THURSDAY, Sept. 17, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Four to six servings of whole grains a day may be the sweet spot for protecting your heart. “Although higher whole-grain intake has long been linked to better heart health in population studies, clinical trials have produced mixed findings,” said lead author Helda Tutunchi from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in Iran. “This left an important practical question unanswered: How much whole grain should people eat to meaningfully improve cardiovascular health?”
An analysis of 87 clinical trials involving more than 6,500 people found that eating more whole grains improves several major risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
The higher intake reduced body weight, waist size and blood pressure, according to researchers. It also lowered both total and LDL — or “bad” — cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar and a key marker of inflammation in the blood. Benefits started to appear at roughly two servings of whole grains a day. But the greatest effects were generally seen at four to six servings — about 60 to 100 grams — a day. That’s roughly a bowl of oatmeal, a sandwich on whole-grain bread and a serving of brown rice. “Increasing whole-grain intake is a relatively simple, accessible and affordable dietary strategy that can complement other lifestyle and medical interventions,” Tutunchi said. One final note from researchers: Oats, brown rice and rye each affected different heart risk factors, suggesting a varied diet may offer the broadest protection. The study was published Sept. 15 in the European Heart Journal.
More information
The American Heart Association has more on whole grains.
THURSDAY, June 18, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Aerobic exercise comes immediately to mind when one thinks of ways to reduce heart disease risk through physical activity.
But women might be able to lower their risk of heart disease through consistent strength training as well, a new study says.
Women who lift weights appear to have a reduced risk of heart problems, especially if they’re also doing aerobics, researchers reported June 17 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Women had a 44% lower risk of heart attack and 20% lower risk of heart disease if they did two or more hours of weight training a week, researchers found.
And the more often they lifted, the more their heart risk declined, results showed.
“Despite its established health benefits, resistance training is often overlooked as a prevention strategy for cardiovascular disease, and its impact on cardiovascular disease risk — especially in middle-aged and older women — remains understudied,” lead researcher Dr. Tianyue Zhang, a visiting scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Department of Nutrition in Boston, said in a news release.
Current U.S. guidelines recommend at least two days of resistance training each week, alongside 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise, researchers said in background notes.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 117,000 women participating in a long-term health study. As part of the study, the women’s physical activity, resistance training and sedentary behavior were tracked for an average of nearly 15 years.
Each additional hour of resistance training per week was linked to a 14% lower risk of heart attack and 5% lower risk of heart disease.
If a woman got the recommended levels of both strength training and aerobic exercise, her risk of heart attack was about 45% lower than those with no physical activity.
“These findings suggest that, within an already active population, resistance training is associated with additional reductions in cardiovascular disease risk above and beyond overall aerobic activity,” Zhang said. “Alongside aerobic activity and reductions in sedentary behavior, resistance training may be an important component of public health strategies for cardiovascular prevention in women.”
Dr. Harlan Krumholz, editor-in-chief of JACC, said resistance training has been encouraged for a long time, and this study provides “strong evidence” to reinforce that.
“It should be included in a well-rounded health routine to support function and longevity,” Krumholz, who was not involved in the study, added in a news release.
THURSDAY, June 11, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Getting enough vitamin C may be linked to better brain health as we age.
Researchers in Japan studied more than 2,000 adults over the age of 64, comparing vitamin C levels in their blood plasma to MRI scans of their brains.
They found that participants with lower vitamin C levels tended to have lower gray matter volume. They also had weaker connectivity within the brain’s default mode network — a collection of regions involved in functions such as attention and autobiographical memory.
After accounting for factors that can influence brain health, including age, physical activity and education level, those links remained.
“This finding generates the exciting hypothesis that a diet rich in vitamin C might play a supportive role in maintaining brain health and mitigating age-related cognitive decline in older adults,” said study coauthor Tomohiro Shintaku of the Graduate School of Medicine at Hirosaki University in Japan.
While the results suggest that maintaining adequate vitamin C levels could help support healthy brain aging, the study does not prove cause and effect.
The authors said larger, more diverse studies are needed to confirm their findings.
“What I found most fascinating about this research is that we were able to detect these subtle but significant associations between a single nutritional factor and large-scale brain networks by utilizing a robust, community-based cohort of over 2,000 older adults,” Shintaku said. “It truly highlights the potential impact of our everyday dietary habits on our brain structures.”
The study was published June 10 in the journal PLOS ONE.
