New sunscreen type

 For the first time in more than a quarter-century, Americans have a new option when shopping for sunscreen: a skin-protecting chemical that’s long been a go-to option in Europe and other parts of the world.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved bemotrizinol — sometimes called BEMT — in June. The first sunscreens containing it are now hitting U.S. store shelves, including formulas from Neutrogena and other manufacturers.

Dermatologists say the chemical fills an important market gap by offering broad protection, like the most well-established sunscreen ingredients, but without their cosmetic downsides, including white streaking.

BEMT has decades of safety data behind it, including studies showing it has minimal absorption into the skin. That’s been a concern with some older sun-blocking chemicals.

“It’s not a brand-new ingredient that you’re going to be the first person to try,” said Dr. Jennifer Stein, a dermatologist at NYU Langone Health.

Here’s what to know:

New ingredient offers broad protection without streaks

To be effective, sunscreens must protect against both forms of ultraviolet light that can damage the skin — UVB rays, which cause most sunburn, and UVA rays that pose the greatest risk of skin cancer and wrinkles.

Sunscreens that block both forms are labeled “broad spectrum protection.” Those that don’t must carry an FDA warning label.

BEMT is the first chemical-based sunscreen in the U.S. that offers this dual protection. Previously, manufacturers had to mix multiple ingredients to protect against both UVA and UVB light.

“This ingredient provides a solution for what is currently a big gap with respect to providing strong UVA protection,” said David Andrews, chief science officer of the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit that advocates for higher sunscreen standards.

A different class of sunscreens, using minerals such as zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, has long been shown to offer strong protection against both forms of ultraviolet light. These mineral-based formulas work by physically blocking harmful rays from the skin.

But some people — particularly those with darker complexions — tend to avoid them because they cause white streaking and discoloration. In other cases, people don’t like their texture or consistency.

“Those are good sunscreens,” Stein said. “But for people who aren’t so inclined to use them — maybe they don’t like how it feels on their skin — this is a nice option.”

There’s less skin penetration with the new formula

The fact that chemical-based sunscreens are absorbed into the skin means they have to be carefully studied to make sure they aren’t building up in the body at unsafe levels.

Last month, the FDA revoked approval of an older chemical ingredient, oxybenzone, after determining it was “absorbed through the skin to a greater extent than previously understood.”

That’s not a problem with BEMT.

“It’s a molecule that’s too big to really penetrate through the skin and get absorbed into the bloodstream,” Stein said. “The older chemical sunscreens had small molecules.”

As part of its safety review, the FDA reviewed studies of BEMT in more than 500 patients conducted by Dutch manufacturer DSM Nutritional Products. Levels of the chemical absorbed into the skin were nearly undetectable, the studies found.

Agency reviewers said research in people who used the sunscreen daily for up to three weeks showed that BEMT “did not cause irritation” or allergic reactions. As a result, the FDA designated the ingredient as “generally recognized as safe and effective,” alongside the older mineral ingredients zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.

Sunscreen Glossary

UVA/UVB: The types of ultraviolet light that can damage the skin. UVB rays cause most sunburn, and UVA rays pose the greatest risk of skin cancer and wrinkles.

Broad spectrum: Sunscreen that protects against both types of harmful ultraviolet light.

Mineral sunscreen: Made from zinc oxide or titanium oxide. These are also known as physical sunscreens because they sit on your skin’s surface and block and reflect ultraviolet light.

Chemical sunscreen: Made from chemicals such as avobenzone, oxybenzone and octinoxate. These chemicals must be absorbed into the skin to work. Bemotrizinol, or BEMT, is now available in the U.S. It is a chemical sunscreen but it acts more like a mineral one — it sits on the top of the skin and blocks UV rays. 

Excessive weight gain during pregnancy = higher risk of severe maternal complications

 

A new study of more than one million births led by McMaster University researchers has found that gaining too much weight during pregnancy, regardless of a person’s starting weight, is linked to a higher risk of life-threatening maternal complications.

