If we may be so bold

Get off your butts, Georgia. New CDC data shows that 1 in 7 Americans is physically inactive — but it’s worse in Georgia, where more than 1 in 4 doesn’t get enough exercise. (And this is based on self-reported data, so the reality is probably worse.)

Big ol’ Axia recall

Got any sterile products from Axia Pharmaceutical? Yeah, why don’t you just go ahead and get rid of those, mmkay?

Hey Millennial

When it comes to the flu, millennials are the least informed, most likely to be anti-vax, and least likely to get vaccinated this year.

• 55% have not gotten a flu shot this season.
• 3% of those are not planning to get one.
• 61% agree with some anti-vaccination beliefs (higher than any other cohort).
• 86% got at least one wrong answer on a flu quiz.
• 31% got all of them wrong.
• Despite their embrace of technology, “millennials are almost twice as likely to simply forget to get vaccinated compared to older generations.”

Soybean oil danger?

Soybean oil — “America’s most widely consumed oil” apparently not only causes obesity and diabetes, but — per a new study out of UC Riverside — is also linked to both neurological and genetic damage.

The research team discovered roughly 100 other genes also affected by the soybean oil diet. They believe this discovery could have ramifications not just for energy metabolism, but also for proper brain function and diseases such as autism or Parkinson’s disease.

Important note 1: There’s a link between soybean oil and this damage, “However, it is important to note there is no proof the oil causes these diseases.”

Important note 2: This is regarding soybean oil, not soybeans themselves, which are usually perfectly healthy.

Pertussis gets worse

Oh, great: Whooping cough is evolving, with new strains better able to withstand the current vaccines.

“Put simply, the bacteria that cause whooping cough are becoming better at hiding and better at feeding – they’re morphing into a superbug.”

Blood pressure and sex*

An interesting new study found that hypertension and heart disease progress noticeably different in women and men. Women develop heart disease later (about 10 years later), but — here’s the important part — hypertension in women begins sooner and progresses faster.

This early-onset sexual dimorphism may set the stage for later-life cardiovascular diseases that tend to present differently, not simply later, in women compared with men. [from the study]

* I could have used “gender” but this got you to read the story

Potential brain cancer breakthrough

Researchers at Canada’s McGill University have created what they call an “intelligent molecule” that can get through the blood-brain barrier, attack glioblastoma cells, and then prevent the tumor from regrowing.

“The challenge is not only to fight the resistance of glioblastoma stem cells, but also to deliver chemotherapy to the brain, which is protected by the blood-brain barrier. Our team has succeeded in meeting these two major challenges.”

A toast to the 21st Amendment

Americans are stressed. Suicide is up, drug use is up, and the latest stats show that we’re drinking more alcohol now than we were just before Prohibition was enacted.

In the late 1910s, just before Congress banned the sale and manufacture of alcoholic beverages, each American teen and adult was downing just under 2 gallons of alcohol a year on average. These days it’s about 2.3 gallons, according to federal calculations. That works out to nearly 500 drinks, or about nine per week.

And to add fuel to that fire, binge drinking is also up in a big way, according to the latest CDC stats — rising 12 percent from just 2011 to 2017.