Brassica vegetables, including broccoli, kale, cabbage, are rich in health-promoting compounds

 Brassica vegetables, including broccoli, kale, cabbage, and mustard greens, are rich in health-promoting compounds but remain underutilized in global diets. These crops contain a wide range of phytonutrients—such as glucosinolates, vitamins, carotenoids, phenolics, and essential minerals—that can reduce risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic conditions.

Common types

• Arugula: A peppery-flavored, delicate-leafed green that is often used as a salad base or topping for pizzas.
• Bok choy: A type of Chinese cabbage with a mild, fresh flavor, ideal for stir-fries and steaming.
• Broccoli: An edible plant with a flowering green or purple head that can be eaten raw, steamed, or roasted.
• Brussels sprouts: These mini cabbages are a popular seasonal vegetable that can be roasted or sautéed.
• Cabbage: A leafy green, red, or white vegetable known for its dense head. Varieties include Napa, Savoy, and green cabbage.
• Cauliflower: Best known for its edible white head, which can be roasted, pureed, or cut into "steaks".
• Collard greens: A staple in Southern cooking, these have large leaves with a bitter flavor. They are often braised or used for wraps.
• Horseradish: The root of this plant is known for its strong, pungent heat and is often used as a seasoning.
• Kale: This versatile leafy green comes in several varieties and can be used in salads, smoothies, or roasted into chips.
• Kohlrabi: Known as the "German turnip," its flavor and texture are similar to a broccoli stem.
• Mustard greens: These peppery greens are used in both Asian and Southern cuisines and can be eaten raw or cooked.
• Radishes: These fast-growing roots add a cool, crisp crunch and a hint of spice to crudités and salads.
• Rutabaga: A root vegetable that is larger and sweeter than a turnip. It can be roasted or mashed.
• Turnip: A hearty root vegetable with a hint of heat that can be cooked in various ways, including raw in salads or roasted.
• Wasabi: The root is known for its intense, sinus-clearing heat and is often made into a paste.
• Watercress: An aquatic leafy green with a peppery flavor that can be used in salads and stir-fries. 

Nutritional and health benefits

Brassica vegetables are known for being nutrient-dense. 

• Vitamins and minerals: They are rich in vitamins A, C, E, and K, as well as folate and minerals like calcium, potassium, and iron.
• Fiber: Many brassicas are a great source of fiber, which helps support a healthy digestive system and reduces the risk of bowel cancer.
• Antioxidants: The vegetables contain high levels of antioxidants, such as vitamin C and carotenoids, which help protect cells from damage.
• Anti-inflammatory properties: The vitamin K found in brassicas like kale and collards helps regulate inflammatory responses in the body.
• Potential cancer-fighting properties: Brassicas contain compounds called glucosinolates, which may help reduce the risk of certain cancers, including breast, colon, and prostate cancer. 

How to prepare brassica vegetables

Brassicas are versatile and can be cooked in many ways. 

• Roasting: Roasting brings out a natural sweetness and can be used for Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and rutabaga.
• Steaming: Steaming is a quick, gentle method to cook vegetables like broccoli, bok choy, and young turnips.
• Sautéing and stir-frying: For a fast, flavorful side dish, sauté or stir-fry vegetables like cabbage, kale, and mustard greens.
• Raw: Many brassicas, such as arugula, radishes, and kale, can be enjoyed raw in salads.
• Braising: This method works well for denser brassicas like cabbage and collard greens, making them tender and flavorful. 

Prostate testing may not target those most likely to benefit,

Current prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing “may not effectively target testing to those most likely to benefit, raising concerns about overtesting” warn researchers  from the University of Oxford in a study of over 10 million men across England published by The BMJ today.

Despite UK recommendations to limit PSA testing to patients with symptoms or after discussion with a GP, the results show that many patients are tested more frequently than recommended and repeat testing is occurring in patients without recorded symptoms or with previous low PSA values.

The authors say the findings reflect a lack of consistent international guidance and note that “unpredictable surges in PSA testing, overtesting, and associated costs” may occur as a result of celebrities publicly sharing their cancer diagnoses and advocating for screening.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK, but PSA testing is only routinely recommended for men with certain symptoms. PSA testing generally remains controversial because it has led to an increased number of healthy men being diagnosed and treated unnecessarily for harmless tumours.

Researchers therefore wanted to better understand how PSA tests are used in primary care in England before prostate cancer is diagnosed.