Current pregnancy weight-gain recommendations were developed primarily to improve outcomes for babies, such as healthy birth weight and reducing the risk of preterm birth. The study, published in JAMA Network Open on Oct. 22, 2026, suggests the recommendations should also be evaluated through the lens of maternal health, including the risk of life-threatening complications such as bleeding, pre-eclampsia and ICU admission during childbirth.

"We've long known that a person's weight before pregnancy is a risk factor. We wanted to know whether the amount of weight gained during pregnancy also influences the risk of complications,” says lead author Sahar Khademioore, a Health Research Methodology PhD candidate at McMaster. "Because weight gain is something that can potentially be addressed, understanding how it relates to severe complications gives us an opportunity to better support maternal health.”

Of the more than one million Ontario pregnancies studied using the BORN Ontario birth registry:

• 53 per cent gained more weight than recommended.
• 19 per cent gained less than recommended.
• More than 15,000 severe maternal morbidity cases were identified.
• Excessive weight gain increased risk across every body mass index (BMI) category.

People with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure faced roughly double the risk of severe maternal complications, with risks increasing further when weight gain fell outside recommended ranges. Researchers also found that gaining less than the recommended amount of weight was associated with higher risks of severe maternal outcomes in some BMI groups.

“More than half of pregnancies in our study involved weight gain above current recommendations, underscoring how challenging healthy weight gain during pregnancy can be. Our findings provide important evidence for clinicians and policymakers, but supporting healthy weight gain will require more than individual counselling. We also need broader, population-level strategies that create supportive environments for healthy pregnancies,” says senior author Laura Anderson, associate professor with McMaster’s Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact.

The study is part of the SERENE Project, a research effort in partnership with a lived experience advisory network that is committed to exploring why and when severe maternal morbidity happens, which people are most affected, what are the long-term physical, social and mental health implications, and how severe maternal morbidity and its negative effects can be reduced. 

Eating meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products was associated with weight gain

 Eating more meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products was associated with weight gain even when those foods were minimally processed, according to a new study from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine published in Nutrition Research. Minimally processed plant foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans, showed the opposite pattern.

“Ultra-processed foods get most of the blame for weight gain, but our results suggest we also need to ask whether a food comes from a plant or an animal,” says lead author Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, director of clinical research at the Physicians Committee. “A chicken breast is minimally processed. So is an apple. In our study, they did not move the scale in the same direction.”

The researchers analyzed data from a randomized crossover trial in which 62 adults with overweight followed a Mediterranean diet, rich in olive oil, fish, and nuts, and a low-fat vegan diet for 16 weeks each, separated by a four-week washout. Participants kept three-day diet records, and every food was classified by degree of processing, using the NOVA system, and by whether it came from a plant or an animal.

Compared with the Mediterranean diet, the vegan diet cut minimally processed animal foods by 135 grams per day more and raised minimally processed plant foods by 202 grams per day more. Processed animal and plant foods also fell more on the vegan diet. Across both diets, eating more minimally processed animal foods was linked to weight gain; this was the strongest association in the analysis and the only one to remain statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Processed and ultra-processed animal foods tended to track with weight gain, and minimally processed plant foods with weight loss, although these associations were weaker. Ultra-processed plant foods were not associated with weight change.

In the main trial, published in 2022, participants lost an average of 6 kilograms (about 13 pounds) on the vegan diet, with no change on the Mediterranean diet. Minimally processed plant foods are high in fiber and water and low in calorie density, which helps people feel full on fewer calories.

“If you want to lose weight, fill your plate with beans, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, and leave the animal products off,” says Dr. Kahleova. “The degree of processing still matters, but it is not the whole story.”

Prenatal supplement linked to improved child cognition and social behavior

A nutritional supplement taken during pregnancy may support fetal brain development and improve children’s cognitive performance and social behavior, according to new research from the University of Colorado Anschutz.

The randomized clinical trial, published this week in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, found that children whose mothers took phosphatidylcholine, a form of choline found naturally in foods, had fewer social withdrawal problems and scored higher on cognitive tests than children whose mothers received a placebo.

