An experimental treatment happens to be the solution to delay Alzheimer's symptoms in some people. These people are the ones who are genetically destined to get the disease in their 40s or 50s. These new findings form ongoing research has now been caught up in Trump administration funding delas. The early results of the study has been published on Wednesday and the participants too are worried that politics could cut their access to a possible lifeline.

One of the participants had said, "It is still a study but it has given me an extension to my life that I never banked on having." The participant is named Jake Henrichs, form New York City, who is 50 years old. He is one of them to be treated in that study for more than a decade now and has remained symptom-free despite inheriting an Alzheimer's-causing gene that had killed his father and brother around the same age.

Slowing Down The Symptoms

Two drugs which can modestly slow down early-stage Alzheimer's are sold in the United States. These drugs clear the brain of one of its hallmarks, a sticky gunk-like part called the amyloid. However, there have not been any hints that removing amyloid far earlier, way many years before the first symptoms appear, may postpone the disease.

How Was The Research Conducted?

The research is led by Washington University in St Louis, which involved families that passed down rare gene mutation as participants. This meant it was almost guaranteed that they will develop symptoms at the same age their affected relatives did.

The new findings is based on a subset of 22 participants who received amyloid-removing drugs the longest, on average eight years. Long-term amyloid removal cut in half their risk of symptom onset. The study is published in the journal Lancet Neurology.

Washington University's Dr Randall Bateman, who directs the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer's Network of studies involving families with these rare genes says, "What we want to determine over the next five years is how strong is the protection. Will they ever get the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease if we keep treating them?”

The researchers before though did not know what exactly caused Alzheimer's which affects nearly 7 million Americans, most of them in their later life. However, it is clear that these silent changes occur in the brain at least two decades before the first symptom shows up. The big contributor. At some point amyloid buildup can trigger a protein named tau that then starts to kill neurons, which can lead to cognitive decline.

Researchers are now thus studying the Tau-fighting drugs and are looking into other factors, like inflammation, brain's immune cells and certain virus.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has expanded its focus as researchers have found more reasons for Alzheimer's. In 2013, the NIH's National Institute on Aging funded 14 trials of possible Alzheimer's drugs over a third targeting amyloid. By last fall, there were 68 drugs and 18% of them target amyloid. However, there are scientists too who think that amyloid is not everything and their is way more in the brain tissue, immune cells, and more which can be studied.

Your eyes may explain a lot about how your brain handles attention. A new Indian study suggests that tiny fluctuations in the pupils may provide a physiological clue to attention related differences in children with ADHD.

Researchers from the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi analysed eye-tracking data from 50 children aged 10 to 12, including 28 children with combined-type ADHD and 22 without a neurodevelopmental diagnosis. These findings were published in Scientific Reports.

Instead of just looking at the size of the pupils, researchers examined how pupil responses shifted from one trial to another while children performed a working-memory task.

What ADHD-Related Clues Do Pupils Hold?

During the experiment, children watched dots appear on a grid and had to remember their positions while ignoring distractions. An eye tracker recorded their pupil diameter 1,000 times per second.

After accounting for age, IQ and memory-task difficulty, the researchers estimated that unmedicated children with ADHD had about 23% greater trial-to-trial variability in their pupil responses than children in the control group.

Among the unmedicated children with ADHD, greater pupil variability was also associated with poorer accuracy on the task.

The pattern was, however, more complicated. Within individual trials, pupil variability was actually lower in the ADHD group. This suggests that different measures of pupil dynamics may capture different aspects of attention and brain activity.

Also read: Increased Screen Timings Have Lead to ADHD: Key Symptoms

Effect Of ADHD Medication On The Pattern

The researchers also looked at 17 children with ADHD who completed the task both after taking their usual methylphenidate medication and after stopping it for 24 hours.

When the children were taking medication, their pupils showed a stronger response during the task and less variation between trials. Their overall pupil-response pattern also became more similar to that of the control group. But the researchers caution against interpreting this as proof that medication normalising attention span.

Methylphenidate can itself influence physiological systems that affect pupil size, meaning the study could not completely separate the drug's direct effects on the pupils from changes related to attention.

Also read: Using AI Apps To Manage ADHD? How They Can Help And Why Experts Urge Caution

Can A Pupil Test Diagnose ADHD?

There is no single biological test for ADHD currently. Diagnosis involves clinical assessment, developmental history and behavioural symptoms across different settings and circumstances.

The study itself has several limitations. For instance, it was based on a small sample, used existing eye-tracking data and involved a controlled laboratory task rather than everyday environments like classrooms.

Although the statistical model found greater trial-to-trial pupil variability, the direct participant-level difference between the ADHD and control groups did not remain statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons.

The researchers therefore describe pupil dynamics as a useful source of additional physiological information, rather than a diagnostic test.

First author Saumya Yadav said, "It is still too early to consider pupil measurements as a clinical diagnostic tool.”

Larger studies will need to determine whether these pupil patterns can reliably distinguish ADHD from other conditions and whether they remain consistent outside laboratory settings.

A recent AI analysis of more than 400,000 Reddit posts about popular GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound revealed several side effects that researchers may not have fully recorded in clinical trials.

The study, published in Nature Health, analysed 410,198 Reddit posts from May 2019 through June 2025. Researchers identified 67,008 people who self-reported using semaglutide or tirzepatide, with 43.5% reporting at least one side effect.

The findings do not prove that the drugs caused the symptoms. Instead, they did identify patterns in patients' own accounts that may need further investigation.

What Side Effects Did The AI Find?

