hospital consolidation is usually argued about as a question of money and market power. Comparing 125 acquired German hospitals against 821 that stayed independent asked whether patients survive.
Sep 8, 2026
NewsThe IBS hypnotherapy app lost to a human, but not to nothing
A Gut trial randomized 230 people with IBS to a therapist, an app or psychoeducation. The app failed its non-inferiority test against the therapist and still beat the control.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsChildren exposed to diabetes in the womb developed it five times as often
Gestational diabetes is described as ending at delivery. Following 2.85 million children to a median age of 16, exposure before birth tracked far higher diabetes rates, and control around conception shifted the odds.
Sep 6, 2026
NewsLung damage found by accident on a scan tracked 54% higher death risk
Health screening scans routinely turn up emphysema in people with no symptoms, and it is usually noted and forgotten. Following 41,000 Korean adults, it predicted death, except in one group where nobody died at all.
Sep 6, 2026
NewsChildren with the most early infections had about 60% more eczema, not less
The hygiene hypothesis says early germs train the immune system and protect against allergic disease. Two birth cohorts with daily symptom diaries found the opposite direction for eczema.
Sep 4, 2026
NewsExtra 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
verdictInositol: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Inositol does two things, and it does them better than most of the supplement aisle: it lowers the risk of gestational diabetes, and it improves hormone markers in polycystic ovary syndrome.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsHaving insomnia alongside sleep apnea tracked 34% more dementia over five years
Sleep apnea and insomnia are treated as separate problems by separate clinics, and a great many people have both. Comparing 51,043 matched pairs, the ones carrying both diagnoses developed more dementia than those with apnea alone.
Sep 2, 2026
NewsInsomnia tracked death risk only when sleep was measured
In the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort, 767 adults were followed for a median of eight years. Insomnia with under six hours on an overnight recording carried 2.6 times the risk of dying. Insomnia with self-reported short sleep carried none.
Aug 8, 2026
verdictIron supplements: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Iron is the one supplement where taking it without a blood test is genuinely unwise. It fixes a diagnosed deficiency well, and the same dose in the wrong person accumulates with nowhere to go.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsKetamine 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
NewsA ketogenic diet did 2 to 3 times more for liver insulin sensitivity at matched weight loss
Diet trials usually compare diets producing different amounts of weight loss, so the diet and the pounds cannot be told apart. A Cell Metabolism trial held the loss at about 10% across three diets, and the composition still mattered.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsStroke patients who hit the cholesterol target but had not halved it still had 12% more repeat events
Stroke guidelines set an absolute cholesterol target and stop there. A Neurology analysis of 89,414 Korean patients found the size of the fall from baseline mattered independently, and only about 30% achieved a 50% reduction.
Aug 30, 2026
NewsLean people with fatty liver and no risk factors still faced 2.5 times the liver death rate
Fatty liver is treated as a consequence of obesity and metabolic problems. A Gut analysis of 30,847 MRI-scanned UK Biobank participants found a slim group with none of those markers, and followed it to a higher rate of liver-related death.
Aug 30, 2026
NewsFix everything but DNA damage and you get 156 years
A modeling study in npj Aging asked what human lifespan would be if every driver of aging were solved except mutations building up inside cells. The answer was around 156 years, and the bottleneck was the cells the body cannot replace.
Aug 3, 2026
NewsHabits predicted healthy aging; blood markers did not
In 401 dementia-free adults aged 83 to 87, habits and psychological resilience predicted cognition, mood and walking speed. None of the 120 blood markers measured accounted for the link.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsLiver stiffness readings used to judge fatty liver treatment were checked against biopsy for the first time
Guidelines already accept a 30% drop in liver stiffness as evidence a treatment is working. In 160 patients who had both the scan and the biopsy, someone finally tested whether that holds.
Sep 7, 2026
NewsLoneliness tracked heart and metabolic disease across 33 countries
Pooling six aging cohorts covering 81,978 people, researchers found loneliness preceded cardiometabolic disease, and unhealthy habits explained only 5% of the link.
Aug 1, 2026
NewsLoneliness was tied to a higher risk of heart valve disease
Across 462,917 UK Biobank adults tracked for about 14 years, those who felt lonely had a higher risk of degenerative heart valve disease. Living alone or being socially isolated did not carry the same risk.
Jul 23, 2026
NewsTen hours of cognitive rehab lifted daily function in long COVID, where no treatment is proven
A JAMA Network Open trial gave 78 adults with cognitive impairment ten weekly sessions built around their own goals. The effect at three months was large by the standards of any behavioral trial, and it was still there at six months.
Aug 28, 2026
NewsUnresolved long COVID tracked leaving work in England
Among 45,864 employed adults in the REACT study, the 4% with long COVID that had not resolved had 38% lower odds of still being in paid work two years later, and four times the odds of changing their hours.
Aug 16, 2026
NewsLongevity genes helped. Not smoking helped far more.
A GeroScience study followed 5,575 Finnish twins for 17.5 years and found a genetic score for long life cut death risk modestly, while heavy smoking more than tripled it.
Jul 31, 2026
NewsPlant-based low-carb eating tracked 15% less dementia over nine years, whatever the genetic risk
A low-carbohydrate diet and a low-fat diet look symmetrical on paper. Across 5,301 Americans followed for nine years they were not: the low-carb score tracked less dementia, the low-fat score did not, and the food sources decided both.
Aug 30, 2026
verdictMagnesium: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Magnesium is bought mostly for sleep, which is its weakest evidence. Its real results are elsewhere: blood pressure in people who are short of it, migraine frequency, and heart rhythm after surgery.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsLondon's clean air zone restored children's lung growth, and four years later the deficit was gone
A Lancet Public Health natural experiment tracked 3,209 children in London and Luton for five years. London children started with smaller lungs, grew them 10 mL a year faster after the ULEZ, and finished level with the comparison town.
Aug 28, 2026
NewsMazdutide took off 16.7% of body weight in a phase 3 trial
A JAMA phase 3 trial of 461 Chinese adults with obesity found the dual glucagon and GLP-1 drug mazdutide cut body weight by 16.65% over 60 weeks against 1.50% on placebo.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsLate dinners and skipped breakfasts tracked dementia risk
A Japanese cohort of 283,166 people aged around 73 linked two ordinary habits to later dementia: eating within two hours of bed, and missing breakfast. Both associations were modest, and neither was tested as a cause.
