Walmart pasta meals listeria recall: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued a public health alert for a ready-to-eat pasta meal sold at Walmart due to possible listeria contamination, a potentially deadly bacteria. The alert, announced Thursday, affects customers nationwide. Officials are urging consumers to immediately check their freezers for the affected product.

Details of the Walmart Pasta Recall

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This alert is linked to a previous listeria outbreak involving recalled chicken fettuccine Alfredo meals in June. According to Fox Business, testing was expanded to include other products, and one sample of the Marketside linguine meal tested positive for listeria. The USDA issued the alert to prevent further illness, as the contamination could potentially be more widespread.

Walmart Recall Listeria: What Is Listeria?

Listeria: Who Is Most At Risk?

While anyone can contract listeriosis, certain groups are more vulnerable. Pregnant women, newborns, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems face the highest risk of severe illness. For pregnant women, infection can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, or serious infection in newborns.

Listeria Symptoms To Watch For

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Walmart Recall Listeria: How to Stay Safe

Consumers should check their freezers and pantries for affected products, like the Marketside linguine with beef meatballs, and discard or return them. Proper cooking and avoiding unpasteurized dairy or prepackaged ready-to-eat meals can reduce risk. Always follow food safety guidelines, including cleaning, separating, cooking, and chilling foods.

Walmart Recall Listeria: Recent Trends in Food Recalls

Food recalls over listeria have become increasingly common in recent years. Just this summer, Kraft Heinz pulled back more than 367,000 pounds of Oscar Mayer turkey bacon due to contamination concerns. Now, Walmart’s ready-to-eat pasta joins the list.

Although listeria outbreaks are rare, the USDA emphasizes that even a single positive test can be serious and potentially deadly. For consumers, the safest action is clear: check the product dates, and if the affected pasta is in your freezer, do not risk consuming it.

A compound best known for its psychedelic effects may have potential in protecting cancer patients from nerve damage caused by chemotherapy.

Researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found that psilocybin, the active psychedelic compound in 'magic mushrooms,' prevented peripheral neuropathy induced by chemotherapy in several preclinical models. The findings were published in Science recently.

Chemotherapy Can Leave Patients With Lasting Nerve Damage

It can cause burning or shooting pain, numbness, tingling, increased sensitivity to cold and loss of sensation, especially in the limbs. In some cases, the nerve damage can persist long after chemotherapy ends and may even become irreversible.

Currently, there are not a lot of options for preventing this type of nerve injury, making researchers explore other approaches that could protect nerves before chemotherapy causes damage.

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Two Doses Before Chemotherapy Protected Nerves

In the new study, researchers tested psilocybin in multiple models involving chemotherapy drugs including cisplatin, paclitaxel and docetaxel.

They found that as few as two doses of psilocybin given before chemotherapy prevented several signs of peripheral neuropathy.

Treated models retained normal touch sensation, showed less sensitivity to cold and maintained sensory nerve endings, even after repeated chemotherapy sessions.

The researchers also found no evidence that psilocybin interfered with chemotherapy's ability to attack tumours in these models.

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How Could Psilocybin Protect Nerves?

According to the researchers, the answer may lie in the way nerve cells transport mitochondria, the components responsible for producing cellular energy.

Chemotherapy can disrupt this transport system, leaving nerve endings without enough energy and making them vulnerable to damage.

Psilocybin appeared to preserve mitochondrial movement through a pathway involving the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor. When researchers blocked this pathway, the protective effect disappeared.

Additionally, a non-hallucinogenic compound that activates the same receptor produced similar nerve-protective effects in the models. This suggests that the potential benefit may not depend on psilocybin's psychedelic experience itself.

Dr Moran Amit, the study's co-lead, said, "There is an urgent need for treatments that can prevent nerve injury without interfering with life-saving chemotherapy. He said the findings offer insight into protecting nerves before damage becomes persistent."

Can Cancer Patients Take Psilocybin Yet?

The study was conducted using laboratory and animal models, so it is not yet known whether the same protective effect will occur in people who are undergoing chemotherapy.

Researchers are now moving toward a Phase II clinical trial, known as NeuroGuard, to test whether psilocybin can prevent or reduce CIPN in people receiving chemotherapy for breast, colorectal or head and neck cancers. The trial is listed by the US National Cancer Institute as an approved Phase II study.

The trial will also examine whether preventing nerve damage could help patients tolerate their cancer treatment better and maintain quality of life.

A problem in the heart may not just be confined to the heart. According to new guidelines, heart and kidney health may be more closely linked to each other than we realise. Heart disease can increase the strain on the kidney, creating a cycle that may raise the risk of serious complications.