More information
The Alzheimer’s Association has more on brain health.
WEDNESDAY, June 3, 2026 (HealthDay News) — A few sessions in the weight room each week could do more than build muscle — they may help you live longer.
While the evidence linking aerobic exercise to longevity is extensive, little is known about the effects of strength training.
In a study recently published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers followed more than 147,000 adults for up to 30 years, tracking how much time they spent doing strength training and aerobic exercise.
Strength training ranged from lifting weights to exercises like push-ups, squats and lunges.
People who did 90 to 119 minutes of strength training each week had a 13% lower risk of premature death from any cause, according to the results. That amount of weekly strength training was also linked to a 19% lower risk of dying from heart disease and a 27% lower risk of dying from neurological or brain diseases.
For cancer deaths, a reduced risk was observed only at lower levels of resistance training, up to 59 minutes per week.
Combining strength training with aerobic activities — such as walking, cycling or swimming — was associated with even greater longevity benefits than strength training alone.
The authors said these findings “support current recommendations encouraging both types of activity to maximize longevity benefits.”
THURSDAY, April 2, 2026 (HealthDay News) — You might think shedding tears is a natural way to vent stress and reset the mind after a difficult day.
But new research suggests that a good cry isn’t the universal mood-booster we once thought it was.
An Austrian team took a closer look at what makes people cry, individual differences in crying and how it makes people feel afterward.
The way you feel after crying, it recently reported in the journal Collabra: Psychology depends almost entirely on why you started to cry in the first place.
For the study, 106 adults reported the positive or negative effects immediately after crying as well as 15, 30 and 60 minutes later; what triggered their tears; and how long and intensely they cried.
Unlike previous studies that relied on people’s memories or artificial laboratory settings, this project captured emotions in real-time.
Using a smartphone app, participants recorded 315 crying episodes. On average, each individual had five crying episodes over the four-week study, roughly one every five days.
Participants reported mostly crying in response to media (for example, while watching funny or sad movies); overload (feeling overwhelmed by a task or worrying about the future); and impotence/helplessness (such as the illness or death of a close friend or relative).
“Our goal was to study crying where and when it really happens — in everyday life,” said lead author Stefan Stieger, head of psychological methodology at Karl Landsteiner University in Krems on the Danube in Austria. “Using smartphones, we were able to capture crying episodes in real time and then follow emotional changes over the next hour.”
Researchers found that crying rarely provided immediate relief. In many cases, people reported feeling less positive and more distressed right after their tears stopped.
However, the reason for their crying appeared to affect the outcome.
Individuals who cried because they felt lonely or overwhelmed had the most negative feelings afterward.
On the other hand, those who cried while watching a movie or reading a touching book saw a decrease in their negative feelings.
Researchers said this distinction — between causes related to one’s own psychological needs and those related to something or someone else — could be ground for future study.
The data also highlighted male-female differences.
Women in the study tended to cry more often, with longer, more intense episodes. They were also more likely to cry due to feelings of loneliness, while men were more often moved to tears by a sense of helplessness or media content.
Regardless of gender or cause, the study showed that the effects of crying didn’t last long. While some emotional shifts were measurable for up to 60 minutes, the impact completely vanished by the end of the day.
“The study shows that crying should not be seen as an automatic form of emotional relief,” said senior co-author Hannah Graf, a researcher at the university. “Its emotional effects seem to depend strongly on the context in which it occurs.”
Ultimately, crying is a complex part of people’s emotional lives rather than a simple pressure-release valve, researchers said.
THURSDAY, March 26, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Even small improvements to your daily habits – a few minutes more sleep, a couple extra minutes of exercise, a daily side serving of veggies – can lower your risk of heart attack, stroke and heart failure, a new study says.
People who slept 11 minutes more, performed an extra 4.5 minutes of exercise, and ate an additional quarter cup of vegetables had a 10% lower risk of major heart health problems, researchers reported March 23 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
Those who had the optimum combination of these lifestyle choices were rewarded with an overall 57% lower risk of heart problems, compared to those with the worst habits, researchers found.
“We show that combining small changes in a few areas of our lives can have a surprisingly large positive impact on our cardiovascular health,” lead researcher Nicholas Koemel, a research fellow at the University of Sydney in Australia, said in a news release.
“This is very encouraging news because making a few small, combined changes is likely more achievable and sustainable for most people when compared with attempting major changes in a single behavior,” Koemel said.
