Read Online | February 7, 2026 

What American Medicine Lost in the Past 50 Years

Illustration by Lumi Liu

Doctors of the past would come to your house, remember your name, and accept whatever payment you had, whether that be cash or carrots. They were more available and more attentive but saved fewer lives. 

As medicine moved into larger systems, the work changed. Payment began to reward what could be coded rather than the time spent understanding a patient. Technology expanded what was possible, yet connection narrowed. Visits shortened. Familiar faces disappeared. The small cues that once guided a diagnosis grew easier to miss.

The result was progress with a missing piece. Doctors who once crossed blizzards to reach patients now struggle to reach them through an avalanche of screens, rules, and codes.

Some physicians are trying to bring those elements back together, pairing the precision of modern medicine with the attention that once anchored care, an effort to restore the one thing both patients and doctors have steadily lost: time.

(More)

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning that the measles vaccine may not fully protect against the disease.  
• Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.announced a new $100 million program to help homeless people find jobs and treat drug abuse.
• Malfunctioning glucose monitors linked to serious injuries are being recalled after hundreds of injuries.
• Colorectal cancer has become the leading cause of cancer death in Americans under 50.
• The FDA has launched a program to boost domestic drug manufacturing.

☀️ It’s Saturday. Thank you for reading Wellness, a subscriber-only newsletter. 

Matthew Little

Senior Health Editor

I’d like to hear from you –  wellness@epochtimes.nyc 

🏥 Health News

Major Medical Groups Withdraw Support for Pediatric Transgender Surgeries

A second top medical group has shifted its stance on breast removal and other gender transition surgeries for minors.

“The evidence for gender-affirming surgical intervention in minors is insufficient for us to make a definitive statement,” the American Medical Association told news outlets in a statement.

The association added that “in the absence of clear evidence,” it agrees with the American Society of Plastic Surgeons that surgical interventions in minors should be generally deferred to adulthood.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons advised members on Feb. 3 that there was too little evidence to support performing the surgeries on children and mounting evidence of harm.

 (More)

More Health News:

• Children prescribed Ritalin may not grow as tall and are at increased risk of becoming overweight.
• Therapeutic light exposure can reset the biological systems that regulate mood, energy, and sleep in 30 minutes.
• Medical cannabis found to be ineffective for chronic neuropathic pain.
• Emotional factors—especially fear—may contribute to ongoing abdominal pain in people with IBD.

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😌 Mindset

Vink Fan/Shutterstock

How to Feel Joy in a Dopamine-Saturated World

Your brain treats what it sees in Instagram reels the same way it treats cocaine. Both experiences flood a thumbnail-sized region of the brain with dopamine—a chemical that makes you want more, right now. The problem is that after a certain amount of dopamine hits, your brain adapts by turning down the pleasure volume. As a result, things that once made you feel good are no longer enough.

If you’re finding it harder to feel simple joy and genuine connections, you’re experiencing what addiction psychiatrists now recognize as dopamine overload, a state where constant stimulation—especially from cellphones, social media, and ultra-processed foods—quietly erodes your ability to feel your happiest emotions and leaves relationships feeling painfully empty. However, there is hope—through learning to rebalance our reward systems, we can rediscover contentment in simple things.​ (More)

More Mindset:

• We can get stuck because of unrealistic expectations. Sometimes, circumstances are outside our control. Or maybe we’re prone to giving up on goals after one slip-up, rather than pausing to reassess. Everyone faces moments of being stuck, but experts say adjusting our approach can help us move forward.
• Financial issues can take a toll. The stress they cause can lead to illness. Fortunately, making a few consistent changes can significantly increase our financial peace of mind and hopefully keep us out of the cycle of stress and illness.

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Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

Gout: Crystallized Urate Accumulates in the Joint–6 Natural Approaches to Relieve It

🍵 Food & Nutrition

Agnes Kantaruk/Shutterstock

Common Herbs That Can Interfere With Prescription Drugs

Herbs contain medicinal compounds. That means they affect the body’s biochemistry in ways that can also affect how drugs work.  

Herbs can alter liver enzymes. More than 50 percent of medications are broken down by CYP450 enzymes, primarily in the liver but also in the small intestine. Some herbs can speed up or slow down these enzymes, affecting how much medication remains active in the system—either too much or too little.

Herbs can thin the blood or affect clotting. Certain herbs increase the risk of bleeding by reducing platelets’ ability to stick together. Others contain compounds that interfere with the blood’s ability to clot. Some do both and are risky for those on blood thinners, anticoagulants, or undergoing surgery.  

Herbs can raise or lower blood pressure. They can dilate or constrict vessels, alter fluid balance, change heart rate, affect the nervous system, or change levels of regulatory hormones. For anyone taking medications for high blood pressure, these effects can either counteract treatment or dangerously amplify it.

Herbs can affect mood-altering drugs.

Herbs can alter drug metabolism, changing the drug’s effects and affecting transporters that push drugs out of cells. They can inhibit liver enzymes and increase levels of antipsychotic drugs. They can also affect levels of neurotransmitters in the brain and interfere with drugs that do the same. Others can increase drowsiness and amplify the sedative effects of some medications.

Using herbs and drugs safely requires professional guidance. Using herbs and medications harmoniously requires a knowledgeable professional who can help you navigate potential side effects. It also requires clarity and diligence on your part. 

(Learn more)

🏋️ Fitness

20-Minute Workouts That Sharpen Your Brain 

The best thing you can do for your brain today is twenty minutes of high-intensity interval training (HIIT). This approach to exercise releases molecules that help grow new brain cells, strengthen neural connections, and turn your brain into a more efficient thinking machine.

When we move, our muscles activate metabolic pathways and release signaling molecules called myokines that communicate with major organs, including the brain, supporting cognitive function in multiple ways.

Short bursts of all-out effort, such as in a HIIT routine, are especially effective. They push muscles to adapt in ways that increase brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that helps brain cells grow, stay flexible, and use energy efficiently after just a single HIIT session.

HIIT also increases insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), which helps activate BDNF. IGF-1 can cross the blood-brain barrier, where it supports the formation of new brain cells and reinforces neural connections, helping the brain learn, adapt, and retain information more efficiently.

Beyond growth factors, sprint intervals—a more intense form of HIIT—improve how the body metabolizes glucose and increase lactate, a substance the brain can use as fuel. “Brain benefits of HIIT come largely from the production of lactate,” Paul Ehren, a master personal trainer and functional nutrition practitioner, told The Epoch Times. (More)

Thank you for reading 🙏

Have a wonderful day!

– Matthew Little and Wanlun Lu.

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