To do this, they drew on data for 10,235,805 men aged 18 and over who were registered at 1,442 general practices across England between 2000 and 2018 and did not have a prostate cancer diagnosis before entering the study.

Data were linked to the National Cancer Registry, Hospital Episode Statistics, and Office for National Statistics and results were analysed by region, deprivation, age, ethnicity, family history of prostate cancer, symptom presentation, and PSA value.

A total of 1,521,116 men had at least one PSA test during the study period, resulting in 3,835,440 PSA tests overall. 

Testing increased fivefold during the study period, particularly in men without symptoms and those with PSA values below recommended thresholds. 

The highest testing rates occurred in men aged 70 and older, who are least likely to benefit from repeat testing, and a substantial portion occurred in men much younger (18-39 years) than recommended.

Testing rates varied by region, deprivation, ethnicity, family history, age, PSA value, and symptoms, with highest rates seen in patients of white ethnicity and in less deprived areas.

Almost half of men (735,750) were retested. Of these, more than 75% had no symptoms recorded and 73% never had a PSA value above the recommended threshold.

The average interval between tests was just over 12 months overall and 17 months for patients who never had a PSA value above the recommended threshold (shorter than most guidelines advise). Once tested, patients had shorter retesting intervals if they were older, belonged to any ethnic group other than white, had a family history of prostate cancer, or had a previously raised PSA value.

The authors acknowledge that using routinely collected primary care data has limitations, and that analyses of retesting intervals were limited to patients with at least two PSA tests during follow-up, raising the possibility of bias. However, they say they comprehensively analysed PSA testing and length of retesting intervals, and results were consistent after further analyses, suggesting they are robust.

As such, they conclude: “PSA testing in primary care is varied. Among patients who underwent multiple tests, many were tested more frequently than recommended, raising concerns about overtesting. PSA retesting is occurring in patients without recorded symptoms or with previous low PSA values.”

“To ensure maximum patient benefit while reducing the risk of overtesting, research is urgently needed to determine appropriate evidence based PSA retesting intervals,” they add.

The major concern raised in this study and similar studies “is that unregulated PSA testing will result in large costs and harms and increase the incidence of prostate cancer likely to remain undetected, while doing little to identify prostate cancer most likely to cause symptoms and death,” say Dr Juan Franco and colleagues in a linked editorial.

They welcome the European Commission’s interest in population based cancer screening including prostate cancer, but say efforts need grounding in high quality evidence gleaned from randomised trials.

This study “highlights the need for better NICE guidance, especially in men outside of recommended ages or men with lower urinary tract symptoms, erectile dysfunction, or other conditions unrelated to prostate cancer,” they conclude. 

---

Journal

The BMJ

DOI

10.1136/bmj-2024-083800 

Exercise snacks may boost cardiorespiratory fitness of physically inactive adults

 Exercise snacks—intentional short bursts of physical activity—may be an effective way of boosting the cardiorespiratory fitness of physically inactive adults, finds a synthesis of the available research, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

 

Adherence to exercise snacking throughout the day was high, the findings indicate, and this approach could counter perceived lack of time and low motivation—frequently cited barriers to fulfilling the recommended weekly quota of physical activity for health—say the researchers.

 

Globally, around a third of adults, and 80% of teens, fail to meet the recommended physical activity levels of 300 minutes/week of moderate, or 75–150 minutes/week of vigorous, intensity physical activity, note the researchers.

 

A growing body of evidence indicates that exercise snacks, such as stair climbing or weights, have the potential to improve health and counter the deleterious effects of prolonged sitting. But most of these studies have relied on quasi-experimental designs or qualitative analyses, they add. 

 

To fill this gap, the researchers set out to evaluate the effects of exercise snacks on cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular endurance, and cardiometabolic factors, such as blood fats and body fat distribution, to see if this might be a practical and scalable approach to curbing physical inactivity and its associated effects on health. 

 

They scoured research databases for relevant clinical trials published up to April 2025, and found 11 from Australia, Canada, China and the UK that were suitable for pooled data analysis. These involved a total of 414 sedentary or physically inactive adults, over two thirds of whom (69%) were women. 

 

Exercise snacks were defined as bursts of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity lasting 5 minutes or less, excluding warm-up, cool-down, and intermediate recovery periods, and done at least twice a day for between 3 and 7 days a week for 4 to 12 weeks. 

