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Diet drinks showed no clear weight-loss edge over water after two years

In a two-year randomized trial combining assisted weight management with an unassisted follow-up year, completers maintained average weight losses of 4.8 kg with diet drinks and 3.7 kg with water. Researchers found no significant difference between groups, but fewer than half of the 493 participants completed follow-up.

11 Oct 2026

Long-term cannabis use may disrupt sleep without noticeable symptoms

Millions of Americans use cannabis products as sleep aids, but a new Northwestern Medicine study suggests marijuana may not improve sleep the way many people believe it does.

9 Oct 2026

Cyberbullying acts as an extension of in-person school violence

A new study of 4,200 adolescents revealed that cyberbullying rarely occurs in isolation; it almost always functions as an extension of physical and verbal aggression already present in the school environment.

9 Oct 2026

Early-onset Alzheimer's patients accumulate symptoms years before diagnosis

People who develop Alzheimer's disease before the age of 65 experience a growing range of health problems and increasing use of healthcare services years before diagnosis.

9 Oct 2026

Cranberry juice doesn’t affect every woman the same way

Cranberry juice's effectiveness against UTIs varies among women due to metabolic differences, impacting urinary anti-adhesion activity and pathogen response.

6 Oct 2026

Women entering menopause early report increased anxiety and depression

A study by the University of Oulu has found that women who entered menopause earlier than usual reported more symptoms of anxiety and depression than women of the same age who had not yet entered menopause.

6 Oct 2026

Enlicitide offers oral treatment option for patients avoiding cholesterol injections

In 2015, a new class of cholesterol-lowering injectable drugs called PCSK9-inhibitors was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a result of clinical research led by UT Southwestern.

5 Oct 2026

Working nights for years is linked to changes in body-clock genes

Chronic night shifts alter circadian gene activity in female healthcare workers.

5 Oct 2026

NIH-funded trials will test pregnenolone for addiction and depression

Center for BrainHealth investigator Francesca Filbey, PhD, and UTSW investigator Sherwood Brown, MD, PhD, have secured two awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund two major collaborative studies investigating whether the naturally occurring neurosteroid pregnenolone can help treat substance use disorders and co-occurring depression.

1 Oct 2026

Esophageal cancer leaves a distinct metabolic signature in the gut

The study uncovers gut microbial and metabolic signatures in esophageal cancer, emphasizing lipid dysregulation and its potential role in disease progression.

1 Oct 2026

UC San Diego receives funding to establish the Polysubstance Addiction Research Center

Researchers from University of California San Diego have received a $12.6 million award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to establish the Polysubstance Addiction Research Center (PARC), a multidisciplinary center designed to uncover the biological factors that contribute to addiction across multiple substances.

30 Sep 2026

High-dose taurine aggravates alcohol-induced liver injury, study shows

The researchers first tested whether taurine could compensate for reduced intestinal taurine availability and protect against alcohol-induced liver damage.

30 Sep 2026

Overall dietary patterns matter more for heart health than nutrients

A healthy, balanced dietary pattern, rather than one focused on individual nutrients or foods is key to maintaining heart health, according to a Scientific Statement issued by the American College of Cardiology and published in JACC, its flagship journal.

30 Sep 2026

Living environments and lifestyle factors may contribute to faster adult biological aging

Researchers from the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, found that biological aging may accelerate already in early adulthood.

30 Sep 2026

Researchers found a curious mitochondrial pattern in people who moved more

Researchers found that greater self-reported activity, walking, and accelerometer-measured light activity were associated with higher mitochondrial DNA copy number in 256 healthy middle-aged adults. The cross-sectional findings cannot establish causation, and the very low amount of vigorous activity means they do not show that light movement is more beneficial than higher-intensity exercise.

29 Sep 2026

Weekly isometric exercise may maintain short-term blood pressure reductions

Reductions in blood pressure may be maintained over the short term with just one or two sessions of isometric exercise training a week, suggest the findings of research published online in the journal BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine.

29 Sep 2026

Heated tobacco users had more hypertension, but the story is not that simple

A large Japanese real-world cohort study found that current heated tobacco product users had a higher risk of developing hypertension than never-smokers in the primary adjusted analysis. However, the association weakened in several sensitivity analyses, and the observational study could not separate the effects of current heated tobacco use from previous cigarette exposure.

27 Sep 2026

Hospital overcrowding drives increasing violence against emergency healthcare workers

Seventy-five percent of workers in emergency medical departments and services have witnessed violence in the past year, according to a survey of over 1,300 health professionals in 81 countries worldwide.

25 Sep 2026

Intuitive eating may be linked to more than a healthier relationship with food

A cross-sectional study of 1,057 U.S. adults examined how intuitive eating relates to stress, sleep, physical activity, substance use, diet, self-rated health, and self-reported cardiometabolic conditions. Higher intuitive eating scores were associated with several favorable health indicators, although the study cannot establish causality or determine the direction of these relationships.

25 Sep 2026

New accreditation framework improves drug and alcohol care for veterans

Embedding veteran identification within existing accreditation processes under the AOD National Quality Framework – a national policy mechanism that requires treatment providers to be accredited against an approved quality standard – offers a practical means of strengthening and improving responsiveness to veterans' needs.

23 Sep 2026