Resources & Information

MedPage Today
July 30, 2025
Common respiratory infections such as COVID-19 and the flu may be able to awaken dormant breast cancer cells that have spread to the lungs and promote the development of new metastatic tumors, researchers suggested.

Using findings from a mouse model, this conclusion was corroborated with observational data in humans that showed increases in death and metastatic lung disease among cancer survivors infected with SARS-CoV-2, reported James DeGregori, PhD, of the University of Colorado Cancer Center in Aurora, and colleagues in Nature.

NPR
July 28, 2025
Scientists have unveiled the strongest evidence yet that a combination of diet, exercise and brain training can improve thinking and memory in older Americans.

ScienceNews
July 28, 2025
Our brains might prime our immune system merely by seeing someone who looks sick. A study published July 28 in Nature Neuroscience found that participants who saw sick-looking faces in virtual reality showed changes in brain activity related to personal space monitoring and threat detection. Additionally, the activity of certain immune cells in the blood increased. The study is “unique in demonstrating that people’s immune system can be primed just by the visual recognition that someone looks sick,” says Michael Irwin, a psychoneuroimmunologist at UCLA who was not involved in the work. “That’s really remarkable.”

MedicalNewsToday
July 24, 2025
Unpaid medical bills can cause stress and worry. A person may be unaware of the right questions to ask regarding payment. However, various forms of financial assistance can help. Medical billing systems can be complex, and patients may not be aware of the true costs of treatment before receiving it. It is important to get the right help when understanding medical bills to avoid facing late fees, lawsuits regarding unpaid bills, legal issues, and low credit scores.

Medpage Today
July 23, 2025
“Although 10,000 steps per day, an unofficial target for decades without a clear evidence base, was associated with substantially lower risks for all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease incidence, cancer mortality, dementia, and depressive symptoms than 7,000 steps per day, the incremental improvement beyond 7,000 steps per day was small, and there was no statistical difference between 7,000 steps per day and a higher step count for all the other outcomes,” the investigators wrote in Lancet Public Health.

Link to study: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(25)00164-1/fulltext

Today
July 23, 2025
The United States appears to be in the beginning of a summer wave of COVID-19, with data showing cases are on the rise in more than half of U.S. states. An uptick in transmission fueled by contagious new variants is causing an increasing number of Americans to come down with sore throats, fevers and other COVID symptoms — just in time for peak summer travel season.

As of July 15, COVID-19 infections are either growing or likely growing in 27 states, declining in one state and unchanged in 17 states, according to forecasting models from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nature
July 17, 2025
How does your brain wake up from sleep? A study of more than 1,000 arousals from slumber has revealed precisely how the brain bestirs itself during the transition to alertness — a finding that might help to manage sleep inertia, the grogginess that many people feel when hitting the snooze button. Recordings of people as they woke from the dream-laden phase of sleep showed that the first brain regions to rouse are those associated with executive function and decision-making, located at the front of the head. A wave of wakefulness then spreads to the back, ending with an area associated with vision.

NPR
July 14, 2025
For more than 30 years, Frank Frost worked as a long-distance truck driver, ferrying industrial chemicals across the United Kingdom. “I worked away from home six days a week, working up to 12-15 hours a day,” says Frost, now 76. “My only exercise was looking for a fast food outlet in the evening when I’d parked up.” He gained weight and was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in his 50s. His doctors put him on insulin injections and told him to lose weight and move more. Then, Frost met a doctor with a completely different approach — one that changed his life.

STATNews
July 14, 2025
When anti-vaccine activists and others argue that the immunizations used to protect children from infectious diseases are risky, they often point to aluminum salts, a product added to many childhood vaccines to increase their effectiveness.

A new large study from Denmark directly counters those claims. After mining the vaccination and medical records of more than 1.2 million children over a 24-year period, researchers could see no evidence that exposure to aluminum in vaccines led to a statistically significant increase in a child’s risk of developing any of a wide variety of conditions that can be diagnosed in childhood, including asthma and autism.

STATNews
July 14, 2025
Nicotine pouches like Zyn have exploded in popularity in the U.S. With that growth comes a steep increase in the risk of young children accidentally eating the pouches, with potentially serious consequences, according to a new study.

Overall, the study found 134,663 cases of young children inadvertently ingesting nicotine between 2010 and 2023, whether in the form of pouches, gum, tablets, or the liquid used in e-cigarettes. (The study was based on calls to America’s Poison Centers about children under age 6.) In most cases, the children were fine, though they may have experienced symptoms like nausea or vomiting. But the consequences can be severe: 1.2% had serious medical outcomes like seizures or respiratory failure, and two children, both under age 2, died after consuming liquid nicotine.