For how we live.
Service journalism, wearables, habits, and claims worth testing.
In 69 people across normal weight, overweight and type 2 diabetes, a stevia drink behaved like water — no shift in glucose, insulin, gut hormones, appetite or how much they ate next.
In nearly 12,000 US children, tree and park cover was linked to sharper directed attention and higher crystallized intelligence — and cleaner air seemed to explain part of it.
A Swiss study tracking people who switched to remote work found no measurable change across 13 health outcomes. A review of pandemic homeworking found the relationship varies so much that no consensus emerged.
A Shanghai study of 3,032 couples measured nutrients before conception. Predicted birth-defect prevalence fell across maternal B12 levels — and, more weakly, across paternal ones.
A meta-analysis of 78 studies found the menstrual cycle has at most a trivial effect on performance. A randomised trial found timing strength training to cycle phase built no more muscle than training consistently.
A meta-analysis of 30 randomised trials found fibre supplements work in IBS, with the benefit concentrated in psyllium. Wheat bran was the most-studied type and did not carry the effect.
A cohort of 4,018 children found nearly half were picky at some point, but two-thirds remitted within three years and prevalence fell to 13.2% by age 6. About 4% stayed persistently picky.
The association was strongest where the air was worst — which is the tell. A parallel US survey finds the indoor facilities are the ones vanishing from low-income neighbourhoods.
Across 29 studies the overall effect on chronic back pain was not significant. Split by whether the current was strong enough to be clearly felt, one subgroup showed a large effect and the other none.
The famous cigarette comparison is a communications gloss on a robust but observational finding: people with stronger social ties are markedly more likely to survive follow-up.
A matched study compared recreational runners, non-runners and adults with obesity, one triplet at a time. The first two groups were indistinguishable on structure and function. The third was not.
A tightly controlled crossover trial found late eating increased hunger, cut waking energy expenditure and shifted fat-tissue gene expression. The population data show a 17% higher odds of obesity.
The human intestinal-permeability literature lists endurance exercise, NSAIDs, pregnancy and surfactants as stressors. Coffee is not on that list, and alcohol's case is largely inferred.
In 2,292 hip fractures across six cities in Nagano, snowfall raised the odds of admission — until the models adjusted for how cold it was, at which point the association disappeared.
A study estimated semaglutide's class could be produced for under $75 a month; it lists near $1,000. The gap is patent protection, and in the US it runs to 2032.
Consumer clocks report an age, an age gap or a pace of ageing. Expert panels agree no single biomarker is sufficient — and clocks have failed to move when an intervention demonstrably worked.
Photobiomodulation raised skin temperature by 8 °C and left mitochondrial respiration exactly where it found it. Ketone esters across an eight-day stage race did nothing for performance, cognition or sleep.
A prospective study found that beginning intensive training before 27 months did not bring completion any sooner — and lengthened the process. Normal completion ages span well over a year.
Pooled across 216 participants, the devices beat control by 45.3% on inflammatory lesions. The trials are small, none of the devices tested is necessarily one now sold, and the market is barely regulated.
A UK survey of 26,322 urban adults finds a small but consistent life-satisfaction gain from neighbourhood greenery. A Stockholm study of 46,282 shows who ends up living without it.
A Lancet series covering 135 million person-years found the largest risk reductions in that range. Trials of isolated fibre supplements produce much smaller effects on much narrower outcomes.
Two meta-analyses tie an extra two cups a day to roughly a third lower risk of both liver cancer and cirrhosis, with decaf showing a smaller effect. It is all observational, and the evidence quality is graded very low.
Two large cohorts link purpose in life to lower mortality and lower Alzheimer's risk. Whether purpose protects health, or health sustains purpose, is what the studies cannot fully separate.
Participants on Magtein scored better on memory and reaction-time tests after six weeks. On sleep — the reason most people buy it — an Oura Ring found no measurable difference at all.
When a large firm moved everyone to a high-deductible plan, spending fell about 12-14%. The catch: people cut valuable and low-value care alike, and barely shopped on price.
In a study of 543,167 cycles, calendar-based apps misclassified a fertile day as safe in two-thirds of cycles. Apps that track a real biological signal do better, but plain calendar apps remain the most common kind.