For the new study, researchers tracked more than 53,000 adults participating in the UK Biobank, a long-term health research project in the United Kingdom. The participants were followed for an eight-year period.
Results showed that the best lifestyle for heart health involves sleeping for eight to nine hours per night, completing more than 42 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day, and eating a modestly healthy diet.
People who followed that pattern had a 57% lower risk of heart problems, researchers found.
The team noted that the sort of exercise that improved heart health can be as simple as taking the stairs, carrying shopping bags or walking briskly.
A better-quality diet involved more veggies, fruit, fish, dairy, whole grains and vegetable oils, and less refined grains, processed meats, red meat and sugary drinks, researchers said.
“I would encourage people not to overlook the importance of making a small change or two to your daily routine, no matter how small they may seem,” Koemel said.
Senior researcher Emmanuel Stamatakis said new tools to help that effort are in the works.
“We plan to build on these findings to develop new digital tools that support people in making positive lifestyle changes and establish sustained healthy habits,” said Stamatakis, a professor of physical activity and population health at the University of Sydney and Monash University.
“This will involve working closely with community members to make sure the tools are easy to use and can address the barriers we all face in making tweaks to our day-to-day routines,” he added in a news release.
THURSDAY, March 12, 2026 (HealthDay News) — People frequently switch between different weight-loss drugs, swapping Ozempic for Zepbound and vice versa within the first year of treatment, a new study reports.
What’s more, those patients who do swap GLP-1 drugs are more likely to stick with the drugs, researchers reported March 10 in JAMA Network Open.
“Switching between GLP-1RA medications should be viewed as a normal part of long-term obesity care,” said senior researcher Sarah Messiah, a professor of epidemiology and pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
“Persistence should not be judged by staying on a single drug indefinitely, but by maintaining engagement in care and working with clinicians to find sustainable, effective treatment strategies over time,” she said in a news release.
Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs mimic the GLP-1 hormone, which helps control insulin and blood sugar levels, decreases appetite and slows digestion of food.
For the new study, researchers tracked insurance claims from nearly 127,000 overweight or obese adults who started GLP-1 treatment between 2019 and 2024, looking for people taking drugs like semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy), tirzepatide (Zepbound/Mounjaro), or liraglutide (Saxenda/Victoza).
Results showed that treatment often didn’t follow a linear path. Many patients had to change up their GLP-1 meds in response to side effects, access problems, insurance coverage or the introduction of new medications.
Only a quarter of patients remained on any particular GLP-1 drug a year after starting it, and roughly 1 in 5 patients transitioned to a different weight-loss med during that period, researchers said.
People who swapped GLP-1 drugs were more likely to stick with treatment – 36% of switchers versus 21% of those who stuck with their first prescribed drug.
“In today’s clinical environment, successful obesity care often involves adapting treatment over time rather than expecting a single medication to meet every patient’s needs indefinitely,” researcher Dr. Jaime Almandoz, medical director of UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Weight Wellness Program, said in a news release.
Future studies will explore whether certain types of patients are more likely to swap medications, as well as which drugs or timing of treatment influence changes in weight-loss therapy, researchers said.
More information
The National Academy of Medicine has more on GLP-1 drugs.
SOURCES: UT Southwestern Medical Center, news release, March 10, 2026; JAMA Network Open, March 10, 2026
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 11, 2026 (HealthDay news) — They say worrying will give you wrinkles, but a new study indicates that might be an understatement.
Women anxious about getting older appear to experience accelerated aging, with their fears promoting quicker decline at the cellular level, researchers found.
In essence, fears about aging cause a person’s body to grow old faster than what their actual birth date reflects, researchers concluded in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.
“Our research suggests that subjective experiences may be driving objective measures of aging,” lead researcher Mariana Rodrigues said in a news release. She’s a doctoral student at the NYU School of Global Public Health in New York City.
“Aging-related anxiety is not merely a psychological concern, but may leave a mark on the body with real health consequences,” Rodrigues said.
For the new study, researchers analyzed data from 726 women participating in a study of middle-aged people in the United States.
From their data, the research team calculated their biological aging — their age based on the wear-and-tear their bodies have experienced. The researchers compared this biological age to their calendar age, and then assessed whether anxiety over growing older had contributed to accelerated aging.
