GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are one of the biggest biotech breakthroughs of the last decade. But to some clinical psychologists, they can represent something more sinister—a potential trigger for eating disorders.

A new report suggests that the global incidence of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa shot up between 1990 and 2023—by a whopping 71%. By 2023, there were an estimated 18.1 million people living with one of these two disorders.

What’s worse is that the number is likely to be much higher than that once we factor in other eating disorders. And, disturbingly, those in the field are already starting to see GLP-1 weight-loss drugs exacerbating the issue.

Cheri Levinson is a clinical psychologist at the University of Louisville in Kentucky who has specialized in eating disorders for almost 20 years. She says she’s now seeing more patients with more severe symptoms than at any other time in her career, and that many of them are misusing GLP-1s. “This is the worst I’ve seen things,” she says.

Eating disorders are mental health conditions in which people’s eating behaviors impact their health. They include anorexia nervosa (defined by a fear of weight gain), bulimia nervosa (in which people binge and purge), binge eating disorder, and others.

It’s thought that some people have a genetic predisposition to certain eating disorders, but that some external factor is what triggers their onset. That might be stress, or social pressure to be skinny. Often, simply restricting food intake can trigger an eating disorder, says Levinson.

Eating disorders—along with the pressure to look thin—were already prevalent in the 1990s (the heroin chic era springs to mind). To find out how things might have changed since then, Ruhai Bai at the Children’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University in China and his colleagues pulled together data from studies and surveys conducted on populations around the world. The team used statistical models to fill in any data gaps.

That research allowed the researchers to estimate the annual incidence of two eating disorders—anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa—for each of 204 countries and territories between 1990 and 2023. They also estimated the impact those disorders had on global health by calculating their disability-adjusted life years (one DALY represents a year of healthy life lost).

The findings, published in JAMA Psychiatry on Wednesday, are unsettling. Between 1990 and 2023, there was a 71% increase in the incidence of those two eating disorders, the team found. Those conditions had a huge impact on global health, too. In 2023, they “cost the world the equivalent of about 3.83 million years of healthy life,” says Bai.

Bai and his colleagues expect these figures to continue to rise. In 2023, an estimated 18.1 million people had either anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa; by 2050, the team predict, the two conditions could affect 21.8 million people.

It gets worse. Those two conditions represent less than half of all eating disorders, says Levinson, who was not involved in Bai’s study. The true impact of these disorders is “probably three times the rate that they’re reporting,” she says.

Bai and his colleagues didn’t explore the reasons for this rise (although Bai points out that it can’t be entirely explained by population growth). So how did we get here?

Social media may have played a role. “Social media comparisons, influencers, challenges, diet trends can all be precipitating … events for an eating disorder,” says Cynthia Bulik, a clinical psychologist at the University of North Carolina, who was not involved in the new study. Bulik has been studying and treating eating disorders since the early 1980s. “Between 1990 and 2023 there has clearly been an upsurge of those types of environmental exposures,” she says.

Many social media users are exposed to filtered and modified images of skinny influencers who may have undergone cosmetic surgery or extreme dieting and who are promoting “thinspiration” or “fitspiration” content. But users with eating disorders appear to be more likely to engage with this content—and to be fed more of it as a result.

When researchers at the University of Melbourne investigated this phenomenon a couple of years ago, they found that the algorithms of TikTok users with eating disorders delivered 4343% more “toxic eating disorder videos” than those of users who didn’t have the disorders. They also got more content focused on dieting or exercising. Many were fed over 1000 problematic videos per month. Bulik describes social media as “quicksand” for people with, or at risk of, eating disorders.

The covid-19 pandemic—and the social isolation that accompanied lockdowns—also appears to have contributed to the rise in eating disorders. Research conducted in 2021 found that the number of people hospitalized with eating disorders in the US doubled between 2018 and 2020.

