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Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 23-Jun-2026 05:16 ET (23-Jun-2026 09:16 GMT/UTC)

Plastic pollution promotes hazardous water conditions, new study finds

University of California - San Diego
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new UC San Diego study reveals that fossil fuel-based plastic pollution may be promoting toxic water conditions by removing animals that keep water at safe levels. Biologically based plastics had a much smaller impact, the study found.

Journal: Communications Sustainability
Funder: UC San Diego’s Pathways in Biological Sciences Training Program

Gut bacteria may tip the balance between feeding tumors and fueling immunity

Weill Cornell Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study reveals how bacteria in the gut can help determine whether the amino acid asparagine from the diet will feed tumor growth or activate immune cells against the cancer, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. This casts the gut microbiome, comprising the trillions of microorganisms that live in the intestine, as a central player in the body's response to cancer and to modern cancer treatments like immunotherapies.

Journal: Cell Host & Microbe

Metformin shown to prevent Long COVID across risk groups in multiple randomized trials

University of Minnesota Medical School
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Multiple randomized clinical trials and electronic health record studies now show that metformin, a widely used and well-established medication, significantly reduces the risk of developing Long COVID when taken during or shortly after acute infection with SARS-CoV-2. The findings were published today in Clinical Infectious DiseasesExternal link that opens in the same window.

Journal: Clinical Infectious Diseases

New poll: most Americans would consider a plant-based alternative to chicken wings during Super Bowl

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Reports and Proceedings

It is estimated that Americans will consume 1.48 billion chicken wings during the Super Bowl, but a new Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine/Morning Consult poll finds that most Americans, 56%, would consider trying a plant-based alternative such as Baked Buffalo Cauliflower Bites while watching the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks on Feb. 8.

Sex determines the connection between diseases, according to a BSC study that exposes historical biases in public health

Barcelona Supercomputing Center
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Understanding how the efficacy of some widely used drugs—such as antidiabetics, chemotherapies, or bronchodilators—could depend on the patient's sex helped, in the long term, to reduce the risk of adverse effects.

“With this work, we opened the door to a precision medicine that no longer assumed that what worked for men necessarily worked for women.”

Journal: Communications Medicine

Breakthrough study reveals early neural circuit that determines food reward

University of Delaware
Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Delaware neuroscientists identified a previously unknown neural circuit in fruit flies that marks an early step in how the brain decides whether food is rewarding. The finding helps explain cravings and overeating and offers new clues to eating disorders and addiction.

Journal: Current Biology

High-deductible health plans and mortality among cancer survivors

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study of nationwide population-based data, high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) were associated with worse overall survival and cancer-specific survival among cancer survivors. However, HDHPs were not associated with mortality in adults without history of cancer. These data suggest that insurance coverage that financially discourages medical care may financially discourage necessary care and ultimately worsen cancer outcomes.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

New guide aims to tame the chaos of UTI care

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

With UTI now available from many virtual and non-traditional sources, a new expert consensus guide aims to give clinicians and patients clarity on who should get antibiotics without testing and who should get urine cultures before receiving them, to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance.

Journal: JAMA Network Open
Funder: Department of Veterans' Affairs

Early recognition and surgical management key in necrotizing fasciitis of the head and neck

Impact Journals LLC
Peer-Reviewed Publication

BUFFALO, NY — January 29, 2026 — A new research perspective was published in Volume 12 of Oncoscience on December 23, 2025, titled “Necrotizing fasciitis of the head and neck – clinical features, diagnostics, and management strategies.”

Journal: Oncoscience