Health

Pure, natural spring water, just as nature intended. Well, not exactly.Bottled water has long been marketed as a safer alternative to what comes out of the tap—if it doesn’t come straight from a mountain spring, it’s at least purified and chemical free. But a new study by scientists at Columbia University and Rutgers University demonstrates that bottled water may be far worse when it comes to microscopic plastic pollutants capable of passing into the bloodstream.For years scientists have raised the alarm over the global spread of microplastics, which form when plastics break down into increasingly smaller fragments. The particles, which range in size from five millimeters (1/4 of an inch) down to 1 micrometer (1 millionth of a meter, or 1/25,000th of an inch) have been found at the top of ...

If you’re trying to improve your health, the first stop is likely to be your doctor’s office. But your own office may have nearly as much influence on well-being, according to a growing body of research that suggests your job can affect everything from mental health to risk of cardiovascular disease and how long you live.“Health happens everywhere,” says Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, chief medical officer for prevention at the American Heart Association. Given that the average employed U.S. adult spends more of their waking hours working than doing just about anything else, that includes the workplace, he says.Work-related stress is one culprit for health problems, since unmanaged stress can contribute to heart disease, insomnia, gastrointestinal issues, and other chronic conditions. Long hours on ...

Understanding diabetes today requires holding two conflicting realities in your head simultaneously.First, diabetes therapy has been revolutionized by a world of new drugs that have become available since the turn of the century—most notably, drugs of the same class as Wegovy and Ozempic that began their existence as diabetes medications and are now hailed as wonder drugs for treating obesity. These drugs do the best job yet of controlling blood sugar and, of course, body weight, which is critical for those Type 2 diabetes, the common form of the disease that constitutes over 90 percent of cases and is associated with age and obesity. For type 1 diabetes, the acute condition that typically strikes in childhood and adolescence, new devices—continuous blood sugar monitors and automated insul...

You are what you eat, as the saying goes. But it might be more accurate to say you feel how you eat, since the burgeoning field of nutritional psychiatry suggests your diet plays an important role in your mental health. The right mix of foods and nutrients may serve as a buffer against stress, anxiety, depression, and a range of other psychological issues, research suggests. Studies have shown, for example, that people who follow a Mediterranean diet—one heavy on fruits, vegetables, legumes, olive oil, and fish—tend to have lower risks for depression than people who don’t. Piling your plate with foods like these may even be better for mental health than social support, a known psychological booster, according to a study from 2017.There may not be an immediately obvious link between what go...

Hearing loss has huge consequences, but you might not know that based on how infrequently it’s treated. Roughly a third of adults who develop hearing loss report never seeing a physician about it—in part because of stigma and fear surrounding aging, disability, and hearing aids.Dr. Janet Choi, an otolaryngologist at Keck Medicine of USC who herself wears a hearing aid, wanted to know how the devices might affect a person’s long-term health. Previous research has shown that adults with untreated hearing loss have shorter lifespans than those without any hearing loss—but what about those who use hearing aids, she wondered? In her new study, out Jan. 3 in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, Choi and her co-authors found that the regular use of hearing aids is associated with a 24% reduction in mort...

Thirty years after tomatoes became the first genetically modified produce sold in the U.S., lots of people remain skeptical of science-ified foods. In a 2020 Pew Research Center survey, just 27% of Americans said they felt genetically modified foods are safe to eat, while 38% said they’re unsafe and 33% weren’t sure.That’s not only a U.S. phenomenon. In the Philippines, for example, activists have been protesting the production of Golden Rice, a type of genetically modified rice harvested at scale for the first time last year. Unlike regular rice, Golden Rice is engineered to contain beta carotene, an addition meant to counter vitamin A deficiency and resulting vision loss. But opponents argue the rice has not been through adequate testing and that there are safer and healthier ways for pe...

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Friday cleared the way for Florida's first-in-the-nation plan to import prescription drugs from Canada, a long-sought approach to accessing cheaper medications that follows decades of frustration with U.S. drug prices.Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the plan into law in 2019, but it required federal review and approval by the FDA, which controls prescription drug imports.Democratic President Joe Biden has backed such programs as a way to lower prices, signing an executive order in 2021 that directed the FDA to work with states on imports.The policy change represented a shift after years of successful lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry, which said imports would expose U.S. patients to risks of counterfeit or adulterated drugs. The FD...

The New Year rings in new goals, expectations and beginnings—which for some includes a temporary break from drinking alcohol. Dry January—a month-long feat to be sober—officially launched as a campaign in 2013 under the organization Alcohol Change UK, though the practice has roots that extend as far back as 1942, when Finland had their own “Sober January” to help in the war against the Soviet Union. Alcohol Change UK is a charity that focuses on reducing the harm caused by alcohol in society.In 2023, at least 175,000 people signed up to participate in Dry January on the Alcohol Change UK website. That same year, 15% of U.S. adults, which amounts to more than 260 million Americans, pledged to practice Dry January.  The campaign has flourished during a period of increased alcohol consumption...

2023 was a strong year for innovative new drugs, with new medications for Alzheimer’s disease, weight loss, and the first treatment based on the gene-editing technology CRISPR.But 2024 is also shaping up to be a milestone year for some exciting therapies. Here's what to expect.Another new Alzheimer's drugEli Lilly could debut a new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease that targets amyloid, the protein that builds up in the brains of patients. In studies that the company has submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval, people receiving the drug experienced 35% slower cognitive decline according to cognitive tests than those getting placebo, and 40% less decline in their ability to perform daily activities such as driving or holding conversations. That’s a slightly hi...

It’s no secret that fruits and veggies are good for you. But a new Netflix show, You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment, shows just how powerful—and fast-acting—they can be.The show features pairs of adult identical twins who participated in a study published in November 2023. For eight weeks, everyone in the study ate a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes and low in sugars and refined starches. But one twin from each pair was assigned to eat only these plant-based foods, while the other also ate animal products such as chicken, fish, eggs, and dairy.Both groups saw improvements in their cholesterol levels and modest reductions in weight over the eight weeks, but those trends were more dramatic among twins who followed the vegan diet. Average fasting insulin levels—...