Health & Medicine

AF From Age 55: The 30-Second Test That Could Save Indigenous Lives

A new MJA review recommends dropping the atrial fibrillation screening age for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults from 65 to 55, after finding AF arrives almost 16 years earlier in this population.

Imogen Whelan · 7 min read
Science & Nature

CRISPR's New 'Kill Switch': How Cas12a2 Could Change Cancer Treatment

A May 2026 Nature paper shows Cas12a2, a new CRISPR variant, can selectively shred cancer cells and virus-infected cells while leaving healthy tissue untouched. Here is what makes it different from the CRISPR most people know.

Wren Calloway · 6 min read
Health & Medicine

GLP-1 Microdosing: What the Evidence Actually Shows

One in seven GLP-1 users is microdosing. Telehealth giants are selling microdose programs. Clinical researchers say the practice is not supported by evidence. Here is what the data actually show.

Hadley Quentin · 6 min read
Health & Medicine

Dementia in Younger Adults: What Is Behind the Rise in Early-Onset Cases

New research is reframing dementia as a problem of working age, not just retirement. Here is what the latest evidence says about causes, missed diagnoses, and the midlife steps that may help.

Idris Pemberton · 7 min read
Technology

AI Companions and Mental Health: The Rise of ChatGPT, Replika, and Character.AI as Confidantes

Two teenagers are dead. A crossbow plotter is in a secure hospital. A state medical board has filed suit. Behind the headline cases, 900 million people talk to ChatGPT every week and 40 million have built relationships with Replika bots. The mental-health infrastructure is being built in plain sight, and it has no clinicians attached.

Dahlia Morrissey · 9 min read
Health & Medicine

Microplastics in Your Arteries: What the 2024 NEJM Study Actually Means for Your Heart

In March 2024, a group of Italian researchers published the most consequential paper on microplastics and human health in years. They had taken carotid artery plaque , the fatty deposits that build...

Aria Voss · 10 min read
Health & Medicine

Whole-Body MRI Scans: The Prenuvo and Ezra Preventative Health Boom

In late 2025, a woman in her fifties paid US$2,500 for a Prenuvo whole-body MRI scan at one of the company's clinics. She was healthy, ran three times a week, and had no symptoms of anything. A few...

Marlowe Asher · 8 min read
Health & Medicine

Protein Maxxing: Why 2026 Became the Year Everyone Started Obsessing Over Protein

A 2023 study fed healthy young men 100 grams of whey in a single sitting and watched their muscles keep building. No ceiling, no plateau, just more synthesis, dose after dose [1]. The result has done...

Tobias Bellamy · 7 min read
Health & Medicine

Vitamin B2's Dark Side: How a Common Nutrient May Be Helping Cancer Cells Survive

Cancer cells co-opt vitamin B2 to build a shield against ferroptosis. A new Nature Cell Biology study shows how a soil bacterium may have given us the key to disarm it.

Maren Holst · 7 min read
Health & Medicine

Why Am I Always So Tired? Science-Backed Causes of Chronic Exhaustion and What to Do About It

Discover why you are always exhausted despite sleeping enough. Science-backed causes of chronic fatigue and strategies to restore your energy.

Livia Chen · 4 min read
Health & Medicine

Erythritol and the Blood-Brain Barrier: What the New Research Means for Your Sweetener Choices

New research links erythritol, one of the most common sugar alcohols in keto and diabetic foods, to potential damage in the cells protecting the brain, raising questions about a sweetener many considered safe.

Sloane Ashford · 6 min read
Health & Medicine

Maladaptive Daydreaming: The Condition That Makes People Lost in Elaborate Fantasies for Hours

For millions of people, daydreaming is not a brief escape but an all-consuming behaviour that can swallow entire days. Maladaptive daydreaming is poorly understood and not yet recognised in diagnostic manuals. Here is what the research says.

Elena Svensson · 5 min read