Aug 9, 2026
NewsIrregular meal times tracked anxiety. Irregular sleep did not.
In 2,945 French-speaking adults, the gap between weekday and weekend eating schedules was linked to anxiety, depression and insomnia. Sleep timing showed nothing.
Aug 2, 2026
NewsMediterranean living tracked half the heart deaths in adults with type 2 diabetes
The Mediterranean diet is sold as a shopping list. This index scored the rest of it too, including naps and eating with other people, and all three parts of the score pulled in the same direction.
Sep 2, 2026
NewsA missed melanoma cost patients 8.2 years of life on average
Germany's melanoma registry tracked 9,063 patients for up to 28 years. The 206 whose cancer was initially missed waited two years for the right diagnosis, and it showed.
Aug 2, 2026
NewsThe best diet-and-sleep combination tracked 43% less lung cancer across 192,034 people
Diet and sleep are usually studied one at a time. Scoring both together in the UK Biobank and following people for 14 years, the group with the best Mediterranean diet and the best sleep had the lowest lung cancer risk by a wide margin.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsMelatonin use in children tracked with less REM sleep
A JAMA Network Open study matched 342 pairs of children at a sleep clinic. Those prescribed melatonin had a lower share of REM sleep, and no other measure differed.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsMediterranean diet beat low-fat on 20-year heart risk
Researchers emulated a trial in 12,197 higher-risk US adults from two Harvard cohorts. Estimated 20-year cardiovascular risk was 28.2% on a Mediterranean diet against 35.9% on a low-fat one.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsMelatonin worsened blood sugar, but only in gene carriers
A tightly controlled Diabetes Care trial gave the same 21 adults both 5 mg of melatonin and a placebo. Glucose tolerance worsened in the 10 who carry a common diabetes risk variant, and not in the 11 who do not.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsEarlier menopause tracked faster memory decline and an earlier Alzheimer's diagnosis
Menopause timing is treated as reproductive history and filed away. Following 2,603 older women, when it happened lined up with how quickly thinking declined decades later, most clearly after surgical menopause.
Sep 7, 2026
verdictMelatonin: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Melatonin shifts the body clock rather than causing sleep, which is why it works well for jet lag and badly for ordinary insomnia. In adults it cuts time-to-sleep by about five minutes.
Aug 5, 2026
NewsUS women reach menopause at 50. One in 10 gets there early.
A NHANES analysis of 15,322 women put median natural menopause at 50, found early menopause in 10% and traced it to smoking, education, sleep and depression.
Jul 31, 2026
NewsA menopause sleep drug worked at week 4, then didn't
A SLEEP trial gave 110 postmenopausal women elinzanetant or placebo and measured sleep in a lab. The 22-minute advantage at four weeks had vanished by twelve.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsMental illness before 35 tracked with dementia after 50
A Molecular Psychiatry study of 2.5 million Swedes compared siblings and found the dementia link runs through a general vulnerability to psychiatric illness, not any one diagnosis.
Jul 28, 2026
NewsA blood metabolite clock tracked death risk and frailty
GeroScience researchers built an aging clock from 3,686 blood samples across UK and Irish cohorts. Five years of extra metabolic age came with 43% higher death risk.
Jul 31, 2026
NewsLifestyle cut chronic disease. Metformin did not.
Two decades after the Diabetes Prevention Program, 1,173 participants were checked for accumulated illness. The lifestyle arm came out ahead. The drug arm matched placebo.
Aug 2, 2026
NewsMetformin added nothing to exercise in older adults
A randomized trial in The Lancet Healthy Longevity gave 114 older adults with obesity an intensive lifestyle program, with metformin or a dummy pill. The drug added no extra improvement in physical function.
Aug 4, 2026
NewsHeart attack patients carried more microplastics in blood
Italian researchers measured plastic particles in the coronary blood of 61 angiography patients. They turned up far more often in heart attack patients, though smoking history predicted their presence better than the heart attack.
Jul 23, 2026
NewsOne in three patients with chest pain and clear arteries had a hidden circulation problem
An angiogram showing open arteries is usually treated as reassurance. Measuring the smaller vessels in 1,003 patients found a third had dysfunction, and it tracked worse outcomes.
Sep 8, 2026
NewsWomen's night-time waking jumps sharply in midlife
A smartwatch study of 192,500 women across five countries found time spent awake after falling asleep rose 32% by the early sixties, a steeper climb than men saw.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsMilk protein cut time spent awake in the night by 8 minutes in people whose sleep was already poor
The warm-milk folk remedy has never had much behind it. Pooling 11 randomized trials, milk-derived proteins and peptides improved the share of time in bed actually spent asleep, and the effect was largest in people with disturbed sleep.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsPilates, yoga and qigong each led a different outcome for cancer patients across 73 trials
A pairwise, network and dose-response meta-analysis of 73 randomized trials and 5,130 cancer patients ranked five mind-body exercises. No single one won everything, and the benefit peaked near 490 MET-minutes a week before falling away.
Aug 26, 2026
NewsAcceptance skills added nothing to mindfulness training in a trial of 392 people
392 people were randomized to 14 days of online mindfulness training with acceptance skills, monitoring skills only, or a waiting list. Both training groups beat the waiting list. Neither beat the other.
Aug 18, 2026
NewsWalking breaks every 30 minutes worked best. Nobody kept it up.
A 19,342-person trial tested 5-minute walking breaks at three frequencies. The most effective schedule was the least sustainable, and hourly landed in between.
Aug 2, 2026
NewsSitting tracked with liver disease, not just heart disease
A Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise study of 86,746 UK Biobank participants wearing accelerometers linked sedentary time to higher rates of chronic liver disease and liver-related death.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsThe exercise that protects muscle depends on your frailty
Following 10,871 Canadians for six years, gentle activity tracked with less muscle loss in frailer adults, while only strenuous activity did so in robust ones.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsWeak grip and low weight tracked with insomnia after 60
A SLEEP study of 5,824 older adults found low muscle strength and being underweight each tracked with insomnia, and together more than doubled the odds.
