Week of June 23, 2025
During my clinic time last week, several patients brought up "social media health topics," asking how these issues "related to their kidneys." I wonder if a newly tuned kidney-patient-focused algorithm was running on Facebook (these are older patients) or if my fallible, biased mind perceives patterns among a random group of independent conversations (a cognitive bias known as apophenia). Either way, I offer you learnings from my patients (and me - I had to look up details). These are my replies to the questions and comments:
Yes, there are new blood tests (in development) to detect cancer earlier, but I am not sure we (the collective healthcare community) know how to best deal with the results. Knowledge (especially early and un-actionable data) may evoke more anxiety than value at this point. Calling the Johns Hopkins researchers (to get access to these tests) may not get you what you want (peace of mind).
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/2025/06/cancers-can-be-detected-in-the-bloodstream-three-years-prior-to-diagnosis
Cherry juice is an antioxidant. I do not suggest using it to REPLACE other medications (like statins for cholesterol). It may help reduce markers of inflammation in your body, but you need to drink 16 oz a day (~ 500 mL), which is a significant amount of sugar. Additionally, short-term trials do not demonstrate improved clinical outcomes; instead, they show improvements in non-specific laboratory tests, indicating some form of decreased inflammation.
https://www.openevidence.com/ask/91069437-836c-43aa-b4fe-c23865d07720
Cranberry juice may reduce the risk of recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) in healthy women and children; however, it does not treat UTIs, nor does it benefit patients with more chronic and recurrent bladder infections. In other words, you should keep taking the antibiotics. Moreover, most studies had patients consume 8 to 16 oz (~250-500 mL) a day (which is also a lot of sugar or artificial sweetener, depending on which juice one uses).
https://www.openevidence.com/ask/e311c230-73b3-48e3-a10c-333690d790cd
Our latest "national conversations" on "improving health" have created an undue focus on food dyes. As an older, chronically ill patient (an 85-year-old with serious health issues), avoiding red Jolly Ranchers is not your highest health priority. No data suggests that red-dyed candies pose a significant health risk to you (or similar patients), especially given your complex, progressive disease, and life expectancy (of 5 years or less). Please eat the red Jolly Ranchers if they make you happy.
https://www.openevidence.com/ask/e85531b9-5437-4fce-b9fe-e5487d04e645
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Listen to a Google Notebook LM A.I.-generated podcast of the newsletter with two virtual "hosts."
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uaRXBoS7Ux5e1Ll4XhonRkolwGHvZh07/view
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Science and Technology Trends
Over the last few years, data on the cardiovascular risks of cannabis use have emerged from large population data sets. UCSF cardiologists recently published data on the possible mechanism by which cannabinoids (like THC) impact blood vessel pliability. Though the study is small (55 patients), these data suggest that there are some negative physiologic consequences to cannabis use that may explain the health patterns seen in some of the larger, messier population-level studies.
Research:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/article-abstract/2834540
AI Summary:
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/07b9607f-cfd7-4d0a-8863-71ca3cf29dfa
Article about the article:
https://cardiovascularbusiness.com/topics/clinical/heart-health/marijuana-use-linked-blood-vessel-damage-impact-seen-smoking-and-edibles
Related - a study of 197 black men and women randomized to receive education or transcendental meditation (each group received 40 meetings over 12 months). The meditation group showed less arterial thickening at 12 months and had fewer cardiovascular events, even up to 5 years after the study. There is no data to suggest meditation will offset cannabis use.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2025.1513699/full
Eli Lilly is acquiring Verve Therapeutics, one of the gene editing companies I keep tabs on. Another CRISPR therapy is moving closer to mainstream, scaled deployment.
https://cen.acs.org/business/mergers-&-acquisitions/Lilly-acquire-Verve-Therapeutics-13/103/web/2025/06#
More about Verve's 1-shot (literally one shot for permanent treatment) cholesterol-lowering therapy is moving to Phase 2 trials later this year (as best I can tell).
https://ir.vervetx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/verve-therapeutics-announces-positive-initial-data-heart-2-phase
Anti- Anti-Science Articles of Note
Contrasting views on anti-science this week.
The Times of London highlights "The paradox of our current HHS leadership: the 'anti-chronic disease' mission is undermined by eliminating the very programs designed to prevent chronic diseases."
https://www.thetimes.com/us/american-politics/article/cdc-rfk-robert-f-kennedy-q5tv0300z
AI summary and analysis of the article: https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/14a20922-4d90-442f-88b7-34602856404a
A well-written X thread on a time in the history of medicine when homeopathy (exposure to minimal doses of "natural" substances) was superior to more traditional healthcare. It was a time (think the 18th and 19th centuries) when homeopathy's lack of effectiveness appeared like a better outcome compared to the actual harm done through mainstream (for the time) medicine’s bloodletting, purging, and lack of understanding of germ theory. It is an excellent example of logically fallacious thinking (association and causation confusion for homeopathy). Or, put more succinctly – everything is relative.
https://x.com/IntegralAnswers/status/1935639534685040943
Living with AI.
