Health Care-Prevention
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Salad chain Sweetgreen is caving to conspiracy theories about seed oils. Why?
by Aimee Levitt 21/1/25 The Guardian
It’s January, season of resolutions and virtue, when Americans collectively decide to throw out the butter and sugar and booze and embrace grain bowls and bone broth. Most of these resolutions – 80%, according to some studies – will fade by February, Super Bowl Sunday at the latest, so advertisers pushing dietary health trends have to strike fast.
'Harmless' virus might trigger Parkinson's disease, researchers say
by Dennis Thompson 9/7/25 Medical x press
"HPgV is a common, symptomless infection previously not known to frequently infect the brain," lead researcher Dr. Igor Koralnik, chief of neuroinfectious diseases and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said in a news release. "We were surprised to find it in the brains of Parkinson's patients at such high frequency and not in the controls."
Kennedy touts ultra-processed meals he once called ‘poison’
by Jessica Glenza 9/7/25 The Guardian
The US health secretary appeared at an enormous food plant in Oklahoma for a company called Mom’s Meals, which makes 1.5m “medically tailored” meals each week and ships them all over the country.
Ready to cold plunge? We dive into the science to see if it's worth it
Your body's first reaction to a plunge in chilly water is the "cold shock" response. Your heart rate jumps. Stress hormones spike. You gasp suddenly, and may hyperventilate.
Nighttime pistachio snacking may reshape gut microbiome in prediabetic adults
by Jose Calatrava 7/7/25 Pennstate
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Prediabetes affects a third of people in the United States and most of them will develop Type 2 diabetes, yet effective dietary intervention strategies remain limited. Pistachios have shown promise in improving markers of diet quality, yet little is known about how they influence the gut microbiome — a key player in glucose regulation and inflammation.
Why Evangelicals Turned Their Back on PEPFAR
by Peter Wehner 6/7/25 The Atlantic
In parts of Botswana, 75 percent of pregnant women had HIV. Most diseases kill the very old and the very young, “but this disease was killing the most productive and reproductive parts of society,” Dybul recalled in 2018. “So not only were many households run by orphans, but entire villages were run by orphans, because everyone else was dead.”
Should I worry about ticks?
by Joel Snape 16/7/23 The Guardian
As arachnid superorders go, ticks are pretty evolutionarily successful. They’ve been around for at least 100 million years in one variety or another, with their main party trick – hanging around until they can latch a host to feed on – working on thousands of different animals across almost endless environments. But how concerned should you be about them in the UK? You won’t miss the blood they take, but they can cause a variety of unpleasant conditions in their hosts – and there’s some evidence that their population is growing.
Children need the freedom to play on driveways and streets again – here’s how to make it happen
by Debbie Watson 4/6/25 THE CONVERSATION
In many cases, children don’t have easy access to purpose-built spaces like playgrounds. They need adults to get them there. Without the use of more informal spaces to spend time with other children, this means they often lack daily opportunities for play.
Wearables Aren't Going to 'Make America Healthy Again'
by Beth Skwarecki 1/7/25 LIFEHACKER
Health and fitness wearables can do many things, but they really can’t do much to make people healthier—no matter what U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., says in front of Congress.
5 ways Trump's megabill will limit health care access
The bill, passed in both the House and the Senate without a single Democratic vote, is expected to reverse many of the health coverage gains of the Biden and Obama administrations. Their policies made it easier for millions of people to access health care and reduced the U.S. uninsured rate to record lows, though Republicans say the trade-off was far higher costs borne by taxpayers and increased fraud.
Why Texas Republicans still oppose Medicaid expansion
by Kim Krisberg and David Leffler 7/11/22 THE TEXAS TRIBUNE
Eighteen percent of Texans don’t have health insurance — the highest rate in the nation — and Johnson had already filed five pieces of legislation that session to use Medicaid expansion to get as many as 1.2 million of those people insured.
New polymer-coated vitamins and minerals
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/11/new-polymer-coated-vitamins-and-minerals-could-fight-malnutrition-low-income-countries Science Mag 11/13/19
Frustrated by such failures, health policy experts at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington, sought the help of Jaklenec and her supervisor, Robert Langer, an MIT chemical engineer who has pioneered numerous dissolvable coatings for protecting and delivering fragile medicines. Jaklenec, Langer, and their colleagues initially considered more than 50 different polymer coatings that were stable in boiling water but would dissolve in the stomach’s acidic environment. After narrowing the list to 10 candidates and studying each closely, they settled on a polymer known as BMC. A protective coating in dietary supplements, BMC is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (and therefore considered safe). The MIT team coated 11 micronutrient powders in BMC, including iron, zinc, folate, vitamin A, and vitamin D. They also coated microparticles containing up to four different vitamins and minerals. Lab testing showed that all stood up well to heat, ultraviolet light, and even 2 hours straight of being cooked in boiling water. The particles also readily dissolved in a low pH solution meant to mimic stomach acid.
