Mind & body, in brief

Reports of heart attacks came 4.5 times more often for energy drinks and stimulant supplements than for other products. [1]

Cardiac arrest, when the heart stops pumping properly, was reported about 11 times more often. [1] Dangerous rhythms and palpitations were reported about 4 times more often. [1]

The team read 28,345 reports made to the US Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, from 2017 to 2025. [1] Of those, 854 involved these products. [1]

The University of Virginia study goes to the American Heart Association's meeting in Chicago, on 6 to 9 November. [1]

It is preliminary and cannot prove that energy drinks cause heart problems. [1]

Energy drinks are part of the day for many students, young professionals and shift workers, says heart specialist Zaidoun Hajali. [2]

Most do not count them as caffeine, he says, so their real total is often much higher. [2]

Marcus says more research must show whether these products are truly responsible for the reported events. [1]

Caffeine raises the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, the body's alarm wiring. [1] The heart then beats faster and harder, and blood pressure rises. [2]

Heart researchers use a trigger-substrate-context model: a stimulant meets a hidden weak spot in the heart. [4]

A young person may look healthy and still carry an electrical fault in the heart, says Tayel. [2] Exercise, heat or lost sleep can add to the strain. [4]

Reading report files for early warnings is called pharmacovigilance. [5] A paper on the FDA's drug reports says such files give signals, not verdicts. [5]

That file has no denominator, the bottom number of a rate, because nobody knows how many people took each drug. [5] The energy drink study also compared reports with reports. [1]

A school hearing many complaints about one club still needs to know how many pupils joined before calling it risky.

In the FDA's drug file, diagnosis and blame are the reporter's judgement and cannot be checked, the paper says. [5]

For many healthy people, the risk from occasional use is probably small, the study's author says. [1] Regular users can quickly pass the daily caffeine limit, the author adds. [1]

The study is due to be presented in Chicago on Friday 6 November, The National reports. [2]

A study going to the American Heart Association's meeting found energy drinks named far more often than other products in FDA reports of heart trouble. [1]

Those reports count complaints, not drinkers, so the study raises a warning and does not measure how many drinkers are harmed. [5]

A figure like 4.5 times feels like a measured risk, even when it compares reports with reports. [1]

Its name goes on Big 12 jerseys, fields and courts, which puts an energy drink in front of young sports fans. [4]

A hidden fault may show itself only after a large dose of stimulants, and doctors rarely know who has one. [2]

How many energy drink users have a heart event at all.

The study compared reports with reports. [1] A paper on the FDA's drug file says such files have no count of everyone exposed. [5]

Whether the caffeine, the other stimulants or something else caused the reported events.

Marcus says other factors may have influenced the results. [1] Tayel says many young patients had also used nicotine, lost sleep or exercised hard. [2]

More than 373,000 people in England were diagnosed with cancer in 2024, the highest figure on record, NHS figures show. [6]

That is 1,021 people a day, up from 972 a day in 2023. [6]

Prostate, breast, lung and bowel cancers made up half of all new diagnoses. [6]

In August, 78.6% of urgent referrals got an answer within 28 days, against a target of 80%. [6]

Only 71.9% began treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral, against a target of 85%. [6]

Ian Walker of Cancer Research UK, a charity, says too many cancers are still caught at a late stage. [6]

Hilary Williams, of doctors' body the Royal College of Physicians, says it shows growing demand on cancer services. [6]

Epidemiologists separate a count from a rate. [15] A rate divides the cases by the whole population at risk. [15]

England's 373,000 is a count, and Williams calls an ageing population an important factor in it. [6] So a count can climb when more older people are alive. [6]

A big school hands out more detention slips than a small one, even if its pupils behave just the same.

