A Vaccine With a Foam Head? 

In a plot twist worthy of a conference happy hour, Chuck Buck, a virologist at the US National Cancer Institute, brewed what may be the first vaccine delivered via beer, using genetically engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast to carry noninfectious virus-like particles against a BK polyomavirus. These types of viruses infect most humans early—up to 91% by 9 years old—and usually lie dormant, but they can cause severe bladder cancer, kidney and neurologic damage in immunosuppressed patients, especially organ transplant recipients. In prior animal work, an injectable BK vaccine produced antibody responses lasting about 2 years, motivating a bold pivot to oral delivery. When mice were fed live yeast containing viral shell proteins, they generated antibodies—an unexpected result for a nonreplicating oral vaccine. The researcher then self-experimented, consuming multiple “booster flights” of the beer and documenting increased antibodies to several BK subtypes, with some reaching levels considered protective in transplant settings. The unreviewed findings, shared publicly, have ignited debate over safety, regulation, and whether vaccine innovation should ever come with a foam head. But Buck believes in his work wholeheartedly. “This is the most important work of my whole career… It’s important enough to risk my career over.”

Source: Science News

As Seen On TV: CPR 

Scripted television may love a good cardiac arrest cliffhanger, but this analysis suggests it is not always nailing the resuscitation science. Investigators from the University of Pittsburgh reviewed 169 US TV episodes aired since 2008 and found that 93 depicted out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), with CPR shown in 91% of those scenes. Sounds promising, until the details roll. Only 63.5% of portrayals involved layperson CPR that could resemble compression-only CPR (COCPR), and just 29.6% actually followed recommended steps: checking responsiveness, calling 911, and starting chest compressions. Instead, TV leaned heavily on outdated habits, with rescue breaths shown in 48.1% of scenes and pulse checks in 42.6%. The drama also skewed unrealistically young and public: more than half of COCPR recipients were under 40 years old, and only 20.4% of arrests occurred at home, despite most real-world OHCAs happening there. While COCPR appeared more often on TV than in real life (about 58% vs 39.6%), inaccurate portrayals may quietly undercut public health messages meant to get bystanders’ hands moving fast.

Source: Circulation: Population Health and Outcomes

A Literal Twist on Withdrawal Care

Opioid withdrawal is rarely described as relaxing, yet a randomized clinical trial from India found that adding yoga to standard treatment may aid the process.  At an inpatient addiction unit at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in India, yoga proved to be more than a stretch break during opioid withdrawal—it looked like a physiologic reset button. Among 59 adults with opioid use disorder receiving standard buprenorphine, those who added 10 supervised 45-minute yoga sessions over 2 weeks stabilized from withdrawal in a median of 5 days, compared with 9 days with usual care alone. The yoga group also showed clear improvements in heart rate variability, signaling a shift toward healthier parasympathetic tone during a phase typically dominated by sympathetic overdrive. Clinically, this translated into meaningful reductions in anxiety, less time to fall asleep, and lower pain scores, all without increasing medication exposure. While the single-center study included only men and followed participants short term, the takeaway was refreshingly grounded: targeting autonomic regulation with a low-cost, low-risk intervention may help patients get through the most vulnerable days of withdrawal a little faster—and a lot calmer.

Source: JAMA Psychiatry

Can Tea Outdrink a Meaty Diet?

Before you reach for another cup of tea to balance dinner, you may want to read this first. In a sprawling analysis of more than 206,000 adults from the UK Biobank, tea proved refreshing—but not redeeming—when paired with a meat-heavy diet. Over a median follow-up of nearly 12 years, more than 11,600 participants developed obesity. Higher consumption of total, processed, and white meat showed a clear, dose-responsive association with greater obesity risk, while red meat played a smaller role. Tea drinkers did get some good news: higher tea intake was independently associated with a lower risk of incident obesity. However, clinicians should not start prescribing teapots just yet. Even among participants with the highest tea consumption, high meat intake still tracked with increased obesity risk, and tea did not meaningfully offset that effect. Across multiple stratified, joint, and sensitivity analyses, no meaningful interaction emerged between tea and meat intake. The takeaway is sobering but practical: tea may be health-adjacent, but it cannot counterbalance habitual high meat consumption when it comes to obesity prevention.

Source: Nutrition Journal

The intersection of medicine and the unexpected reminds us how wild, weird, and wonderful science can be. The world of health care continues to surprise and astonish.