Jul 28, 2026
NewsGrip strength and chair stands tracked with longer life
In 5,472 women aged 63 to 99, two simple measures - grip strength and how fast they rose from a chair - tracked with living longer over eight years, even after accounting for exercise. It shows a link, not proof.
Jul 21, 2026
NewsMYTH 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
NewsSpecial spectacle lenses cut children's myopia progression by 71% over two years in a US trial
Myopia-control lenses worked in Asian children but had not been tested in the US. A double-masked JAMA Ophthalmology trial randomized 159 children aged 6 to 12 and found less myopia progression and less eye elongation over 24 months.
Aug 30, 2026
verdictNAC: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
NAC is a hospital antidote sold as a supplement, and the two are not the same claim. It saves lives in paracetamol overdose. For almost everything it is marketed for, the evidence is thin or uncertain.
Aug 5, 2026
NewsBlack women developed high blood pressure 9.6 years earlier
A JAMA Network Open study of 15,313 US women found Black women developed hypertension nearly a decade earlier than White women, and the gap persisted regardless of neighborhood conditions.
Jul 27, 2026
NewsNewborns who skipped vitamin K had triple the brain bleeds
A JAMA Pediatrics study of 2 million Swedish births found infants who did not get the vitamin K injection had higher odds of bleeding, and refusals have more than doubled since 2006.
Jul 28, 2026
NewsA vitamin B3 supplement tracked far less glaucoma in at-risk eyes
Among 2,920 matched patients with high eye pressure, those taking nicotinamide developed glaucoma at 3.5% against 9.0%. The design cannot prove the supplement caused it.
Aug 2, 2026
verdictNMN and NR: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
These reliably raise NAD+ in humans, and that is the strongest thing anyone can say. Trials that then measured whether people got better have mostly found they did not.
Aug 5, 2026
NewsShifting nursery menus plant-forward sped up bone turnover in young children
Childcare centers are being asked to serve more plants for climate reasons, with little data on the children. A ten-month randomized trial found bone markers moving, and the researchers are not sure it is benign.
Sep 7, 2026
NewsNuts tracked 26% lower risk of high blood pressure across 8 studies and 20,665 cases
A British Journal of Nutrition review pooled eight cohort studies and 20,665 new cases of high blood pressure. Eating about 30 grams of nuts a day went with roughly a quarter less risk, and the authors graded the case for cause as probable.
Aug 26, 2026
NewsObesity's metabolic risk gap has narrowed in older adults
A Lancet analysis of 978,425 people across seven countries found blood pressure and cholesterol in older adults with obesity now often match those at normal weight, largely because more of them are medicated.
Jul 26, 2026
verdictOmega-3 and fish oil: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Omega-3 has the strongest single result of any supplement on this site, a high-certainty 15% cut in triglycerides. It also has a dose-dependent harm signal that almost nobody selling it mentions.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsFish oil reached the brain but didn't protect it
Researchers gave 365 older adults at higher risk of dementia high-dose fish oil or a placebo for two years. The omega-3 reached their brains, but memory, thinking and brain shrinkage were no different from placebo.
Jul 22, 2026
NewsTwo hearing aids beat one in the first trial to test it, by a margin the authors won't call meaningful
Fitting both ears is standard practice and has never been tested properly. Randomizing 275 older adults found the two-aid group ahead, and the researchers are careful about how far ahead.
Sep 4, 2026
NewsOnline CBT for insomnia worked for autistic adults
A SLEEP randomized trial of 163 autistic adults found a 5-week internet CBT course cut insomnia severity substantially, with gains holding at six months.
Jul 27, 2026
NewsAn oral GLP-1 pill cut weight 9% in a phase 2 trial
A trial in Nature Communications tested a once-daily GLP-1 tablet in 235 Chinese adults with obesity. The top dose beat placebo by about 7 percentage points over 26 weeks, with the usual gut side effects.
Aug 4, 2026
NewsOral GLP-1 pill elecoglipron hit 10% weight loss in a trial
A Lancet phase 2 trial of 310 adults found the oral GLP-1 drug elecoglipron produced up to 10.5% weight loss in 26 weeks against 0.6% on placebo, with no injections and no food restrictions.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsPacemakers outperformed catheter ablation for irregular heart rhythm in patients over 75
Catheter ablation is the standard offer for persistent atrial fibrillation, and it works less well the older the patient. Randomizing 196 people with a median age of 82 tested the blunter alternative.
Sep 8, 2026
NewsWeight-loss drugs worked better with lifestyle, not without
A JAMA Pediatrics network meta-analysis of 42 trials in 3,835 adolescents found every obesity drug performed better paired with lifestyle treatment than on its own.
Jul 28, 2026
NewsBroken sleep in perimenopause tracked worse thinking decades on
A study of 2,097 postmenopausal women in Menopause found the worst perimenopausal sleep went with lower cognitive scores years later, but only in women woken by symptoms.
Jul 31, 2026
NewsKidneys 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
NewsTen conditions clustered before an osteoarthritis diagnosis; only three reliably followed it
Osteoarthritis is described as a gateway to other illness, and the timing is rarely checked. Across 845,373 cases in four European countries, most of the company it keeps was already there before the diagnosis.
Sep 2, 2026
NewsA microbiome-guided diet held its IBS benefit at a year, while low-FODMAP relapsed
The low-FODMAP diet works for irritable bowel syndrome in the short term, and nobody knew what happens after. Followed for 12 months without further support, its gains had gone. A diet built from each person's gut bacteria kept them.
Sep 1, 2026
verdictPhosphatidylcholine: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Phosphatidylcholine's best-studied use is ulcerative colitis, where early promise did not survive the largest trials. Most other claims are weak, and gut bacteria turn its choline into TMAO, a debated heart concern.
Jul 22, 2026
NewsDiet and exercise cut disease risk whatever the scale says
A study in The Lancet Regional Health - Americas followed 142,041 US adults. Those highest for activity and diet quality had 46% lower chronic disease risk, and the effect held after accounting for body weight at several life stages.
Aug 4, 2026
NewsSevere mental illness carries 2.6 times the death rate
A Lancet Public Health study of 4.86 million people across five European countries found heart disease drives the most excess deaths in severe mental illness, but lung disease shows the widest gap.
