nutrition
Could some ultra-processed foods be good for you?
Jenny Kane/AP
Not all ultra-processed foods are created equal. There's your chicken nuggets, but then there's your whole grain cereal and bread. The wide variety among such foods makes it tricky to determine the link between ultra-processed foods and any particular health outcome. Last month, physician and researcher JoAnn Manson analyzed three large long-running studies looking at ultra-processed foods and cardiovascular disease.
STAT's Liz Cooney spoke to Manson about what she and her colleagues found. "We actually were surprised that there were several types of ultra-processed foods linked to lower risk of cardiovascular disease," Manson told Liz. "We did not expect as much diversity across types of ultra-processed foods." Read more from Liz.
hospitals
Quick stats: Alzheimer's at the ED
In 2022, Alzheimer's was the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. Yesterday, the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics released a report on how people age 65 and older who have Alzheimer's disease interacted with emergency departments across the country between 2020 and 2022. Here's what the data shows:
- About 36 out of every 1,000 people in this age group with Alzheimer's visited hospital emergency departments in the time span, and that rate increased with age.
- Arriving by ambulance to the ED was almost twice as common for those older adults with Alzheimer's than those without the disease.
- More than a third (37%) of ED visits from those with Alzheimer's ended with the patient admitted to the hospital, compared to about 28% of visits by those without the disease.
Keep up on the latest news about Alzheimer's with STAT's great coverage.
first opinion
Is 'poop as medicine' under threat? (Yes, you read that right.)
Physician Neil Stollman began performing "poop transplants" — incredulously — 20 years ago. He's kept doing it all this time because, as gross as it sounds, it actually works. For patients who have a specific, devastating bacterial infection in their colon called C. diff, a fecal transplant can repair damage to the organ's microbiome, weakening the bacteria.
But a looming FDA deadline has put the future of this care into question for the most vulnerable populations. The agency has approved two fecal transplant biotherapeutic products for C. diff patients, but neither is indicated for severe, fulminant, or pediatric patients. In a First Opinion essay, he argues that the FDA needs to ensure continued access to investigational fecal microbiota transplants for those who need them. Read more.
No comments