Category: News

(Self) – A new partnership between Costco, Sesame (a cash-pay health care marketplace), and IVI RMA (a network of fertility clinics) aims to lower some of the major barriers to accessing fertility care in this country. On Monday, the companies announced that for $99 a month with a Costco membership (or $119 without), you can meet virtually with a doctor of your choosing on the Sesame platform for a fertility intake and diagnostic workup. That means bypassing often months-long wait times to get an appointment with a specialist. (Read More)

(Wired) – The tool, offered by the recently-rebranded company Superhuman, gives feedback based on the work of famous dead and living writers—without their permission.

Do you have fond memories of being a teacher’s pet? Wish you could still get notes from your favorite college professor? Dream about some implacable voice of authority correcting your every word choice and punctuation mark? Well, great news: A certain software company has engineered a way to simulate criticism not just from bestselling authors and famous academics of our time, but also many who died decades ago—and the company evidently didn’t need permission from anybody to do it.

Once relied upon only to proofread for correct grammar and spelling, the writing tool Grammarly has added a host of generative AI features over the past several years. (Read More)

(WSJ) – Federal investigators are uncovering new layers of fraud in government programs, with a Minnesota man pleading guilty last week to bilking Medicaid by setting up a sham autism center. Meantime, a federal audit last week revealed how Medicaid autism treatment has become an open vault for fraud and abuse.

Behavioral therapy is an especially ripe target for people looking to game Medicaid. (Read More)

(Axios) – The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulator will leave the agency at the end of April, a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson confirmed to Axios.

Why it matters: Vinay Prasad, director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, has presided over controversial decisions including declining to review Moderna’s new mRNA flu vaccine approval application — a decision that was later reversed. (Read More)

(NBC News) – Measles patients in Utah are developing severe complications, health officials say, including potentially life-threatening anemia and liver inflammation.

Measles patients in Utah are developing severe complications, health officials say, including potentially life-threatening anemia and liver inflammation.

“It is not a mild infection. It is not a mild virus. It is severe illness,” Utah’s state epidemiologist, Dr. Leisha Nolen, said at a news briefing Thursday.

She’s hearing from people sick with the virus, as well as their caregivers, that “measles is so much worse than what they expected.” (Read More)

(NBC News) – The research suggests that men’s immune systems have a better mechanism for shutting off pain, which could explain why women have more chronic symptoms.

Historically, some doctors have dismissed these differences as women exaggerating their pain or being unable to tolerate the same discomfort as men. But studies have repeatedly found that women are more likely to experience chronic pain in general and that their pain lasts longer, on average.

A study published Friday in the journal Science Immunology offers a clue as to why: Men’s immune systems may have a better mechanism for shutting off pain, likely because of their higher testosterone levels. (Read More)

(Daily Mail) – A family has accused Canada’s laws of ‘killing the disabled and vulnerable’ months after their son, who suffered from seasonal depression, died by assisted suicide. 

Kiano Vafaeian, a 26-year-old blind man with Type 1 diabetes, died in December using Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program, which allows patients with ‘grievous and irremediable’ medical conditions to request a lethal drug. 

Eligibility was expanded in 2021 to include people with chronic illnesses, disabilities and, pending parliamentary review, potentially individuals with certain mental health conditions. (Read More)

(NJ.com via Yahoo!) – Blonski didn’t know the contraception she’d taken for two decades may be linked to her health problems.

She was unaware of the connection until very recently, following publicity around a March 2024 study in The British Medical Journal that found women who used Depo‑Provera for at least a year faced a fivefold increased risk of developing brain tumors.

Depo-Provera is a long-acting injectable form of birth control administered every three months, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (Read More)

(The Atlantic) – Today’s longevity-medicine movement is driven by the same aggressive desire for eternal youth as the mythic stories of old. But whereas in earlier times ideas about wellness could travel only as fast as the people who held them, today just about anyone with an internet connection can use social media and AI-generated graphics to sell medical advice in seconds. Despite a decided shortage of placebo-controlled trials in humans to support that advice, the business of longevity is booming, thanks in large part to sleek direct-to-consumer marketing delivered by health influencers with far more confidence than evidence. By 2030, $8 trillion might be spent annually on longevity-related products.

As a sports-medicine physician, I see the consequences of the modern longevity obsession up close. Patients arrive at my office convinced that the right peptides, cold plunges, or lab tests can meaningfully extend their lives. They’re almost certainly headed for disappointment—if not harm. (Read More)

(Rest of World) – There is growing demand for recreating dead and absent family members for events using AI.

Sharma is among a growing number of Indians discovering the power of AI deepfakes to resurrect dead family members, create voice clones of the departed, and add absent guests to family celebrations. AI tools such as OpenAI’s Sora, Google’s Nano Banana, and Midjourney have made it easier to create images and videos that can fool even experts. Cashing in are entrepreneurs in small towns and cities, who have learned how to use these tools from YouTube tutorials and online forums. (Read More)

(New York Times) – Last summer, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he could tell that someone was having “mitochondrial challenges” just by looking at them. The nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Casey Means, features mitochondria prominently in her book on metabolism and health. And several trendy supplements marketed for longevity, such as coenzyme Q10, urolithin A and those that boost N.A.D.+, purportedly work by enhancing mitochondrial functioning.

Scientists who study mitochondria are somewhat baffled by the newfound attention. But they’re also excited to see their favorite organelle in the spotlight. (Read More)