Jul 27, 2026
NewsA China-adapted planetary diet tracked 14% lower deaths
Researchers rebuilt the EAT-Lancet planetary health diet around Chinese eating and scored 19,660 adults on it. The top quarter had a 14% lower death rate over a median 9.1 years, alongside lower emissions, water use and land use.
Aug 17, 2026
NewsPlant-based only helped if it wasn't ultra-processed
An EClinicalMedicine study of 17,374 UK Biobank adults found plant foods tracked with less weight gain, but plant-sourced ultra-processed foods tracked with more.
Jul 28, 2026
NewsPlant protein tracked lower death rates, animal did not
A Spanish cohort of 17,989 university graduates, average age 38 at the start, had their diets recorded twice over 12 years. The quarter eating the most plant protein had a 35% lower death rate. Animal protein showed no association.
Aug 8, 2026
NewsThe Portfolio diet tracked 10% lower death risk across 513,284 people in four cohorts
A Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition analysis pooled 10 studies of the cholesterol-lowering Portfolio diet. Each step up the adherence score went with 6% less cardiovascular disease and 10% lower all-cause mortality.
Aug 26, 2026
NewsPlaySmart video game nudged teen depression scores down a point over a year
Dartmouth researchers gave 532 teenagers either PlaySmart, a game about spotting depression and asking for help, or commercial games. A year on, the PlaySmart group scored a point lower for depression. Anxiety did not move.
Aug 19, 2026
NewsPushing potassium to the top of the normal range cut atrial fibrillation events by a third in a trial
A low-normal potassium level is usually left alone. In 1,200 patients with implanted defibrillators, deliberately raising it by 0.3 mmol/L cut hospital admissions and treatments for atrial fibrillation over three years.
Aug 31, 2026
NewsFast lifting built power in older adults, but not for everyone
A GeroScience trial put 36 middle-aged and older adults through 12 weeks of deliberately fast lifting. The gains came from force, and the speed gains went only to the slowest.
Aug 1, 2026
NewsPramipexole eased depression's loss of pleasure in a trial
In a Swedish trial, 85 adults whose depression came with a marked loss of pleasure added the Parkinson's drug pramipexole or a placebo to usual treatment. It eased that symptom for six months. The drug is used off-label here, not approved.
Jul 24, 2026
NewsA third of people with 'preclinical' obesity crossed into the clinical kind within five years
A Lancet commission split obesity into two conditions: one that is only a body measurement, one that has started causing harm. Nobody had counted how often people move between them. In 92,396 US adults, 26% did in under three years.
Aug 31, 2026
NewsOne protein at 12 weeks stood out from 2,904 as a signal of later preeclampsia
Preeclampsia is usually caught late, when the only treatment is delivery. Screening nearly 3,000 proteins in first-trimester blood produced one clear front-runner, and laboratory work suggests it is not just a marker.
Sep 4, 2026
NewsSupervised exercise in pregnancy cut gestational diabetes risk by a quarter across 19 trials
A British Journal of Sports Medicine meta-analysis pooled 19 randomized trials and 6,213 pregnancies. Gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, excessive weight gain and large babies all fell, on moderate-certainty evidence.
Aug 28, 2026
NewsExercise before bowel surgery barely moved fatigue scores in 518 patients
518 people having colorectal cancer surgery were randomized to extra moderate exercise around the operation. Fatigue scores came out slightly better. Quality of life, pain and mental recovery did not move at all.
Aug 18, 2026
NewsEarly menopause plus high blood pressure raised heart risk
A Korean cohort of 1,168,791 postmenopausal women followed 11.5 years found menopause before 40 plus hypertension carried 1.64 times the rate of heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death, against 1.42 for hypertension alone.
Aug 9, 2026
NewsSibling study found no autism or ADHD link to paracetamol
Comparing siblings whose mothers used paracetamol in one pregnancy but not the other, a JAMA Internal Medicine study of 124,333 children found the association vanished.
Aug 1, 2026
NewsProbiotics trimmed waist size in adults with metabolic syndrome, but left blood pressure alone
An Obesity Reviews analysis of 19 randomized trials in adults with metabolic syndrome found probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics reduced waist circumference and body weight. Blood pressure did not move, and neither did body mass index.
Aug 26, 2026
verdictProbiotics: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Probiotics have one strong result, halving antibiotic-related C. difficile diarrhea, and a long list of weaker ones. Cochrane noted probiotic-company funding in 28 of the 47 trials it pooled.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsSaturated fat tracked 24% more deaths after prostate cancer, but not from the cancer
Most men diagnosed with early prostate cancer do not die of it. Following 4,884 of them for over a decade, what they ate afterwards moved every cause of death except the one they were treated for.
Sep 4, 2026
NewsSending prostate cancer patients to a heart specialist won the trial on cholesterol, not on heart attacks
Hormone therapy for prostate cancer raises cardiovascular risk that nobody owns. A 2,487-patient trial across 8 countries referred half of them to a cardiologist and met its primary endpoint, almost entirely through statin prescribing.
Aug 31, 2026
ExplainerRedesigning meals raised older adults' protein intake by 12 grams a day, and counseling did the work
A Nutrition Reviews meta-analysis of 16 studies in adults over 50 found that redesigning ordinary meals added about 12 grams of protein a day. What made it work was individual counseling and a specific gram target, not the food itself.
Aug 26, 2026
NewsProteomic aging clocks didn't beat lifestyle questions
A Nature Aging study of 17,473 Europeans found protein-based aging clocks predicted death and disease well, then noted they did no better than asking about smoking, drinking and exercise.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsOrgan age clocks: a blood test for 40 cell types
Stanford researchers measured 7,000 blood proteins in 60,542 people to estimate the biological age of more than 40 cell types. Aged cells flagged Alzheimer's, ALS and lung cancer risk years ahead. It is a research tool, and an estimate.
Jul 23, 2026
NewsPsilocybin beat placebo in the first NHS-funded trial
King's College London randomized 60 people with treatment-resistant depression to a single 25mg dose or a true placebo, both with psychological support. Depression scores fell further on psilocybin. The trial was built to test feasibility.
