Published September 8, 2026Originally published on ScienceDaily Top Health
MD LINX

Liver disease is most often associated with a handful of familiar causes. These include heavy alcohol use, fat accumulation in the liver connected to obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol, as well as infections with hepatitis B or C.
But new research suggests that an environmental chemical may deserve more attention as another possible risk factor.

A study published in Liver International by researchers at Keck Medicine of USC found that exposure to tetrachloroethylene, commonly known as PCE, may be linked to serious liver damage. PCE is widely used in dry cleaning and can also be found in consumer products including arts and crafts adhesives, spot removers and stainless steel polish.

Researchers found that people exposed to PCE were three times more likely to have significant liver fibrosis. Fibrosis occurs when repeated injury causes scar tissue to build up in the liver. If that scarring becomes severe, it can interfere with the organ's ability to function and may eventually contribute to liver failure, liver cancer or death.

​TO CONTINUE READING:https://www.mdlinx.com/news/common-dry-cleaning-chemical-linked-to-a-threefold-increase-in-risk-of-liver-scarring/1CRZP0NW37oLvrnYdD90yu?show_order=6&utm_campaign=reg_daily-alert_2600913_daily-nl-am-v4_registered-users-a180_all&utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_content=MorningDaily

Liver disease is most often associated with a handful of familiar causes. These include heavy alcohol use, fat accumulation in the liver connected to obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol, as well as infections with hepatitis B or C.
But new research suggests that an environmental chemical may deserve more attention as another possible risk factor.

A study published in Liver International by researchers at Keck Medicine of USC found that exposure to tetrachloroethylene, commonly known as PCE, may be linked to serious liver damage. PCE is widely used in dry cleaning and can also be found in consumer products including arts and crafts adhesives, spot removers and stainless steel polish.
Liver disease is most often associated with a handful of familiar causes. These include heavy alcohol use, fat accumulation in the liver connected to obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol, as well as infections with hepatitis B or C.
But new research suggests that an environmental chemical may deserve more attention as another possible risk factor.

A study published in Liver International by researchers at Keck Medicine of USC found that exposure to tetrachloroethylene, commonly known as PCE, may be linked to serious liver damage. PCE is widely used in dry cleaning and can also be found in consumer products including arts and crafts adhesives, spot removers and stainless steel polish.

TO CONTINUE:​https://www.mdlinx.com/news/common-dry-cleaning-chemical-linked-to-a-threefold-increase-in-risk-of-liver-scarring/1CRZP0NW37oLvrnYdD90yu?show_order=6&utm_campaign=reg_daily-alert_2600913_daily-nl-am-v4_registered-users-a180_all&utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_content=MorningDaily

Scientists pitted keto against Mediterranean and low-fat diets. Keto won on one clear health measure.Published August 28, 2026Originally published on ScienceAlert Latest

​There are numerous kinds of diets that can help you to lose weight if you're overweight or obese, and if all you want to do is shed some pounds, you have options.
We also know that certain kinds of diets can offer specific benefits to our health beyond mere weight loss alone.
But what's less clear is how popular diets stack up against one another in terms of those extra benefits, specifically with regard to reversing poor cardiometabolic health caused by obesity, such as high blood fats, fatty liver disease, and prediabetes.

​TO CONTINUE READING: https://www.mdlinx.com/news/scientists-pitted-keto-against-mediterranean-and-low-fat-diets-keto-won-on-one-clear-health-measure/2CjGlj2WCRCxYCcZ7R6swD?show_order=5&utm_campaign=reg_evening-edition_20260903_daily-nl-pm-v4_registered-users-a180-alls&utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Evening

11 August 2026,  Michelle RobertsDigital health editor BBC

​

England is on track to become one of the first countries in the world to eliminate hepatitis C, a dangerous virus that attacks the liver, figures show.
The target of treating 80% of all known cases has already been met, and deaths from the virus have fallen by 36% in the last decade, just short of what is needed by 2030.
Taking antiviral tablets for 8 to 12 weeks can cure more than 95% of cases.
Initiatives including A&E blood tests, GP registration testing and free at-home tests have helped to find people who were previously undiagnosed, says NHS England.
Silent diseaseHepatitis C is spread through contact with blood infected with the virus, such as by sharing needles with someone who has it.
Donor blood is already screened for it.
It is a silent disease, meaning people often have no symptoms until much later.

