Wellness
Wellness, explained daily: the document behind the headline, the figure with its unit, and who pays. From on the article.
- Arm cycling helped hearts in spinal cord injury. Nobody measured if life got easier — Cochrane reviewed 17 trials of exercise after spinal cord injury; fitness rose, but daily function stayed unmeasured well.
- A pill for dermatomyositis arrives with no augmentation-therapy caveat attached — The FDA approved brepocitinib for dermatomyositis, a disease affecting up to 70,000 Americans with no dedicated drug until now.
- The IV drip that treats a deficiency and adds exacerbations — Cochrane found intravenous AAT therapy raised yearly exacerbations to 1,960 per 1,000 people, versus 1,420 on placebo.
- No cancer screening guideline covers a nursing home resident — No major guideline addresses long-term care residents; 8.1% of women 75+ reach stage 4 breast cancer.
- Two patch materials, one operation, no clear winner after 4,971 patients — Synthetic and biological neck-artery patches show no meaningful difference in stroke or death risk after 80 months.
- The advanced-cancer drop that got smaller under a magnifying glass — Adjunctive ultrasound cut advanced breast cancer by 1.08% vs 1.14% at 180 months in Japan’s J-START trial.
- Three minutes of sprinting beat 45 minutes of jogging, on paper — A trial found short sprints alter more blood proteins tied to metabolic health than long moderate exercise sessions do.
- “Wellness Month” has no owner and no metric — August's "National Wellness Month" has no federal registry, no funder disclosure, and no way to measure if it works.
- Your fitness tracker may be stressing you out — A new survey links constant health tracking to anxiety. The data on why is more specific than the headline.
- Ferrero bought Purely Elizabeth. Here’s what that means — Ferrero paid $850 million for a granola brand. The math on "healthy" acquisitions rarely tracks with what's inside the box.
- Your doctor’s office now wants your Apple Watch data — Health systems are pulling wearable data into patient records. The evidence for what that improves is thinner than the pitch.
- The $60 billion aisle with a one-page evidence file — Most supplements sold have no demonstrated benefit for the people buying them. The exceptions are knowable.
- Ten thousand steps was marketing. Seven thousand holds up. — The famous target came from a pedometer ad. The dose-response research found the real curve.
- The ice bath, measured in effect sizes — Cold plunges promise everything. The trial literature supports a shorter, more interesting list.
- Protein is having a decade. The evidence is narrower. — Protein sells everything from water to cereal. What the requirement research actually supports.
- Your sleep score is a guess in a nice font — Wearables measure movement and pulse well, sleep stages poorly, and the anxiety they generate has a name.
- The weight-loss drugs are rewriting grocery maths — GLP-1 medicines changed appetites at population scale, and the food industry is re-running its forecasts.