New guidelines from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), developed in collaboration with the European Renal Association (ERA), are emphasising upon monitoring kidney health in people with cardiovascular disease more closely.

The recommendations, published in the European Heart Journal, are the ESC's first dedicated guidelines covering cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease together.

How Are The Heart And Kidneys Connected?

The heart pumps blood throughout the body, while the kidneys filter waste and excess fluid from the blood. Because the two organs are closely linked through blood flow, fluid balance and blood pressure, dysfunction in one can place additional stress on the other.

According to the ESC, chronic kidney disease can accelerate cardiovascular disease, while cardiovascular disease can also worsen kidney problems.

This can contribute to complications including heart failure, stroke, abnormal heart rhythms, and progression to kidney failure requiring dialysis.

The European Society of Cardiology estimates that around 100 million people in Europe have chronic kidney disease, which itself substantially increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Associate Professor Kevin Damman of University Medical Centre Groningen, who chaired the guideline task force, said, "The disability and lifetime lost to each disease are profound, but CKD can accelerate CVD and vice versa, resulting in cardiovascular events and the need for dialysis much earlier in life."

He added, "The good news is that there have been major advances over the last few years, which mean there are now several simple treatments that can substantially lower the risk of both cardiovascular and kidney complications."

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New Guidelines Recommend Two Kidney Tests

One of the biggest changes is an emphasis on earlier kidney screening in people with cardiovascular disease. The guidelines recommend assessing kidney health using two tests:

eGFR, calculated from a blood creatinine test, which estimates how well the kidneys are filtering blood.

Urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR), which checks albumin leaking into the urine, a sign of kidney damage.

The ESC recommends active screening, risk assessment and treatment of CKD among people with cardiovascular disease.

This is crucial as kidney disease can go unnoticed for years, especially when symptoms are absent. Detecting it earlier can help doctors identify people at higher cardiovascular risk and adjust treatment accordingly.

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Treating One Condition Can Help The Other

The new guidelines also stress that the presence of kidney disease should not unnecessarily delay appropriate cardiovascular treatment.

Instead, doctors may need to modify treatment and monitor patients more closely due to the additional kidney-related risks.

The guideline framework is summarised by STAMP: Screen, Triage and Address CKD Risk, Modify CVD management, and Plan health services.

The recommendations cover a wide range of cardiovascular conditions, including coronary disease, heart failure, arrhythmias, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease.

British-Nigerian businessman and social media influencer Igho “Tiny” Ubiribo, 43, died after undergoing a cosmetic penis enlargement procedure in Bangkok, Thailand.

According to findings from a UK coroner’s inquest, Ubiribo, who was also known as Denisi or Ego, reportedly underwent the procedure on March 5, 2026, while travelling with his wife. The treatment involved injections containing hyaluronic acid and lidocaine.

What Happened?

According to reports on the inquest, Ubiribo developed chest pain and repeatedly lost consciousness later that day while receiving a massage.

He was taken to Sukhumvit Hospital in Bangkok, where his condition deteriorated rapidly. Doctors reportedly attempted CPR for more than 100 minutes, but he died before a CT scan could be completed.

A post-mortem examination in the UK subsequently found that he had suffered a pulmonary embolism, a potentially life-threatening blockage of blood flow in the lungs.

The coroner’s findings reportedly linked the fatal embolism to the substances injected during the cosmetic procedure. Reports say material consistent with the filler was found in the lungs.

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About Pulmonary Embolism

A pulmonary embolism occurs when a blood vessel supplying the lungs becomes blocked, most commonly by a blood clot that has travelled from another part of the body.

It can cause sudden chest pain, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, dizziness, or fainting and can become fatal if the blockage is severe.

In Ubiribo's case, the coroner’s findings linked the embolism to material associated with the cosmetic injection rather than describing a conventional blood clot travelling from the legs, which is unusual.

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Can Penile Fillers Be Risky?

Complications can include infection, swelling, tissue damage, deformity, nodules, and vascular complications. If an injected substance enters a blood vessel, there can be potentially serious consequences.

The risks can also depend on the substance used, injection technique, the setting in which the procedure is performed, and the medical expertise and competence of the person administering it.

Ubiribo’s case does not mean that every penile filler procedure causes pulmonary embolism, but it indicates that cosmetic procedures are not risk-free simply because they are elective.

The American Urological Association and Urology Care Foundation have previously stated that subcutaneous fat injection for increasing penile girth has not been shown to be safe or effective.

Ubiribo’s death has now renewed attention on the risks associated with cosmetic penile augmentation, particularly when procedures are undertaken abroad.