A randomised trial gave one group unfiltered local honey and found no relief beyond placebo. A later trial found a benefit — using a dose of about 70 grams a day alongside an antihistamine.
OSHA and NIOSH use different rules for how fast allowable exposure falls as sound gets louder. WHO's venue standard permits an average of 100 decibels. The headline 'one billion at risk' figure is a modelled range.
A Cochrane review of 251,891 participants found no effect on total, cancer or cardiovascular mortality, at high certainty for the first two. The finding is about check-ups, not about all screening.
The gap between those two numbers is the whole argument. An individual-patient meta-analysis of 20,827 people found real effects on both comparisons, and found that the choice of sham changed the answer.
A Copenhagen team has just published the protocol for the first study designed to test whether reducing PFAS exposure changes anything. That it is still a protocol tells you where the evidence stands.
A systematic review of 113 studies found real biology in NAD+ supplementation — and not one eligible human trial testing the IV or IM version clinics actually sell for anti-aging.
A review screening 14,125 articles found evidence neither for nor against morning or evening training — only that testing and training at the same hour helps. Evening sessions may cost some sleep continuity.
Cochrane reviews covering more than 19,000 participants found no reduction in cold incidence from regular vitamin C, a possible reduction in duration from zinc, and a clear increase in adverse events.
The FDA's threshold traces to a Health Canada assessment and a 2017 systematic review of 381 studies. It describes a population, not a person, and the variation between people is large.
A placebo-controlled trial in 164 children reduced fine particles 64% and found no improvement in symptoms. A smaller crossover trial found a benefit, but only in children whose asthma was poorly controlled.
Across 89,573 accelerometer-monitored adults and 678 conditions, no disease showed a significant difference between activity concentrated in one or two days and activity spread through the week.
A Cochrane review found sit-stand desks reliably reduce workplace sitting, but graded the evidence low quality and could not tie it to better health. WHO backs cutting sedentary time but set no number.
Bodybuilding steroids, green tea extract and multi-ingredient blends are the products most often implicated. A liver injury from a supplement often can't be traced to a single named ingredient.
GAIT randomised 1,583 people and found neither supplement beat placebo overall. A later network meta-analysis found effects below the clinically important threshold, and smaller still in industry-independent trials.
The scrotal-cooling theory is sound and the semen findings are real. A 2026 review found the prospective data show no difference in pregnancy outcomes by underwear type.
The fear that a high-protein diet damages normal kidneys is not supported by the trial evidence. Protein restriction is a therapy studied in people who already have kidney disease — a different question entirely.
Oil pulling and miswak have real short-term data on plaque and gum inflammation. Charcoal dentifrices have almost none, and a third of the products reviewed contained bentonite clay.
Three surveillance networks put 2025/26 effectiveness between 22% and 45% against a drifted H3N2 virus. The figure is a comparison between vaccinated and unvaccinated people who all got tested.
A 19-trial review of peptides prints two different wrinkle effect sizes in its own abstract. A vitamin C trial ran four weeks against retinol, with nothing inert to compare either of them against.
A systematic review of 43 studies judged cups a safe option, with leakage similar to or lower than pads and tampons. For the newer reusable products, published research is mostly about acceptability, not safety.
The AAP advises room-sharing without bed-sharing. Pooled case-control data show bed-sharing raises SIDS risk — sharply when parents smoke or drink, and more modestly even when they do not.
A meta-analysis of 23 blinded studies found no effect on any of 14 behavioural and cognitive measures. A separate trial fed children extreme doses and found nothing. The belief survives anyway.
It found rising microbiome diversity and falling inflammatory markers in the fermented-food arm — and no change in its own primary outcome in the high-fibre arm it was compared against.
Falls are the leading injury killer of older adults. The intervention with the strongest evidence is unglamorous — exercise that trains balance, gait and strength — and the trial data behind it is unusually solid.
For many older generics, discount cards and cost-plus pharmacies undercut insured prices. One analysis found Medicare could have saved $3.6 billion on 77 generics buying at cash-plus prices.
A harmonised meta-analysis of more than a million people found the association between sitting time and death disappeared in the most active quarter. In the least active, it did not disappear at all.
A European allergy task force concluded the antibody these tests detect is a marker of tolerance, not hypersensitivity. Meanwhile 19% of US adults believe they have a food allergy and about 10.8% have one.