Aug 9, 2026
NewsPsyllium showed the clearest benefit for irritable bowel syndrome across 30 trials
A meta-analysis pooled 30 trials and 1,904 people with irritable bowel syndrome. 52% responded to fiber against 44% on placebo, and the benefit was clearest for psyllium. A separate symptom-score analysis found nothing.
Aug 18, 2026
Newsp-tau217 blood test estimated 5-year Alzheimer's risk
Pooling 2,684 older adults with no memory problems from six studies, JAMA reported those with the highest blood p-tau217 had about a 38 percent chance of decline within five years. They were research volunteers, so it may not generalize.
Jul 23, 2026
NewsSocial disadvantage tracked with three fewer reproductive years
A Menopause study of 8,576 US women found those facing the most stacked social disadvantage had a reproductive lifespan about three years shorter, with food insecurity weighing heaviest.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsA newer heart rhythm ablation method carried a higher 30-day stroke risk than the older one
Pulsed field ablation spread fast on the promise of being safer than burning tissue. A single-center registry comparing it against radiofrequency found more strokes and mini-strokes at 30 days.
Sep 8, 2026
NewsWeight training eased depression. So did the fake version.
A trial in young anxious women compared real resistance training against a deliberately feeble sham. Both produced large improvements, and the gap between them never became clear.
Aug 1, 2026
NewsResistance training in midlife tied to 42% less diabetes
A JAMA Network Open study of 143,715 US health professionals found people who kept up resistance training from 40 to 60 had 42% lower type 2 diabetes risk than those who did almost none.
Jul 26, 2026
verdictResveratrol: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
The original longevity molecule, and Cochrane could not find enough evidence to judge it either way in type 2 diabetes. Twenty years on, the human results are mostly small or absent.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsPreventive womb removal cost quality of life only in women who had not reached menopause
Surgery to prevent cancer in women at high inherited risk is offered on the assumption that the trade is worth it. Comparing 1,120 women found the cost concentrated entirely in one group.
Sep 7, 2026
NewsRugby training concussions rose across three seasons, and full-contact drills doubled the risk
Match concussions get the attention, but training ones are avoidable by design. Eight seasons of English Premiership data found preseason carried 1.80 times the risk and full-contact training 2.20 times, with incidence rising since 2016/17.
Aug 28, 2026
NewsA blood thinner outperformed a standard migraine drug in people with a hole in the heart
Roughly one adult in four has a small flap left open between the heart's upper chambers, and it is more common in people with migraine. Randomizing 984 of them put an anticoagulant well ahead of the usual preventive.
Sep 4, 2026
NewsSalt tracked with diabetes risk, measured in urine
A Diabetes Care study measured sodium in repeat 24-hour urine samples from 3,173 adults and found the highest intakes carried 2.66 times the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsWho benefits from cutting salt varies 15-fold
Guidelines tell everyone to eat less sodium. Pooling 160 studies, researchers found blood pressure response depends heavily on age, starting pressure and body weight.
Aug 2, 2026
NewsSarcopenic obesity tripled type 2 diabetes risk
A Diabetes Care analysis of 479,607 UK Biobank participants found people with both low muscle strength and high body fat had over three times the type 2 diabetes risk, far above either problem alone.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsRoad traffic noise linked to Parkinson's in 3.1 million Danes, unless the home had a quiet side
A JAMA Neurology study followed 3.1 million Danes for 17 years and found road traffic noise at home tracked with a modestly higher risk of Parkinson's disease, unless the home had a quiet facade.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsDoes sauerkraut fight inflammation? A trial says mostly no
A randomized crossover trial in 87 healthy adults found daily sauerkraut did little for inflammation or the gut barrier over four weeks. The one signal, a small drop in blood pressure, showed up even when the bacteria were dead.
Jul 23, 2026
NewsSchools that kept a health class had less teen substance use
A JAMA Network Open study of 1.9 million California student surveys found schools sustaining a standalone health course had lower reported vaping, drinking and drug use.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsReminders raised lung screening follow-up from 47% to 76%; the education arm made it slightly worse
Annual lung cancer screening only works if people come back, and most do not. A trial of 1,837 patients tested two ways to fix that, and the two went in opposite directions.
Sep 7, 2026
NewsA 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
verdictSelenium: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Selenium is essential, and supplementing it when you are not short of it is the clearest honest-no in the supplement aisle. Cochrane found no cancer benefit at high certainty, plus signals of harm.
Aug 5, 2026
NewsSelf-guided therapy beat clinician sessions for chronic pain
A JAMA trial randomized 764 veterans with chronic musculoskeletal pain to a self-directed program with recorded coach feedback or to therapy with a clinician. The self-directed group did better at four months and at twelve.
Aug 8, 2026
NewsSemaglutide kept cutting calories after hunger relief faded
A 60-week trial in 120 adults measured what people actually ate. Those on semaglutide still ate around 270 fewer calories at week 60, even though the appetite benefits they reported had gone.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsSemaglutide slowed biological aging clocks in a small trial
Researchers reanalyzed a 32-week trial of semaglutide in 84 adults and found the drug slowed several DNA-based clocks of biological aging. The aging analysis was exploratory, and the group studied was specific.
Jul 17, 2026
NewsA diabetes drug tracked a third fewer deaths in over-75s, alongside a stroke signal nobody can explain
Trials of SGLT2 inhibitors barely recruited the very old. A Japanese target trial emulation of 8,486 people aged 75 and over found lower death and dialysis rates than a rival drug class, and more strokes.
Aug 30, 2026
NewsShingles that reached the eye tracked 37% more dementia than shingles elsewhere
Shingles has been tied to dementia, but not every case is the same. Across 71 US health systems, cases reaching the eye carried more dementia within three years, and prior vaccination tracked less of it in both groups.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsGrowing up alongside a sibling with Crohn's tracked four times the risk of getting it
Siblings of people with Crohn's disease are known to be at higher risk, and genes were the obvious explanation. Comparing childhood exposure with adult exposure separates the shared genes from the shared childhood.
Sep 4, 2026
NewsPeople given the newer shingles vaccine had 9% less heart disease over the next seven years
A Nature Medicine team used America's abrupt switch from the live to the recombinant shingles vaccine as a natural experiment in adults over 60. Heart disease, heart failure and atrial fibrillation were all lower seven years on.