As expected, the analysis found gastrointestinal symptoms in majority. Among GLP-1 users who reported side effects, the most common were:

• Nausea: 36.9%
• Fatigue: 16.7%
• Vomiting: 16.3%
• Constipation: 15.3%
• Diarrhoea: 12.6%

Researchers also found abdominal pain, reduced appetite, acid reflux, bloating, headache and dizziness among commonly reported symptoms.

But two groups of symptoms stood out as they may be less represented in existing clinical-trial data and drug information. They are reproductive symptoms and complaints associated with temperature.

Nearly 4% of people who reported side effects described reproductive symptoms, including irregular menstrual cycles, bleeding between periods and heavy bleeding.

GLP-1 drug users also described chills, feeling unusually cold, hot flashes and fever-like sensations.

Also read: GLP-1 Drugs Mounjaro, Zepbound Show Promise For 1 Billion With Sleep Apnea

Effects Of Ozempic Or Mounjaro On Menstrual Cycles

The study was based on self-reported social-media posts, so researchers cannot establish whether semaglutide or tirzepatide directly caused menstrual changes, chills or hot flashes.

Other factors may also influence these symptoms. People taking GLP-1 drugs may experience substantial weight loss, changes in food intake, metabolic changes or other health changes that could effect these symptoms.

The researchers therefore describe these findings as safety signals, rather than confirmed adverse effects.

Also read: Are GLP-1 Drugs Actually Changing Asthma Biology, Or Are People Simply Having Fewer Attack Due To Weight Loss?

Reliability Of Reddit Analysis

Clinical trials help in determining whether a medication is effective. They also help in identifying its potential side-effects. But once millions of people begin using a drug, patients may describe symptoms in everyday settings that were uncommon or not specifically investigated during trials.

Reddit provides researchers with a huge data collection of real-world experiences. AI can quickly scan hundreds of thousands of posts for recurring symptom patterns that would be extremely difficult to identify manually.

However, Reddit users are not representative of all people taking GLP-1 drugs. The researchers noted that the population studied was younger, more likely to be male and disproportionately based in the US.

The study does not provide evidence that people should stop Ozempic, Mounjaro or other GLP-1 medications. Instead, it shows how AI-assisted analysis of patient experiences could help in addition to traditional drug-safety trials and monitoring.

Common symptoms of GLP-1 medications remain nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and constipation as they are backed by extensive research and clinical trials.

The newly highlighted symptoms, particularly menstrual and temperature-related changes, need clinical research to determine whether they are genuinely caused by the drugs.

Globally renowned beauty and haircare brand L’Oréal is in the midst of a new legal battle in the US over allegations that it did not warn consumers possible potential cancer risks linked with its chemical hair-relaxer products.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against L’Oréal USA, its parent company and SoftSheen, accusing the companies of selling chemical hair relaxers without disclosing alleged links to ovarian and uterine cancers. Arizona is the first US state to bring such a lawsuit against L’Oréal over the products.

The lawsuit alleges that the products were primarily marketed to African American women and, in some cases, children.

The state is seeking damages and penalties, including warnings if the brand wants to keep selling the products.

What Is The Concern With Hair Relaxers?

Chemical hair relaxers are highly alkaline products designed to permanently straighten textured hair. They work by breaking and reforming the disulfide bonds in keratin, which gives hair its natural shape.

According to the Arizona lawsuit, some chemical relaxer products contain substances including phthalates, parabens, and other chemicals classified as probable carcinogens.

The complaint states that repeated use can increase exposure as these products are applied directly onto the scalp.

However, the presence of a potentially hazardous chemical does not establish that using a particular product will cause cancer. Cancer risk depends on factors including the substance, dose, duration, and route of exposure.

Also read: Prostate Cancer: What's Fact, What's Fiction

Earlier Study Flags Same Concerns

The legal action follows years of scientific research that examined links between chemical hair relaxers and cancers related to hormones.

A 2022 study from the US National Institutes of Health found that women who reported frequent use of chemical hair-straightening products had more than twice the risk of developing uterine cancer compared with women who did not use them frequently.

The researchers, however, found an association, not proof that hair relaxers directly caused these cancers.

Other research has also investigated possible links with ovarian and breast cancers, adding to concerns about repeated exposure to chemicals may cause serious health conditions.

Also read: Beyond Vaccines And Nutrition: Why Childhood Cancer Needs A Wider Conversation

What Does L’Oréal Say?

According to Reuters, L’Oréal has rejected the allegations. A spokesperson for L’Oréal USA said that the company is confident in the safety of its products and considers that the claims lack legal and scientific merit.

The company said, “L’Oréal’s highest priority is the health and well-being of all our consumers. Our products are subject to a rigorous scientific evaluation of their safety by experts who also ensure that we strictly follow all regulations in every market in which we operate. We are confident in the safety of SoftSheen-Carson’s products and believe the allegations made in this lawsuit have neither legal nor scientific merit.”

L’Oréal also disputes the research underlying the litigation, saying the study cited by plaintiffs did not establish a causal connection between hair-relaxer use and the alleged health conditions and called for further research.

The Arizona lawsuit comes amid more than 12,000 similar lawsuits consolidated in a federal multidistrict litigation in Chicago involving L’Oréal, Revlon and other manufacturers. Trials in that litigation may start in 2027.

The current evidence does not mean that everyone who has used a chemical hair relaxer will develop cancer.

But repeated use is an area of ongoing scientific investigation. People who use these products can reduce unnecessary exposure by following product instructions carefully, avoiding application to irritated or damaged skin, and considering less frequent use or non-chemical alternatives.