U.S. life expectancy plunged in 2020, with Black Americans acutely affected.
Thursday’s figures give the first full picture of the pandemic’s effect on American expected life spans, which dropped to 77.8 years from 78.8 years in 2019. It also showed a deepening of racial and ethnic disparities: Life expectancy of the Black population declined by 2.7 years in the first half of 2020, after 20 years of gains. The gap between Black and white Americans, which had been narrowing, is now at six years, the widest since 1998. Still, unlike the drop caused by the extended, complex problem of drug overdoses, this one, driven largely by Covid-19, is not likely to last as long because virus deaths are easing and people are being vaccinated. In 1918, when hundreds of thousands of Americans died in the flu pandemic, life expectancy declined 11.8 years from the previous year, Dr. Arias said, down to 39. Numbers fully rebounded the following year.
Health Check: why swimming in the sea is good for you
https://theconversation.com/health-check-why-swimming-in-the-sea-is-good-for-you-68583 the Conversation December 25, 2016 3.41pm EST
Historically, doctors would recommend their patients go to the seaside to improve various ills. They would actually issue prescriptions detailing exactly how long, how often and under what conditions their patients were to be in the water. Using seawater for medical purposes even has a name: thalassotherapy.
To this day, healing and spa resorts by the seaside abound. They are thought of as places where people can not only let go of their troubles but, in some cases, even cure arthritis.
Little-known nutrient can boost your brain and fight cancer
by Jordan Joseph 26/6/25 earth.com
The work centers on queuosine, a vitamin‑like micronutrient we must borrow from food or friendly gut bacteria.
Scientists Just Discovered a Surprising Benefit of Turmeric
by Lauren Manaker 24/6/25 NEW STUDY
A new review of studies found that turmeric may help improve blood pressure, cholesterol and more. Older people without dementia experienced better cognitive health while taking turmeric.
Some ultra-processed foods are good for your health, WHO-backed study finds
by Denis Campbell 13/11/23 The Guardian
Some ultra-processed foods increase the risk of developing cancer, heart disease and diabetes – but others are good for you, new research into the demonised foodstuffs suggests.
Can multivitamins improve memory?
A team of researchers wanted to assess how a daily multivitamin may influence cognitive aging and memory. They tracked about 3,500 older adults who were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial. One group of participants took a placebo, and another group took a Silver Centrum multivitamin, for three years. The participants also took tests, administered online, to evaluate memory.
Just add sugar: Research shows common antioxidant can be more beneficial through glycosylation
by Sydney Dahle 14/6/23 PHYS ORG
Polyphenols are a class of compounds found in many plant-based foods. Polyphenols help prevent cellular damage in the body and can help to prevent diseases such as cancer or heart disease. However, many of them do not dissolve in water, making it difficult to fully take advantage of their health benefits.
RFK Jr.’s made promises about vaccines. Here’s what he’s done as health secretary
by Associated Press 30/6/25 National Politics
During his Senate confirmation hearings, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested he wouldn’t undermine vaccines.
Here is how we know that vaccines do not cause autism
Vaccines do not cause autism. You’ve almost certainly read that before — probably hundreds of times. But many people do not believe it, perhaps because too often it is repeated without a real explanation of how we know that.
Children die as USAID aid cuts snap a lifeline for the world’s most malnourished
For years, the United States Agency for International Development had been the backbone of the humanitarian response in northeastern Nigeria, helping non-government organizations provide food, shelter and healthcare to millions of people. But this year, the Trump administration cut more than 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall assistance around the world.
30-Min ‘Japanese Walking’ Trend Goes Viral As Expert Says It Beats 10,000 Steps
The fix-all “10,000 steps per day” method credited with longevity and healthy aging has been bettered by a surprisingly easier fitness hack.
Yoga teachers 'risking serious hip problems'
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-50181155BBC News 11/03/2019
Mr Matthews says the amount of yoga teachers do, as well as the fact they might not be doing any other kind of exercise, can explain the problems that develop......."They might be doing yoga six days a week and think that's enough, without doing any other kind of exercise, like cardio or cross training," he says...."It's like anything. If you do the same thing again and again, there can be problems. You need to mix it up in terms of the kind of exercise you do.
