Editor’s note –
September 2026

About time: the studies that should have been done long ago

This issue is full of phrases along the lines of “In the first study of its kind…”

It’s amazing just how much we still don’t know about, well, everything.

And it’s surprising how many studies are emerging that really should have been done before.

A big “for instance” to start with.

Our cover story.

Believe it or not, the weight loss jabs that “everyone” seems to be on these days have NEVER been studied for the long-term unwanted nutritional side-effects they might cause. Enter Institute for Optimum Nutrition student – yes student – Neetha Lobo, who ran the FIRST study to find out  what GLP-1 patients are actually eating while their appetite is switched off, assessing macro- and micronutrient intake measured against UK Dietary Reference Values.

Now a fully-fledged BSc (Hons) Nutritional Therapy graduate, Neetha agreed to write this up in IHCAN style for us: you can read her worrying findings starting on page 54.

At the other end of the scale, you would think the CDC (America’s much-vaunted Centres for Disease Control) would have a handle on the nutritional status of its citizens, given that it has been running NHANES – the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey – since the early 1960s. But no. The CDC has only just run the FIRST direct measurement of the Omega-3 Index, providing the first accurate assessment of omega-3 status in US history. UK numbers for omega-3s have always mirrored America’s, so we should be very worried that omega-3 levels are way too low in a staggering 98% of Americans (page 6).

Another one, from the University of South Australia (page 20). The FIRST study to investigate the 9 most common medications used in aged care facilities – often simultaneously –  for their unwanted effects on the immune system. Turns out these drugs – including over-the-counter painkillers dished out like sweets – help bacteria outsmart antibiotics, making infections harder to treat and contributing to antibiotic resistance.

What about the dreaded peanut allergy? At Boston’s Children’s Hospital they’ve finally got around to seeing if the microbiome might have some answers. Using faecal “transplant” from a healthy donor without food allergies they were able to dramatically tone down allergic reactions. The researchers’ comment: “This landmark study was the first to demonstrate that a microbiome-based therapy may improve food allergy in people, while also revealing how gut bacteria, their metabolites, and the immune system work together to influence treatment response”. Did no one seriously never think of this before?

And finally, you can forget what you thought you knew about the blood-brain “barrier”. “We usually think of the brain as a closed system”, said Julia Belk, a Stanford postdoctoral scholar in pathology. In another first: “What we found is that actually a lot of immune cells enter the human brain during ageing” (page 19)…