Researchers don’t yet have good data on how trends in eating disorders might have progressed since 2023. But anecdotally, things seem to be getting even worse. “There are more eating disorders, more severe eating disorders… and we’re seeing earlier ages of onset,” says Levinson. “We’re seeing eight- and nine-year-olds with eating disorders.”

“From what I’m hearing and seeing, I am not going to be surprised if that number isn’t at least doubling again,” she adds.

Levinson particularly worries about the impact of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, which have exploded in popularity in recent years. A Gallup survey conducted earlier this year suggested that 15% of Americans had used one of these drugs for weight loss. And they’re becoming more accessible—drug companies are working on new formulations that are both easier to take and more effective, and many people can buy versions of these drugs from compound pharmacies or dubious online sources.

In a small study published earlier this year, Levinson and her colleagues found that 30% of people with eating disorders had used GLP-1 drugs. The drugs might benefit some of those people. But 10% appeared to have misused the drugs. And Levinson thinks that figure is also an underestimate.

Levinson says she and her colleagues have seen children develop eating disorders after being prescribed GLP-1s for medical reasons. They’ve seen others—even children as young as 11—buy versions of these drugs over TikTok.

“We’re very concerned that GLPs will lead to even faster and more extreme weight loss in people with anorexia nervosa, and that patients will come to us in even more advanced stages of illness that become difficult to reverse,” says Bulik.

Both Bulik and Levinson are continuing to study the impacts of these drugs in eating disorders. In the meantime, both urge medical professionals to consider the risks GLP-1s might pose to people with those disorders. Bulik contributed to a set of research and clinical guidelines, published earlier this month, that recommends doctors screen for eating disorders before prescribing the drugs, for example. The guidelines also recommend more patient education and more robust monitoring of people who take GLP-1s.

If you think you or someone you know might have an eating disorder, you can find information and support at the National Eating Disorders Association.

This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.

— Two former Amazon executives who helped build Discovery’s direct-to-consumer operation in Bellevue, Wash., are stepping down from their leadership roles following the company’s acquisition by Paramount Skydance. They will remain in advisory roles during the transition.

Avi Saxena joined Discovery in 2019 as chief technology officer of its direct-to-consumer business and led its new Bellevue office. He became CTO of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) following Discovery’s 2022 merger with AT&T’s WarnerMedia business. Paramount Skydance completed its acquisition of WBD on Oct. 6, with the combined company taking the name Skydance Corporation.

Before joining Discovery, Saxena was with Amazon for 19 years over two stints, most recently as vice president of technology for Amazon Marketplace. He also held leadership roles at Microsoft and internet infrastructure startups.

Tyler Whitworth is stepping down as executive vice president and chief product officer for WBD’s streaming business. He led teams working on digital products for HBO Max, discovery+, Eurosport, TNT Sports, Food Network and others. Before joining Discovery, he spent more than seven years at Amazon, leading teams developing products and services for customers and third-party sellers.

Dane Glasgow, Skydance’s chief product officer, announced the departures of Whitworth, Saxena and WBD Chief Information Officer Dave Duvall in a memo shared with GeekWire.

“Much of the strength of WBD’s product and technology organizations reflects their leadership and dedication. Please join me in thanking them and wishing them the very best,” Glasgow wrote.

The company has not responded to GeekWire’s inquiries about the future of the Bellevue office.

— Bahadir Onalan is returning to Microsoft as a vice president in its CoreAI organization, focused on responsible AI, after nearly 10 years at Amazon. Onalan first joined Microsoft in 2005 and worked on Azure teams focused on search, analytics, business intelligence and security. He left in 2017 as a principal software group engineering manager to join Amazon, where he worked on machine learning initiatives.

“This second tenure feels like a true homecoming,” Onalan wrote. “Our goal goes beyond shipping a platform or a product; we are here to define the global standards for AI safety.”

— Naria Santa Lucia is leaving Microsoft after seven years, most recently as a general manager with Microsoft Elevate. She previously served as executive director of the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship.

