👋 Welcome to Healthy, Again. I'm Max, and this publication is all about taking your health back: real food, straight talk, and time-tested wisdom, for you and your family.
01 The colon cancer result nobody will advertise
A study in Taiwan followed 2,331 people with fatty liver who had a precancerous growth cut out of their colon. One group got their blood sugar, blood pressure and weight under control. The other did not. Over the next 4 years, new growths dropped 44% in the group that got healthier. 18 per 1,000 people a year became 10. The surgery is the part everyone focuses on. Turns out the years after it count just as much.
02 Kennedy told CNN to vaccinate
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Dana Bash on Sunday that parents should vaccinate their children for measles, and that the shot works 97% of the time. He blamed this year's outbreak on appointments missed during the pandemic, not on parents refusing. He said Trump wants him to investigate a link between vaccines and autism. And he said he has never questioned whether the MMR shot works, 17 months after telling Fox that its protection "wanes." There are 2,371 measles cases this year, the most since 1991. His own supporters called him a sell-out by dinnertime.
03 The FDA changed its mind in 8 days
The FDA decides Wednesday whether to approve the first mRNA flu shot. Last August, Kennedy cancelled 22 mRNA vaccine projects worth nearly $500 million, saying "the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu."
In February the FDA would not even open Moderna's application, objecting only to which vaccine it was compared against. Nothing about safety. 8 days later it reversed and agreed to review, with a follow-up study required. In June an outside FDA panel voted 9 to 0 that the benefits beat the risks, but that vote is advice, not a decision.
Kennedy has not commented on this one.
04 Testosterone use is up 45%
Testosterone prescriptions for American men are up 45% since 2021, across 109 million patient records. Men 50 to 64 are the most likely to be on it. The Pentagon just ordered testing for every service member 30 and older, and the Endocrine Society said the next day that there is not enough evidence to test healthy men with no symptoms. The FDA is also inviting drugmakers to apply for a wider label, so a man could get it for low libido with no cause found.
✿ QUICK HITS — ON OUR RADAR
13 kidney stones out of 13 had plastic in them, pulled from patients at one New Mexico hospital, mostly polyethylene and PET (Journal of Urology).
190 adults with type 2 diabetes wore glucose monitors for two weeks. The ones eating the most processed food had 41% lower odds of keeping blood sugar in range (Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice).
Medicare drug premiums go up 6% in 2027 to $41.33 after CMS ends the subsidy holding them down. That 6% is a cap Congress set. Insurers bid 24% higher (CMS).
✿ WILD STORY
A virologist at the University of Zagreb had breast cancer come back for the 3rd time in the same spot. So she grew 2 viruses in her own lab, a measles strain and one called VSV, and injected them into the tumor herself. It shrank 63% and went soft enough for surgeons to remove. By the time she published the case she had been cancer-free for nearly 4 years. Several journals turned the paper down because she had experimented on herself. She published it anyway.
✿ ONE GOOD THING
To end on a good one: 44 osteopaths, chiropractors and physiotherapists jumped out of a plane at 13,000 feet over Cambridgeshire last month and raised more than £49,000 for a charity that trains dogs to smell disease. One of them was Katie Banfield, whose cocker spaniel Alfie kept nuzzling under her breast a couple of years ago when there was nothing to feel. 2 weeks later doctors found a tumour the size of a grape. She is clear now. 44 people who work on the human body for a living spent a Saturday falling out of the sky for a dog's nose.