“This is the largest randomized clinical trial of prenatal choline supplementation ever conducted,” said the study’s senior author Robert Freedman, MD, professor of psychiatry at CU Anschutz. “What this study showed that we have not observed before was an increase in the overall IQ of about eight points when measured at age 4. That put significantly more children into the higher IQ percentile on the test we used.”

The study, Freedman said, showed that children of mothers who received phosphatidylcholine supplements had fewer problems with language development and social skills, compared to women who had received placebos. All women in the study were encouraged to take standard prenatal vitamins and eat a diet that contained eggs, meat and other natural sources of phosphatidylcholine.

“This study provides additional evidence that choline supplements during pregnancy can have lasting effects on children’s brain development,” said Freedman.

Choline is an essential nutrient that helps support brain development. The researchers investigated whether increasing maternal intake during pregnancy could improve children’s early development, building on previous research suggesting that choline plays a critical role in the formation of connections between brain cells.

Researchers enrolled 206 pregnant women, randomly assigning them at 16 weeks of pregnancy to receive either 9,000 milligrams of phosphatidylcholine daily or a placebo until delivery. Researchers assessed children’s behavior from 18 months to 4 years of age and measured cognitive performance at ages 3 and 4.

Among children whose parents completed behavioral assessments, 4% in the supplement group had elevated social withdrawal problems, compared with 24% in the placebo group. These behaviors can include limited interest in other people, withdrawing from social activities and reduced eye contact.

Children in the supplement group also scored an average of nearly eight points higher on standardized cognitive tests than children in the placebo group. The assessments measured overall intellectual performance, including working memory and visual-spatial skills.

Researchers also observed significantly fewer children with behavioral profiles and language difficulties commonly associated with autism spectrum disorder in the supplement group.

The supplement did not significantly reduce attention problems, another primary outcome of the study.

Freedman said choline works because it activates a receptor made by the CHRNA 7 gene in developing nerve cells that helps them develop the machinery to receive signals from other nerve cells before birth.

“Choline in the baby’s circulation comes from the choline eaten by the mother which activates this receptor,” he said. “But many mothers don’t get enough choline in their diets to fully give the baby all that it needs to complete the activation of its neurons. Unfortunately, once the opportunity to do so before birth passes there is no way to go back and correct the problem in brain development.”

Freedman said it was nearly impossible to get enough choline in a normal diet to fully activate the CHRNA7 receptor – eating 10 eggs a day for example – so supplements are necessary.

“We think the dose we recommended in this trial was a bit higher than needed so we are recommending 7200 mg of phosphatidylcholine or 900 mg of choline itself,” he said. “Both are available in drug and grocery stores.”

The researchers reported no significant supplement-related safety problems among mothers or children. But they cautioned that the findings require careful interpretation: about one-third of participants did not complete the study through the four-year assessments, and parents reported their children’s behavioral symptoms.

The findings add to evidence that choline is important for fetal brain development and could help inform future research into prenatal nutrition. The researchers said larger studies with longer follow-up are needed to determine whether the observed differences persist as children grow.

Diverse and sustained social activities may boost cognition in older age

 

3+ activities, volunteering and sports club membership seem particularly effective

Reports and Proceedings

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Diverse and sustained social activities may boost cognitive performance and slow the decline in brain health associated with ageing, suggest the findings of a large international study, published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

 

Regularly engaging in 3 or more of these activities, and including volunteering and sports club membership among them, seem to be particularly effective at helping to keep minds sharp, the findings indicate.

 

The global prevalence of dementia, which is preceded by cognitive impairment, is estimated to affect nearly 153 million people by 2050, point out the researchers. While several studies have looked at the association between social activities and both cognitive function and dementia, the findings have been inconsistent, they add.

 

This might be down to small sample sizes, limited geographic diversity, and differences in the definitions and measurements used for social activity and cognitive outcomes, they suggest.

 

In a bid to overcome some of these issues, the researchers drew on pooled long term data from 5 nationally representative surveys spanning 24 countries.

