Specifically, it’s acquired Veri — a startup that lets you track your meals and glucose levels using continuous glucose monitors (CGMs). It’s unclear how exactly Veri will be incorporated into the Oura platform, but this is the latest in health tech companies trying to make metabolic health the next frontier. Dexcom and Abbott, for example, both launched over-the-counter CGMs in the past month.
Apple’s busy updating the AirPods lineup, but MacRumors reports that when the Powerbeats Pro 2 revision ships next year, workout warriors can expect the heart rate tracking feature that has popped up on other buds like Sennheiser’s Momentum Sport.
Information from a software update also points to ANC, spatial audio, adaptive audio, and four colors with matching cases: orange, purple, black, and beige.
I kind of assumed that making medicine is... complicated! And maybe it is, but Jason Koebler’s story at 404 Media about the Four Thieves Vinegar Collective sure makes me wonder.
They make it sound like Koebler’s friend Katelin didn’t need to die; not just because of ridiculous drug prices, but because they could have illegally made the medicine at home.
The number of heat-related deaths recorded in the US climbed 117 percent between 1999 and 2023, according to recent research.
In Hell or High Water, a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals, we explore how heat hits certain communities harder after a history of racist redlining in the US. There’s still a lot of work to do to end disparities and save lives.
[Audible.com]
A review commissioned by the World Health Organization examined over 5,000 studies on the connection between cellphone radiation and brain cancer. In the final analysis published today, lead author Ken Karipidis said there is no evidence of a link between the two:
I’m quite confident with our conclusion. And what makes us quite confident is… even though mobile phone use has skyrocketed, brain tumour rates have remained stable.
The Elon Musk-led company is allegedly running gas turbines without the proper permit at a data center in Memphis, TN. Local environmental groups are reportedly urging regulators to investigate.
They’re worried about nitrogen oxides (NOx), smog-forming pollution that can aggravate respiratory illness.
The US Department of Health and Human Services will be offering four free home Covid tests to each household at the end of September. This, together with the roll-out of the latest vaccines (I’ve already made my appointment), is another sign that the coronavirus has made a strong reappearance this summer.
[aspr.hhs.gov]
The Dexcom Stelo aims to help people with Type 2 diabetes access CGMs more affordably.
According to the company’s latest progress update, the patient has used the implant in combination with a specialized Quadstick game controller to play the first-person shooter, in addition to designing his own custom Neuralink charger mount in CAD software.
This implant has also remained fully attached to the patient’s brain, unlike the recipient of the first procedure.
Getting to Mars will be easy. It’s the whole ‘living there’ part that we haven’t figured out.
The World Health Organization made the declaration today after a new strain of the virus spread across the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries that hadn’t previously reported cases of mpox.
It’s deadlier this time around compared to 2022, when it was called monkeypox. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US also warned clinicians to stay on alert for the virus.
[The New York Times]
Byron Bernstein had six livestreamed conversations with Alok Kanojia, a psychiatrist. Then Bernstein died by suicide. Were those conversations ethical?
[The New York Times]
Fitbit published a study in Nature Medicine using 6.5 million nights of sleep data from users that shows that sleep quality impacts long term health. In a nutshell, the worse your sleep quality, the more likely you are to have conditions like sleep apnea, obesity, migraines, high blood pressure, etc. You get it.
I won’t blame you for thinking “Duh” but this stuff can be helpful for researchers as it gives hard data to what we already know.
Until now, patients with Medicare — a government-funded insurance program mostly for older adults — haven’t been eligible to enroll in the RxPass program Amazon debuted last year. The RxPass offers Medicare patients “unlimited access” to 60 different prescription medications for $5 a month and a prime membership. For now, patients with Medicaid — state-funded insurance for lower-income Americans — are still ineligible for the program.
The NHS has now revealed the scope of the damage following the June 3rd cyberattack. In addition to the operations, over 800 outpatient appointments were canceled, and 18 organ transplants were diverted.
“The cyber-attack has had a significant impact on our services, and this is likely to remain the case for some time yet,” say hospital execs.
The FDA has given the Elon Musk company a green light for its second patient, the Wall Street Journal reports. Neuralink’s first implant in a human started to detach from that person’s brain, causing him to briefly lose some functions. To try to solve that problem, Neuralink reportedly plans to place the device’s threads deeper into the brain.
Or the period before menopause, when ovaries gradually stop working. This particular study is aimed at shedding light on the physiological changes that happen during perimenopause and menopause — something that’s still not well understood as menopausal people are often excluded from studies.
Oura’s also adding a Cycle Insights Report feature, as well as including period data when calculating Readiness scores.
The implant is a coin-shaped chip embedded into the skull with threads that reach into the brain.
In the weeks following the surgery, a number of threads retracted from the brain
That limited how much data it could collect, but Neuralink found a workaround by making its algorithm more sensitive. The Elon Musk company wrote about the problem in a blog after The Wall Street Journal asked about the issue.
A number of private equity firms are thinking about buying Peloton and taking it private, according to CNBC. That’s after the company’s bad quarter (and lack of strategy) led to both a 15 percent staff layoff and CEO Barry McCarthy stepping down. How will the PE vultures fix things? They have “zeroed in on cutting Peloton’s operating expenses,” of course. That’ll fix it, sure.
The partnership follows a similar one with Hilton announced in 2022. “Select” luxury and lifestyle hotels in the US are getting the Peloton Row, while there are also rewards for World of Hyatt members, and equipment-less workouts via hotel TVs.
This news comes ahead of Peloton’s next earnings report on Thursday, and rumors of “financial distress” that could lead to bankruptcy.