​TO CONTINUE STORY: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c75gk620r22o

​Researchers at McMaster University have uncovered an unexpected role for a naturally occurring hormone already known for reducing appetite and supporting weight loss. The hormone appears to protect the liver from inflammation through a previously unknown signaling pathway, a finding that could point toward new approaches for treating advanced fatty liver disease.
The study, published in Cell Metabolism on August 10, 2026, found that GDF15 can reduce liver inflammation and slow the development of liver scarring even when weight loss does not occur. The result challenges the long-held view that the hormone's benefits are primarily tied to its effects on appetite and body weight.

A New Target for Advanced Fatty Liver Disease

Millions of people around the world are affected by metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), an advanced form of fatty liver disease that can eventually lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer, and liver failure. New weight loss medications have helped improve outcomes for many patients, but inflammation in the liver can remain even after substantial weight loss.

By identifying a biological pathway that directly regulates this inflammation, the new findings suggest that future therapies could potentially target liver inflammation alongside existing treatments focused on weight and liver fat.

"Our findings show that GDF15 does much more than regulate appetite and body weight," says Gregory Steinberg, professor in McMaster University's Department of Medicine, co-director of the Centre for Metabolism, Obesity and Diabetes Research (MODR), and senior author of the study. "We discovered that GDF15 activates a natural brain-to-liver signaling pathway that helps suppress liver inflammation and reduce fibrosis. This changes how we think about the hormone and suggests it may be part of the body's own defense system against chronic liver injury."
Researchers at McMaster University have uncovered an unexpected role for a naturally occurring hormone already known for reducing appetite and supporting weight loss. The hormone appears to protect the liver from inflammation through a previously unknown signaling pathway, a finding that could point toward new approaches for treating advanced fatty liver disease.
The study, published in Cell Metabolism on August 10, 2026, found that GDF15 can reduce liver inflammation and slow the development of liver scarring even when weight loss does not occur. The result challenges the long-held view that the hormone's benefits are primarily tied to its effects on appetite and body weight.

A New Target for Advanced Fatty Liver Disease

Millions of people around the world are affected by metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), an advanced form of fatty liver disease that can eventually lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer, and liver failure. New weight loss medications have helped improve outcomes for many patients, but inflammation in the liver can remain even after substantial weight loss.

By identifying a biological pathway that directly regulates this inflammation, the new findings suggest that future therapies could potentially target liver inflammation alongside existing treatments focused on weight and liver fat.

"Our findings show that GDF15 does much more than regulate appetite and body weight," says Gregory Steinberg, professor in McMaster University's Department of Medicine, co-director of the Centre for Metabolism, Obesity and Diabetes Research (MODR), and senior author of the study. "We discovered that GDF15 activates a natural brain-to-liver signaling pathway that helps suppress liver inflammation and reduce fibrosis. This changes how we think about the hormone and suggests it may be part of the body's own defense system against chronic liver injury."

TO CONTINUE READING:  ​https://www.mdlinx.com/news/this-weight-loss-hormone-may-protect-the-liver-even-without-weight-loss/30Q3RUmIVLLcHyL6ioMQfh?show_order=6&utm_campaign=reg_daily-alert_20260825_daily-nl-am-v4_registered-users-a180_other&utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_content=MorningDaily

By: Giles Bruceyesterday

The OpenAI Foundation is committing $100 million to launch Breakthroughs to Follow-Through, a Common Health Coalition initiative that will use AI tools to close gaps in care delivery, the two organizations announced Aug. 13.
The initiative’s first goal is to at least double hepatitis C cure rates within eight jurisdictions over the next two years, starting with Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana and Massachusetts. Additional states will be named within six months. B2F is designed to later expand the same AI infrastructure to HIV prevention and curable cancers.
“Our $100 million investment is a commitment to scaling that impact by pairing frontier AI capabilities with the expertise of trusted local partners,” said Anna Makanju, head of civil society and philanthropy at the OpenAI Foundation, in a news release.
The Common Health Coalition, founded in 2023 by AHIP, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente and the Alliance of Community Health Plans, now represents more than 400 members nationwide.
A single course of oral medication cures more than 95% of hepatitis C patients in eight to 12 weeks, yet about two of every three Americans living with the virus remain untreated, and 40 people die from it daily, according to the release. B2F will fund AI tools that help care teams identify patients who have fallen out of care, synthesize records and prioritize outreach.
“Hepatitis C is our first target, but we also have a broader goal with this initiative,” said Dave Chokshi, MD, chair of the Common Health Coalition, in a release.
TO CONTINUE: ​https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/ai/openai-foundations-100m-healthcare-push-starts-with-hepatitis-c/