Peter Johnson, the NHS cancer director, says the figures show it "moving in the right direction". [6] Its latest monthly figures miss both waiting targets. [6]

The share of first cancers found at stage 1 or 2, the earliest stages, rose from 55.8% to 56.7%. [6]

Why a pile of complaints cannot show how risky a product is

Someone has a bad event after using a product and files a report

The file fills up with people who had trouble

Nobody files a report to say the product was fine, so they stay uncounted

So the file can show a warning sign, a pattern worth checking

A risk is a rate: the harms divided by everyone who was exposed

Only a study that counts all the users can work out that rate

A count says how many people were harmed.

The top of the sum is on file: 854 reports. The bottom is missing, so the sum cannot be done.

373,000 is the top number only. Its speakers name an ageing population as a factor, and the rate is what would show whether each person's risk has moved.

The Dutch count 1,239 injured, no figure shows how many people lit fireworks safely, and many countries keep no count at all.

The piece has individual cases and 524,000 medical trips, and no count of how many trips went wrong, so the sum stops at the top line.

This is the sum done properly: the registry holds every case, so survivors can be divided by all of them.

A report file is still the first warning of a rare harm, and waiting for a perfect rate could mean missing it.

The person filing a report, the doctor reading it, the firm selling the can and the regulator each hold one piece.

How much of England's cancer rise comes from age, and how much from obesity.

The Royal College of Physicians names both, and the report prints no split between them. [6]

A US environmental group says the Trump administration has taken more than 500 actions weakening protections against cancer-causing substances. [7]

The group is the Natural Resources Defense Council, and it published the report in October. [7]

One wide change is at the US Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA. [7] It has started treating some exposure to cancer-causing substances as safe. [7]

Before, the EPA assumed any exposure carried some risk, and that risk grew with the dose. [7]

The change has already weakened protections against formaldehyde, a chemical widely used in consumer goods. [7]

An early 2026 memo by the EPA's deputy, David Fotouhi, called past risk estimates too conservative. [7]

Some early-onset cancers are rising about 30% per decade. [7] US officials estimate more than 2 million cancer diagnoses this year. [7]

These risk numbers underpin the rules that protect people from cancer-causing substances in air, water and consumer goods. [7]

Toxicologists call this a threshold: a dose below which a substance is treated as safe. [7]

The older rule, "no safe level of exposure", meant lower was always safer. [7] Set a threshold, and doses once called a problem are no longer called a danger. [7]

A teacher who lowers the pass mark sees more pupils pass, though nobody's marks have changed.

The figure of 500 actions and the phrase "pro-cancer" come from an advocacy group. [7] The Guardian contacted the White House and the EPA, and its article carries no reply. [7]

A threshold lets some formaldehyde exposure count as safe, and an EPA employee says the changes are what the chemical industry has wanted. [7]

How many extra cancers weaker US rules would bring.

The report and former officials say exposure will rise, and the article gives no estimate of cases. [7]

Delhi's Air Quality Index stood at 377 on Wednesday morning, in the band India calls very poor. [10]

India's watchdog calls 301 to 400 very poor, and anything above 400 severe. [10]

The index includes PM2.5, particles about 30 times smaller than the width of a hair. [10]

Falling temperatures and slower winds trap pollutants close to the ground. [16] Smoke from burning crop waste in Punjab and Haryana blows in too. [10]

It follows Delhi's cleanest October in 8 years. [10] A recent storm's rain and wind had helped clear the air. [10]

India's Supreme Court allows certified green firecrackers only in set hours on 7 and 8 November, for the Diwali festival. [10]

In Delhi's pollution season, PM2.5 often runs at more than 25 times the World Health Organization's 24-hour limit. [16]

A 2025 University of Chicago estimate says polluted air could cut life expectancy in Delhi by up to 8.2 years. [16]

Pulmonology, the medicine of the lungs, explains why size matters here. [16] The particles get deep into the lungs, enter the blood and trigger inflammation in many organs. [16]

Fine flour drifts all over a kitchen and gets into every gap, while coarse sand drops straight to the floor.