“Women in midlife may also be multiple in roles, including caring for their aging parents. As they see older family members grow older and become sick, they may worry about whether the same thing will happen to them,” Rodrigues said.
Results showed that higher levels of anxiety over getting older were indeed significantly associated with accelerated aging. Worrying about declining health had the strongest association with accelerated biological aging, researchers said. On the other hand, anxiety over declining attractiveness and fertility were not associated with accelerated aging, researchers said. That might be because health-related concerns persist over time, while worries about beauty and fertility can fade with age.
The results are a fresh reminder that mental and physical health are tightly connected across a person’s lifespan, researchers said. “Our research identifies aging anxiety as a measurable and modifiable psychological determinant that seems to be shaping aging biology,” senior researcher Adolfo Cuevas, an associate professor of social and behavioral sciences at NYU School of Global Public Health, said in a news release.
However, the researchers noted that they couldn’t rule out that other factors might also influence the speed at which a person ages. For example, anxiety might cause a person to cope through unhealthy habits like drinking or smoking, researchers said. In fact, when researchers adjusted their analysis to account for such behaviors, the association between anxiety and rapid aging decreased.
More studies are needed to further explore this potential effect of anxiety, researchers said.
“Aging is a universal experience,” Rodrigues said. “We need to start a discourse about how we as a society — through our norms, structural factors and interpersonal relationships — address the challenges of aging.”
By: Todd A. Mahr, MD, Executive Medical Director, American College Of Allergy, Asthma And Immunology
THURSDAY, Sept. 11, 2025 (HealthDay News) — When people hear about anaphylaxis, they often associate the severe allergic reaction with food allergies. And while food allergies can cause anaphylaxis, allergies to insect stings, medications and latex can also trigger the response.
Anaphylaxis is rare. In most cases, people with allergies develop mild to moderate symptoms, such as watery eyes, a runny nose or a rash. But sometimes, exposure to an allergen can cause the life-threatening allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis.
A second anaphylactic reaction, known as a biphasic reaction, can occur anywhere from 12 to 24 hours after the initial reaction. Unfortunately, how severe your reaction will be is unpredictable. Even if you have only had mild reactions in the past, you might still be at risk for anaphylaxis. And past anaphylaxis does not necessarily predict that all future reactions will be severe.
Future reactions can be milder or more severe than initial or past reactions. Due to this uncertainty, patients at risk for anaphylaxis are urged to carry self-administered epinephrine to be able to treat any future reactions. Patients with allergies to medications typically do not need to carry epinephrine, as these triggers are easier to avoid.
Anaphylaxis symptoms occur suddenly and can progress quickly. The early symptoms may be mild, such as a runny nose, a skin rash or a “strange feeling.” These symptoms can quickly lead to more serious problems, including:
If you have a history of allergies and/or asthma and have previously had a severe reaction, you may be at greater risk for anaphylaxis. An allergist can help you determine if you are susceptible to anaphylaxis.
Allergists are doctors specially trained to review your history of allergic reactions, conduct tests to diagnose your allergic triggers (such as skin-prick tests, blood tests and challenges), review treatment options and teach you the best methods for avoiding your allergens. Talk with an allergist if: • You’re unsure if you’ve had an anaphylactic reaction. • Your symptoms have happened repeatedly or are difficult to control. • More tests are needed to determine the cause of your reactions. • Desensitization or immunotherapy could be helpful if recommended by a doctor. • Daily medication is needed. • You think other medical conditions complicate your treatment. An anaphylactic reaction should be treated immediately with epinephrine (adrenaline). Doses are available by prescription and come in auto-injectors or a nasal spray that should always be kept with you. Two doses of epinephrine may be necessary to control symptoms.
Here are some tips for reducing the risk of anaphylaxis:
Know your trigger(s). If you’ve experienced anaphylaxis, it’s important to know what triggered the reaction. An allergist can review your medical history and, if necessary, conduct tests for diagnosis. The most common triggers are: • Food, including peanuts, tree nuts such as cashews and pistachios, fish, shellfish, cow’s milk, eggs and sesame. • Latex, which is found in disposable gloves, intravenous tubes, syringes, adhesive tapes and catheters. Health care workers, children with spina bifida and abnormalities of the genital and urinary organs, and people who work with natural latex are at higher risk for latex-induced anaphylaxis. Fortunately, latex allergy has decreased greatly over time as less natural latex is used in everyday products. • Medication, including penicillin and other antibiotics, aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen, as well as medications used for anesthesia. • Insect stings, with bees, wasps, hornets, yellow jackets and fire ants the most likely to trigger anaphylaxis. Avoid your trigger(s). Avoidance is the most effective way to prevent anaphylaxis. An allergist can help you develop avoidance measures tailored to your age, activities, occupation, hobbies, home environment and access to medical care. Here are some general techniques to avoid common triggers:
• Food allergies. Review all ingredient labels carefully to uncover potential allergens. When eating out, notify the server of your/your child’s allergies and ask questions about ingredients if there is any concern. If you have a child with a history of anaphylaxis, provide school personnel with a treatment plan that specifies his or her allergies and specific steps to take if the child has an allergic reaction.
