Environmental Health Risks

• Blood levels of PFAS (“forever chemicals”) were linked to about a 31 % increased future risk of type 2 diabetes.
  

• The study compared 180 newly diagnosed diabetes cases with 180 matched non‑diabetic controls from Mount Sinai’s BioMe cohort.
  

• Metabolic disruptions in amino-acid and drug-processing pathways may offer clues to how PFAS interfere with blood sugar regulation.
  

Per‑ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or “forever chemicals,” have gotten a lot of attention recently for the plethora of health risks associated with them. 

Now, a new study from Mount Sinai suggests that PFAS exposure may quietly raise your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

“PFAS are synthetic chemicals that resist heat, oil, water, and stains, and are found in countless everyday consumer products,” researcher Vishal Midya, Ph.D., M.Stat., said in a news release. 

“Because they don’t break down easily, PFAS accumulate in the environment — and in human bodies. Our study is one of the first to examine how these chemicals may disrupt the body’s metabolism in ways that increase diabetes risk — particularly in diverse U.S. populations.” 

The study

The research team conducted the study using BioMe, a health‑record linked biobank that has enrolled over 70,000 people at Mount Sinai Hospital since 2007. 

They selected 180 individuals recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and matched them with 180 similar participants (same age, sex, ancestry) who did not have diabetes. 

Blood samples from all participants were tested for PFAS levels. The researchers then examined how increasing PFAS exposure related to subsequent diabetes risk, while also exploring metabolic signatures in pathways tied to amino‑acid biosynthesis and drug metabolism.

The results

The key finding: For each step up in PFAS exposure (e.g. from low to moderate, moderate to high), there was a 31 % higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes later on. 

While the study can’t prove PFAS causes diabetes directly, it did find signs that PFAS may disrupt critical metabolic processes — specifically amino‑acid biosynthesis and drug metabolism — which are intimately involved in regulating blood sugar.

“This research leverages an exposomics framework to characterize environmental impacts and associated metabolic alterations contributing to the development of type 2 diabetes in vulnerable U.S. populations,” researcher Damaskini Valvi, M.D., Ph.D., MPH, said in the news release. 

“These findings can help us design more effective interventions for the early prevention of type 2 diabetes in the future, taking into account individuals’ exposures to environmental chemicals along with other well-known genetic, clinical, and lifestyle factors implicated in diabetes development. Mounting research suggests that PFAS are a risk factor for several chronic diseases, such as obesity, liver disease, and diabetes.” 

• Trained dogs were able to detect Parkinson’s disease from skin swabs with up to 80% accuracy.
  

• This method could lead to a faster, non-invasive way to diagnose the disease earlier.
  

• Researchers hope it could eventually help spot Parkinson’s years before symptoms appear.
  

What if a dog’s nose could help doctors diagnose Parkinson’s Disease (PD)? 

That’s exactly what new research from Medical Detection Dogs and the Universities of Bristol and Manchester has explored. 

In a recent study, two specially trained dogs were able to sniff out Parkinson’s with high accuracy, using nothing more than skin swabs from participants.

While we often associate medical detection dogs with things like cancer or diabetes, this study brings us one step closer to using man’s best friend as a tool in identifying neurological diseases — especially those like Parkinson’s that are notoriously hard to catch early.

“We are extremely proud to say that once again, dogs can very accurately detect disease,” Medical Detection Dogs CEO and Chief Scientific Officer Claire Guest said in a news release. 

“There is currently no early test for Parkinson’s disease and symptoms may start up to 20 years before they become visible and persistent, leading to a confirmed diagnosis. Timely diagnosis is key as subsequent treatment could slow down the progression of the disease and reduce the intensity of symptoms.”

The study

The star dogs — Bumper the Golden Retriever and Peanut the Labrador — were trained over several weeks using more than 200 skin swab samples. 

The samples came from two groups: people with Parkinson’s disease and those without. During training, the dogs learned to pick out the scent associated with Parkinson’s and were rewarded when they correctly identified positive samples — or correctly ignored the ones that didn’t show signs of the disease.

For the actual testing phase, researchers used a “double-blind” method. That means even the handlers didn’t know which samples were which — only a computer did. 

Each row of samples was presented in different orders, and any samples the dogs didn’t respond to were reshuffled and re-presented until a decision was made for every single one.

The results

The dogs showed up to 80% sensitivity (correctly identifying positive cases) and up to 98% specificity (correctly ignoring negative ones). 

Even more noteworthy? The dogs were still able to detect Parkinson’s even when patients had other unrelated health conditions, suggesting the scent they were picking up on is very specific to the disease.

There’s still no definitive test for Parkinson’s, and symptoms can take years — even decades — to fully show up. That’s why early detection tools like this have so much promise. 

“Identifying diagnostic biomarkers of PD, particularly those that may predict development or help diagnose disease earlier, is the subject of much ongoing research,” researcher Nicola Rooney said in the news release. 

“The dogs in this study achieved high sensitivity and specificity and showed there is an olfactory signature distinct to patients with the disease. Sensitivity levels of 70% and 80% are well above chance, and I believe that dogs could help us to develop a quick non-invasive and cost-effective method to identify patients with Parkinson’s disease.”