“I’ll carry the lessons I learned from my time at Microsoft as I continue my personal and professional mission to serve people and communities by teaching, advising nonprofits and mission driven organizations, and spreading joy and human connection,” Santa Lucia wrote.

She did not announce a specific next role.

— VertueLab, a Pacific Northwest nonprofit supporting climate tech entrepreneurs, has named Leo Ochoa executive director, promoting him from managing director for Oregon. He succeeds Aina Abiodun, who is transitioning to chair of the organization’s board after more than three years as executive director.

“Leo brings a unique blend of vision, relationships, and entrepreneurship experience,” the organization said, noting his background as a wildland firefighter, startup founder and patent holder for wearable safety gear.

Abiodun’s accomplishments include co-creating the Seattle Climate Innovation Hub, launching the Opalene Climate Challenge and helping lead the Just Future Climate Labs initiative.

— Seattle’s Pulse Space has appointed Leah Sardone as vice president of engineering. The startup is developing laser-based systems to deliver power and enable long-distance communications in low Earth orbit and beyond. In July, the company announced a $40 million U.S. Space Force contract to advance its laser-based space power technology.

Sardone brings more than 23 years of experience in hardware, sensors and embedded systems development. She joins Pulse Space from IonQ, where she most recently served as director of quantum networking and interconnects. Her previous employers include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Honeywell Aerospace, Blue Origin and Amazon’s Project Kuiper, now known as Amazon Leo.

— Caravel Bio a Portland, Ore., startup developing technology to rapidly test newly designed proteins, has announced Michał Jastrzębski as its CTO. The company says its platform can screen millions of protein designs in parallel at low cost, helping identify promising candidates for applications in human health, pollution reduction and industrial processes.

Caravel also announced a nearly $1.25 million Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant from the National Science Foundation to further develop the platform.

Jastrzębski previously served as a principal machine learning engineer at Ginkgo Bioworks. His past employers also include GitHub and Intel.

— Darick Baker has been appointed the director the University of Washington’s Washington Nanofabrication Facility, which the UW describes as “the largest publicly accessible nanofabrication facility and cleanroom in the Pacific Northwest.” Baker joined the facility in 2012 as a research engineer and has served as acting director since 2025. He previously worked at the Colorado School of Mines

— Technology Alliance announced that Stoke Space director of communications Kyra Jorgensen has joined its board. Jorgeson recently joined the space startup from the fusion company Helion Energy.

Four years have passed since Bluetooth SIG announced Auracast, and we now have it readily available on the latest Android smartphones. Yet somehow, the average smartphone owner barely uses it. Most folks I know or socialize with haven't even heard of the feature.

Anthropic and OpenAI say they’ve disproved a key tenet of computer science. Researchers are struggling with the fall but also feel like “overexcited bunnies” as they look at new questions to explore.

Anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has unilaterally passed a rule that will allow specialty pharmacies to sell six specific peptide drugs, overruling scientists at the Food and Drug Administration.

The peptides are popular among members of Kennedy's Make America Health Again movement, and many prominent MAHA figures and Kennedy allies sell them. Kennedy said he uses some of the peptides and called himself a "big fan." But FDA scientists continue to say there is insufficient evidence to show if they're effective, and they are potentially dangerous. In 2023, the safety concerns led the FDA to remove the six peptides from a list of drugs that can be made by specialty pharmacies called compounding pharmacies—which make customized formulations of drugs for patients, or, in cases such as this, specialty drugs in bulk.

Kennedy's new rule sidesteps the need to formally undo that FDA action. The rule is titled "Enforcement Discretion Policy Regarding 503A Compounding Using Certain Peptide Bulk Drug Substances" and was made available Wednesday on the Federal Register, with the final publication date set for October 30. The rule does not change the regulatory status of the peptide; instead, it states the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will no longer take enforcement action against compounding pharmacies for making the peptides, essentially giving them a green light to freely produce and sell them. Kennedy had quietly proposed this rule earlier this month.

