An Overlooked Existential Flight Risk

A new airline water scorecard from the Center for Food as Medicine and Longevity suggests your in-flight hydration plan may deserve a rethink. Using Aircraft Drinking Water Rule compliance data from October 1, 2022, through September 30, 2025, the analysis ranked 21 carriers (10 major, 11 regional) with a Water Safety Score from 0.00 to 5.00 (3.5 or higher earned an A/B). Delta (5.00) and Frontier (4.80) topped major airlines, followed by Alaska (3.85), while American (1.75) and JetBlue (1.80) landed near the bottom. Among regionals, GoJet led (3.85), but most scored poorly; Mesa posted the lowest score (1.35), and CommuteAir logged a 33.33% total coliform–positive rate. Overall, 35,674 sample locations were tested, and 949 (2.66%) were total coliform–positive; 32 E. coli Maximum Contaminant Level violations were identified as a key score killer. Practical takeaway: choose sealed bottled drinks, skip coffee/tea made with tap water, and favor hand sanitizer (60% or greater alcohol) over lavatory sink water.

Source: Center For Food as Medicine & Longevity

The Right Occasion to Swear

If you’ve ever dropped an expletive mid-effort and felt oddly stronger, science is now nodding along. In a series of preregistered experiments from Keele University, repeating a self-selected swear word helped adults hold a grueling chair push-up position longer than repeating a neutral word. The effect showed up reliably across 2 studies and held steady when data from 300 participants were analyzed together. What powered the potty mouth wasn't just comic relief. Swearing appeared to nudge people into a more “disinhibited” mental state, marked by better psychological flow, less overthinking, and higher self-confidence.  The performance gains were small but consistent, which matters for short, high-intensity tasks where mindset can be the difference between quitting and pushing through. So under the right circumstances, a well-timed curse might be the cheapest motivational tool in the toolbox.

Source: American Psychologist

Hair Color With a Biological Backstory

In this PNAS Nexus study, researchers used an unlikely but stylish model—zebra finches—to answer a very human question: why does pheomelanin, the red–orange pigment linked to melanoma risk without sun exposure, still exist? By blocking pheomelanin production with ML349 (an inhibitor that boosts MC1R signaling) while supplementing dietary cysteine, the team showed that pheomelanin acts as a metabolic pressure-release valve. Male finches that normally make pheomelanin developed higher systemic oxidative damage, measured by plasma malondialdehyde, when pheomelanogenesis was blocked, despite similar antioxidant capacity. Males allowed to keep making pheomelanin handled cysteine just fine, while females hinted at increased oxidative damage with cysteine alone. ML349 selectively reduced pheomelanin-based pigmentation without affecting eumelanin, confirming pathway specificity. Translating to human medicine, the findings suggest pheomelanin helps detox excess cysteine, reframing red-hair–associated melanoma risk as a trade-off between pigment biology and metabolic homeostasis—and hinting that diet and cysteine availability may matter more than previously appreciated.

Source: PNAS Nexus

Green Tea Tries Its Hand at BP

In a large GRADE-assessed meta-analysis published by researchers reporting in a Taylor & Francis journal, green tea earned a polite golf clap for blood pressure control—but not a standing ovation. Pooling data from 36 randomized trials with just over 2,000 adults, green tea supplementation was linked to modest average reductions of about 1 mm Hg in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The studies spanned two decades, used doses ranging from concentrated extracts to brewed leaves, and ran anywhere from 4 to 48 weeks. Benefits appeared a bit stronger in adults with higher baseline blood pressure, women, Asian populations, shorter trials, and lower daily doses, while longer use and higher doses did not reliably add extra punch. Evidence quality was rated low and results were heterogeneous, meaning effects varied widely across studies.

Source: Blood Pressure

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.