2023 has witnessed no shortage of medical firsts and breakthroughs but has also seen many alarming headlines. What were some of these intriguing studies and worrying trends? Our editors Andrea Rice, Maria Cohut, and Yasemin Nicola Sakay discuss this year’s stand-out research and health and wellness topics in our December “In Conversation” episode.
2023 was a year of many medical firsts — from the first evidence that anti-obesity GLP-1 drugs improve cardiovascular outcomes beyond weight loss alone, to the FDA’s approval of the first RSV vaccine ‘Arexvy’ in the U.S., this year has witnessed many medical breakthroughs. Some other notable advances were lecanemab’s approval by the FDA for Alzheimer’s after it was shown to slow cognitive decline despite many concerns surrounding its safety.
Speaking of birth control, the lack of non-barrier options for men — unlike the plethora of pills available for women — caught the attention of Maria Cohut, our features editor, who did a deep dive into the whys behind this.
Andrea Rice, meanwhile, was concerned about the rise in colon cancer cases in young people, while the WHO’s announcement of sucralose being labeled “genotoxic”, or DNA damage-causing, was a standout piece of research for me.
If you’d like to hear more about how our discussion went, please listen to our podcast episode in full below or on your preferred streaming platform.
The first topic we delved into was that of the link between artificial sweeteners and cancer. This particular piece of research found that a chemical in a commonly used artificial sweetener may cause DNA damage.
The chemical in question was sucralose-6-acetate, a metabolite of the sweetener sucralose. The study findings showed that sucralose harms gut health and may lead to oxidative stress, inflammation, and DNA damage, and hence increase the risk of cancer.
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