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Samsung partners with Lark Health to offer eligible US seniors AI diabetes prevention coaching through Samsung Health, with Medicare eligibility restrictions.

The post Samsung Health to Offer Free AI Diabetes Prevention Coaching for Seniors appeared first on TechRepublic.

A Cambridge-led study suggests comets rarely delivered useful quantities of life’s molecular ingredients to early Earth because impacts destroyed them and surviving material wouldn’t have stayed concentrated at the surface for long.

In just 7 days, TechCrunch Founder Summit takes over Boston’s SoWa Power Station on November 4. Your chance to save up to $100 on tickets is running out, and the opportunity to learn and connect directly with experienced founders, investors, and startup leaders is almost here.

Samsung’s upgraded sleep apnea tracking adds breathing disturbance frequency levels, but Wear OS requirements mean some older Galaxy Watches will remain limited to basic alerts when the feature launches in South Korea.

Researchers at IIT Gandhinagar have built a flexible wearable patch that tracks your movements and compares them with expert athletes to help you fix your workout form.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere rose to record highs in 2025, locking in climate impacts that will persist for centuries, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Levels of the three main greenhouse gases -- the climate-warming carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide -- all rose to unprecedented figures in 2025, the U.N.'s weather and climate agency said. The World Meteorological Organization said the rise would lead to more long-term temperature increases for the planet. The bulletin looks at greenhouse gas concentrations -- the amount of those gases in the atmosphere -- rather than new annual emissions amounts as the world burns more coal, oil and gas. In 2025, carbon dioxide concentrations were at 426.8 parts per million (ppm); methane at 1,948 parts per billion, and nitrous oxide at 339.1 parts per billion. That takes them, respectively, to 153%, 267% and 126% of the pre-industrial levels witnessed before 1750. Of the three major greenhouse gases, CO2 accounts for about 66% of the warming effect on the climate. Around half of the total CO2 emitted each year remains in the atmosphere; the rest is absorbed by the land and oceans. From 2024 to 2025, the global average concentration of CO2 rose by 2.8 ppm -- smaller than the record surge from 2023 to 2024 of 3.6 ppm. WMO senior scientific officer Oksana Tarasova said this reflected the "recovery of the land carbon sinks and reduced fire carbon emissions in 2025 after the strong 2023/2024 El Nino," the naturally occurring, climate-warming weather phenomenon. "However, a 2.8 ppm annual increase is still a substantial addition of carbon to the atmosphere from fossil fuel burning." It is also above the average growth rate for the past decade of 2.6 ppm -- a figure that stood at 0.8 ppm in the 1960s. "Another year, another new record," said WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett. "Greenhouse gases are trapping an unprecedented amount of heat in the atmosphere, providing energy for more extreme weather and associated risks to our economies and societies. Further reading: UN Says Breaching 1.5C Warming Limit Is 'Imminent and Unavoidable'

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Since measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, the country's occasional cases have come mainly from international travelers—visitors from far-flung places where the virus still spreads freely—or unvaccinated US residents who return from abroad with a highly infectious souvenir. But as vaccination rates have slipped nationwide in recent years and outbreaks grow bigger and more frequent, domestic travel now poses a greater risk than international incursions.

In a study published this week in NEJM Evidence, Washington state health officials highlight that risk, detailing how an explosive outbreak in South Carolina reached their distant state through five distinct importation events over two weeks in January. In all, the introductions led to 26 cases among residents before officials stamped out the spread.

South Carolina's measles outbreak began on October 2, 2025, and was declared over on April 26, 2026. Officials confirmed 997 cases in the state during the outbreak. At the time, it was the largest measles outbreak recorded since the virus was declared eliminated, but Pennsylvania's ongoing outbreak has since surpassed it.

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Seattle-based Kivo Health today announced $10 million in funding to help increase access to its services, which target older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The Series A round brings the startup’s total funding to more than $16 million.

