Healthcare Knuggets
Jan 28, 2026
- Subject: Why crypto is sending people to the ERs
Sender: newsletter@kevinmd.comD
Summary:
- High-frequency cryptocurrency trading is linked to psychological traits similar to gambling addiction.
- This leads to behavioral health issues and increased emergency room visits.
- The newsletter also covers topics like treating the economy as a crashing patient, AI’s future in medicine focusing on patient empowerment, and the challenges faced by patients with mild and female hemophilia who are often underdiagnosed.
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Additional insights include reflections on caring for a grandmother with dementia, the rise of antisemitism in U.S. hospitals, and guides on choosing the right doctor and safe healthcare AI use.
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Subject: Why the U.K.’s newborn screening panel is so slim
Sender: newsletter@statnews.comD
Summary:
- The U.K. screens newborns for only 10 diseases, compared to about three dozen in the U.S.
- This slow inclusion of new conditions has consequences, such as delayed diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), where early treatment can make a difference.
- The newsletter highlights rising syphilis rates among pregnant individuals in the U.S., reaching the highest maternal infection levels since 1994, raising concerns about congenital syphilis.
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It also discusses how fear related to immigration enforcement is preventing individuals from seeking medical care, societal impacts of stress on Black mortality rates, and profiles influential health info online personalities.
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Subject: 🏥 Hospitals’ ICE fears
Sender: vitals@axios.comD
Summary:
- Increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in Minnesota is disrupting hospital care, causing patients—including undocumented immigrants and citizens—to avoid or delay healthcare out of fear of detention.
- Reports include patients requesting home births and hesitancy even to make telehealth calls.
- Health care workers call this a public health crisis.
- Other major news: Medicare Advantage payment rates proposed to remain nearly flat in 2027, the American Academy of Pediatrics rejecting the federal slimmed-down childhood vaccine schedule in favor of a broader one, and threats to Illinois federal funding over abortion referral policies.
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Additional research shows mental health provider numbers increased nationally in 2025, with some behavioral health measures stabilizing.
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Subject: Your new weekday ritual: the daily STAT Mini crosswords
Sender: marketing@statnews.comD
Summary:
- STAT introduces a new daily mini crossword puzzle focusing on health and science, available Monday through Friday.
- The puzzles challenge knowledge while providing a fun, engaging daily ritual for readers.
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The newsletter also promotes STAT’s podcasts, video series, and newsletters, encouraging consistent engagement with frontline health and medicine topics.
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Subject: Sponge or jelly? The battle over what were the first animals
Sender: briefing@nature.comD
Summary:
- Researchers debate whether sponges or comb jellies were the earliest animal lineage, prompting calls for collaborative approaches to resolve the long-standing scientific disagreement.
- Newly found wooden tools in Greece, dating back 430,000 years and possibly created by early Neanderthals or Homo heidelbergensis, represent the oldest wooden artefacts discovered.
- The UK has lost its measles elimination status due to a rise in cases and falling vaccination rates below herd immunity thresholds.
- CERN secured a $1 billion private donation towards its proposed Future Circular Collider, though the project’s full cost is estimated at $19 billion.
- Additional articles cover how technology has transformed writing, climate change overshoot challenges, and the delayed diagnosis of ADHD in women.
Stay Well!
