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Older adults who spend a lot of time sitting could be at a heightened risk for dementia, according to a study published this month in the JAMA medical journal. “Among older adults, more time spent in sedentary behaviors was significantly associated with higher incidence of all-cause dementia,” said the study, which was released Sept. 12 and authored by researchers at the University of Southern California and University of Arizona. “Future research is needed to determine whether the association between sedentary behavior and risk of dementia is causal.” (Andersen, 9/27)

In news that we shouldn’t take sitting down, a study just published in JAMA finds that people who stay seated for long hours at work and home are at much higher risk of developing dementia than people who sit less. The negative effects of extended sitting can be so strong, researchers found, that even people who exercise regularly face higher risk if they sit for much of the day. (Reynolds, 9/27)

Children are often exposed to harmful chemicals in air, water, soil, food, food packaging, and plastics. However, low-income children and children of color are disproportionately impacted by these exposures, according to the authors of a study that examines disparities in neurotoxic exposures and their harmful effects on children by race, ethnicity, and economic status. (Nayak, 9/27)

Last October, a 27-year-old man with Duchenne muscular dystrophy died after receiving a CRISPR-based treatment custom built to treat his particular genetic mutation. Results of a detailed investigation released on Wednesday suggest that the patient, Terry Horgan, likely died of a previously undocumented adverse effect of the virus used to deliver the CRISPR machinery to his cells. (Mast, 9/27)

Researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Colorado School of Medicine focused on the impact of ginger supplements on a type of white blood cell called the neutrophil. Their findings indicated that ginger supplements could even help treat people with COVID. The team that conducted the study, which was published Friday in the journal JCI Insight, was especially interested in an immune response called neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation. It's also known as NETosis and is linked to the inflammation that can trigger autoimmune diseases. (Rudy, 9/27)

In a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics, a group of physicians from Boston Children’s Hospital determined that since the shortage began, the odds of a child being prescribed amoxicillin for ear infections have plummeted by 91%. The study included 3,076 children averaging 3 years of age who were treated at one health care provider. Most manufacturers did not share a reason for the amoxicillin shortage or provide an estimated timeframe for a resolution, the study found. (Rudy, 9/27)

The impact of anti-vaccine activists is spreading beyond humans. A recent study found many dog owners are skeptical of vaccinating their pets — even though that leaves animals and humans at risk. "My co-authors and I were stunned by how prevalent this phenomenon is," lead author Dr. Matt Motta told CBS News. Motta says an unvaccinated pet is a danger not just to other animals but also to the humans around them. "If there are more unvaccinated dogs out there, the risk of disease transmission grows," Motta said. (Moniuszko and Bacchus, 9/27)

In another new study to quantify the clinical features of long COVID, or post COVID condition (PCC), authors publishing in PLoS One describe the key clinical features noted in the UK general-practice setting. Using information about symptoms recorded in primary care consultation notes, the study authors reviewed the health records of those diagnosed by a general practitioner (GP) in England during the first year of the pandemic. (Soucheray, 9/27)

Adult-use marijuana legalization in Ontario, Canada, did not have a major impact in young adults who are most at-risk for substance misuse, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open. Among young adults in the study, those who used “cannabis frequently prelegalization showed significant reductions in use and consequences over time, reflecting an aging out pattern,” researchers wrote. (Zhang, 9/27)

This past summer, wildfire smoke periodically blanketed the U.S., bringing stinging air and hazy skies to the Northeast and the Midwest, regions that are unaccustomed to the itchy eyes, scratchy throats and breathing problems that come from being downwind of such natural disasters. But with air pollution come more serious health problems, too. Among them, a meta-analysis published Wednesday in the journal Neurology finds, is exposure to air pollution that may increase a person’s risk of stroke within five days. (Sullivan, 9/27)

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-led study finds that more than 1 in 6 US patients infected with the influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 or influenza B virus had severe in-hospital outcomes such as intensive care unit (ICU) admission or death during nine recent flu seasons. (Van Beusekom, 9/27)

The story of the latest development in drug administration technology — a mouth patch that can deliver peptides and proteins without injection — begins with Chinese fondue. (Merelli, 9/27)

For all their potential to drive changes in health, wearables have struggled to gain a foothold in medicine. The dramatic changes during pregnancy are a fertile ground to test their potential, though — and new research shows how applying machine learning methods to streams of data from wearable devices could be used to understand the mystery of premature birth. (Palmer, 9/28)

An antibiotic already in use in Europe to treat pneumonia controlled deadly bloodstream infections with Staphylococcus aureus bacteria just as effectively as the most powerful antibiotic currently in use, according to data from a late-stage trial. Ceftobiprole from Swiss drugmaker Basilea Pharmaceutica (BSLN.S) appeared to be equally effective as the older drug daptomycin in the roughly one-in-four patients who had particularly difficult to treat methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) infections, researchers reported on Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. (Lapid, 9/27)

Katsuhiko Hayashi, a developmental geneticist at Osaka University in Japan, is a pioneer in one of the most exciting — and controversial — fields of biomedical research: in vitro gametogenesis, or IVG. The goal of IVG is to make unlimited supplies of what Hayashi calls "artificial" eggs and sperm from any cell in the human body. That could let anyone — older, infertile, single, gay, trans — have their own genetically related babies. Besides the technical challenges that remain to be overcome, there are deep ethical concerns about how IVG might eventually be used. (Stein, 9/28)