Of 28 Links Between Everyday Drinks and Mouth Bacteria, Alcohol Claimed 25
A federal study of 5,598 Americans tied alcohol, mostly beer and liquor, to 25 of 28 links between drinks and mouth bacteria. It landed months after the Dietary Guidelines dropped their daily drink limits.
Drugs & FDABlood Pressure Fell Further on the Switched-Off Ear Clip Than on the Real Device
Daytime systolic pressure fell 5.50 points on a zero-current fake ear clip and 3.15 on the active device. Queen Mary's headline said the stimulation "shows potential."
Infectious DiseaseThe Hepatitis B Shot America Calls Essential on Day One: Ontario Gives It in Grade 7
Ontario's routine hepatitis B program starts in grade 7, and Canada reported four acute cases in children under 15 in 2021. In the U.S., a court order keeps the universal shot in the first hours of life.
InvestigationsThe Mucosal Immunologist His Own University Declared No COVID Expert
Robert Clancy spent his career on the airway immunity a shot in the arm was never built to raise. When the transmission promise collapsed, Newcastle had already ruled him no COVID expert.
Drugs & FDAThe FDA's 'Historic' Growing Heart Valve Has Been Stretched in Two Children
Children who get a new heart valve before age 2 can face up to five open-heart surgeries. Edwards' polymer valve is built to end that, and the trial behind its approval widened it in two of 62 kids.
InvestigationsMedical Chatbots Reached African Patients Before the Benchmark Meant to Grade Them
More than 500,000 people in Kenya texted an AI maternal-health line in 2024. The money to test tools like it arrived in 2026, and the global yardstick to grade them is still being built.
Drugs & FDAAfter 56 Years of 'No Accepted Medical Use,' the FDA Wants Help Testing Ibogaine
Howard Lotsof said one dose ended his heroin withdrawal in 1962. The same alkaloid can stop a heart. The FDA has opened 45 days of comment on how to test it without killing anyone.
Infectious DiseaseActors Faked Bird Flu at 69 ERs and Clinics, and Triage Still Asked the 2016 Question
The actor's secret was a sick duck from Central Park, and only 7 of 73 triage desks asked about animals. Ten years after New York's first mystery-patient drills, the front door got slower.
Metabolic & WeightA Cleanup Enzyme Fades as Fatty Liver Turns Dangerous, and Restoring It Cut the Damage in Mice
Cedars-Sinai researchers found liver cells lose an enzyme called UBE2N as fatty liver slides toward scarring, and restoring it reduced fat, inflammation and scarring in mice. It lands just as MASH has become a drug market.
CancerMerck and Moderna Say Their Melanoma Vaccine Worked, but Two Months On the Public Still Hasn't Seen by How Much
Merck and Moderna have announced only that their phase 3 met its endpoints. The smaller trial behind the excitement missed the conventional two-sided significance bar, and one bank has modeled a price as high as $475,000 per patient.
Brain & AgingAfter 30 Hours Awake, a 20-Minute Bike Ride Saved About as Much Memory as a 90-Minute Nap
Sleepless volunteers who cycled for 20 minutes recognized nearly as many photos three days later as those given a 90-minute nap, even though the ride left their fatigue markers right where they were.
Drugs & FDAKennedy's Peptide Plan Reaches the White House, and Wall Street Is Already Counting the Money
Peptides already sell on a Queens bodega shelf, so moving them into licensed pharmacies is progress. Whether it protects anyone depends on one missing rule: test each lot and report every injury.
Brain & AgingWhen the Shocks Stopped, People With Insomnia Got More Aroused, Not Less
In a third analysis of the same Boston volunteers, people with insomnia grew more aroused once the shocks stopped. The signal showed up only after engineers modeled the slow background sweat, and the next-day test missed significance.
Brain & AgingIn a Toronto Husky Study, Owners Moved First More Than Twice as Often as Their Dogs
Earlier sensor studies had the dog moving and the owner following. Among 22 synchronized Toronto owner-dog pairs, the human led in 10 and the dog in 4, and bedsharing showed no significant link to owners' measured sleep.
InvestigationsIn Pfizer's Pivotal Trial, a Volunteer's Pericarditis Became a 'Suspected COVID' Case That Counted Against No One
The only Argentine site in Pfizer's pivotal trial was run by the same doctor who authored the results, and when a 35-year-old developed pericarditis after his second dose, the records moved the episode off the vaccine's ledger.
Infectious DiseaseForty-Five Years After Acyclovir, the FDA's Herpes Headline Is a Warning Letter to Amazon
Some 520 million people carry the virus behind most genital herpes, and no drug clears it. The FDA's October move was a warning letter over herpes ointments and washes sold on Amazon.
Infectious DiseaseA Siberian Plague Lab Lost a Scientist, and Moscow Is Asking for the Trust It Burned at Sverdlovsk
Daria Shipilova, 28, studied plague in Irkutsk until a severe pneumonia killed her, and about 200 people were quarantined. The biology says stay calm. The history says make Moscow show its work.
Drugs & FDAThe FDA's Former Biologics Chief Says Public Health Can't See the Next Disaster Coming
Vinay Prasad ran the FDA's biologics center until this spring. His warning: the apparatus chases lettuce recalls and measles while a blood test for dozens of cancers heads toward Medicare with its central question unanswered.
InvestigationsThe MAHA Summit Charged Corporations Up to $300,000 for a Seat Beside the Officials Who Regulate Them
UnitedHealth got a panel. Grail, whose cancer test sat before the FDA, helped foot the bill. The regenerative ranchers and pesticide experts were nowhere on the program.
InvestigationsThe Fibroid Procedure That Spares the Uterus: Its Best Head-to-Head Evidence Was Paid For by the Device Maker
Radiofrequency ablation matched myomectomy on two-year symptom relief in a randomized trial. The device maker paid for that trial, and the durability question it cannot answer is the one that matters most.
Infectious DiseaseMonths After the FDA Recalled These Frozen Clams, No One Can Say Which Ecuadorian Waters Contaminated Them
Thirty-seven people across four states, thirty of them hospitalized, all linked to La Serranita black-shell clams imported frozen from Ecuador. The source waters are still under investigation.
InvestigationsThe Study Being Used to Close the Vaccine-Death Question Can't Rule Out Zero Excess Deaths in New Zealand
New Zealand's headline pandemic death study was co-authored by one of the country's most visible COVID modellers, and its four-year estimate runs from 1,134 fewer deaths than expected to 2,927 more. The modellers are calling it settled.
Drugs & FDAFour Years After Congress Dropped the Animal-Testing Requirement for New Drugs, the FDA Finally Updated Its Rulebook to Match
The FDA's direct final rule swaps 'animal studies' for 'nonclinical studies' across its regulations. It eliminates no animal testing, moves no evidentiary bar, and sets up no program to prove the alternatives it now invites actually work.
InvestigationsBrain on Fire: Ottawa's Vaccine-Injury Program Spent More on Its Contractor Than on the Injured
Fifty injured Canadians testified in Ottawa over four days, and Health Canada did not show. The compensation program has spent more on its contractor's overhead than on the people it was built to pay.