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Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 18-Jun-2026 20:15 ET (19-Jun-2026 00:15 GMT/UTC)

Metformin shown to prevent Long COVID across risk groups in multiple randomized trials

University of Minnesota Medical School
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Multiple randomized clinical trials and electronic health record studies now show that metformin, a widely used and well-established medication, significantly reduces the risk of developing Long COVID when taken during or shortly after acute infection with SARS-CoV-2. The findings were published today in Clinical Infectious DiseasesExternal link that opens in the same window.

Journal: Clinical Infectious Diseases

New poll: most Americans would consider a plant-based alternative to chicken wings during Super Bowl

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Reports and Proceedings

It is estimated that Americans will consume 1.48 billion chicken wings during the Super Bowl, but a new Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine/Morning Consult poll finds that most Americans, 56%, would consider trying a plant-based alternative such as Baked Buffalo Cauliflower Bites while watching the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks on Feb. 8.

Sex determines the connection between diseases, according to a BSC study that exposes historical biases in public health

Barcelona Supercomputing Center
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Understanding how the efficacy of some widely used drugs—such as antidiabetics, chemotherapies, or bronchodilators—could depend on the patient's sex helped, in the long term, to reduce the risk of adverse effects.

“With this work, we opened the door to a precision medicine that no longer assumed that what worked for men necessarily worked for women.”

Journal: Communications Medicine

Breakthrough study reveals early neural circuit that determines food reward

University of Delaware
Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Delaware neuroscientists identified a previously unknown neural circuit in fruit flies that marks an early step in how the brain decides whether food is rewarding. The finding helps explain cravings and overeating and offers new clues to eating disorders and addiction.

Journal: Current Biology

High-deductible health plans and mortality among cancer survivors

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study of nationwide population-based data, high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) were associated with worse overall survival and cancer-specific survival among cancer survivors. However, HDHPs were not associated with mortality in adults without history of cancer. These data suggest that insurance coverage that financially discourages medical care may financially discourage necessary care and ultimately worsen cancer outcomes.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

New guide aims to tame the chaos of UTI care

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

With UTI now available from many virtual and non-traditional sources, a new expert consensus guide aims to give clinicians and patients clarity on who should get antibiotics without testing and who should get urine cultures before receiving them, to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance.

Journal: JAMA Network Open
Funder: Department of Veterans' Affairs

Early recognition and surgical management key in necrotizing fasciitis of the head and neck

Impact Journals LLC
Peer-Reviewed Publication

BUFFALO, NY — January 29, 2026 — A new research perspective was published in Volume 12 of Oncoscience on December 23, 2025, titled “Necrotizing fasciitis of the head and neck – clinical features, diagnostics, and management strategies.”

Journal: Oncoscience

UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial opens new women’s health clinic, expanding access to specialty care in Chicago’s Southland

University of Chicago Medical Center
Business Announcement

To address the disparities in access to specialty care, UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial opened a new women’s health clinic on its main campus in Harvey in December 2025 for women with complex healthcare needs.

Houston Methodist physician granted NIH award to explore how virtual reality therapy may combat ICU delirium

Houston Methodist
Grant and Award Announcement

Dr. Hina Faisal, a Houston Methodist critical care specialist in the Department of Surgery, is exploring how virtual reality (VR) can treat a commonplace intensive care unit (ICU) complication – delirium – by immersing patients in digital environments designed to alleviate this condition.