• Medications. Make sure all of your doctors are aware of any reactions you’ve had to medications so that they can prescribe safe alternatives and inform you about other medications you may need to avoid. If there are no alternative medications, you may be a candidate for desensitization, a treatment that introduces a small dose of the medication to which you are allergic. As your body becomes more tolerant to it, your dosage can be increased over time. While the treatment is effective, it’s not permanent and must be repeated if the medication is needed again in the future.
• Insect stings. To help prevent stinging insects, avoid walking barefoot in grass, wearing bright colored clothing with flowery patterns, sweet-smelling perfumes, hairsprays and lotion during active insect season in late summer and early fall. An allergist can provide a preventative treatment called venom immunotherapy (or venom allergy shots) for insect sting allergy. The treatment introduces gradually increasing doses of purified insect venom and has been shown to be between 90% and 98% effective in preventing future allergic reactions to insect stings.
Be prepared. Prompt recognition of the signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis is critical. If you unexpectedly encounter your trigger, immediately follow the emergency plan outlined by your doctor. If you are having a reaction and are not sure whether you should use epinephrine, it is better to go ahead and use epinephrine. Be sure to keep your epinephrine up to date. If an expired epinephrine product is the only one available in an emergency, administer it promptly anyway. Teachers and other caregivers should be informed of children who are at risk for anaphylaxis and know what to do in an allergy emergency. If you administer epinephrine and do not start getting better within minutes, seek emergency care. If it gets worse, administer the second dose of epinephrine.
Tell family and friends. Family and friends should be aware of your condition, your triggers and know how to recognize anaphylactic symptoms. If you carry epinephrine, make sure they know where you keep it and how to use it. Wear medical jewelry. Some people at risk for anaphylaxis wear medical jewelry to let people know they have allergies and need epinephrine in case of a severe reaction. See a specialist.Allergists are specially trained to help you take control of your symptoms, conduct tests and review treatment options so you can live the life you want.
THURSDAY, Sept. 18, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Aspirin can cut by more than half the risk that colon cancer will come back following initial treatment, a new clinical trial has found.
Daily aspirin reduced by 55% the risk of cancer recurrence in patients whose colorectal cancer is driven by a genetic mutation, researchers reported Sept. 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine. “Aspirin is a drug that is readily available globally and extremely inexpensive compared to many modern cancer drugs, which is very positive,” lead researcher Anna Martling, a professor of molecular medicine and surgery at Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said in a news release.
The study focused on people whose colon cancer was driven by a mutation of the PIK3 gene, which helps regulate cell growth and division in the human body.
Every year, about 107,320 new cases of colon cancer and 46,950 cases of rectal cancer are diagnosed in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society.
Between 30% to 40% of colon cancer patients have their cancer come back and spread to other parts of the body following treatment, researchers said in background notes.
For the new study, researchers randomly assigned 626 colon cancer patients to take either a daily 160 mg dose of aspirin daily or a placebo pill for three years. The patients came from 33 hospitals in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.
All the patients had a PIK3 mutation, and all had undergone surgery to remove their cancer before starting aspirin.
“Aspirin is being tested here in a completely new context as a precision medicine treatment,” Martling said. “This is a clear example of how we can use genetic information to personalize treatment and at the same time save both resources and suffering.”
Researchers aren’t sure exactly why aspirin cuts the risk of cancer recurrence. They said it’s likely due to the drug’s ability to reduce inflammation, thin blood and subdue tumor cell growth.
All combined, these effects create an environment less favorable for cancer, researchers said.
“Although we do not yet fully understand all the molecular links, the findings strongly support the biological rationale and suggest that the treatment may be particularly effective in genetically defined subgroups of patients,” Martling said.
