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Today’s First Opinion essay argues that “you don’t overeat just because it tastes good.” However, I may wish to express a different opinion. Same goes for a friend of mine who recently received a nasty reprimand after convincing her to order Pad Thai for the table in addition to her meal.
Trump administration cancels legal battle over indirect costs
More than a year after the Trump administration first announced a controversial policy that would sharply lower reimbursement rates for “indirect costs” in federal aid, the government appears to be sitting back. As STAT’s Megan Molteni reports, Monday was the deadline for the Justice Department to petition the Supreme Court to reconsider a lower court’s decision to halt the project. No such petition was filed.
This move (lack of) indicates that the government has abandoned this particular approach to reducing indirect costs. However, they may still seek to change policy through other means. Read more from Megan.
Cesarean section rate in 2025 will be highest in 10 years
The percentage of pregnancies delivered by C-section rose to 32.5% last year, the highest annual rate in the United States since 2013, according to new data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. According to the report, caesarean section rates have gradually increased since 2020. In particular, the proportion of low-risk caesarean sections also rose to 26.9%, the highest since 2012.
As former STATian Megan Sealking wrote in the early days of publication, high C-section rates don’t necessarily translate to better birth outcomes. More than a decade later, the story still exemplifies how we got here.
More data from the CDC: Overall, there were more than 3.6 million births in the United States last year. That seems like a lot, but overall, the number has decreased by 1% since 2024. The birth rate among teens ages 15 to 19 fell by 7% last year.
How can public health survive in times of war?
Iran’s Pasteur Institute in central Tehran was among the many Iranian facilities hit by the US and Israeli attacks. It is one of the nation’s leading medical research centers, with more than 1,300 employees working on vaccine development, biopharmaceutical production, and diagnostic kit manufacturing. No employees were harmed, and no pathogens appear to have leaked from the facility. However, the damage to the building is so severe that WHO says the institute cannot continue to provide medical services.
In a new First Opinion essay, two researchers explain the importance of such labs and the economic and moral imperatives to protect them. “For more than a century, Pasteur Institutes around the world have survived wars, decolonization, economic upheavals, and pandemic shocks,” the authors write. “They have endured because society is finally recognizing that microbes have no respect for political cycles and that public health is the basis of prosperity.” Read more.
Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness, but about half of people who develop glaucoma go undiagnosed until the disease is more advanced and the damage is irreversible. Medicated eye drops are an imperfect solution, but STAT’s Annalisa Merelli details new “theranostic devices” (combining therapy and diagnostics) aimed at improving care.
Although they look and feel like regular contact lenses, this new device monitors intraocular pressure and delivers pulses of medication when needed to control it. There are still many unanswered questions, but experts agree this is an exciting development. Read more about the science of Nalis.
Isn’t it because (other) people eat too much because it’s delicious?
As I mentioned above, I was skeptical at the beginning of this essay, but I started to think that researcher and professor David Ludwig had a point. “We tend to think of deliciousness as an inherent quality of food. Cheesecake is delicious, cauliflower is not,” he writes. “However, the perception of palatability is strongly influenced by conditioning and the metabolic state of the body.”
It turns out there’s little evidence that independent deliciousness causes people to overeat. But what is if not overly delicious? Read further for Ludwig’s own research into this question.
what we are reading
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President Trump’s personnel officials seek medical records of federal employees, KFF Health News
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Previous approval withdrawn after insurance company promises, Axios
- Team’s approach to lowering high blood pressure worked even in ‘tough circumstances’, STAT
- If GLP-1 drugs don’t make you lose weight, this could be one reason, The Washington Post
- As a palliative care physician, I’m concerned about Medicare injecting $100 million into “functional or lifestyle medicine” (STAT)