Kivo ships equipment to patients’ homes and provides a nine-week program of therapist-led, live video sessions focused on exercise, breathing techniques and disease management. The company provides ongoing support following the program and says it uses AI to handle administrative tasks and communicate with patients, supporting its clinicians.

“We’re using the funding to build our AI health coach to blend AI-led care with human-led care,” Dr. Victor Sadauskas, Kivo’s co-founder and CEO, said via email. That pairing, he added, will help patients manage their chronic disease over the long term.

The company has approximately 50 employees, including clinicians.

COPD is an incurable lung disease in which damaged airways and air sacs make breathing difficult and can worsen over time. Common symptoms include shortness of breath, a persistent cough and fatigue. COPD is the third leading cause of death globally and the fifth in the U.S.

However, there are effective treatments to improve the condition, though many patients are not able to easily access care. A study of Medicare beneficiaries with COPD found that only 3.7% received pulmonary rehabilitation in 2012.

Kivo reports that a peer-reviewed study of its program found improvements in participants’ symptoms, physical function and mental health. The company also funded an analysis that estimated its model could reduce annual health care spending by $8,245 per member through fewer hospitalizations, ER visits and time in nursing homes.

Kivo says its program is covered by Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers including UnitedHealthcare, Humana, Blue Cross, Aetna and Priority Health.

“By thoughtfully combining high quality clinical care with AI, we can now scale proactive, accessible care to every senior, improving symptoms and reducing avoidable costs,” Sadauskas said in a statement.

Sadauskas launched Kivo in 2023 with co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Vaughn Koch. Sadauskas previously was an emergency medicine physician for Kaiser Permanente and a senior investment fellow with Life Science Angels. Koch is a serial entrepreneur who sold his startup Movity to Trulia in 2010.

While its current focus is COPD, Kivo aims to expand into other costly chronic conditions affecting older adults.

Allumia Ventures led the round, with participation from Corewell Health Ventures, Y Combinator, Heuristic Capital and MassMutual Ventures.

Windows 11 can share sound between two Bluetooth headphones, but compatible hardware, drivers, and LE Audio support determine whether it works.

The post Windows 11 Can Play Audio on Two Bluetooth Headphones — But Not Every Laptop Supports It appeared first on TechRepublic.

After two months of discomfort, a man in South Korea went to an eye clinic where doctors pulled 11 living, wriggling worms from his eyes. They apparently made the most of their time on the man's peepers; at the time of extraction, many of the female worms were pregnant. The man narrowly avoided having them spew their loads of living larvae directly into his eyes.

The man in this case was a 71-year-old crop farmer. He told doctors that for the previous two months he had the sensation of having something stuck in both his eyes, which were also red and blurry. When ophthalmologists took a look, they quickly saw the problem: multiple mobile, whitish roundworms. His eyes were not in good shape either, as one might expect. The blood vessels in the membrane over the eye, the conjunctiva, were enlarged, making his eyes look red. And the cells of his cornea—the transparent, dome-shaped outer layer of the eye—had eroded, potentially after the helminths' hanky-panky.

According to a case report published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the doctors gave the man a topical treatment to numb his eyes and then began plucking out the worms one by one with fine forceps. They collected 11 adult worms, which ranged in size from 11 to 22 mm.

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WHOOP plans to test whether wearable coaching can help improve blood sugar and blood pressure. See how its Abu Dhabi study could affect future health wearables.

The post WHOOP to Study Wearable Coaching for Blood Sugar and Blood Pressure appeared first on TechRepublic.