Posted on July 30, 2026 by HCV Dashboard Admin

People who use drugs (PWUD) are at the highest risk for acquiring hepatitis C.  The New York State (

​NYS) Hepatitis C Elimination plan has identified PWUD as the priority population for elimination.  New treatments available to cure hepatitis C should be made accessible to PWUD.  Guidelines support treating PWUD, even those actively using.

As shown by data from the three low-threshold models of hepatitis C treatment among PWUD funded by the AIDS Institute’s Office of Hepatitis Health Care and Epidemiology (OHHCE), high cure rates among PWUD are possible, especially when paired with supportive services including harm reduction and medication for opioid use disorder. 

Rural communities in the United States have been disproportionately affected by the opioid epidemic, facing higher rates of opioid-related deaths and unique systemic challenges in addressing the crisis. As the opioid crisis surged, the number of new hepatitis C cases increased. From 2004-2014, among people ages 18-29, drug treatment program admissions for injection opioid use increased by 622%. HCV incidence increased by 400% in the same cohort.

​1 Between 2000-2019, HCV rates increased 10-fold among pregnant women with parallel increases in substance use and opioid use disorders.2
In NYS, outside of New York City, rates of hepatitis C are greater in rural areas than urban ones.  According to 2024 NYS hepatitis C case report data, the rate of newly reported hepatitis C cases was higher in rural counties than urban counties outside of NYC (33.0 per 100,000 vs. 20.3 per 100,000 population).  The highest rate was reported in the NY Penn/Binghamton area (33.7 per 100,000).3

​To Continue: https://hcvdashboardny.org/raising-awareness-of-hepatitis-c-in-rural-new-york/Posted on July 30, 2026 by HCV Dashboard Admin

Published July 27, 2026Originally published on ScienceDaily Top Health
MD Linx

One of the largest investigations yet into coffee and liver health has found that people who drink more coffee tend to have lower risks of cirrhosis, liver cancer, and death related to liver disease.
The Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University study, published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, also uncovered biological patterns that could help explain why coffee consumption has repeatedly been associated with healthier livers.
Previous studies suggested that coffee might benefit the liver, but most were smaller or looked at only one piece of the puzzle," said hepatologist Hyunseok Kim, MD, MPH, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai and corresponding author of the study. "We followed hundreds of thousands of people for more than a decade and looked at their health outcomes along with liver MRI scans and blood protein analyses. Together, those findings help explain the biological mechanisms behind coffee's association with better liver health."
Study Followed Nearly 355,000 Adults
Researchers examined data from 354,957 UK Biobank participants who had no history of cirrhosis or liver cancer when the study began. Using linked medical records, the team tracked new cases of cirrhosis, liver cancer, and liver-related death over a median period of 13 years.
The results showed that coffee drinkers generally experienced better liver outcomes than people who did not drink coffee.

​TO CONTINUE READING: https://www.mdlinx.com/news/coffee-may-help-shield-the-liver-from-fat-scarring-and-cancer/5IApOObC8RJN7BvEMxtRTd?show_order=7&utm_campaign=reg_daily-alert_2600802_daily-nl-am-v4_registered-users-a180_all&utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_content=MorningDaily

For Everyone
May 13, 2026 CDC National Center For HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, And Tuberculosis Prevention

What to know
A new CDC study shows that treating hepatitis C can save substantial dollars in medical costs, in addition to saving lives and averting suffering.
SummaryA new CDC study finds that providing curative treatment for hepatitis C could result in billions of dollars in medical cost savings, in addition to the known benefits of averting substantial human suffering and saving lives.
This study was published in the journal BMC Health Services Research.

