Medical News & Updates Roundup for February 2025
A curated list of people, newsletters, and websites currently reporting on all things health to keep you updated. Plus some good news to lift us up.
Welcome to The Feel Good Life! A newsletter about health, prevention, empathy, and hope. Join me, Dr. Mariana, as I explore all sides of good health and a good life. New around here? Get started.
The health world has been shaken hard lately and we’re all fearing every possible consequence. Like I said in my recent note that went viral (see below), my heart goes out to everyone suffering the weight of these political decisions, affecting their access to health and to good health resources. Hence why I shared such a message, determined to do something about it from my corner of the internet.
(Thank you all for agreeing and supporting this message!)
Reliable Health & Science Sources of Information
Now, let’s address the elephant in the room first. Since Trump took office, the world’s health landscape has been crashing continually against a wall. This affects all US citizens directly, as well as the rest of us outside the US—who are also watching closely and feeling concerned, working away to offer solutions that can benefit everyone.
Now more than ever we need the reliable science and medical updates, as well as good news to lift us up during such difficult times. There’s enough bad news out there already, becoming an incessant source of high stress, affecting sleep, anxiety, focus, emotions, and productivity.
I can’t let this happen. Not on my watch. I’ll be making these roundups for everyone to benefit from, so please, stay with me, let me help you find hope, and let’s keep this ball of goodness rolling!
There are several accounts right now offering specific, detailed and reliable data on what’s going on since the CDC has been aggressively silenced.
Here are the main Substack accounts I’m keeping a close eye on for information—and you should too:
Inside Medicine by
Your Local Epidemiologist by Dr.
Examined by
- by Dr. Gideon M-K
Latest Medical & Science News
Now, let’s look into the latest health data reports across the web for you to stay up-to-date.
There’s a lot of fear out there, and as much as I trust several sources, I tend to be quite picky about the content and their titles—the last thing I want is to feed my readers more fear! So for the sake of a good dose of information, I’m choosing to share links and sources that feel highly informative and fearmongering-free. My sake is your mental health while staying well informed. Let’s go.
First, here’s the latest report by Dr.
with detailed insights on USA national flu data. She’s absolutely fantastic, transparent and neutral. If you don’t follow or subscribe to her yet, I highly recommend you do.Also this week, a report on a Tuberculosis outbreak in North Carolina has been shared by
where he addresses the original source and offers some insight on his professional experience.On more worldly views, here you can read the WHO’s weekly updates on disease outbreaks, still reliable.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) offers a weekly report of the global situation and changes in the epidemiology of communicable diseases that could impact the EU. These are more technical reports oriented to us health professionals, but still accessible for everyone to read.
From two weeks ago, the ECDC also published this article on Avian Influenza as EU agencies track virus mutations and analyse response strategies due to its increased threat in the EU region as well.
The Erviss (European Respiratory Virus Surveillance Summary) offers a comprehensive weekly update on all data concerning respiratory viruses and disease in the EU. Easy to read and understand, suitable for non-healthcare professionals.
Lastly, Eurosurveillance is there to give the weekly general overview of all things infectious disease, epidemiology, prevention and control.
Please, read all these calmly. If at any given point, reading this generates a larger sense of anxiety, please stop and leave it for another time. It’s turbulent times with everything going on in the world right now, and we must learn to find healthy balance in the midst of it all. Choose wisely.
Good Health & Science News Happening Right Now
Finally, good stuff to uplift our spirit! Here’s some really positive news in health and science that have been announced in the last two weeks:
🍎 Did you know that the city of New York has now a Global Health Update page? I found out about it thanks to
in this note she shared five days ago. If you’re in the area or know someone who does, check this newsletter out.🔬 New Scientist Magazine revealed in their latest issue three major findings that seem quite promising for the future of health:
Scientists have been studying one type of immune cells called T-Cells, using them as a vehicle (Car T-Cells) to treat problems like 1) high cholesterol that won’t respond to standard treatments, and 2) to target cancer cells through medically engineered immune T-cells. The news came out this week and it offers encouraging views into the future.
They also published another study where scientists are using platelets (another blood cell usually in charge of clotting) to help recover the sense of smell in people affected by Covid, bringing them an opportunity to improve their life quality again.
Even though these studies will continue to require more observation and testing, the fact that they’re already sharing these advances means that they’re safe enough to continue being evaluated it, offering the possibility of innovative regulated treatments in the near future.
🦠 Recent findings show that two servings of yoghurt per week could be highly beneficial towards preventing colon cancer in a particular bowel section—which is alarmingly increasing in young people:
“According to a new study in the journal Gut Microbes, people who ate two or more servings of yogurt per week tended to have lower rates of proximal colon cancer positive for Bifidobacterium, a type of bacteria found in yogurt.
Proximal colon cancer occurs on the right side of the colon and can have worse survival outcomes than cancers in the distal colon on the left side, the researchers said in a news release.” ~ WebMD
Eat your weekly dose of yoghurt, my friends!
🩸A simple blood test to detect signs of dementia decades before it develops is being rolled out across the UK as part of a new study by scientists at the University of Cambridge, England. ~ Positive News & BBC
🌌 Last week, Rose Ferreira, a NASA astronomer and space engineer, reported that her bio had been removed from NASA’s site, just like it had been happening with many other women in STEM since change of office.
Rose’s message resonated with so many that after a stormy week on social media, faith in humanity was somehow restored. Not only NASA restored the page, but also actress Wren Schmidt (who played Margot in the amazing series For All Mankind) addressed the issue on her social media channels, raising awareness and offering her support to continue this battle against women in science.
All these news show how we are continually advancing in the field of medical science, and how humanity can make it work when we set ourselves to it. It personally fills me with hope and curiosity for the future!
If you happen to know some good news and/or sources of information in your area or elsewhere, please share them in the comments below for everyone to follow.
I hope this message feels both helpful and encouraging. There’s a ton of information circling around and it’s difficult to filter what’s true or valuable at times. For this reason, so many of us are constantly reading, researching, and filtering for the sake of reliable information.
Keep staying informed, but above all, keep taking good care of your physical and mental health. The general landscape of things can feel messy, becoming impossible to control. What we can control however, is our inner landscape, learning how to balance it by filtering and choosing what serves us well vs. what doesn’t. Your daily life along with your actions and thoughts is what matters the most. Be wise, make healthy choices, and hug your loved ones. ❤️
See you next time!
Much love,
Dr. Mariana
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please ❤️ it and share it with friends—this will help new readers discover it and benefit from the awareness and resources shared here. Thank you!
Thank you for the mention, Mariana! I follow you, too. We should get some sort of badge or central listing started for sources here that we all agree are legit!
Loving the yogurt tip! Small changes like this can have big impact - and tasty too!