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Health

Six People With Rheumatoid Arthritis Were Given a Cancer Therapy and Three Have Been Off All Medication Since

A phase 1 trial at the Charite in Berlin used CD19 CAR T cells, a treatment built for blood cancers, on patients who had already failed between five and eight biologic drugs. Disease activity fell in every one of them. Three reached medication free remission.

Aug 30, 2026/4 min read

The red brick buildings of Campus Charite Mitte in Berlin seen across the Humboldthafen, photographed in 2024

Health

Congo Has Started Vaccinating Against Ebola With a Vaccine Built for a Different Ebola

The only licensed Ebola vaccine was made for Zaire ebolavirus. The outbreak killing people in eastern Congo is Bundibugyo. Vaccination began this week anyway, with 20,000 of the 70,000 doses formally designated as a trial.

Aug 29, 2026/3 min read

Pharmacists in protective gear prepare doses of an Ebola vaccine during the PREVAIL trial in Liberia in 2016

Health

Something Has Been Crossing Into the Ageing Human Brain That Was Not Supposed to Get In

Stanford researchers borrowed the trick a consumer ancestry test uses and found immune cells migrating out of the blood and into the human brain from middle age onwards. Mice do not do it. Nor did the primates tested alongside them.

Aug 25, 2026/4 min read

Microglia, stained green, among neurons stained red in a mixed rat brain cell culture

Health

Loneliness Raises the Risk of Early Death by About a Quarter, and the World Health Organization Now Counts It as a Cause

A meta-analysis of seventy studies put the increased mortality risk from loneliness at 26 per cent and from living alone at 32 per cent. A WHO commission estimates 871,000 deaths a year. What the numbers mean, and what has been shown to help.

Aug 23, 2026/4 min read

A man sitting alone on a bench in silhouette against a sunset sky, seen from behind

Health

Women Were Warned for Twenty Years That Hormone Therapy Raised Dementia Risk. A Study of 21,000 Points the Other Way.

Estrogen-only therapy was associated with 39 per cent lower odds of dementia, and with fewer amyloid plaques and tau tangles in donated brains. It is observational, and the group that receives it is unusual.

Aug 22, 2026/4 min read

A blister pack of estradiol tablets, one form of estrogen-only hormone therapy

Health

The Same Word Is on Your Serum, Your Collagen Powder and the Vial Someone Is Selling on Telegram

Peptide is a chemical category, not a claim. The two versions most people actually buy are the ones with the least regulation and, oddly, the best safety record. Here is what the trials support and what physics gets in the way of.

Aug 20, 2026/4 min read

An amber serum bottle, tubs of collagen powder and a small vial

Health

Retatrutide Is Not Approved in Any Country. It Is Also for Sale in Most of Them

Lilly does not expect to file for approval until the first quarter of 2027. Search the drug's name today and you can have a vial by the weekend. The gap between those two facts is where the harm happens.

Aug 20, 2026/4 min read

An unlabelled vial and a padded mailer on a domestic table

Health

Retatrutide's Third Receptor Is the Hormone That Raises Blood Sugar. Adding It On Purpose Is the Whole Idea

Semaglutide hits one receptor and tirzepatide hits two. The third one retatrutide adds is glucagon, which does the opposite of what a diabetes drug is supposed to do. It is also where the liver results and the safety questions both come from.

Aug 20, 2026/4 min read

Unlabelled trial vials in a rack on a research bench

Health

Diabetes Asks You to Make About 180 Decisions a Day, Then Calls You Non-Compliant When You Stop

Diabetes distress is not depression and it is not a character weakness. It is the predictable response to a condition that never grants a day off, and it is one of the strongest predictors of how the numbers go.

Aug 18, 2026/4 min read

The daily apparatus of diabetes management spread across a kitchen table

Health

The 2026 Guidelines Quietly Removed the Hurdles People Had to Clear Before Getting an Insulin Pump

Continuous monitoring is now recommended for adults with type 2 diabetes who are not on insulin at all, and the prerequisites for starting automated insulin delivery have been deleted rather than relaxed. Both changes are about access.

Aug 15, 2026/3 min read

An insulin pump beside a phone app and a glucose meter

Health

Watching From Abroad: When the War Is at Home and You Are Not

For much of the Gulf's working population, the conflict is somewhere their family lives and they do not. The particular difficulty of that position is helplessness, and there are things that genuinely help with it.

Aug 13, 2026/4 min read

A person on a phone call at a window at night, city lights behind them