India's Supreme Court itself acknowledged that ordinary firecrackers kept being sold as green ones, even under a complete ban. [10]

Experts told the BBC that Delhi's winter plan looks good on paper, and that its success depends on enforcement. [16]

Teacher Meenu Rana says jobs and her son's school tie her family to a city it dreads each winter. [16]

US immigration officers now have broad discretion over who counts as a "public charge", with no fixed definition. [8]

A public charge is someone seen as likely to depend on government help. [8] That finding can block a green card, the right to live permanently in the US. [8]

A rule that took effect on 18 September removed the 2022 definitions and put nothing in their place. [8]

New guidance says officers may weigh any benefit tied to low income. [8] Its examples include Medicaid, US health cover for people on low incomes. [8]

The guidance gives no full list, and it can be changed without public comment. [8]

The US homeland security department received over 8,800 comments, said most opposed the rule, and finalised it as proposed. [8]

KFF, a US health research group, expects more fear and confusion among immigrant families, including their citizen children. [8]

KFF says that may limit their use of programmes that help pay for health care, food and housing. [8]

KFF's report names the worry a chilling effect: people step back from help because of a rule's threat. [8]

Officers may weigh a family member's benefits in some cases, and the guidance leaves unclear how. [8] So a parent cannot tell whether a child's cover counts. [8]

When a teacher will not say which acts earn a detention, pupils stop doing anything that might count.

The guidance says no single factor, including benefit use, decides a case. [8] It gives no full list of benefits that count, so applicants cannot check in advance. [8]

They can lose health cover or food help if a parent drops a programme out of fear. [8]

How many immigrant families will give up health cover or food help.

KFF expects families to step back, and the guidance is unclear on how relatives' benefits count. [8]

Missouri voters rejected a measure to ban abortion and gender-transition care for minors, with nearly 56% against. [17]

Missouri was the first US state to ban abortion after the Supreme Court ended national protections in 2022. [18]

In 2024 Missouri voters put abortion protections in the state constitution, by fewer than 100,000 votes. [18]

Voters in Virginia and Nevada backed abortion protections, and Idaho voters rejected them. [18] All 4 states kept their existing legal position. [17]

Voters in Arizona and Nebraska backed limits on transgender pupils in youth sport. [18] Washington state appeared to back one, with 60% of votes counted. [18]

Colorado was leading towards a similar limit and a ban on gender-related surgery for minors, with about 80% counted. [18]

Of those voting no in Missouri, 59% said abortion mattered more to them, in a survey with questions from KFF. [18]

The result keeps Missouri's 2024 abortion protections. [18] Limits on minors' care stay in ordinary law, not in the constitution. [18]

Political scientists call this bundling: tying a less popular question to a more popular one in a single vote. [17]

Missouri's ballot joined an abortion ban to limits on gender care, which the legislature had already imposed. [18] Yet 40% of no voters backed those limits and still voted no. [18]

A shop that sells a toy only with a dull book loses buyers who want just the toy.

In late 2024 the NCAA, US college sports' body, said fewer than 10 of over 500,000 athletes were transgender. [17]

STAT calls data on any physical advantage limited and murky. [17] Some results were still being counted when the sources were written. [18]

US officials missed their own 31 October deadline to tell states their next rural health awards. [9]

The Rural Health Transformation Program promises states $10 billion a year for 5 years, $50 billion in all. [9]

An email sent at 4:05 pm on 30 October said officials "discovered an additional administrative process requirement". [9]

It came from Alina Czekai, who runs the US rural health office. [9]

Each state's $100 million base is available, but the competitive part is delayed, with no new date given. [9]

Last year states won between $147 million and $281 million each. [9] Kentucky says its nearly $213 million was meant to lessen expected Medicaid cuts. [9]

States must still send revised budgets to the US agency by 30 November. [9]

One state health association leader says her staff are "in the dark" about the money. [9]

Public finance splits a grant like this into two parts. [9] A fixed base reaches every state, and a competitive part follows a score set by officials. [9]

Points last year went for things like growing the rural workforce and adopting the presidential fitness test for schoolchildren. [9]

A club gives every team the same kit money, then extra cash to whoever the judge marks highest.