A loyal reader shared this: an MIT graduate student has developed AI-generated polymer films that can restore damaged paintings in hours rather than the months it would take to do so manually. "The method works by printing a transparent "mask" containing thousands of precisely color-matched regions that conservators can apply directly to an original artwork. Unlike traditional restoration, which permanently alters the painting, these masks can reportedly be removed whenever needed. So it's a reversible process that does not permanently change a painting."
From Nature:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01776-8
Summary on Ars Technica:
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/06/mit-student-prints-ai-polymer-masks-to-restoyre-paintings-in-hours/
Professor Ethan Mollick offered an analysis of the "LLMs are hurting students' brains" article.
https://x.com/emollick/status/1935856579624288660
reflecting on:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872
From the NY Times: "A.I. Might Take Your Job. Here Are 22 New Ones It Could Give You; In a few key areas, humans will be more essential than ever." I had Claude summarize the article.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/magazine/ai-new-jobs.html?smid=url-share
AI summary: https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/051ea263-a394-473b-a517-92d97c3f7cbc
Infographics
More reflections on the atypically long, 2-hour Italian lunches from a few weeks ago (or, conversely put, I am not alone in eating 10-minute lunches at my desk.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/1kxlxj3/34_of_employed_us_adults_work_through_lunch_often/#lightbox
Things I learned this week
I have no idea how to evaluate the value of this research - but I am fascinated by quantum computing and cosmology. I found this article on the theory that space-time is not empty nothingness but is, rather, made of stored information. "When anything moves through space-time—even waving your hand—it leaves an invisible "memory" imprinted in the fabric of reality itself." I provide an AI-generated summary for those who require a more concise overview of a complex topic.
Original article with paywall:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2482841-the-radical-idea-that-space-time-remembers-could-upend-cosmology/
No Paywall:
https://www.smry.ai/proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2F2482841-the-radical-idea-that-space-time-remembers-could-upend-cosmology%2F
AI Summary:
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/7236387b-d298-4bba-b95f-a0f5e898b0c6
In 1982, archaeological artifacts from a Roman Republic-era trading ship discovered off the coast of Italy included a small tin container that contained remarkably well-preserved tablets. Researchers were able to analyze the composition of the tablets, concluding that they are zinc-containing collyrium-dissolvable tablets used to treat irritation and other non-specific eye ailments. Given the scarcity of medicines from this era, it is a remarkable glimpse into healthcare in the ancient world. (And, to be clear, dissolvable zinc tablets to be used as eye wash makes far more sense that bloodletting and purging (see above)).
Article:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1216776110
AI Summary:
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/d2bb4d62-e072-48dc-9100-84fb115b0374
Historical uses of collyrium and the eye washing applicators:
https://www.maltonmuseum.co.uk/2021/05/01/roman-eye-health/
AI art of the week
(A visual mashup of topics from the newsletter, now using ChatGPT to summarize the newsletter, suggest prompts, and make the images).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MmyvryVghw3dqirtR3ZD7Ld-Ip4g2URx/view
"A movie poster for a fictional movie entitled "Apophenia in the Apothecary Shipwreck Society" the poster and image should be a photorealistic Wes Anderson style, depict a cozy vintage kitchen that blends medical science, elderly care, and ancient apothecary discovery. At the symmetrical breakfast table, an elderly couple sits in 1960s clothing. One drinks a large mason jar of cherry juice while reading a flyer titled 'Anti-Oxidants and Apophenia'. The other, dressed in a cardigan, is holding a tiny Roman apothecary tablet labeled 'Collyrium' with tweezers. On the table, there's a bowl of red candies, a dusty Roman tin, and a retro medical chart of a kidney on the wall. In the corner, a wood-paneled cabinet labeled 'Apothecary Shipwreck Society' holds scrolls and ancient tools. A social media feed scrolls by faintly in the window reflection. Colors are pastel-heavy, the layout is symmetrical, and every object is obsessively labeled in neat, serif fonts."
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The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative (PMC) website utilizes wastewater levels to forecast four-week predictions of COVID-19 rates.
There are increasing cases of the newest variant.
https://pmc19.com/data/
based upon https://biobot.io/data/
https://x.com/michael_hoerger/status/1935783240003973125
Wastewater Scan offers a multi-organism wastewater dashboard with an excellent visual display of individual treatment plant-level data.
https://data.wastewaterscan.org/
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Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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