SZwanglos – Following Feed

The number of "hasslers" in your life—people who create problems or make life difficult, especially family members (not spouse)—and the link to promoting accelerated aging, inflammation, and adverse health outcomes @PNASNews https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2515331123

Finally, the debunking of the VO2 max BS. Note also: indicators of mortality (when low) are not indicators of longevity (when high).

Note: the publication below is under investigation for significant errors and inconsistencies https://www.statnews.com/2026/02/20/cancer-immunotherapy-morning-infusions-doubts-about-study/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter_organic

There's a gene for that! Rare variants and less cigarette smoking across ancestries Maybe a pathway vs nicotine addiction https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-68825-2

Today on ChatGPT for health :-)

False: "V02 max is the single greatest predictor of your lifespan."

🆕 @NatureMedicine How does ChatGPT Health do for appropriately triaging a person as to whether to go to the emergency room or stay home? https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-04297-7 Not very well. Under-triaged 52% of case vignettes that are considered gold-standard emergencies, like diabetic ketoacidosis or impending respiratory failure

R to @EricTopol: The main source of conflation is referring to a key table as V02 max data when it was derived by exercise treadmill METS. Much more data in the post; all content in Ground Truths is free https://erictopol.substack.com

R to @EricTopol: >99% of the fitness data for outcomes of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular (CV) mortality comes from cardiorespiratory fitness (METS) not V02 max. From a meta-analysis of 42 studies, 3.8 million participants. Results below are for CV mortality (they are the same)

The V02 max craze has serious flaws. I reviewed the problems https://erictopol.substack.com/p/the-flawed-v02-max-craze

Among ~160,000 people followed prospectively. adherence to healthy diets was associated with less subjective cognitive decline and better cognitive function "Key food groups associated with better cognitive function included higher vegetable and fish intake and lower red and processed meats intake." https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2845466?utm_campaign=articlePDF&utm_medium=articlePDFlink&utm_source=articlePDF&utm_content=jamaneurol.2026.0062

How AI can improve the peer review process (and make it more engaging and polite), from a large randomized trial of 20,000 reviews with automated feedback to reviewers @NatMachIntell @james_y_zou @nityathakkar_ https://www.nature.com/articles/s42256-026-01188-x

Thank you for highlighting this amazing work from the McGavern lab @NIH_NINDS, @EricTopol. The 3D visualization from the article that we generated in the preclinical models with the @neurosimplicity Imaging Suite may help see the connections better.

Our AI times :-)

The complexity of our immune system is daunting. But there's a path to deconvolute it and understand causal relationships. It's CRISPR. open-access @JExpMed https://rupress.org/jem/article/223/3/e20241266/281510/Next-generation-CRISPR-screens-enable-causal

Progress!

"A heightened state of readiness led to a 100-to-1,000-fold reduction in viruses getting through the lungs and into the body."

By systematically assessing both DNA sequence variants and methylation, we're learning a lot more about risk of (and protection from) colon cancer @ScienceAdvances https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aeb2473

How AI can transform precision-education for physicians "When data from many users are aggregated, these tools can generate performance ranges, revealing learning curves that could predict trajectories leading to the best possible performance for individual trainees." @sanjayvdesai @KimLomisMD @khanacademy https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2512935

You gotta be kidding me @mims gift link https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/smart-underwear-gut-health-human-flatus-atlas-9ffa1bd7?st=mRvLAL&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

On the huge randomized GRAIL trial Front page @nytimes today @RebeccaDRobbins "The study’s goal was to show a 20 percent reduction in advanced cancers among those who got the test. That did not happen." gift link https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/health/cancer-detection-test-grail.html?unlocked_article_code=1.N1A.Ivyd.lMF48TnsCUBK&smid=url-share

A potential late sequelae of measles after normal recovery. Occurs in ~ 2/10,000. Fatal. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMicm2504828 @NEJM today

In 2000, the first human genome sequence cost between $500M & $1B In 2006, the cost was $20M Two years ago, the cost is around $600. Now it is $100.

The $100 whole human genome sequence finally reached! @ElemBio https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/02/19/scrappy-san-diego-startup-goes-toe-to-toe-with-gene-sequencing-giant-illumina/

Sex differences in pain duration Finding interleukin-10 from monocytes as an/the explanation (in the experimental model and people) @SciImmunology https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciimmunol.adx0292

142,000 participants! The largest randomized trial of a multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test failed its primary endpoint https://www.genomeweb.com/cancer/grail-fda-plans-undeterred-after-nhs-galleri-mced-trial-misses-primary-endpoint Had the enrollment been risk-based instead of age 50, it would likely have been very positive.

How to get a universal vaccine vs respiratory threats? Block via the nasal mucosa @ScienceMagazine https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea1260 @NatRevImmunol https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-026-01273-7

A cyborg pancreatic islet-cell implant takes the stem cell strategy to a new level of precision and potential future therapy for T1 diabetes @ScienceMagazine https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aeb3295

Screening works for colon cancer. Largest trial ever done. Today @NatureMedicine A randomized trial of colon cancer screening by colonoscopy or occult blood (FIT) vs control in nearly 280,000 participants showed signficantly more early diagnosis (stage I-II) and less stage III-IV cancers https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-04225-9

🩸 🧠 ⏱️ What if a blood test could predict WHEN an individual would develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease? High plasma p-tau217 predicts greater risk for Alzheimer’s symptoms—do the plasma p-tau217 levels provide insights into WHEN symptoms might begin? We found that after a certain level, plasma p-tau217 increased consistently across individuals and allowed creation of “clock” models that could be used to estimate age at p-tau217 abnormality (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-04206-y). The age at p-tau217 abnormality was strongly associated with the age that Alzheimer’s symptoms began. Interestingly, older individuals developed symptoms more quickly after p-tau217 abnormality. These models are not yet accurate enough to be useful to individuals, but we expect they can be improved by adding additional blood biomarkers and clinical features. We have created an application to view the results (https://amyloid.shinyapps.io/plasma_ptau217_time/#) and shared all our code to accelerate progress. The eventual goal is to help individuals to understand their likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s symptoms. @KellenPetersen @FNIH_Org @WashUNeurology @alzassociation #ENDALZ

🆕@Nature Genome sequencing of >800,000 people finds Epstein-Barr virus reads and their association with other autoimmune diseases besides multiple sclerosis, including type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and hypothyroidism https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10274-4

Is there a basis for very high protein intake, like 1 g per pound per day?