US officials declined to answer questions and have refused to release states' first-year progress reports. [9]

A KFF Health News review found they tended to get more of last year's competitive rural money. [9]

Kentucky meant the money to soften Medicaid cuts, and the competitive share now has no date. [9]

When US states will hear their rural health awards.

The email gave no date, and the US agency declined to answer on the record. [9]

Pakistan has confirmed its 9th polio case of 2026, a 7-month-old boy in Khyber district. [13]

Polio is a highly infectious disease with no cure, and it can cause lifelong paralysis. [13]

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last 2 countries where polio remains endemic, meaning it still spreads there. [13]

This is Khyber's 3rd case this year, and all 3 have genetic links to Afghanistan, which has 50 cases. [13]

The 8th case, a 13-month-old girl also from Khyber, was reported on Sunday. [13]

A door-to-door campaign is now trying to reach nearly 24 million children in 97 districts. [13]

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told officials to prepare an action plan within a week. [13]

Pakistan's polio centre says no child anywhere will be safe until transmission has stopped completely. [13]

Epidemiologists call this cross-border circulation: a virus moves with people, so one country's campaign cannot finish the job alone. [13]

So Pakistan and Afghanistan are running their vaccination campaigns at the same time. [13]

Two classes treat head lice on the same day, because pupils who mix would pass them straight back.

Pakistan's polio centre says overall wild polio transmission has fallen this year. [13]

Some families in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, cannot find flu vaccines as winter nears. [12]

A pharmacist told Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper, that the 3 main brands are all missing this year. [12]

He says he usually sells at least 1,500 shots in October and could not get a single one. [12]

Some agents took advance payments online for doses they could not supply, he says. [12]

An unnamed health ministry official blames a global shortage, transport trouble from the Iran-US war, and limits on selling prices. [12]

The one brand on sale, Virionza, lists Rs1,304 on the pack, while its barcode shows Rs654. [12]

Pakistan's drug regulator says Sinovac will be available by 15 November. [12]

The shot is ideally given in early autumn, especially to older people, before flu spreads, the pharmacist says. [12]

Economists call this a black market: buyers pay outside the normal shops once the normal shops run out. [12]

Here, rumours that the vaccine would not come led agents to sell bookings online. [12] Even they could not supply the doses. [12]

When a popular console sells out, people pay strangers online for one that may never arrive.

Health Minister Mustafa Kamal says flu vaccine is on the market and only some prominent brands are missing. [12] Families and a pharmacist told Dawn they could find none. [12]

Rumours of a shortage let them take advance payments for doses. [12]

Winter is arriving without the shot, and one resident fears his mother will be left exposed to flu. [12]

A new analysis says covid vaccines gave up to $64.3 trillion in health and economic benefits in their first year. [19]

The team's earlier draft topped out at $37.9 trillion, before review by other scientists. [19]

The low end of the published range is $6.43 trillion, from a different method. [19]

Developing the vaccines cost $79.4 billion, the researchers say. [19]

The analysis covers 173 countries. [19] One input is modelling suggesting the vaccines prevented 14 million to 20 million deaths in their first year. [19]

Hallie Benjamin of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine worked on the study. [19]

Returns were highest in richer countries. [19] Poorer countries probably got vaccines later, so fewer lives were saved there, says team member Mark Jit. [19]

Health economists have to put a money value on a saved life to do this kind of sum. [19]

Reviewers advised moving from a value per life-year, lower for older people, to a value per life. [19] That treats lifespans more equally, and it raised the top figure. [19]

One second-hand car gets two prices if one buyer counts its age and the other counts only that it runs.