 

They mainly consisted of stair climbing, either as continuous bouts or at repeated intervals, for young and middle aged adults. Leg focused strength exercises and tai chi were the dominant forms among older adults.

 

Synthesis of the data showed that exercise snacking significantly improved cardiorespiratory fitness in adults (moderate certainty of evidence), although the evidence in support of its impact on muscular endurance in older adults (69-74 year olds) was limited.

 

Nor was exercise snacking associated with any significant effects on leg strength or cardiometabolic factors, including body composition, blood pressure, and blood fat profiles.

 

But compliance was high, at 91%, as was the ability to stick with the programme (83%), highlighting the potential feasibility and acceptability of this approach in real world unsupervised settings, suggest the researchers.

 

They acknowledge various limitations to their findings, chief among which was the limited number of studies with limited sample sizes included in their data synthesis. The study design and methodology of the included studies also varied considerably. 

 

Nevertheless, they conclude: “The time efficient nature of exercise snacks may help overcome common barriers to physical activity, such as perceived lack of time and low motivation. 

 

“Exercise snacks may enhance adherence to regular physical activity by providing short, flexible exercise bouts that are easier to integrate into daily routines.”

Two in three people with chronic pain turn to comfort eating

 

More than two-thirds of people living with chronic pain reach for chocolate or other comfort foods to cope, with new research showing that eating offers pleasure, distraction and relief from negative emotions during pain flare-ups.

One in five people worldwide lives with chronic pain (pain lasting three months or more), making it a major public health issue. Comfort eating is a common response to pain, but this can lead to weight gain, which in turn can worsen pain and increase the risk of further health problems.

Professor Toby Newton-John, Head of the Graduate School of Health at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) says understanding the psychology behind comfort eating is crucial for developing effective pain management strategies, and preventing a negative cycle.

“People who live with pain every day need to find ways of coping. We think about medication, physiotherapy or heat packs as pain management strategies, but we don’t usually think about food in the same way. Yet two-thirds of our sample said they turned to food at least once a fortnight when pain flared.”

The study, Eating to Feel Better: The Role of Comfort Eating in Chronic Pain, was published in the September issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, with co-authors Claudia Roche, Dr Amy Burton and Professor Newton-John.

The researchers surveyed 141 adults with chronic pain about why they reach for food when pain flares. The results showed the main reason for pain-induced comfort eating was ‘to have a pleasant experience’ (51.8%), followed by ‘distraction’ (49.6%) and ‘to reduce emotions’ (39%).

“That was the somewhat unexpected finding,” says Dr Burton, a lecturer in clinical psychology at the UTS Graduate School of Health.

“Comfort eating wasn’t just for the purpose of distraction or numbing negative feelings, although those were important too. For many, eating comfort foods provided a nice experience in their day and something to look forward to. If you’re living with pain all the time, that moment of pleasure becomes a pretty powerful motivator.

“There may also be a biological explanation. Research shows high-calorie foods can have a mild pain-relieving effect. Even in animal studies, rats in pain will seek out sugar. It seems it’s not just psychological. It's possible that there is a real analgesic property to these foods as well,” she says.

However, the comfort comes at a cost. Almost 40 per cent of participants in the study met the criteria for obesity, and Professor Newton-John warns that food-driven relief can become part of a vicious cycle, where each condition exacerbates the other.

“In the short-term, high-calorie food makes people feel better. It reduces pain symptoms and enhances pain tolerance. Long-term, it can fuel weight gain and inflammation, which increases pressure on joints and makes pain worse; and that can trap people in a spiral that’s very hard to break.”

Pain management programs usually focus on medication use and physiotherapy techniques. This research suggests a need to integrate dietary advice into pain management programs to offer alternatives to food coping mechanisms.

“We usually teach skills like relaxation, stretching exercises or how to pace activities, but we rarely talk about food in this context,” Professor Newton-John says. “This work shows we need to help people recognise if they’re using food as a pain-management tool and give them alternatives.”

At the same time, Professor Newton-John stresses the findings should not be used to blame people living with chronic pain for being tempted by a short-term fix.

“Managing daily pain is incredibly tough, and medication often only goes so far. It’s understandable that people reach for something that feels good. But awareness is key, both for clinicians and for patients, to escape this cycle.”

