THE MEDICAL NEWS

As the COVID-19 pandemic upended virtually every aspect of people's lives, one critical question loomed large for millions of low-income and underserved healthcare patients: Would they still be able to see their own doctor?

Researchers found that cigarette smoke extract disrupted the lung cell barrier, increased IL-6 inflammation, and caused DNA damage in Calu-3 cells, while e-cigarette vapor extract showed no significant adverse effects on these measures under the study conditions. The authors caution that these were in vitro findings using liquid extracts and unflavored e-liquid, so they do not directly predict lo…

A national survey of 145 registered dietitians found wide variation in how the low FODMAP diet’s reintroduction phase is delivered, especially in dosing, timing, sequencing, and follow-up. The findings suggest that clearer, evidence-based protocols could improve consistency while still allowing individualized care.

This Nature Communications review argues that rat hepatitis E virus is an emerging zoonotic cause of hepatitis that is likely underdiagnosed because current tests are limited and awareness remains low. It shows that ratHEV is widespread in urban rodent populations, can infect humans and some other animals, and may spread mainly through indirect environmental exposure rather than direct rodent con…

In a repeated-measures study of 18 eumenorrheic female athletes, half-squat strength was highest in the late follicular phase and around ovulation, while handgrip strength peaked in the late luteal phase. Psychological measures also shifted across the cycle, with lower vigor and higher fatigue and depression scores in the late luteal phase, supporting more individualized training monitoring.

When in life we gain weight can have a significant impact on our health many years later. In a study involving over 600,000 people, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have investigated how changes in weight between the ages of 17 and 60 are linked to the risk of dying from various diseases

Late breaking results from the phase III NRG GY019 trial indicate that letrozole monotherapy (L) did not demonstrate non inferiority to paclitaxel/carboplatin followed by letrozole (PC/L) for progression free survival (PFS) in patients with newly diagnosed stage II-IV low grade serous carcinoma of the ovary or peritoneum.