A Cochrane review of 11 trials found flight stockings sharply cut silent deep-vein clots. But across nearly 2,900 passengers, the trials recorded no pulmonary embolism, death, or symptomatic clot at all.
Two real-world cohorts found lower blood levels per milligram from compounded formulations — and the longest longevity trial of rapamycin was run on the weaker one, which changes how to read it.
The pooled effect on self-reported stress was g = -0.35 from 785 participants. The authors of the meta-analysis warn against a miscalibration between the hype and the evidence — their phrase, not ours.
A European task force argued the first-generation drugs sold over the counter should not be. On symptom relief the newer ones differ from each other too — and the most familiar performed worst.
Two Cochrane reviews back scopolamine and first-generation antihistamines for preventing motion sickness. Both found the same gap: not a single randomised trial has looked at relieving symptoms already under way.
A Cochrane review of 18 trials and an NIH-funded randomised trial both failed to show that milk thistle improves liver disease. Product quality is also inconsistent, with some pills contaminated or mislabelled.
Pooling 13 randomised trials, people assigned to eat breakfast ended up 0.44 kg heavier and ate 260 more calories a day than people assigned to skip it. The trials were small, short and mostly low quality.
A 2026 meta-analysis of nine in vitro studies found a small, outlier-sensitive reduction in enamel microhardness. Every study was done on extracted teeth. The better-evidenced problem is sensitivity.
A NHANES analysis of 5,736 US adults over 60 found the benefit of higher protein directionally present and statistically imprecise. A meta-analysis of protein at breakfast found nothing at all.
Researchers searched in four languages across three engines. One in ten clinics said it would prescribe testosterone to men with normal levels; one in five claimed it cuts cardiovascular risk.
Two randomised trials in more than 1,800 children found no benefit in acute gastroenteritis. A Cochrane review of 23 trials found fewer upper respiratory infections, on low-certainty evidence.
In 390,124 US adults followed up to 27 years, daily multivitamin use showed no mortality benefit. Randomised trials within COSMOS found a real but modest effect on memory, and none on physical function.
No randomised controlled trial has tested a commercial detox diet in people, and the reviews that exist find no compelling evidence they remove toxins or aid weight. Some carry real risks.
US government metrologists sent one homogenised faecal standard to seven consumer testing services. Species counts came back ranging from 20 to 1,701 for the same material.
Expert guidelines back antibiotics for moderate-to-severe cases and simple measures for mild ones. The popular Pepto-Bismol prevention habit rests on 1980s data — and a 2025 trial could not confirm it worked.
Eye strain is close to universal among heavy device users, and it is temporary. The evidence that screen time causes myopia is real but weak, and every study of it measured screen time by questionnaire.
A dose-response meta-analysis of 94 cohorts and more than 30 million people found the steepest part of the curve sits between zero and the recommended weekly dose, with small and uncertain gains above double it.
A diet built to protect the brain looked powerful when researchers watched who chose to eat it. When they assigned it in a three-year trial, both groups improved by almost exactly the same amount.
There is no trial showing a cleanse product improves kidney function, which already filters blood continuously. One class of herbal kidney remedy is a proven cause of kidney failure and cancer.
Its 2024 guideline also advises against routine blood testing for vitamin D, on the grounds that no trial evidence supports it. The largest randomised trial found no effect on cancer, heart disease or fractures.
A meta-analysis of 44 cohorts covering 1,864,274 people found the risk signal attached to naps of 30 minutes or more. Below that threshold, no significant risk appeared.
Pooled biomarker data from 30 studies in 13 countries link higher linoleic acid to lower cardiovascular risk. The randomised evidence, 19 trials and 6,461 people, is null and rated low quality.
A network meta-analysis of 13 randomised trials put the diet ahead of every alternative for IBS symptoms. Its authors note the trials skipped reintroduction and personalisation entirely.
A Cochrane review of 64 trials found acetazolamide cut the risk of acute mountain sickness by about half. It is a genuine drug effect, not a folk remedy — and it is a prescription decision, not a supplement.
SPF measures how much ultraviolet exposure it takes to burn, not how long you can stay outside. The randomised cancer-prevention evidence rests largely on 1,621 adults followed for more than a decade.
A Cochrane review found melatonin reduced jet lag in nine of ten trials. Sleep medicine's own guideline rates it a first-tier option for jet lag disorder. Take it at the wrong hour and it can make things worse.