Aug 30, 2026
NewsSleep 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
NewsIn sleep apnea, waist beat BMI at predicting heart events
Among 2,662 people in the SAVE trial with sleep apnea and existing heart disease, 32% counted as obese by BMI. By waist-to-height ratio, 96% did. Only the waist measure tracked repeat cardiovascular events.
Aug 16, 2026
NewsNine measures of sleep, none predicted dementia
Researchers writing in Neurology boiled 44 sleep measurements down to nine composites across five US cohorts, then tested them against 1,134 dementia cases. Two tracked with better thinking scores. None tracked with dementia.
Aug 3, 2026
NewsShort and long sleep both tracked with Alzheimer changes
Using brain scans from 38,816 UK Biobank participants, researchers found a U-shaped pattern: five to six hours and nine to ten hours both lined up with more Alzheimer-like shrinkage and worse test scores.
Aug 4, 2026
NewsSleep of 7 hours tracked 30% lower death risk by watch and 14% by self-report
Everyone is told to get seven hours, advice built from questionnaires. Following 76,811 UK adults who both wore a tracker and estimated their own sleep, the healthiest amount and the size of the benefit each shifted with the method.
Jul 25, 2026
NewsSleep and exercise curbed mutant blood stem cells
A Nature study combining human data and mouse experiments found that exercise and unbroken sleep restrained the spread of age-related blood cell mutations, but only for some mutations.
Jul 25, 2026
NewsOne all-nighter hit driving harder than four short nights
A trial in SLEEP put the same 20 men through a night with no sleep, four nights of two hours less, and normal sleep, then a simulated dawn commute. The all-nighter degraded lane control within minutes. The gradual loss barely showed.
Aug 9, 2026
NewsLosing 80 minutes of sleep a night led to weight gain
In a Columbia University trial, 95 adults who cut their nightly sleep by about 80 minutes for six weeks gained roughly a pound, and the gain came from moving less rather than eating more.
Jul 22, 2026
NewsA regular sleep schedule tracked with lower dementia risk
A week of wrist-monitor sleep in 82,391 UK adults showed that those with the most regular schedules were less likely to develop dementia, and a steady rhythm seemed to offset sleeping too little. It shows a link, not proof.
Jul 21, 2026
NewsSleep 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
NewsEvening 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
NewsGetting a phone at 13 cost sleep, not mood
A JAMA Pediatrics study followed 1,959 teenagers from age 13 to 14 and found that getting a smartphone tracked with less sleep, while depression and obesity tracked with how much it was used.
Jul 28, 2026
NewsThinking your smell has faded tracked depression best
Pooling 187,056 people across 23 studies, researchers in JAMA Otolaryngology found that people who felt their sense of smell had declined were more likely to be depressed, while measured smell loss showed a weaker and less stable link.
Aug 3, 2026
NewsBedtime procrastination cost students 1.4 hours of sleep
Researchers wired a residential college with Bluetooth beacons and sleep watches for two weeks and found students who delayed bedtime to socialize slept 1.4 hours less and felt worse the next day.
Jul 25, 2026
NewsSocial jet lag tied to 30% more heart disease
A Journal of Internal Medicine study tracked sleep timing in 51,562 UK adults and found those whose weekend sleep shifted two hours or more had 30% higher heart disease risk, whatever their sleep duration.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsAustralia banned under-16s from social media. Most kept using it.
Three months after the world's first national minimum age law took effect, a BMJ study found more than 85% of under-16s were still on the restricted platforms.
Aug 1, 2026
NewsLikes drove more posting in people with depression
Analysing 17 million posts from 7,736 Twitter users, researchers in JAMA Psychiatry found people with depression were more strongly reinforced by likes, the opposite of what laboratory reward tests usually show.
Aug 3, 2026
NewsSocial participation tracked 22% lower death risk in older adults across 25 cohort studies
A Geriatric Nursing dose-response meta-analysis pooled 25 prospective cohorts. Older adults who took part in clubs, worship, volunteering or sport had lower all-cause mortality, and each extra session a month tracked a further drop.
Aug 26, 2026
NewsSocial prescribing navigators beat a referral line, 50% to 36%, in 326 Ontario patients
326 primary care patients in Ontario were randomized to a navigator who stayed with them or to a referral line. 50.3% reached a needed resource against 35.8%. What nobody measured was whether their health changed.
Aug 18, 2026
NewsSpouses of people with dementia had 1.7 times the risk
A JAMA Network Open study of 955,105 married adults in Taiwan found that people whose partner developed dementia went on to develop it more often themselves, though the extra risk over five years was about three percentage points.
Aug 3, 2026
verdictSt Johns wort: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
The one herbal with real antidepressant evidence, and the one with the most dangerous interaction profile. It can make prescription medicines stop working, including contraceptives and transplant drugs.
Aug 5, 2026
NewsStair climbing tracked 39% fewer heart disease deaths across 480,479 people
A UEA meta-analysis pooled nine studies and 480,479 people. Regular stair climbers were 39% less likely to die of heart disease. The evidence is observational, and the people who take the stairs differ in ways that matter.
Aug 24, 2026
NewsPairing a statin with certain blood pressure drugs tracked 12% less dementia over 12 years
Millions take a statin and a blood pressure pill together, and nobody has established which pairing is best. Following 34,610 Australians for a mean 12 years, one combination went with less dementia, in the direction few would have guessed.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsDigital nudges lifted statin refills from 12% to 14%, and a second nudge worked as well as the first
Health systems send reminders constantly and rarely test them. A JAMA trial randomized 20,604 patients who had stopped refilling statins, then re-randomized everyone who ignored the first message, and found repeating beat switching channel.
Aug 31, 2026
NewsHigh-intensity statins after stroke tracked slightly less dementia across 206,416 survivors
Stroke survivors face high dementia risk, and statins have long carried a reputation for harming memory. Matching 206,416 US patients, the stronger dose went with slightly less dementia rather than more: 6.6% against 6.9% over five years.
Sep 1, 2026
NewsHigh-dose statins tracked less macular degeneration
An analysis of hospital records matched 8,633 pairs of adults with high blood pressure. Those on sustained high-dose atorvastatin or simvastatin had fewer new cases of macular degeneration. Statins in general showed nothing at all.
