Â鶹ŮÓÅ

Patient advocates are warning that a recent proposal from the Food and Drug Administration meant to reduce consumers’ salt intake could inadvertently kill those with kidney disease, particularly Black Americans. (Florko, 8/15)

A surgical team from Washington University’s School of Medicine has successfully performed the first robot-assisted whole-liver transplant in the U.S. — and the patient was cleared to get back on the golf course just a month later. The surgery took place in May at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and the patient — a man in his 60s with liver cancer and cirrhosis due to a hepatitis C infection — has recovered swiftly, according to his doctors. (Vargo, 8/14)

Stan Nicholas volunteered to become one of the first people in the world to try to regain his body’s function with the help of a little device planted in his brain and chest that the doctors hoped would stimulate them into action, even the parts of the brain that the stroke seemed to wipe out. (Christensen, 8/14)

Microgreens and mature vegetables may offer different nutrients, but they might both be effective in limiting weight gain, new research suggests. Microgreens - older than sprouts but younger than baby greens - have been touted by some as a superfood, and scientists are aiming to find out if they have earned this reputation, and how they compare with fully grown veg. (Massey, 8/15)

If women in the US got paid for their caregiving work, they would make an additional $627 billion per year, according to a new analysis. Women average about 52 minutes per day caring for children and other family members, including those outside the home, while men spend about 26 minutes a day on care, an analysis published Monday by the National Partnership for Women & Families, a working families research and advocacy group, shows. Assuming they’d earn the mean wage of $14.55 per hour for child-care workers or home health aides, women would each bring in an extra $4,600 annually if their caregiving work was compensated, while men would receive about $2,300. (Butler, 8/14)

The U.S. has seen a record increase in homeless people this year as the Covid-19 pandemic fades, according to a Wall Street Journal review of data from around the country. The data so far this year are up roughly 11% from 2022, a sharp jump that would represent by far the biggest recorded increase since the government started tracking comparable numbers in 2007. The next highest increase was a 2.7% jump in 2019, excluding an artificially high increase last year caused by pandemic counting interruptions. (Kamp and Najmabadi, 8/14)