Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of Jan. 15, 2024

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of  Jan. 15, 2024–Jan. 19, 2024.

The Washington Post (1/18, Cimons) reports, “A daily multivitamin may slow memory loss among those 60 and older by about two years, according to a study” that “is the third in a series of studies assessing the cognitive effects of a daily multivitamin on older adults.” Moreover, “a systematic review, or meta-analysis, of the three studies accompanying the most recent paper said their cumulative results were similar: The group taking a multivitamin was two years younger in memory function compared with the group taking a placebo.” The findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The New York Times (1/17, Kolata) reports, “Cancer deaths in the United States are falling, with four million deaths prevented since 1991, according to the American Cancer Society’s annual report.” However, “the society reported that the number of new cancer cases had ticked up to more than two million in 2023, from 1.9 million in 2022.”

According to USA Today (1/17, Alltucker), “The report said rates are increasing for six of the 10 most common cancers: breast, prostate, melanoma, kidney, pancreas and uterine.” Meanwhile, “lung, colorectal and pancreas cancers cause the most deaths.”

CNN (1/17, Howard) reports, “Among adults younger than 50, colorectal cancer has become the leading cause of cancer death in men and the second-leading cause in women, behind breast cancer, the new report says.” CNN adds, “In the late 1990s, it ranked fourth in both men and women younger than 50.” The findings were published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

NBC News (1/17, Carroll) reports, “A diet rich in protein—especially plant protein—may keep women healthier as they age, a new study suggests.” The analysis “found that each 3% increase in the amount of plant protein consumed was associated with a 38% higher likelihood of staying healthy as the women got older, meaning fewer or no chronic diseases, better physical mobility and little cognitive decline, according to the report.” According to the study’s lead author, plant protein “seemed to be favorably associated with good mental health status and a lack of impairments in memory.” The findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Healio (1/16, Feller) reports, “Paxlovid [nirmatrelvir/ritonavir] did not reduce the risk for long COVID among vaccinated, nonhospitalized people who received it within a month of their first SARS-CoV-2 infection, a study showed.” In a study published in the Journal of Medical Virology, “roughly 16% of patients treated with Paxlovid experienced long COVID compared with 14% of patients not treated with Paxlovid.”

CNN (1/12, McPhillips) reported, “The United States started the new year awash in respiratory illness, with high levels of flu, COVID-19 and RSV across most of the country.” CDC data “notes that some measures of flu activity dipped in early January, but the single week of decrease is not a trend—and experts warn that more increases are likely to come.”

NBC News (1/12, Edwards) reported, “The latest numbers are from the first week in January, and may simply reflect that schools were closed and that people tend to be less likely to see their doctor over the holidays.”

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