News Roundup

…and other items from this week’s health science news: Sometimes, simplest is best A recent 24-week randomized clinical trial involving 96 adults aged 18–45 with early-onset type 2 diabetes and obesity, recruited in the UK and Canada, found that 54% of those following an intensive diet and exercise program achieved remission, compared with 4% receiving…

…and other items from this week’s health science news: Of mice and mushrooms Recent research (yes, in mice so far, but the ethics board wouldn’t let the researchers slice up the brains of human volunteers) has shown how psilocybin-based drugs could stimulate the brain’s capacity to remodel neural circuits without producing psychedelic effects, which is…

…and other items from this week’s health science news: Were you aware of these? The hidden problem: sometimes, a substance might not be too dangerous by itself, and so doesn’t get outright banned, but can become dangerous in the presence of certain other substances. In a recent study, breast tissue organoids were exposed to individual…

…and other items from this week’s health science news: It can make quite a difference It’s often said that late-night snacking is bad for metabolic health, with a common claim being that it increases fat storage. But what about the liver, specifically? Researchers analyzed self-reported diet and lifestyle data from almost 200,000 participants in three…

…and other items from this week’s health science news: One thing and another Certain things often come together, with one thing leading to another, whether by direct causality (i.e. one thing causes another), or because they are each caused by the same underlying factors. Cardiometabolic disease is one of those situations. So, after a diagnosis…

…and other items from this week’s health science news: Which way does the relationship go, really? Sleep problems have been reported by 64.1% of people with migraine, compared with 38.7% of people without headaches and 45.4% of those with tension-type headaches. The latter difference suggests that there maybe something more at hand here than just…

…and other items from this week’s health science news: We think you’ll like the sound of this Researchers (Dr. Tomohiro Umeda et al.) found that ultrasound can help vs muscle stiffness. The deep-muscle challenge: the soleus is a major calf muscle located beneath the gastrocnemius, making it harder to target with approaches such as stretching,…

…and other items from this week’s health science news: Where there’s smoke… Obviously smoking is bad for all aspects of health, so what’s with the fact that in studies, regular smokers had significantly higher levels of exhaled carbon monoxide (CO), and they had about a 30% lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than non-smokers? Researchers…

…and other items from this week’s health science news: The world’s smallest bladder First, why UTIs return: uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC), the main cause of UTIs, can invade bladder cells and establish protected bacterial “reservoirs” deep within the bladder wall. These hidden bacteria can survive antibiotic treatment and later trigger another infection. However, standard antibiotic…

…and other items from this week’s health science news: The brain needs hormones too Women get Alzheimer’s at nearly twice the rate than men do, and deteriorate more rapidly after onset, too. It’s tempting to think that estrogen might be to blame, but Alzheimer’s typically happens after menopause, so what gives? A recent study followed…

…and other items from this week’s health science news: Best of both worlds? GLP-1 receptor agonists are well-known for their weight-loss efficacy, but the problem is that reducing overall food intake typically results in muscle loss as well as fat loss. That’s a big problem, especially as we get older and maintaining muscle becomes 1)…

…and other items from this week’s health science news: Estradiol up your brain health Researchers (Dr. Jennifer Bruno et al.) looked at data from 21,462 women on HRT or not (and for the sake of simplicity, looked only at estrogen-only HRT, to avoid confounding factors), and had the following main results: The benefits may be…