4 entries tagged cardiovascular disease. All writing.
OCTOBER 2, 2026 The GLP-1 Benefit List Keeps Growing. Here's What's Actually Been Shown. Semaglutide and tirzepatide keep turning up benefits that have nothing to do with the number on the scale — a kidney, a liver, an airway, even an addiction. Here's what's been shown in a randomized trial, what's still a mechanistic finding from a biopsy, and what's only an observational signal so far. SEPTEMBER 22, 2026 Does Light at Night Hurt Your Heart? A UK Biobank study of 11,071 adults found that people with bedroom light above roughly 3 lux at night — dimmer than almost any lamp, but bright enough for closed eyes to register — developed a thicker, stiffer-pumping heart and higher rates of heart failure, stroke and atrial fibrillation years later than people who slept in real darkness. Led by Tulane's Lu Qi, published September 9, 2026 in the European Heart Journal. Here's what "3 lux" actually looks like, and what the study can and can't say about a nightstand lamp. SEPTEMBER 22, 2026 Does Stopping a GLP-1 Drug Raise Your Heart Risk? A Veterans Affairs study of 333,687 people with type 2 diabetes found that the longer someone went off a GLP-1 drug like semaglutide, the higher their risk of stroke, heart attack or death climbed — 4% higher at six months off, 14% at a year, 22% at two years — compared with staying on it, and restarting the drug only partly closed the gap. Here's what the study actually measured, and the one comparison group that changes how the headline number should be read. SEPTEMBER 21, 2026 Do Common Food Preservatives Raise Blood Pressure and Heart Risk? A French cohort of 112,395 adults, followed a median of 7.9 years, found that the heaviest consumers of preservative food additives developed hypertension and cardiovascular disease at higher rates than the lightest. Eight individual preservatives were each tied to high blood pressure, including sodium nitrite, potassium sorbate, citric acid and — oddly — ascorbic acid, plain vitamin C. This is a cohort study, so it shows association, not proof of cause. Here is what the numbers actually say, and how the eight show up on an American ingredient panel.