Latest Health News Today: 8 November 2026

A Chartered Society of Physiotherapy analysis found that 49 percent of NHS trusts in England have no dedicated budget or policy allowing overspending to cover staff on maternity leave. More than one in five trusts said maternity cover did not extend to physiotherapy staff, compared with 9 percent for nursing posts. With women making up about 79 percent of the NHS physiotherapy workforce, the union says the gap risks longer waits for treatment.

New federal loan caps under the Big Beautiful Bill are steering graduate health students toward private lenders. Professional degree programs face a $200,000 federal cap, other graduate programs a $100,000 cap, and new borrowers a $257,500 lifetime limit. SoFi said third quarter student loan originations nearly doubled, while Sallie Mae reported graduate loans up 119 percent year over year.

In the STREAM trial, stopping primary prevention statins in adults over 70 was technically safe over two years for the primary outcome of heart attack, ischemic stroke or death. Yet cardiovascular events trended higher without statins, reaching 10.7 percent versus 8.2 percent with continuation. The study found no improvement in pain, falls or sarcopenia, suggesting discontinuation is a decision for each patient.

In a small study of 14 patients, the blood pressure drug baxdrostat kept blood pressure lower for up to two years after treatment stopped. Just under a quarter of the patients came off all hypertension drugs and had completely normal blood pressure. The drug suppresses aldosterone, a hormone that can raise blood pressure in some people with adrenal nodules or tumours. A larger trial is under way to test whether it can cure the condition.

A Nature study of 40 brain scan datasets from up to 2,175 participants found that prefrontal activity did not reliably predict how well people used cognitive reappraisal. The pooled analysis from 32 research groups suggests that brain activation during reappraisal is not the same as measuring how much relief a person gains. The result complicates a popular theory that these regions explain individual differences in emotion regulation.

A study of 82 adults found that people with tinnitus had blood levels of a protein called prestin about 50 percent higher than those without the condition. The research, published in Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, suggests the ear protein could be a biomarker for the ringing condition. Because tinnitus has lacked an objective test, the finding may help diagnose and manage it, though the small study does not prove causation.

Cancer treatment can bring on menopause temporarily or permanently through chemotherapy, pelvic radiotherapy, stem cell transplantation or surgery. A breast cancer patient says her surgery forced her to stop hormone replacement therapy and her menopause symptoms returned. The Department of Health and Social Care said its National Cancer Plan will build long-term effects, including menopause, into ongoing care.

Scientists from the US and Canada described Infernogallus jamesi, a turkey-sized dinosaur that lived alongside Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops. Based on five specimens, the new species appears to have been one of the first known fruit-eating dinosaurs. Its curved beak, weak bite, forward-backward jaw muscles and ridged palate suggest it mashed soft foods rather than cracking nuts or grinding fibrous plants.

Researchers from the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases analyzed data from 6,470 adults aged 30 and over, comparing adherence to 10 diet guidelines with blood biomarkers of biological age. Healthier eating was associated with slower biological aging across all diets studied. The diets included Mediterranean, Nordic, DASH, MIND, AHEI-2010, plant-based diet indices, EAT-Lancet, and two indices for unhealthy eating.

Evidence suggests humans are still evolving, with changes visible in physiology such as skin, eyes, blood and gut. Gene variants for lactose tolerance spread after some populations began milking cows, and today 30 to 35 percent of the global adult population can tolerate lactose. In the Andes, researchers found Quechua people with highland Indigenous Andean ancestry are better equipped for starch digestion, likely shaped by potato cultivation.