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A popular diabetes drug sometimes taken to slow aging may diminish some of the expected health benefits of aerobic exercise in healthy older adults, according to a new report. The drug, metformin, can blunt certain physical changes from exercise that normally help people to age well. The results raise questions about the relationship of pills and physical activity in healthy aging and also whether we know enough about how drugs and exercise interact. The results are particularly disconcerting given that healthy, active people may be considering taking the drug to slow aging. (Reynolds, 6/19)

Preschoolers on government food aid have grown a little less pudgy, a new study found, offering fresh evidence that previous signs of declining childhood obesity rates in the U.S. weren't a fluke. Obesity rates dropped steadily to about 14% in 2016 — the latest data available — from 16% in 2010, a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. (Tanner, 6/18)

Despite the availability of vaccines, the flu still kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S. each year, and hundreds of thousands more worldwide. But public health officials fear that an even graver threat lies ahead: the emergence of a new, much more deadly flu virus. (Brangham and Wellford, 6/18)

Liquid biopsies have been a long time coming. After more than two decades of research, the first of these blood tests — which can reveal the presence of cancer-causing genetic mutations the way a tissue sample can — has finally been approved for helping physicians make treatment decisions for cancer patients. But the bigger ambition for these tests, being pursued by several dozen companies, is using them to screen people and detect cancer early — before it spreads — by analyzing bits of DNA and other molecules shed by tumor cells. (Chakradhar, 6/19)

A 26-year-old Starbucks barista in the suburbs of Tampa known as Vayne Myers has suffered from anxiety ever since he was a child. A co-worker suggested he try an emotional support animal. So Mr. Myers bought a duck and named it Primadonna. The snow-white bird has worked wonders for his state of mind. “Whenever I felt like I didn’t matter in the world,” he said, Primadonna would waddle over and remind him that “something does love you.” (Stockman, 6/18)

Pot use in pregnancy has doubled among U.S. women and is most common during the first trimester, government research shows. Overall, 7% of pregnant women, or 1 in 14, said they used marijuana in the past month. That's from a nationally representative health survey in 2016-17 and compares with a little over 3% in 2002-03. (Tanner, 6/18)

An online pharmacy told U.S. regulators it found another cancer-causing chemical in widely prescribed blood-pressure pills, raising new questions about a complex global web of companies that produces medicine for millions of people. A solvent called dimethylformamide was discovered in the drug valsartan made by several companies, including Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG, according to a filing last week to the Food and Drug Administration by New Haven, Connecticut-based Valisure. (Edney, 6/18)

Kaiser Health News: Why You Should Take A Peek At Your Doctor’s Notes On Your Health

When Pamela DeSalvo read the clinical note from her doctor’s visit, the words on the page hit her hard: “clinically morbidly obese.” She knew she was overweight, but seeing those three words together shocked her. It also inspired her to start losing weight.“ I needed to see it in black and white, what I actually in my heart already knew. It forced me to get honest with myself,” DeSalvo said.“Reading that note saved my life.” Studies show that, indeed, reading your doctor’s notes can improve your health. (Knight, 6/19)