Prebiotic sodas have become more popular in recent years, with a wave of new products promising gut health benefits and low-calorie enjoyment. According to a new analysis, however, many of these beverages contain relatively little prebiotic fiber content and more sugar than marketing claims might imply.

A 20-year study of more than 65,000 postmenopausal women found that higher adherence to the Planetary Health Diet was associated with a lower risk of overall cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, stroke and heart failure.

Venous thromboembolism education involves complex clinical reasoning, rapidly updated evidence, and high cognitive load. Researchers from Peking University First Hospital and collaborators built a VTE intelligent knowledge base using retrieval-augmented generation, combining evidence-based information, expert experience, and de-identified real-world cases. In a learner pathway, users rated the system positively for clinical decision support, knowledge question answering, and resource recommendation, with median satisfaction scores of 4.00 across dimensions. In a teacher pathway, however, the system showed task-dependent performance: it provided some support for convergent tasks such as lesson planning, but performed less well in creative tasks such as assisted exam item generation. The study suggests that future AI tools for medical education should move beyond single-topic knowledge bases toward a broader knowledge base matrix covering clinical, teaching, and research needs.

In 2021, the FDA issued Phase I voluntary sodium reduction targets to encourage manufacturers to lower the sodium in packaged food products by 2024. The targets appear to have had minimal impact, according to a study comparing sodium content of new products introduced before and after the guidance was issued. 

Lithium in drinking water is a widespread and persistent source of human exposure across Tribal communities in the Western United States, according to a new study. The findings document substantial regional variation in exposure and provide some of the strongest evidence to date that household drinking water is a major contributor to lithium levels measured in the body.