The hottest Health Studies Substack posts right now

Living in the Red Zone brings uncertainty about the future, but focusing on daily joys is key.
New study shows that being a billionaire doesn't equate to higher intelligence compared to lower-paid individuals.
Loneliness is highlighted as being as dangerous as smoking, emphasizing the importance of social connections for health.

Space missions allow for important medical research that can't be done on Earth. This research helps us understand health impacts from weightlessness and cosmic radiation.
Space medicine focuses on preventing and treating health issues astronauts face during missions. It's essential to manage their wellbeing in orbit, especially for long-duration flights.
The future of space medicine includes private companies conducting research in space. This could lead to breakthroughs in treatments for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's.

A risk factor for a health issue increases the risk but doesn't necessarily cause it. This distinction between correlation and causation is crucial in understanding health impacts.
Research often neglects to consider factors like weight stigma, weight cycling, and healthcare inequalities when discussing the health impacts of being overweight, leading to inaccurate conclusions.
Using verbiage like 'risk factor for' should prompt questions about causality and the influence of other societal factors like racism, highlighting the importance of critical analysis in interpreting health information.

Data from wastewater shows that highly vaccinated states did not have fewer COVID infections than less vaccinated ones. This suggests mass vaccination may not have been effective.
The rise in COVID cases in highly vaccinated areas like Israel indicates that vaccines may have increased the virus's spread instead of controlling it.
Studies, including ones from the Cleveland Clinic, found that the more vaccine doses people received, the higher their risk of contracting COVID. This raises questions about the vaccine's overall effectiveness.

Higher status individuals tend to live longer compared to lower status individuals within the same organization.
Lower social status is associated with stress-related habits that can lead to health issues and a weakened immune system.
The relationship between status, stress, and mortality is complex and debatable, with other variables like lifestyle choices and relationships also playing a role.

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Cherry-picking data in science is necessary to make progress in fields like obesity and nutrition. It involves selectively interpreting data to distinguish between competing hypotheses.
Design experiments to be as discriminating as possible and analyze data from different angles to paint a coherent picture.
There is no single definitive experiment that can prove a hypothesis true. It requires studying the hypothesis from various perspectives to develop broad support.