Aug 17, 2026
NewsHigh genetic risk plus few steps tripled heart disease risk
UK Biobank tracked 84,286 people with wrist monitors and genetic scores. Steps and genes acted independently, which means walking helped the genetically unlucky just as much.
Aug 2, 2026
NewsGetting the steroid as an injection rather than a tablet halved the odds of still taking it a year later
Steroids are meant to be a bridge in early rheumatoid arthritis, and for many people they become permanent. Across 2,222 newly diagnosed patients, how the drug was given predicted whether they got off it.
Aug 31, 2026
NewsStopping GLP-1 drugs tracked with more anxiety after
A Nature Metabolism study of Shanghai health records found GLP-1 drugs carried no extra psychiatric risk during treatment, but higher risk of depression and anxiety after people stopped.
Jul 28, 2026
NewsStrawberry leaf extract failed its pre-planned memory test, then reported a win anyway
109 older adults took strawberry leaf extract or a placebo for 12 weeks. The pre-planned analysis found nothing, on memory or anything else. The paper is titled 'Enhanced memory function and reduced perceived stress'.
Aug 24, 2026
NewsStrength training's longevity sweet spot: two hours a week
Research in the British Journal of Sports Medicine tracked 147,374 people for up to 30 years. About 90 to 120 minutes of strength training a week lined up with the lowest risk of death, and more added nothing. A link, not proof.
Jul 22, 2026
NewsStroke 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
NewsBabies born under sugar rationing had less depression
A Molecular Psychiatry study used the end of UK wartime sugar rationing as a natural experiment and found people exposed as infants had 17% lower depression risk decades later.
Jul 28, 2026
NewsSugary drinks tied to liver cancer; diet versions were not
A pooled analysis of 11 cohorts and 1.5 million adults in JAMA Network Open linked each daily sugary drink to higher liver cancer risk, while artificially sweetened drinks showed no association.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsRationed sugar in infancy tracked younger biological age
A Nature Communications study of 64,809 UK Biobank participants found those whose first 1,000 days fell under postwar sugar rationing had less age-related disease decades on, and organ clocks reading about a year younger.
Aug 3, 2026
NewsSurvodutide cleared liver fat in 84% of patients
A Nature Medicine phase 3 trial of 216 adults found survodutide cut liver fat by at least 30% in 84.2% of those treated, against 24.3% on placebo, alongside 12.2% weight loss.
Jul 27, 2026
NewsAfter a heart valve replacement, a blood thinner beat aspirin by nearly half
Aspirin is the default after a valve is fitted through a catheter, on the reasoning that anything stronger bleeds. Randomizing 360 patients found the stronger drug both worked better and did not bleed more.
Sep 7, 2026
NewsSwimming beat advice alone for chronic back pain
A British Journal of Sports Medicine trial randomized 76 adults with chronic low back pain to swimming plus education or education alone, and found a real short-term gain that faded by a year.
Jul 28, 2026
NewsA plant-based pattern cut 20-year heart disease risk by 26%
Greek researchers followed 1,988 adults for two decades and found the diet that was best for the planet was also best for the heart. The Western pattern showed nothing.
Jul 31, 2026
NewsExercise eased low mood in teens, and the EEG showed why
A JAMA Network Open trial gave 206 Chinese adolescents with mild depressive symptoms 12 months of aerobic exercise and found symptoms fell further than with psychoeducation.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsLonger sleep steadied next-day blood sugar in teenagers
A SLEEP study paired wrist trackers with continuous glucose monitors across 2,245 days in 206 Danish 18-year-olds and found sleep and glucose pushing on each other in both directions.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsClot removal failed to help in smaller stroke vessels, where it is increasingly being tried
Mechanical thrombectomy transformed treatment of large-vessel stroke, and centers have been extending it to smaller blockages without evidence. The trial that tested it found no benefit and more bleeding.
Sep 7, 2026
NewsTime-restricted eating matched a dietitian, then drifted
A Diabetologia trial randomized 247 Australians at risk of type 2 diabetes to a 9-hour eating window or personalized dietitian advice, and found the two matched at 4 months but not at 12.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsTonsil surgery helped snoring children, but not predictably
A SLEEP analysis of 363 children in a randomized trial found 65% improved after early tonsil surgery versus 39% who waited, yet almost nothing measured beforehand predicted who would benefit.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsTinnitus can show up when the hearing test looks normal
A study of 267,395 American veterans found 86% had hearing loss and 47% had tinnitus. Some had the ringing alongside normal hearing thresholds, which points at ear damage a standard hearing test does not detect.
Aug 17, 2026
NewsA phone app lifted tuberculosis cure rates from 74% to 82% in a randomized trial
Tuberculosis treatment runs for months and people stop taking it. A BMJ trial of 525 patients in a low-resource setting found an interactive digital adherence tool raised treatment success by 7 percentage points and cut dropout by a third.
Aug 28, 2026
NewsMeals built from traditional foods cut heart failure hospital visits by more than a quarter
Medically tailored meals usually mean someone else's idea of healthy food. A trial in 206 American Indian patients with heart failure built the meals from foods the community already eats, and counted what happened.
Sep 6, 2026
verdictTurmeric and curcumin: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Curcumin barely absorbs, and the high-absorption forms built to fix that are the ones LiverTox links to liver injury. Knee osteoarthritis is the one solid use; the rest is thinner than the shelf suggests.
Aug 3, 2026
NewsTV watching, not desk work, tracked with smaller brain regions
A study in Alzheimer's & Dementia followed 1,712 adults from midlife to brain scans decades later and found frequent TV watching tracked with smaller memory-related brain regions, while sitting at work did not.
Jul 25, 2026
NewsHip fractures were five times more common in type 1 diabetes, peaking in people in their forties
Bone is not on the checklist for type 1 diabetes, and fracture screening is aimed at people decades older. Comparing 5,035 patients against 12,286 controls found the excess risk starts early.
Sep 8, 2026
NewsFour ultra-processed ingredients tracked high blood pressure
A European Heart Journal study followed 101,560 UK Biobank participants for a decade, sorting their food by what their ingredient lists held. Colorings, sweeteners, flavorings and sugars tracked new high blood pressure. Five did not.
