🧪 NEW STUDY: Link between microplastics and brain tumors 👇

"New York with Moon". Georgia O'Keeffe. 1925.

This is an excellent review of the features and predictors of long COVID + includes updates on recent and ongoing clinical trials for treatment. A very timely review given that 2025 was a banner year for important new findings pertaining to long COVID. #LongCOVID www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Tonight, Canada goes teal for International Long Covid Awareness Day. Share your photo or video from one of the locations to support the long Covid community. Find a location near you: covidsociety.ca/priorities/l... 📷 Stacey Leigh (Corner Brook City Hall) #LongCovid #ILCAD2026 #LongCovidAwareness

Social determinants associated with greater risk of paediatric long COVID. #longcovid jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Aged adults with extraordinary memory capacity – known as SuperAgers – exhibit a unique neurogenesis profile with a surprisingly high number of young neurons, according to a study published in Nature. 🧪 #Neuroscience

"Our study highlights the presence of widespread neuroinflammation in the brain and increased levels of inflammatory cytokines in the plasma of individuals with post–COVID-19 active temporal lobe epilepsy.". www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

P-tau abnormalities appear in the spinal cord of CTE cases, not just the brain. This may open pathways toward in vivo biomarkers (finally!). #CTE #brain jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

in case you're curious about how angry Minnesota is about ICE, it was -20 today

Continuous glucose monitoring sensor data, with a foundation model, predicts risk of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular outcomes better than HbA1c New @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A.I. detecting early pancreatic cancer in China, based on @naturemedicine.bsky.social validation publication "I think you can 100% say AI saved their lives." gift link www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/w...

How do the metabolic waste products get cleared from our brain? And how does this process intersect with the brain's immune system? An exceptional review by @jonykipnis.bsky.social and colleagues cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Many complexities, but AI does seem to perform well in initial head-to-head tests, when using text as the medium. Text is, however, a very limited modality in relation to fluid, real-time interpersonal exchanges more typical of psychotherapy or emotional support #AI academic.oup.com/bmb/article/...

Acute and chronic viral infections, including Herpes Zoster (Shingles), Hepatitis C, HIV, CMV, influenza, and SARS-CoV-2, are linked with a substantial increased risk of cardiovascular events, from a systematic review. Figure for SARS-CoV-2 below newsroom.heart.org/news/some-ac...

Longer survival among cancer patients may be an unexpected benefit of COVID vaccination. www.nature.com/articles/d41....

RIP Dr. Nolan R. Williams (1983-2025) professor at Stanford. He was a pioneer in the treatment of depression and a friend. I read this Substack eulogy on him this morning, and I thought it really captured both the man and his brilliance. thefrontierpsychiatrists.substack.com/p/a-eulogy-f...

An up to date review on the Brian health officials impacts of exercise, with a focus on mechanism #brainhealth www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Waning immunity. A significant Covid wave in England. No new variant. Thanks Prof Pagel for highlighting and contextualizing

One third???

Our capability to prevent diseases from occurring is gaining momentum. Using A.I. to predict >1,200 diseases 20 years ahead adds to the ways we'll be able to achieve primary prevention. nature.com/articles/d41... erictopol.substack.com/p/dawn-of-a-...

A groundbreaking paper published @nature.com today—the first large health language model—predicts >1,000 diseases for a person and when. Implications here: erictopol.substack.com/p/dawn-of-a-...

Coming tomorrow. Something that's been talked about for many decades, but not done. That's changing. Subscribe; it's free, and you'll get the link by email and future posts. erictopol.substack.com

We know GLP-1 drugs reduce brain inflammation. But I didn't anticipate bipolar disorder as a possible indication in the future www.nature.com/articles/s41...

OpenAI said on Tuesday that it planned to introduce new features intended to make its chatbot safer, including parental controls, “within the next month.”

How plasma p-Tau markers can predict if and when there will be transition to mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease in cognitively unimpaired individuals, along staging of the disease www.nature.com/articles/s43...

China installed 212 gigawatts of solar capacity in the first six months of the year, more than America's entire capacity of 178 gigawatts as of the end of 2024 www.independent.co.uk/news/china-a...

COVID Vaccine for children

Naturally occurring dementia analog in cats may turn out to be a good model for humans. #dementia www.the-independent.com/life-style/h...

For #ME/CFS, genomics assessed in >15,000 indviduals with 8 genomic loci identified. "Validation of ME/CFS as a biomedical condition and an important corrective to psychologizing ‘all in the mind’ perspectives on the disease” www.science.org/content/arti... www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publicati...

A rundown on the big advances we’re seeing on the brain-immune axis erictopol.substack.com/p/our-braini...

I’m floored … this is pretty astounding. #SARS-CoV-2 #Covid19

Infection-related visual stimuli are enough to prime the immune response via the brain #immune #brain www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Enjoying the silence. #summermorning #enjoythesilence #summer #nature #silhouette #sunrise

Oh my god, this has to stop. Let the trucks in… www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

Even in post-secondary, we are seeing some highly misogynistic language popping up in online venues, with little to no moderation. Definitely not helping the situation, as it maintains an illusion of endorsement or credibility. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

I was explaining to my Ukrainian colleague the phrase ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’. She told me the equivalent in Ukrainian is ‘The only free cheese is in the mousetrap’ - which is so much better

The mechanisms by which ultra-processed foods (UPF) drive obesity, an outstanding review article "the evidence is sufficiently strong to justify immediate public health efforts to reduce UPF consumption." www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A brilliant @science.org review on the brain's glymphatics, the channels for eliminating metabolic waste products, and their relationship to Alzheimer's diseases www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Why happens when you put SARS-CoV-2 in with human neural (retinal) tissue in culture (organoid)? It induces Alzheimer’s-like pathology. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A beautiful start to the day here today. Photo taken on Glastonbury Tor at sunrise.

The lady and the rose. St Michael's tower on Glastonbury Tor.

Budapest Pride draws huge crowds in defiance of Orban legal threats - BBC News www.bbc.com/news/article...

There is remarkable extent of bi-directional cross-talk between the nervous system and Type 2 immunity (vs infectious parasites, allergens, irritants, and toxins). A new and superb review @sciimmunology.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Good afternoon, Christchurch…

Things are bleak but they’re also funny. Ah, duality.

Benefits of pharmacotherapy and rTMS for neuropathic pain; great review! “Pharmacotherapy and non-invasive neuromodulation for neuropathic pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis” - Lancet Neurology #pain #TMS www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Epigenetic (methylation, biological) age is associated with increased risk of dementia and brain structural changes (including atrophy). From UK Biobank's 280,000 participants, ~4,800 cases of dementia over 14-year follow-up www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/...