---

Lidocaine poisonings rise despite overall drop in local anesthetic toxicity

 

Over the last decade, poisonings and deaths linked to the use of local anesthetics have decreased. Even so, poisonings from one commonly used anesthetic, lidocaine, have increased in the United States, according to two new studies from the University of Illinois Chicago.

By analyzing data from reports to national Poison Control Centers and to the Food and Drug Administration from 2010 to 2020, UIC researchers found total reports of poisonings fell 50% in that period. But poisonings from lidocaine increased more than 50% in less than half that time, between 2016 and 2020. The findings are published in Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine and the British Journal of Anesthesia.

Local anesthetics, including lidocaine, are widely used in medical care to manage pain before, during and after surgical procedures. General anesthesia acts everywhere in the body and puts patients in a sleep-like state. Local anesthesia controls pain and immobilizes a specific region of the body while a patient remains conscious.

Local anesthetics numb an area of the body by blocking nerve signals, explained Dr. Michael Fettiplace, an assistant professor in the anesthesiology department in the College of Medicine. “They’re incredibly useful drugs, and second to opioids, local anesthetics are the No. 2 pain control tool that we have.”

Today, lidocaine is “undoubtedly the most frequently used local anesthetic,” Fettiplace said. Its applications are numerous: to numb an area of skin before getting stitches, to prevent arrhythmias and to coat the throat in preparation for an upper endoscopy, for example. Lidocaine is also available over the counter in topical patches and creams marketed to soothe sore backs and hemorrhoid pain, for instance.

Like all drugs, lidocaine and other local anesthetics carry both benefits and risks. After administration, blood vessels absorb and transport local anesthetics to the liver, where they are processed and detoxified. But if a patient gets too much of the drug, extreme blocking of nerve channels can progress to seizures, lethal arrythmias or cardiac arrest, a phenomenon known as local anesthetic systemic toxicity.

In 1998, UIC anesthesiologist and professor Dr. Guy Weinberg discovered that an intravenous treatment called lipid emulsion could treat the issue. “This was a revolution in the anesthesia field,” Fettiplace said. “All of a sudden, patients who arrested and died of local anesthetic systemic toxicity now had a treatment which, in many anecdotal cases, rapidly alleviated the toxic symptoms and prevented deaths.”

In 2010, several professional societies in the United States and the United Kingdom developed recommendations to identify, prevent and treat poisonings from local anesthetics, with the use of lipid emulsions at their center. A decade later, Fettiplace and his colleagues set out to see how these advisories have affected reported poisonings and deaths associated with the drugs.

The researchers analyzed reports submitted to the National Poison Data System, the database of all 53 Poison Control Centers in the United States, and to the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System, a database of similar reports collected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Through their analyses, they found fatalities mostly occur when the lidocaine is delivered either by vein or to coat the throat, and almost always when given at extremely high doses, sometimes as much as four times the upper limit, Fettiplace said.

This issue is compounded by the availability of high-dose delivery methods and the potential for accidental overdose by emergency medical personnel. The authors suggest that enhanced education and updated recommendations could mitigate these risks, as recommendations have been successful in decreasing overall poisonings and deaths from anesthesia.

The local anesthesia advisories and the surrounding changes in the science had an instrumental impact, Fettiplace said. “The data indicates that there’s been a reduction either in the number of events or the number of adverse outcomes by about 50% over the past 15 years,” he said.

Still, the rise in lidocaine-related poisonings signals that current safeguards may not be enough. Fettiplace and his colleagues believe that new, more targeted recommendations could further reduce harm.

“We think if we have updated advisories that are more targeted to some of the problems that we see occurring now, those may have impacts 10 years down the line,” he said.

Artificially sweetened and sugary drinks are both associated with an increased risk of liver disease

A major new study reveals that both sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and low- or non-sugar-sweetened beverages (LNSSBs) are significantly associated with a higher risk of developing metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).1

The study, presented today at UEG Week 2025, followed 123,788 UK Biobank participants without liver disease at baseline. Beverage consumption was assessed using repeated 24-hour dietary questionnaires. Researchers examined the associations between SSB and LNSSB intake and the risks of developing MASLD, liver fat accumulation and liver-related mortality.

A higher intake of both LNSSBs and SSBs (>250g per day) was associated with a 60% (HR: 1.599) and 50% (HR: 1.469) elevated risk of developing MASLD, respectively. Over the median 10.3-year follow-up, 1,178 participants developed MASLD and 108 died from liver-related causes. While no significant association was observed for SSBs, LNSSB consumption was additionally linked to a higher risk of liver-related mortality. Both beverage types were also positively associated with higher liver fat content.