Aug 8, 2026
NewsUltra-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
NewsVegan children were shorter and had lower growth-hormone markers than vegetarian peers
Plant-based diets in childhood are debated on principle and measured rarely. A German cohort compared 7,344 blood samples from 2,508 children against their height, weight and growth biology.
Sep 8, 2026
NewsUltra-processed food tied to 19% higher heart-death risk
An Australian study followed 39,544 adults for a median of 25 years. Those eating the most ultra-processed food were more likely to die of cardiovascular disease, even after accounting for sugar, salt and diet quality. A link, not proof.
Jul 21, 2026
NewsThe weight came back. The visceral fat loss didn't.
A Circulation follow-up scanned 366 people 5 and 10 years after two diet trials and found that despite complete weight regain, visceral fat stayed partly down, and 10% less of it cut diabetes risk 28%.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsBelly fat and sleep apnea each predicted the other over nine years, but only under 55
A Thorax analysis of the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort followed adults for a median nine years. Visceral obesity at baseline carried seven times the odds of developing sleep apnea, and sleep apnea predicted new visceral obesity in return.
Aug 28, 2026
verdictVitamin B12: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
B12 inverts the usual advice here. Most people do not need it, but vegans, older adults and anyone on long-term metformin do, because untreated deficiency damages nerves in ways that may never reverse.
Aug 3, 2026
NewsBlood vitamin C linked to more gray matter in older adults
In 2,044 older adults in Japan, those with lower vitamin C in their blood tended to have less gray matter and weaker connections in a key brain network. It is a snapshot, so it cannot show that vitamin C protects the brain.
Jul 17, 2026
verdictVitamin C: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Vitamin C has been tested against the common cold for sixty years and the answer is still a shrug: it may shorten one slightly, and taking it once a cold has started does almost nothing.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsHigh-dose vitamin D did not slow advanced bowel cancer
A 455-patient phase 3 trial run through the US National Clinical Trials Network added high-dose vitamin D3 to standard chemotherapy for metastatic colorectal cancer. It did not delay progression.
Aug 6, 2026
verdictVitamin D: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Vitamin D is the most-studied supplement there is, and the pattern across thirteen uses is almost always the same: correcting a deficiency helps, and adding more on top of enough does not.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsVitamin 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
NewsVitamin D missed its target in depressed young people
A trial gave 4,800 IU a day for eight weeks to young people who had both major depression and low vitamin D, the group where it should work best. Depression scores did not separate from placebo. Anxiety did.
Aug 16, 2026
NewsVitamin K status did not protect bone in a VITAL analysis
Vitamin K is sold as the partner vitamin D needs for bones. In 771 participants of the VITAL trial, higher vitamin K status did not slow two-year bone loss or improve what vitamin D did.
Aug 6, 2026
NewsVitamin K2 slowed artery calcium in a two-year trial
A JAMA Cardiology randomized trial gave 180 patients with coronary artery disease vitamin K2 or placebo for two years and found calcium buildup progressed more slowly on the supplement.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsWalkable streets tracked lower diabetes risk, but clearly only in richer areas
Diabetes Care followed 12,403 New York women who had gestational diabetes. One in five developed type 2 diabetes within 12 years. Walkable streets tracked lower risk, and clearly so only in the most affluent neighborhoods.
Aug 17, 2026
NewsVitamin A, not D, tracked with better lungs in asthma
A Thorax study of 1,165 children and 1,041 adults with asthma found blood vitamin A levels tracked with better lung function, while vitamin D did nothing measurable in children.
Jul 26, 2026
NewsWalking tracked with less dementia, nearly as much as running
A Lancet Public Health study followed 107,036 US health professionals for over 30 years and found walking tracked with lower dementia risk almost as strongly as vigorous exercise.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsVitamin 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
NewsWeekend workouts tracked bone health as well as daily ones
Two national datasets, 6,972 Americans and 52,989 Britons wearing wrist monitors, compared people who cram exercise into one or two days with those who spread it out. Bone density was similar, fractures slightly rarer in the weekend group.
Aug 8, 2026
NewsWeekend 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
NewsMedicare wellness visits raised early memory diagnoses by 28%
Researchers matched 66,443 pairs of Texas Medicare patients. Those who took the free annual wellness visit were far likelier to have mild cognitive impairment caught.
Jul 31, 2026
NewsLosing a tenth of body weight tracked seven times the odds of cirrhosis recovering
Decompensated cirrhosis is treated as one-way: once the liver fails, the list is transplant or palliation. Among 344 patients, 64 climbed back out, and weight loss was the strongest thing separating them.
Sep 6, 2026
NewsYo-yo dieting was tied to muscle loss on body scans
Researchers at UC San Francisco tracked 1,433 middle-aged adults with repeat MRI scans and found that people whose weight kept swinging lost more thigh muscle than those who stayed stable.
Jul 23, 2026
NewsDementia deaths peak in the suburbs, not the city or country
A JAMA Network Open study following 40.9 million people in England found dementia mortality highest at middle population density, and neighborhood conditions explained most of the gap.
Jul 27, 2026
NewsOnly 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
NewsHitting the wholegrain target tracked with less breast cancer
A European Journal of Nutrition study followed 36,479 Swedish women for a mean 16.5 years and found those eating at least 90 g of wholegrains a day had lower breast cancer rates.
Jul 29, 2026
NewsWildfire smoke sent more people to the ER with migraine
Across 997,701 emergency visits in Alberta and Ontario, wildfire particles tracked a 6% rise in headache visits. Ordinary air pollution at the same concentration did not.
Aug 2, 2026
NewsSlow yoga breathing helped anxiety on top of usual psychiatric care in 150 patients
150 people with diagnosed anxiety got routine psychiatric care, half of them plus eight weeks of slow yoga breathing. The breathing group improved on anxiety scores and cortisol. The comparison group added nothing at all.
Aug 24, 2026
NewsZinc 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
verdictZinc: uses, evidence, dosing and safety
Zinc has three evidence-backed uses: a lozenge for an adult's cold, a high-dose formula for existing macular degeneration, and children in places where deficiency is common. The daily immune capsule is not one of them.
Aug 3, 2026