Brazil's 80-year-old president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was re-elected Sunday, reports the Guardian, "defeating his far-right opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, to claim a historic fourth term in power." And the results could impact the climate, suggests the Associated Press, since under da Silva the annual deforestation rate in the Amazon fell to its lowest level since records began in 1988: Official satellite data showed the rainforest lost 3,335 square kilometers (1,300 square miles) from Aug. 2025 through July 2026, the period used to calculate the annual rate... During Jair Bolsonaro's presidency, from 2019 to 2022, Amazon deforestation surged by about 60%, with more than 45,000 square kilometers (17,400 square miles) cleared, according to official data. Under Lula, deforestation has fallen 71% since 2023, the government said. One of Lula's first moves after taking office in January 2023 for a third, non-consecutive term was to revive the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon, known by its Portuguese acronym, PPCDAm. Launched in 2004 during his first administration, the plan had been shelved under Bolsonaro.... The plan has four pillars: strengthening monitoring and enforcement; promoting a sustainable economy; managing protected areas and determining how undesignated public forests should be used; and using regulations and financial incentives to curb deforestation. Measures included restoring sanctions for illegal forest clearing detected by satellites, a practice seen as the most effective tool to curb deforestation that was halted under Bolsonaro. The government also proposed barring properties with illegal deforestation from receiving bank loans and allocated more funding to priority Amazon municipalities that demonstrated reductions in forest loss. It also funded efforts to fight environmental crime and develop subsidized credit for sustainable businesses in the Amazon... Deforestation and other land-use changes are Brazil's largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, which drive global warming. The stakes are especially high in the Amazon, which stores vast amounts of carbon dioxide and generates atmospheric moisture that helps regulate weather far beyond South America... Degradation from wildfires, logging and drought affects about 40% of the Amazon and has outpaced clear-cutting in recent years. A strong El Niño, a periodic warming of the equatorial Pacific, could intensify those threats in 2026 and 2027 by bringing hotter, drier conditions that fuel wildfires. The article notes that Lula's reelection campaign promised zero net deforestation by 2030, plus restoration to offset all forest loss, legal or illegal.

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The M-Vave FM-1 is exactly the kind of device I have a weakness for. I may not have an intended use for the frequency-modulation synthesizer, but when a low price meets a high coolness factor, I'm powerless to keep it out of my cart.

Initially billed as a pocket cousin of the famous Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, the FM-1 is a bargain at only $59.72 after fees. At release, it was a cool device that did what it said on the box, but not much else.

But in July, some intrepid tinkerers on Reddit’s r/synthdiy board began reverse-engineering the FM-1's stock firmware to expand the device's abilities. By September, custom firmware began appearing. We're not even through October, and there are already more community firmware projects available to install on the FM-1 than I could ever hope to cover.

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Telephony is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, being able to talk to people in far off places is kind of neat, at least in theory. On the other hand, you’re usually reliant on a centralized network, which isn’t ideal to the mindset of most hackers.[Gautam]’s MeshLive project deals with that last one, offering a decentralized mesh network solution based on Bluetooth for Android phones that can handle both voice and video.

Rather than relying on dedicated hardware, this particular mesh piggybacks on your phone, and exists only as an Android application. Calls are end-to-end encrypted for both voice and video — though two-way video calling is still experimental. More testing has gone into video broadcasting, where a stream goes out one-way. The capability is available for voice, as well.

Each user has a unique identifier that can be scanned to create contacts, but it isn’t otherwise clearly identifiable to everybody. You’ll only appear with a random name that changes every 15 minutes to other users in range who aren’t your contacts. Range is of course the Achilles heel of this project, since it’s using the Bluetooth hardware of ordinary smartphones. It’s possible to extend the range of Bluetooth significantly with the right hardware, but we imagine most folks aren’t carrying directional antennas around with them. While every phone does forward the signal to as many others as it can, it can only do so for about 20 meters.

Of course LoRa remains the protocol of choice for mesh networking, though it’s normally used for text messages only. We have seen voice packets over LoRa, but anything LoRa requires dedicated hardware while this only requires an app.

These elusive and reactive particles have been challenging to hold on to and even more challenging to study, but a new method paves the way for tests on the differences between matter and antimatter.