MASLD, formally known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), is a condition where fat accumulates in the liver, which overtime can cause inflammation (hepatitis) and symptoms such as pain, fatigue and loss of appetite.2 The disease has emerged as a global health burden since being recognised as the most common chronic liver disease, with experts estimating that it affects over 30% of people worldwide and is a rapidly increasing cause of liver-related deaths.3

Lead author of the study, Lihe Liu, commented, “SSBs have long been under scrutiny, while their ‘diet’ alternatives are often seen as the healthier choice. Both, however, are widely consumed and their effects on liver health have not been well understood.”

“Our study shows that LNSSBs were actually linked to a higher risk of MASLD, even at modest intake levels such as a single can per day. These findings challenge the common perception that these drinks are harmless and highlight the need to reconsider their role in diet and liver health, especially as MASLD emerges as a global health concern.”

Liu noted the potential biological mechanisms that may underlie the observed risks, “The higher sugar content in SSBs can cause rapid spikes in blood glucose and insulin, promote weight gain and increase uric acid levels, all of which contribute to liver fat accumulation. LNSSBs, on the other hand, may affect liver health by altering the gut microbiome, disrupting the feeling of fullness, driving sweet cravings and even stimulating insulin secretion.”

The authors emphasised that these findings support limiting both SSBs and LNSSBs as part of a comprehensive prevention strategy, targeting not only liver disease but also cardio-renal-metabolic health. Replacing either beverage with water significantly reduced MASLD risk – by 12.8% for SSBs and 15.2% for LNSSBs – while substitution between the two types of beverages offered no risk reduction.

Liu added, “The safest approach is to limit both sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened drinks. Water remains the best choice as it removes the metabolic burden and prevents fat accumulation in the liver, whilst hydrating the body.”

The researchers now aim to explore causal mechanisms more deeply through long-term, randomised and genetic trials with a focus on how sugar and its substitutes interact with the gut microbiome and influence liver disease.

 

Short-course radiation therapy after prostate surgery helps keep cancer from returning

 

After four years, local recurrences were rare, side effects were low and outcomes compared favorably with conventional radiation approaches

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences

FacebookXLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

FINDINGS

A study led by UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center investigators found that stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), a form of high-dose radiation delivered in just five sessions, after prostate surgery is safe and as effective as traditional, longer courses of radiation in preventing prostate cancer from returning.

After more than four years of follow-up, researchers found:

• 60% of patients remained free of biochemical recurrence, meaning there were no signs of cancer or rise in PSA, and no need for additional hormone therapy.  
• SBRT without hormone therapy lowered the risk of recurrence compared to conventional radiation.
• Side effects were generally manageable. Serious bowel problems occurred in 7% of patients, and urinary issues in 32%. Using MRI-guided radiation helped reduce urinary side effects even further.
• Most patients maintained their quality of life, with minimal changes in urinary, bowel and sexual health. 

BACKGROUND

After prostate surgery, some men remain at risk of their cancer coming back. Radiation therapy can lower this risk, but the standard approach usually involves daily treatments for several weeks, which can be burdensome for patients. Researchers have been exploring whether SBRT, already a proven option for men who have not had surgery, could also be safe and effective in the post-surgery setting. Its use has been limited, however, because of concerns about safety and the sensitivity of nearby organs.

METHOD

The SCIMITAR Phase 2 trial enrolled 100 patients at UCLA and the University of Southern California who had undergone a radical prostatectomy and were considered at higher risk of recurrence. Patients received SBRT in five sessions over roughly 10 days, with some also receiving hormone therapy or lymph node radiation based on physician guidance. Patients were then monitored for about 4.5 years for cancer recurrence, side effects and quality of life.

IMPACT

These results build on earlier findings, which showed SBRT is safe and convenient over a two-year period. Together, the studies suggest that SBRT may be a faster, simpler option for men who need radiation after prostate surgery.

“These findings suggest this faster treatment approach could offer an alternative to conventional, longer radiation courses for men at risk of recurrent prostate cancer,” said co-first author Dr. Amar Kishan, professor and executive vice chair of radiation oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and co-director of the cancer molecular imaging, nanotechnology and theranostics program at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Importantly, side effects were manageable in a majority of men, particularly with MRI-guided treatment, and most men were able to maintain their quality of life.”