Kratom poison calls up 6,500%; state bans fared best
A national analysis of US poison center data found kratom cases rose 65-fold in 13 years, and states that banned retail sale had the lowest rates of severe outcomes and hospital use.
Health News
Health News
The health headlines move fast and most coverage gets the science wrong. Every day, Dr. Ravi Kumar, MD, a board-certified neurosurgeon, cuts through the noise: what a new study or story actually says, what it doesn’t, and what it means for you. Researched, sourced, and reviewed before it’s published.
Air pollution left blood marks years before lung cancer
A new Nature Communications study found eight molecules in stored blood that tracked both with air pollution exposure and with a later lung cancer diagnosis, but the finding says more about who screening misses than about any test you could order.
Newer blood thinners tied to slower Alzheimer's decline
A Swedish nationwide registry study of 7,308 people with both atrial fibrillation and Alzheimer's disease found that those on newer anticoagulants declined more slowly on a standard memory test, and had fewer strokes, fractures and deaths, than those on no blood thinner at all.
Ultra-processed food tied to higher prostate cancer risk
A Florida Atlantic University analysis of 17,024 US men found that those getting more of their calories from ultra-processed foods reported prostate cancer 29% more often, though the survey design cannot show which came first.
Cannabis cut extra heartbeats 9% in a randomized trial
A UC San Francisco crossover trial found habitual cannabis users had about 9% fewer extra heartbeats on days they were assigned to inhale, the opposite of what the researchers predicted.
Online CBT for anxious kids held up at two years
A Finnish trial of 465 screened children found that a 10-module internet CBT program with weekly telephone coaching still beat digital psychoeducation on child-reported anxiety 24 months after randomization, though the effect was modest and the parent-reported gap shrank.
Alzheimer's blood test changed only 5% of memory diagnoses
A blood biomarker panel barely moved the diagnosis at specialist memory clinics, even as the same technology is being credited with a large accuracy jump in primary care.
Stair climbing tied to 39% lower heart death risk
A nine study meta-analysis of 480,479 adults links habitual stair climbing to sharply lower cardiovascular and overall death rates, but every study in it was observational.
Order cuts childhood vaccine list to 11 and splits MMR
The order sorts childhood vaccines into three tiers, moves hepatitis B, rotavirus, meningococcal, flu and COVID out of the universal list, and asks for a split MMR shot that no company currently makes in the United States.
Lettuce cyclospora outbreak kills 2, sickens 6,358
CDC has now linked 6,358 laboratory-confirmed cyclospora infections, 278 hospitalizations and two deaths in Michigan to iceberg lettuce processed by Taylor Farms de Mexico, in what has become the largest cyclosporiasis surge the United States has recorded.
Stopping statins after 75 did not raise 3-year deaths
A randomized trial in 1,160 French adults aged 75 and older found that stopping a preventive statin was no worse than continuing it for death rates over three years, even though LDL cholesterol rose by half.
Liver scans replace biopsy for scarring, not inflammation
A large prospective trial found scans and blood scores accurate enough to stage liver scarring without a needle, but no test could reliably detect the liver inflammation that determines who qualifies for the new MASH drugs.