Today's health news includes a suppressed federal alcohol report, an "inevitable development" for wearables data, and soda taxes in Asai

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A suppressed federal alcohol report
A federally-commissioned study on the health effects of alcohol was published today in an independent journal. The research, which ultimately found that even low levels of drinking may increase disease risk, started as part of an update to U.S. dietary guidelines. But the work sparked controversy when some lawmakers — along with alcohol industry trade groups — claimed the scientists were biased against alcohol and would reach a conclusion with draconian implications.

Source: STAT

Published: June 9, 2026 12:23 PM

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All the News That's Fit from health columnist Scott LaFee: BMI's aging impact, virus breakdown and love 'disorder'

For The Union-Tribune
Weight up, cognition down
Cognitive decline with age is a normal process. Our brains simply don’t function as effectively as they did in our youth. But in otherwise normal healthy adults, the changes are gradual and subtle.
The best way to slow cognitive decline is to adhere to a few basic behaviors: Get plenty of sleep. Handle stress. Interact socially. Learn new things. Exercise. Eat well.
A new study out of the University of Georgia underscores the importance of those last two items. Researchers followed more than 8,200 people over the age of 50 for 24 years. They found that for every unit increase in body mass index (BMI), there was a more rid decline in brain health.
BMI is a screening tool that estimates total body fat based on the ratio of your height to your weight. You can easily find BMI calculators online.
The researchers found that higher BMI over time led to more rid declines in cognitive functions, memory and executive functioning than what is typically seen in aging adults, such as managing emotions, organizing and planning tasks, concentrating, and more.
The good news: They also found that people who managed their weight could significantly lower their rate of cognitive decline in just two years.
Body of knowledge
The average person sheds proximately 121 pints of tears in a lifetime or in one Lifetime movie. Eyeball lubrication is more continuous and less discrete than tears, generating 5 to 10 ounces of liquid daily, primarily to keep the eyes hydrated.
Counts
57 — Percentage of doctors surveyed who believe mis- and disinformation hinder their ability to deliver quality patient care
9 in 10 — Ratio who say the situation has worsened over past five years
6 in 10 — Ratio who report that their patients have been influenced by false health claims in the past year

Doc talk
Cillary refill — When a fingernail is pressed, the nail bed turns white. Cillary refill refers to the return of blood to the nail bed, giving it a pinkish color. A good c refill time is 2 seconds or less.
Mania of the week
Leukomania — an obsession with the color white
Life in Big Macs
One hour of light baking burns proximately 170 calories (based on a 150-pound person) or the equivalent of 0.2 Big Macs. One hour of eating McDonald’s baked ple pies at a rate of one every 10 minutes translates to 2,300 calories.
Best medicine
First guy: I’m scheduled for a colonoscopy tomorrow.
Second guy: Oh man, I hear the prep is the worst part.
First guy: No, they’ve improved it. All I have to do is consume four large cans of alphabet soup.
Second guy: What does that do?
First guy: It produces a huge vowel movement.
Observation
People say money is not the key to hpiness, but I have always figured if you have enough money you can have a key made.
— Comedian Joan Rivers (1933-2014)
Medical history
This week in 1955, the first U.S. report was made of the separation of a virus into component parts. This work was performed on the tobacco virus, which could then be reconstructed from those parts to produce a material as cable of causing disease as the intact virus.
The scientists demonstrated that tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) spontaneously formed when mixtures of purified coat protein and its genomic RNA were incubated together.
TMV is an agricultural threat to plants, but does not infect or replicate in humans or other mammals.
Ig Nobel prised
The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate achievements that make people laugh, then think. A look at real science that’s hard to take seriously, and even harder to ignore.
In 2000, the Ig Nobel Prize in chemistry went to a trio of researchers at the University of Pisa in Italy and their colleague at UC San Diego for their discovery that, biochemically speaking, romantic love may be indistinguishable from having severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Self-exam
Q: Why does your heart never tire of beating (about 100,000 times every 24 hours)?
A: The heart is a muscle made of cardiomyocytes — cells that have 10 times the density of mitochondria (commonly known as the powerhouse of the cell) compared with other cells. This allows the heart to keep pumping without getting fatigued.
Last words
I want the world to be filled with white fluffy duckies.
— English artist/writer/filmmaker Derek Jarman (1942-1994)
LaFee is vice president of communications for the Sanford Burnham Prebys research institute.

Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

Published: June 9, 2026 12:30 PM

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