A 2025 meta-analysis of 57 studies found the mortality curve bending at about 7,000 steps a day. The 10,000 figure traces to the trade name of a Japanese step counter sold in 1965.
A 2002 review went hunting for the origin of "8 x 8" and found nothing. Two decades later, isotope measurements in 5,604 people put daily water use anywhere from about 1 litre to about 6.
In a small pilot of older veterans, those walking fewer than about 4,100 steps a day before an operation were more likely to be frail. Most weren't walking enough to recover afterward.
Pooling 291 participants, researchers found time-restricted eating modestly lowered a liver enzyme and body mass index — but didn't significantly reduce liver fat itself or improve insulin resistance.
An analysis of the FDA's voluntary reporting database finds herbal and weight-loss products carry the highest serious-outcome rate. The author is explicit that these are flags for investigation, not proven risks.
A scoping review mapped 204 consumer nutrigenetic panels at a mean price of $234. Across them, 3,309 different genes were linked to dietary recommendations.
A review of two decades of research found ten studies on alkaline water and muscle outcomes — and every single one excluded adults over 65, the exact population the marketing targets.
Bemotrizinol, a UV filter available in Europe and elsewhere since the early 2000s, cleared US regulatory review this month — more than a decade after a manufacturer first flagged it to the FDA.
The first large-scale policy evaluation of medically tailored meals covers 1,866 recipients across 11 health systems. It is quasi-experimental, not randomised — and that is the finding's main limit.
A panel of fitness and healthcare professionals reached full agreement on 27 medical conditions that call for caution — or, in two cases, avoidance — before starting resistance training.
A Milbank Quarterly analysis argues wellness companies use the political strategies of harmful commodities industries. A separate review puts the downstream cost of low-value wellness testing above $100 billion a year.
Pooled data across 38 studies found higher coffee intake linked to a higher risk of heart attack — but a lower risk of stroke and irregular heartbeat, with a separate benefit for people with high blood pressure.
A review explains why HIIT and CrossFit-style training can push exercise-induced muscle breakdown to the point of kidney injury, and what helps catch it earlier.
Twenty-one amateur runners took vitamin D3 or a placebo before a marathon. Some muscle and oxidative-stress markers looked better in the supplement group — but most measures showed no difference.
It is a medical-device biocompatibility standard, now built largely on lab-grown skin rather than animals. It measures whether a material irritates. It says nothing about whether a product works.
A six-year cohort study using Japan's long-term care records found a roughly 25% lower risk. The design cannot separate cooking from the ability to cook.
A pooled analysis of 30 randomized trials finds cold-water immersion reduces muscle damage markers and soreness, but showed no benefit for restoring strength.
A February scientific statement declines to recommend the category for clinical decisions. Six weeks earlier, a journal retracted a validation study of a popular consumer model.
A meta-analysis of continuous glucose monitors in people without diabetes found a real effect on blood sugar — but only in those with prediabetes. In healthy users, the evidence for a metabolic benefit was not there.
A 220,000-person cohort found opposite associations for two neurodegenerative diseases depending on the type and distance of greenery. Two other February papers ask who can actually use it.
A small qualitative study finds device dependency, blurred motivation and users who no longer trust their own bodies. It lands as health services keep integrating the same devices.
Three UK studies of 1,907 sauna users point to social identity and ritual. Meanwhile a physiology paper shows a standard vascular measurement is confounded by heating itself.
A 131,821-person cohort followed for up to 43 years and a dose-response meta-analysis of 450,000 people converge on roughly two to three cups — and diverge sharply above it.
A UK Biobank analysis finds high step counts do not offset short sleep. A US cohort finds one-minute bursts matter. And in older adults, most step-count differences vanish after adjusting for age and sex.
The PROP OA trial found a 3.39-point gain on a 100-point score at six months. The effect on pain was larger than the effect overall, and both diminished by twelve months.
In 105,260 people followed for 7.6 years, higher intakes of sorbates, sulfites, nitrates and acetates tracked with modestly higher cancer incidence. This is an observational study of self-reported diets.
Mindfulness, yoga, exercise and positive psychology landed within a narrow band of each other. Only combining exercise with a psychological approach pulled clear, and nature-based programmes did not beat controls.
