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The very first study reporting a link between the gut microbiome and obesity found that lab mice bred for obesity had half as many bacteria belonging to the Bacteroidetes phylum as lean mice did, and lots of bacteria in the Firmicutes phylum. It had the effect of a starter’s gun at a race: Scientists at labs around the world were off in pursuit of microbes causing obesity. The most intriguing support for that idea: transferring microbes from the guts of normal-weight mice into the guts of obese ones, and obese mice’s gut microbes into slim ones, seemed to cause the animals to switch to the body type consistent with their new bacteria, not their old selves, found a 2004 study. (Begley, 9/22)

Every study ranking nations by health or living standards invariably offers Scandinavian social democracies a chance to show their quiet dominance. A new analysis published this week—perhaps the most comprehensive ever—is no different. But what it does reveal are the broad shortcomings of sustainable development efforts, the new shorthand for not killing ourselves or the planet, as well as the specific afflictions of a certain North American country. Iceland and Sweden share the top slot with Singapore as world leaders when it comes to health goals set by the United Nations, according to a report published in the Lancet. (Roston, 9/22)

One of the biggest worldwide public health triumphs in recent years has been maternal mortality. Global death rates fell by more than a third from 2000 to 2015. The United States, however, is one of the few countries in the world that have gone against the grain, new data show. Its maternal mortality rate has risen despite improvements in health care and an overwhelming global trend in the other direction. (Tavernise, 9/21)

Before dinner on July 29, 3-year-old Carter Roberts of Chesterfield, Va., seemed perfectly healthy. That evening, he vomited. When he woke up the next morning with a slight fever of 99 degrees, his mother, Robin Roberts, figured that he was coming down with a cold. The next morning, she found him collapsed on his bedroom floor. “Mommy,” she recalls him saying. “Help me, help me.” (Hurley, 9/21)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more reasons to stop kissing your chickens -- and persuade you leave them outside. Last year, a salmonella outbreak infected more than 180 people, and the CDC sent out recommendations to leave poultry outside and to stop snuggling them. A recently released study by the centers found that between 1990 to 2014, 46 percent of salmonella patients said their household kept poultry inside and 13 percent reported kissing birds. (Bamforth, 9/21)

Nationwide, the number of Latinos living with Alzheimer’s is projected to increase from 379,000 in 2012 to 3.5 million by 2060 — a growth of 823 percent, says the report by the University of Southern California’s Institute on Aging and the LatinosAgainstAlzheimer’s network. The most dramatic jump will be among Latinos who are 85 or older, which will increase by more than 12 times, from 145,000 in 2012 to 1.7 million in 2060. (Pyle, 9/22)

Figures from Nationwide Children’s Hospital Sports Medicine show that 56 percent of the 5,448 concussion-related hospital visits for those sports from 2010 to ’15 were from females. Nearly 62 percent of soccer-related head injuries happened to females — numbers that are consistent with national trends since 2005. Not only are females as susceptible as males to brain injuries, said Dr. Steven Cuff of Nationwide Children’s sports medicine clinic, but there also are studies indicating their symptoms are more intense and come in greater number. (Reed, 9/21)