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05.23.25

By now, you've probably heard that former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer. The news has sparked a lot of questions from you all about this disease, especially when it comes to screening. I’ll get to that below, but first, here are the week’s top health stories.

— Sanjay

First MAHA health report calls for reassessing medicines, processed foods, pesticides

Poor diet, environmental toxins, unhealthy habits and pharmaceuticals are contributing to a national rise in chronic illnesses, particularly among children, top Trump officials said in a new report that lays the groundwork for a “Make America Healthy Again” overhaul of government policy.

The panel recommends that federal agencies reassess the nation’s childhood vaccine schedule, scrutinize ultraprocessed foods, and study pesticides widely used in commercial farming.

Even before its release, farmers, food manufacturers and some Republican lawmakers were raising concerns about the report’s implications for the American food supply. Autism advocates and researchers have also railed against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s suggestions that rates of autism spectrum disorders are booming due to environmental and pharmaceutical factors. The report suggests links between autism and food dyes or environmental toxins but does not discuss Kennedy’s previous claims that there is a link between vaccines and autism.

It is also not clear how much the report’s broad recommendations to launch studies on nutritious food, vaccines and environmental exposures will cost.

FDA may limit future Covid-19 shots to older people and those at risk of serious infection

The US Food and Drug Administration is changing the way it approves Covid-19 vaccines for Americans, a move that may limit future shots to older Americans and people at higher risk of serious Covid-19 infection.

The agency is changing the type of evidence it will accept from vaccine manufacturers to approve updated Covid-19 shots.

The change means the updated shots will probably be available this fall for adults 65 and older and those with underlying conditions that may put them at higher risk of a severe Covid-19 infection. Nearly three-quarters of Americans 6 months and older have at least one of these underlying medical conditions, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the shots may not be available for everyone who was previously eligible, including millions of otherwise healthy adults and children.

WATCH: The Trump administration just cut funding for two of the largest ongoing nutrition studies in its battle with Harvard, even as the MAHA Commission says more research is needed. CNN's Meg Tirrell tours Dr. Walter Willett's facility, which is on the verge of losing research that will take decades to recreate.

FDA greenlights first blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease in the US

The FDA has given marketing clearance to a blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, making the test the first to get signoff to aid in the early detection of the disease in the United States.

The test is for adults 55 and older who are showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease. It works by measuring two proteins in blood plasma that tend to correlate with amyloid plaques in the brain, which are among the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease.

There remains no single test to diagnose Alzheimer’s. The results of the newly cleared blood test must be assessed in conjunction with other clinical information, which may include a patient’s medical history, neurological exams, cognitive and functional evaluations, brain imaging, spinal fluid analysis and blood tests.

Ice cream and thousands of foods with emulsifiers may upset your gut health

It’s a marvel of food technology: ice cream that resists melting.

In a video explaining the science behind it, a seller of food chemicals shows scoops of ice cream holding their shape under hot lights. The super ingredient: polysorbate 80, an emulsifier, a chemical used to control the consistency of thousands of supermarket products. Other widely used emulsifiers or stabilizers include carboxymethyl cellulose, carrageenan and maltodextrin.

Recently, such ingredients have been showing up in scientific studies for another reason: Researchers say they may cause a variety of health problems.

Studies have found that emulsifiers can alter the mix of bacteria in the gut, known as the microbiome or microbiota; damage the lining of the gastrointestinal tract; and trigger inflammation, potentially contributing to problems elsewhere in the body.

2025’s safest sunscreens for you and your family

But wait, there's more!

• Kennedy said a ‘team’ is in Milwaukee to help with lead contamination. The city says that’s not true

• FDA crackdown on off-brand Ozempic products set to take effect, threatening supply and access for many

• Popular injected weight loss medications work better for one sex. Researchers want to know why  
• The US hasn’t seen a human bird flu case in 3 months. Experts are wondering why 
• Is it healthy to skip your period on birth control? A medical expert weighs in

WATCH: Former President Joe Biden is one of the latest high-profile public figures to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Dr. Sanjay Gupta answers your questions about the disease.

Chasing Life

From Dr. Sanjay Gupta — 

One big question that has come up after the news about former President Joe Biden’s new prostate cancer diagnosis is why it wasn’t spotted sooner.

About 300,000 people are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the US every year. And about 5% to 7% of them, the first time they’re diagnosed, will be diagnosed with a more aggressive form of cancer, like Biden was.

Part of the reason is that screening recommendations for prostate cancer are actually pretty nuanced.

One screening tool is a test that checks for levels of a protein called prostate-specific antigen, or PSA.

Although it can be useful, it’s by no means perfect. To give you a little bit of context, only about 25% of men who have a biopsy because the test finds elevated PSA levels actually end up having prostate cancer.

The risk of unnecessary treatments, plus the fact that the majority of prostate cancers are slow-growing, is why the US Preventive Services Task Force doesn’t recommend screening for men 70 and older (Biden is 82 years old and had his last known PSA test in 2014).

The American Cancer Society has even more nuanced guidelines that take risk factors into account (I talk about this in the video above).

Beyond screening, a lot of people want to know if there's anything else you can do to reduce your risk of prostate cancer, especially when it comes to diet.  

Although studies about the effects of food on cancer risk are hard to do, there is some science to show that folate seems to be beneficial when it comes to reducing your risk of prostate cancer.

Foods like raw spinach, broccoli and black-eyed peas are good sources of folate.

Folate from food is really what you’re looking for here — not from folic acid supplements, which are often seen as a substitute for folate.

In fact, some studies have found that folic acid actually increases your risk, and that could be because you’re not eating folate, thinking you’re getting everything you need with folic acid. The point is, it’s best to get it from real food.

I hope this helps answer some of your questions.

Can you maintain good health into your 80s and beyond? Cardiologist Dr. Eric Topol says yes. He joins Dr. Sanjay Gupta explain why preventing the onset of major diseases is key to extending your life and health-span. And he shares the new screening tools that might help us do it.

CNN Health's The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows up in your

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