 

These surveys were: the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS, waves 10-15, 2010-21); the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA, waves 4-9, 2008-19); the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS, waves 1-4, 2011-18); the Mexican Health and Ageing Study (MHAS, waves 3-5, 2012-18); and the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, waves 4-8, 2011-20).

 

Participants in each wave were asked about the type and number of social activities they engaged in, and their cognitive performance was assessed at each wave using tests of memory and executive function.

 

The test results produced a z score of global cognitive function, with higher z scores indicative of better cognitive performance.

 

In all, 57,793 participants were included in the study. Their average age ranged from 57 to 73, and they were tracked for an average of 6 years.

 

Analysis of the pooled cognitive z-scores showed that those who engaged in social activities had significantly higher scores than those who didn’t, with scores rising in tandem with the number of social activities.

 

Engaging in at least 3 of these seemed to afford the greatest level of protection against impairments in memory and executive function: those who did this had higher yearly  cognitive z-scores during the tracking period than those who engaged in none.

 

Volunteering and sports club membership were associated with a lower risk of cognitive decline across all 5 groups, while attending training courses and taking care of children were significantly associated with higher cognitive z-scores year on year.

 

But active involvement in political, community, church, and religious groups wasn’t consistently associated with cognitive enhancement.

 

Further analysis indicated that the positive associations between social activities and cognitive function were stronger among women, those aged 60+, those with higher levels of education, those who weren’t depressed, those who lived alone, those of normal weight, those living in rural areas, and those who smoked and/or drank alcohol.

 

This is an observational study, so can’t establish cause and effect. And the researchers acknowledge various limitations to their findings. These include the lack of standardisation across the 5 surveys, only partial adjustment for potentially influential factors, and the focus on the quantity of social activities, to the exclusion of quality, motivation, and experience, all of which may be equally important, they suggest.

 

It’s not entirely clear how social activities might protect against cognitive decline, but there are several plausible explanations, say the researchers.

 

These include the ‘use it or lose it’ hypothesis, which proposes that sustained engagement in cognitively stimulating activities may enhance neural plasticity and strengthen synaptic connections.

 

 A higher level of education is also thought to enhance neural efficiency and compensatory capacity, increasing resilience to the neuropathological changes associated with ageing, while participation in meaningful social activities may promote psychological wellbeing. This in turn may modulate neuroendocrine function and lessen the detrimental effects of chronic stress on hippocampal structure and function, say the researchers.

 

“Collectively, these findings suggest that social activities may operate as a multidimensional protective factor against cognitive deterioration in older adults,” they write.

 

“These results underscore the importance of developing and implementing targeted interventions aimed at promoting diverse and sustained social engagement among older adults as a viable strategy to mitigate the risk of age-related cognitive decline,” they conclude.

Children's caffeine habits linked to shorter sleep and brain differences

 

• Young people aged 9 to 11 who consumed more caffeine had slightly lower surface area across the brain's outer layer 

• Children who had more caffeine also slept less, and this shorter sleep was linked to brain differences, and ultimately mental health 

• Children with higher caffeine intake reported more mental health problems six months later 

• Associations between caffeine consumption and brain structure emerged as low as 1 cup per week 

Young people who consume more caffeine, mostly from soft drinks, sleep less and show small differences in how their brains are developing, according to a study led by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London. 

The researchers drew on data from 9,632 children aged nine to eleven taking part in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, which follows the brain development and health of young people across the US. Each child said how many caffeinated drinks they usually had in a week, whether coffee, tea or soft drinks, with parents reporting how long the children usually sleep on average. MRI scans then measured thickness and surface area of the cortex, the brain's folded outer layer, which plays a part in cognitive processing, decision making, attention and emotions, among other important functions. 

The children were then asked to report back on their mental health 6 and 18 months later with the results showing that greater caffeine consumption is associated with lower surface area across the cortex, even after we adjust for household socioeconomic circumstances like parental educational attainment and income. The pattern showed up in 22 separate regions, spanning all four lobes of the brain. These effects were largely driven by the consumption of soft drinks, which were the biggest source of caffeine in the study. Differences in overall surface area showed up from as little as one caffeinated drink a week, compared with none.  