TO CONTINUE:https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/whats-new/hepatitis-c-treatment-saves.html​

May 14, 2026
By Maia Szalavitz, Ms. Szalavitz is a contributing Opinion writer who covers addiction and public poli

After rising exponentially since 1979, overdose rates have finally begun to decline, falling more than 29 percent since 2022. President Trump has repeatedly claimed that stopping these fatalities is a priority. But recent moves by his administration threaten to stall or even reverse this progress.

The Trump administration is now enforcing an executive order against what are known as harm reduction approaches, which emphasize keeping people alive over ending their drug use. Such efforts, the order argues, “only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm.”
This new policy makes federal funding available for saving lives after overdoses or treating other harms that have occurred from drug use but prohibits spending on preventing those harms. It reflects the misguided belief that protecting people’s health during drug use enables continued addiction and deters recovery and that harsher consequences spur abstinence. This notion is not only cruel but also false. And it could cost thousands of lives.

On April 24 the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released two “Dear Colleague” letters, which were sent to state health departments and grant recipients to inform them about the kinds of programs that can and cannot receive federal funding. The letters made clear that many harm reduction approaches would no longer receive the agency’s support.
“SAMHSA guidance carries enormous weight in addiction medicine,” says Dr. Ayesha Appa, an assistant professor of infectious disease and addiction medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Beyond outlining rules on spending, the letters set the tone for professional practice and influence what clinicians may recommend.

While stressing that funding for overdose antidotes and wound care is still acceptable, the first letter bans spending on supplies to prevent such damage — test strips that allow people to determine whether dangerous substances like fentanyl and xylazine are in their drugs and sterilized water to reduce the risk of infected injection wounds. It continues a decades-old prohibition on federal funding for clean needles and bans funding for hotlines that people can call as a safety measure while using drugs. Operators on these hotlines ask for location information from callers and stay on the line, alerting 911 if they believe an overdose occurs.

The second letter to providers focuses on opioid use disorder medications. SAMHSA says it will fund medication for addiction treatment only if other support services such as counseling are involved. It also demands that programs, in conjunction with patients, annually re-evaluate whether addiction medications like methadone and buprenorphine should be stopped, so that treatment doesn’t become “a default sentence to lifelong medication use.”

While those rules sound benign, in reality they will reduce access to the only treatments that are proven to cut the death rate from overdose by 50 percent or more. A recent study found that patients on these medications had an 80 percent reduction in overdose death risk, compared with those participating in treatment programs without medication.
“
Our biggest problem is that too few people are accessing these medications to begin with,” says Dr. Appa, noting that her patients are far more likely to stop medication too early than to linger on it too long. SAMHSA’s new approach, with its stigmatizing implication that medication is a life sentence rather than a lifesaver, is not helpful. Right now, 75 percent of people who could benefit from these medications don’t receive them — and that problem will be exacerbated by Medicaid cuts in the administration’s 2025 domestic policy legislation, which could end insurance for about 1.6 million people with addiction. Around 156,000 people could lose access to their current medications, which experts estimate would lead to 1,000 additional overdose deaths each year.

Research shows that harm reduction programs do not hamper people’s recovery. One study, for example, found that people who frequently use syringe exchange programs are five times as likely to enter treatment as those who participate less. Other studies have found that people who frequently go to overdose prevention centers where they can use drugs under supervision are 40 to 70 percent more likely to get treatment than those who show up less often.

A majority of people with opioid addiction who enter even the best treatment programs relapse at least once, typically many times. This is why experts refer to addiction as a chronic disorder. Harm reduction keeps people alive during these relapses.

TO CONTINUE: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/opinion/harm-reduction-addiction-trump.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20260515&instance_id=175622&nl=today%27s-headlines&regi_id=35747334&segment_id=219878&user_id=ccde51e4ec9251b4505257eedc2ee927​

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 This document consolidates, for the first time, WHO recommendations on the prevention, testing, treatment and monitoring of hepatitis B and C.


The WHO Consolidated guidance on hepatitis B and C prevention, testing, treatment, service delivery and monitoring
 (launched March 2026) is a landmark implementation handbook uniting over 80 recommendations (2015–2025). It offers a practical, public health approach for countries to accelerate 2030 elimination targets through simplified, person-centred, and integrated services, covering HBV, HCV, and HDV. 
World Health Organization (WHO) +3

TO CONTINUE:https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240119529​