The shortage of primary care physicians in rural America was already bad in 2017. Now, new data finds the situation has only gotten worse in the years since. Between 2017 and 2023, the number of family physicians dropped by another 11% in the rural U.S., according to researchers at the University of Rochester in New…  read on >  read on >

Pesticides used on commercial farms, and even your backyard flower bed, could be harming the healthy bacteria that live in your gut, new research suggests.  And it’s not only pesticides: British researchers found that other chemicals ubiquitous in modern homes — flame retardants and plastics compounds — may also be toxic to your “microbiome,” the…  read on >  read on >

Most kiddos ages 2 to 4 aren’t moving nearly enough each day, even when they attend preschool, a new UK study finds. Researchers tracked the activity levels of 419 preschoolers in England and Scotland using special activity belts called accelerometers. These devices recorded how much children moved during school days and days spent at home.…  read on >  read on >

Holiday meals have a way of sneaking up on party-goers. One bite of stuffing leads to a spoonful of potatoes… then suddenly the calories consumed have hit an all time high before the good stuff, like dessert, even starts. But it doesn’t have to end that way, a nutrition expert from UT Southwestern Medical Center,…  read on >  read on >

A pill version of semaglutide, the ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, did not slow the progress of Alzheimer’s disease, drugmaker Novo Nordisk announced Monday. In two Phase 3 trials, researchers tested an oral form of semaglutide in more than 3,800 adults with Alzheimer’s who were already receiving standard care. While the drug was safe and…  read on >  read on >

For decades, car safety tests were built around the body of an average man from the 1970s. Now, federal officials are taking a step to better protect women behind the wheel. The U.S. Transportation Department has approved a new female crash test dummy called THOR-05F, designed to better reflect how women’s bodies respond in a…  read on >  read on >

New clinical trial results bode well for what could be the first GLP-1 weight loss drug taken as a pill, not by injection. The daily pill, orforglipron, is currently under investigation by drugmaker Eli Lilly, which funded the study. In the 18-month trial, people with type 2 diabetes and obesity who took the highest (36…  read on >  read on >

Add one more malady to the potential risks from untreated sleep apnea: Parkinson’s disease. A new study involving 11 million U.S. veterans finds that a person’s odds of developing Parkinson’s nearly doubled if they were diagnosed with sleep apnea but hadn’t used a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device to help control it.  Having untreated…  read on >  read on >

A large majority of Americans now view obesity as a disease whose management, surgical or pharmaceutical, should be covered by insurance, according to a new poll. The online Harris poll was conducted in October among nearly 4,200 U.S. adults. The study was supported by the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), which represents the nation’s gastroenterological clinicians…  read on >  read on >

Women who stop taking a GLP-1 weight loss/diabetes medication just prior to a pregnancy appear to be at higher odds for excess weight gain and complications while pregnant, new research shows. As the study authors pointed out, potential risks to the fetus of using a GLP-1 while pregnant remain unclear, so current recommendations advise discontinuing…  read on >  read on >

Researchers are standing behind new data on how people’s posteriors reflect changes linked to aging and diabetes. Shrinkage or inflammation of the gluteus maximus muscles of the buttocks may reflect frailty, sitting time, fat deposition and diabetes risk, and these changes may occur differently among men and women, the British team said. “Unlike past studies…  read on >  read on >

Fitter bodies and muscles could keep brains young and fit, too, a new study suggests. “Healthier bodies with more muscle mass and less hidden belly fat are more likely to have healthier, youthful brains,” said study senior author Dr. Cyrus Raji, associate professor of radiology and neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis,…  read on >  read on >