You can get ChatGPT to recommend thalidomide to a pregnant woman. It's not even hard. A new study in JAMA Network Open shows just how vulnerable medical AI is to manipulation. 🧵

I was lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, surviving on a waiter's salary. My diet was basically wine, baguettes, and goat cheese. Turns out that might've been good for my brain? A new study says high-fat cheese prevents dementia. Let's talk about it. 🧀🧵 (1/10)

Humans share 98% of our DNA with chimps. But there's one thing that makes us wildly different from our primate cousins. And it might explain why our species took over the planet. 🧵

Has been all outstanding research faculty talks since the #Match last week! Dr. @fperrywilson.bsky.social giving Yale Nephrology RIP, Dr. Whitney Besse teaching us about genetic testing and kidney disease, and Dr. Lloyd Cantley presenting at the HTI Seminar! @yalemed.bsky.social

We're in the middle of a quiet revolution in depression treatment. For decades it was all about "chemical imbalance". SSRIs tweaking serotonin levels. And they work. Sort of. (Thread)--> (1/18)

I’ve called GLP-1 agents like Ozempic and Mounjaro "miracle drugs." But a new study forces me to re-evaluate that moniker. The miracle has a problem: It ends when the prescription runs out. Let's look at the data on the "Rebound Effect." 🧵

A new randomized trial in American Journal of Psychiatry just dropped, and the headline result is…unexpected: smoking marijuana REDUCED alcohol consumption. Yes, reduced. And before you say “that makes no sense", let’s unpack it. (🧵)

Young people today have more friends than any generation before them. They also report the highest levels of loneliness. How is that possible? Turns out the answer is fascinating and maybe a little depressing. 🧵

The use of doxycycline in childhood may protect against the future development of schizophrenia. Wait... what? This is one of those studies that makes you say "that can't be right." But maybe it is? Let me walk you through this weird one.

What killed Napoleon's army in 1812? For 200+ years, history books have pointed to epidemic typhus. Turns out, they may have been completely wrong. A new study just rewrote one of military history's greatest mysteries. 🧵

What killed Napoleon's army in 1812? For 200+ years, history books have pointed to epidemic typhus. Turns out, they may have been completely wrong. A new study just rewrote one of military history's greatest mysteries. 🧵

A new Nature study found that people with cancer who received an mRNA COVID vaccine while on immunotherapy lived nearly twice as long. Median survival jumped from 20.6 to 37.3 months. That’s not a typo. Let’s talk about how, and why, that might be. 🧵

There's a problem with BMI, and I can illustrate it like this: Seth Rogen (comedic legend, dad bod) has about the same BMI as Jalen Hurts (elite NFL QB, built like a tank). Both would be classified as "overweight" or nearly "obese." Clearly, something is wrong here. (🧵)

I woke up in Las Vegas last week with some mysterious symptoms: pounding headache, nausea, feeling like I hadn't slept at all. Who knows what could cause such a thing? As I searched for coffee, I saw a sign promising salvation: IV fluids. On demand. For $248. 🧵

🧵 New headlines say rising cancer rates in young people might be... fake? Before you panic (or un-panic), let's talk about why this is both more complicated AND more interesting than it sounds. Spoiler: I'm still getting my colonoscopy. 1/

🧵 Walk into any pharmacy and you'll see supplement bottles claiming to "support heart health" or "boost immune function." These vague promises are everywhere. But here's the thing: a new study just proved these weasel words are fooling millions of Americans.

Childhood obesity has quadrupled since the 1960s. Now over 20% of kids meet the definition (>95th percentile of BMI). This is driving type 2 diabetes in children, and increases the risk of other diseases as adults. We need to talk about weight-loss drugs for kids. 🧵

Really excited to be speaking at @Medium Day this Friday. I'll be talking about how to write about medicine while maintaining both skepticism and joy. Tons of amazing talks / discussions. You can sign up for free here: www.mediumday.com

We've all had this conversation before: "Dude, we both agree this is red... but how do I know what I see as red is what you see as red? Maybe you see red as I see blue." Mind blown lol. But we finally have some research that sheds light (and color) on the issue. (Thread)

Ok, this study has some pretty predictable conclusions. But I have some serious questions. (Thread):

Marijuana ain't what it used to be. Not by a long shot. In 1995, weed had about 4% THC. Today? We're pushing 20%.And that's just from breeding. We can extract THC to 70, 80, even 95% purity. Should we be worried? 🧵

63% of physicians are burnt out, the highest rate of any US profession. When docs burn out, patients suffer: more medical errors, more malpractice suits, even increased racial biases. A new Mayo Clinic study says smartwatches might cut burnout in half. Really? 🧵

About a year ago, I joked with a friend about Ozempic's miracle benefits. Weight loss! Better hearts! Less drinking! "What about side effects?" he asked. "Maybe after 10 years your eyes fall out," I joked. Well, about that... 🧵

Check out the incidence of colorectal cancers among 45-49 year old's over time. Scary, right? This week, I wrote about a trio of papers in @jamacurrent trying to explain this phenomonon. Full details @medscape here: www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...