Brown University researchers pooled 16 studies covering more than 150,000 people. The consistent finding is not detox — it is that most participants are still drinking less months later.
A mirror that scores physiological age in 30 seconds. A watch that watches your gait for dementia. The gap between what these products measure and what they imply is the story of the show.
On the unprocessed diet, participants built plates 57% heavier and 110 calories lighter. The authors argue that fruit and vegetables were crowding out calories on purpose.
A December survey found getting stronger is the leading 2026 health goal. The best meta-analysis of muscle-strengthening and mortality finds a benefit that plateaus at around 30 to 60 minutes a week.
The line saying a product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease must sit beside each health claim. Industry asked for that to change; the FDA says it may propose a rule.
The trial's own primary outcome — inflammation — was flat. What the new analysis adds is a molecular account of why the fat loss did not translate into the benefits fasting is sold on.
A 240-woman randomised trial compared three months of hatha yoga with a time-matched conditioning programme. On every sleep measure, the two groups moved together.
A study in this month's JAMA Internal Medicine mapped the rules governing IV hydration spas in every state, read 255 of their websites, and phoned them. Two of the websites cited a source.
Across 111 runners completing up to four trials each, two consumer devices tracked the direction of fluid loss reasonably well but missed the amount by 25% to 33% on average.
A meta-analysis of eleven depression trials found an average effect below the threshold for clinical importance, with signs of bias favouring creatine. A separate review found no change in kidney filtration.
One proposes a rate-of-change benchmark from 153 non-diabetic wearers. The other put ten young adults through food, exercise and a laboratory stress test to see what actually moves the line.
FTC staff guidance is explicit: an honest testimonial is not evidence. The advertiser still needs competent and reliable science for the claim the testimonial implies.
The trial was designed to test non-inferiority against traditional dietary advice. It found superiority instead, with 62% versus 42% achieving a clinical response over six weeks.
October brought pooled analyses of ginger and of marine omega-3s. Both report significant effects on blood markers. Neither measured whether anyone got healthier.
Forty-two trials show sleep-hygiene education helps a little and helps less than the alternatives. The sleep-medicine guideline suggests clinicians not use it on its own.
A meta-analysis of 20 trials found a two-kilogram gain in one-rep max and no effect on bone density. A small crossover trial found functional strength gains largely independent of muscle mass.
A 21-trial meta-analysis found effects concentrated in older age groups and largely absent elsewhere. A separate safety review of the most-used strain found no excess adverse events — and a big reporting gap.
Half a million Ontario users held a small average gain over 24 months. The least active gained nearly 2,000 steps a day — and the most active lost almost 4,000.
Twenty untrained women cycled at four fixed workloads wearing four popular low-cost bands, checked against indirect calorimetry. Every device drifted further from the truth as effort rose.
Most textiles sold as bamboo are rayon made from bamboo, and US regulators have said so for over a decade. In 2022 the FTC put a $5.5 million price on the difference.
A Spanish trial in 4,746 adults compared an energy-reduced Mediterranean diet plus exercise against the same diet eaten freely. Over six years the absolute gap was 12.0% versus 9.5%.
Fifty-five English adults ate two eight-week diets that both followed the UK Eatwell Guide. Both produced weight loss. The minimally processed version produced about one percentage point more.
Twenty adults sat for three hours at 39 °C with and without a fan, hydrated and not. Dehydrated, the fan raised heart rate and stopped feeling better, while sweat losses rose either way.
A meta-analysis of pedometer, tracker and smartwatch interventions lasting 12 to 48 weeks found no significant change in systolic or diastolic pressure — nor in weight, glucose or HbA1c.
Two BMJ reviews found high-risk usability problems in 18 of 30 tests, and use judged contrary to evidence-based guidance for 11 of the 19 conditions covered.
Collagen, flavanols and polyphenols beat their comparators on skin elasticity and sun tolerance. The pooled estimates carry heterogeneity of 95% to 98%, and some comparators were low doses of the same ingredient.
A BMJ network meta-analysis of 6,582 adults finds alternate day fasting the only intermittent method that beat continuous calorie restriction — by 1.29 kg, mostly in short trials.
Seventeen longitudinal studies of young carers, all from high-income countries. And 247 studies of women in prison, nearly all at high risk of bias in at least one domain.