Dr Divyangana Rakesh, senior author of the study from the IoPPN at King’s College London, said:  

“Caffeine is such a normal part of daily life that it's easy to forget young people are consuming it too. Studies have found that two-thirds of adolescents consume caffeine at least once a week. Despite it being a psychoactive substance, it is completely unregulated. 

“We found that even fairly low levels of intake were linked to small differences in brain structure and later mental health, and lower sleep duration seems to be an important underlying link. Although we cannot comment on causality, our results do suggest that both caffeine intake, including from soft drinks, and sleep are worth paying attention to when we think about young people's mental health."  

The researchers then looked at what might connect caffeine to differences in brain structure. Young people who consumed more caffeine slept less, which was in turn linked to lower surface area. Together, shorter sleep and lower surface area partly explained the link between higher caffeine intake and more mental health problems six months later, including problems with attention, mood and behaviour. At 18 months, only the link through overall surface area was still there. 

Jiayi Zheng, first author of the study from the IoPPN at King’s College London, said:  
 
"Soft drinks contain a lot of sugar and often go hand in hand with less healthy lifestyle habits and more risk-taking behaviours, so we can't yet separate the role of caffeine from everything else that comes with them. That's the next question we want to answer, ideally with more precise measures of what young people drink, when they drink it and how well they sleep."  

---

Journal

Biological Psychiatry Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging

DOI

10.1016/j.bpsc.2026.09.011 

Exercise should be prescribed as a core component of cardiovascular care

 

Exercise should be prescribed as a foundational component of cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and treatment, according to a new American College of Cardiology Scientific Statement published today in JACC, its flagship journal. The statement emphasizes that the greatest reduction in cardiovascular risk occurs when sedentary individuals become even modestly more active, and the best exercise prescription is one that is safe, individualized, achievable and sustainable over time.

Low cardiorespiratory fitness is a predictor of future CVD that is on par with traditional cardiovascular risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes; however, exercise prescription is inconsistently integrated into routine cardiovascular care. The scientific statement highlights extensive evidence showing that regular physical activity, structured exercise and cardiorespiratory fitness improve exercise capacity, reduce hospitalization and enhance quality of life.

“The most important message is that some activity is better than none,” Jonathan N. Myers, PhD, a health research scientist with the Palo Alto VA Healthcare system and chair of the statement’s writing committee, said. “Patients do not need to become athletes to improve their cardiovascular health. Small increases in physical activity can produce meaningful benefits, particularly for those who are currently inactive.”

For example, the statement highlights growing evidence that meaningful cardiovascular benefits can be achieved with fewer than 10,000 daily steps. Data suggest that approximately 5,000 to 7,000 steps/day are associated with clinically important improvements and substantial reductions in cardiovascular and all-cause mortality for many adults.

Key recommendations and considerations in the statement include:

• Exercise prescriptions should be individualized based on a patient's cardiovascular condition, functional capacity, symptoms, treatment goals and preferences.
• Resistance training should complement aerobic exercise for most adults.
• Wearable devices and virtual or home-based rehabilitation programs may help support exercise participation and long-term adherence, particularly when combined with structured programs such as cardiac rehabilitation.
• Routine exercise testing is not required before starting exercise for most asymptomatic or clinically stable individuals but can provide valuable information for individualized exercise prescription when clinically appropriate.
• Cardiac rehabilitation remains first-line treatment for many patients with CVD and access should be expanded. While insurance reimbursement remains a barrier to entry for many, individualized exercise prescriptions should be provided to those with known CVD who are unable to participate in formal cardiac rehabilitation.

The authors also call for greater integration of exercise counseling into routine cardiovascular care, expanded access to cardiac rehabilitation and additional research on strategies that improve long-term adherence to physical activity.

“Exercise is one of the most effective therapies available for preventing and managing CVD, yet it remains underutilized in routine care,” Myers said. “This statement provides clinicians with practical tools to help patients safely incorporate exercise into their treatment plans and improve long-term cardiovascular health.”