Thanks to a clever use of mass spectroscopy, scientists seem to have uncovered the actual "scent of a woman" - a cocktail of compounds, released during ovulation, that actually changes men's behavior. Brief thread:

The COVID pandemic AGED your brain by 5.5 months, on average, according to a new study. That... sounds bad. But what does "brain age" mean? And what does a brain that is aging more rapidly mean to you? Using what's left of my brain to break down this new study. (1/N)

Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS) is rising. Wait, not rising. Skyrocketing. At least in adolescents. So... is it real? Brief thread discussing this new study. 🧵

Does the dinner plate affect the dream state? Does a midnight stack make your dreams more wack? This week - some evidence for the old idea that certain foods predispose to nightmares. Here's what you need to know: 🧵

To a Gen X'er like me, this is an A-ha moment. But to the rest of the world, "Aha moments are sudden flashes of insight; instances of "Eureka" where, abruptly, the solution to a problem presents itself. A new study suggests we can actually game the system... here's how: 🧵

Another psilocybin study out this week, and I have to admit I find this stuff completely fascinating. A single dose of an agent with potentially YEARS-long improvement in depression? (Brief thread):

Take a deep breath, and listen to the old brag of your heart. (To paraphrase Sylvia Plath). For something we don't think about, breathing is incredibly complex. A new study suggests the way we breathe can tell us about our brains, even our mental health. (Thread)

We are firmly in the era of biofeedback. I have a "watch" on my wrist that tells me how well I slept, how well I exercised, how stressed I am, and on and on. This can be a powerful force for behavior change... but can it reduce alcohol intake? I'll break down a new study here.

Scientists have invented a device that can read your brain waves and tell you how cognitively depleted you are. It reminded me of this... But read on actually because this is pretty cool tech. (Thread)

There's a paper out in BMJ Open today linking cold sores (well, the virus HSV-1), to Alzheimer's disease. So... let's talk about it. (Thread/)

Yes, you can die from a broken heart. About 40,000 people a year are hospitalized with Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy (broken heart syndrome) in the United States. And men are more likely than women to die from it. Stick around for a brief thread on new data.

We're in a paradigmatic shift in how diagnosis happens. What used to be symptom-->doctor-->diagnostic test-->diagnosis is rapidly turning into: passive monitoring-->diagnosis. The poster child for this? Smartwatch alerts for atrial fibrillation. Some issues: 🧵

A new study links "biological age" with dementia risk, which is fascinating, but we probably need to talk a bit about the methodology behind "biological age." (Thread)

There's a lot of talk about what environmental triggers might explain the observed rise in autism cases around the world, so I thought it would be good to review what the data actually shows about genes vs. environment. (Yup, a thread).

The fact that GLP-1 receptor agonists (like Ozempic and Mounjaro) are the most powerful weight loss drugs ever is NOT the most interesting thing about them. More stuff keeps coming out - and the effects are just wild. This week? A reduction in dementia risk. Breakdown below.

April 1st, 2025. Irony is dead. youtu.be/wVthqE7UhZU

I've been told to be more uplifting when I do science communication stuff. Someday. But today is not that day. I'd like to tell you about yet another way the US lags the developed world in healthcare. Let's talk about "avoidable deaths". (thread)

The GLP-1 receptor agonists (like Ozempic and Mounjaro) are wildly effective weight-loss agents. But are they COST-effective? That's a trickier question. And a new study just out in JAMA Health Forum provides an answer. A resounding "no." (Thread)

The @nytimes.com with @danagoldstein.bsky.social cover the story of Dr Rasha Alawieh being deported despite the Judge’s order (gift link) (She’s a nephrologist, not a surgeon, but that doesn’t matter here) www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/u...

If you've followed me for any length of time you know I'm something of a Vitamin D supplementation skeptic. Well... like any good skeptic, sometimes you have to re-examine your priors. Priors updated: there may be a role for vitamin d supplementation in MS. (Thread)

In what is one of the more disturbing studies I've read recently, a @NatureMedicine paper shows that, by the time we die, we have about a sandwich bag worth of microplastics in our brain. In fact, the brain seems to be a reservoir for the stuff. (Thread)

Basic reproduction number: the average number of susceptible people one person infected with a disease will infect. A measure of contagiousness. Here's a graph I made in the COVID era. Note #measles - the most infectious human virus in an unvaccinated population.

Back in November, I submitted a grant to NIH. It was a renewal of a previously-funded R01 that evaluated the impact of clinical decision support to improve the care of patients with acute kidney injury. A big deal for our lab, for those of you who know my work. Update... (1/

If you were on social media during the pandemic, you came across #DiedSuddenly. Stories of young people, healthy, suffering fatal cardiac arrest out of nowhere. The implication? Those evil vaccines. It was all bullshit. But I want to talk about why it was so effective. 🧵

Sometimes anecdotes turn out to be true. This week, my wife's longstanding conviction that stress causes cancer got a big dose of support from an --omics study appearing in @jamanetworkopen. Brief thread:

If I gave you a million dollars with the condition that you couldn't keep any - you had to use it all to convince as many people to get vaccinated as possible, what would you do? Ads? Websites? Endorsements? What if you just... pay people to get vaccinated? Would it work? 🧵