Health & Wellness

Eli Okafor

Health & Wellness Reporter, Trestlewire

B.S. Public Health, University of Texas; M.P.H., Emory University · Atlanta, GA

Stories: 53
Latest: November 3, 2026

I am not a physician, and nothing I write is medical advice. I say that first because it shapes everything else.

I have covered health and medicine since 2003, starting on a metro health desk in Houston writing about hospital funding and county clinics, then moving to national coverage of medical research and public health. I reported through the 2009 H1N1 season, the long arguments over the Affordable Care Act, and a pandemic that turned every reader into an amateur epidemiologist. Across all of it, the work has been the same: separate what is known from what is still being studied, and say plainly which is which.

Born in Lagos, raised in Houston. Public health at the University of Texas, an M.P.H. from Emory. I live in Atlanta, a short drive from the CDC, and I still have not found a shortcut around reading the actual study.

Stories by Eli Okafor

Health

A child in Lewis County, N.Y., dies of measles, the seventh U.S. death this year

New York announced its first measles death in 30 years. The CDC's public count still lists three deaths nationally, and a clinician alert on measles in pregnancy was reportedly blocked.

Nov 3

Health

Cheap gamma-GT blood test beat FIB-4 for liver scarring screening in LITMUS studies

Two LITMUS papers graded blood and imaging tests against biopsy in fatty liver disease. Advanced scarring is now detectable with confidence, but inflammation and drug-trial entry still lean on biopsy.

Oct 30

Health

U.S. Colorectal Cancer Rate Rose in 2023 for the First Time in 20 Years

An NEJM Evidence analysis finds incidence climbing in every age group up to 65 to 69, including heavily screened ones. The authors have not identified why, and one year of data is not a trend yet.

Oct 29

Health

A Frisco dentist worked five years as a hygienist, then went to dental school after her own veneers changed her smile

Dr. Shaggy of Veneer Lounge at The Star in Frisco worked five years as a dental hygienist before dental school. She says she still checks gum health, bone support and bite before any veneer discussion.

Oct 28

Health

A Frisco nurse practitioner started a body contouring clinic with one red light therapy device in a small suite

Frisco Body Contouring is a Frisco, Texas clinic led by nurse practitioner Jenessa McKray.

Oct 28

Health

Five Confirmed E. coli Cases Tied to SLO County Pumpkin Farm, Source Unconfirmed

San Luis Obispo County says all five patients visited Brookshire Farms and three are children in serious condition. The county has not confirmed the farm as the source, and test results are pending.

Oct 28

Health

Kidney Donors' Pregnancies Show 11.9% Hypertension Hospitalizations vs 8.3%, but Relatives May Skew the Comparison

A JAMA cohort of 385 donor pregnancies found most were uncomplicated and the absolute gap was 3.6 points. A smaller-baby signal is unconfirmed, and 63.9% of Ontario donors were related to recipients.

Oct 27

Health

High-Dose EPA Linked to 32% Lower Death Hazard After Colorectal Liver Surgery, but Trial Missed Primary Endpoint

In the EMT2 trial of 418 patients, estimated five-year survival was 62.0% with EPA and 45.1% with placebo. Progression-free survival, the trial's main goal, did not differ significantly.

Oct 26

Health

Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine Triggered T-Cell Responses in 89 of 90 Patients, but Missed Its Main Endpoint

In a 144-patient randomized trial, a seven-mutation KRAS vaccine did not significantly delay recurrence. The strongest survival signals come from exploratory, within-arm comparisons.

Oct 25

Health

One in Seven Semaglutide Patients Skipped the Label's 0.25 mg Start, and More of Them Quit Early

A claims study of 48,658 US adults found 14.5 percent began at 1.0 mg a week or higher. They had a 25 percent higher risk of early discontinuation, but the design cannot show the dose was the cause.

Oct 24

Health

Personalized mRNA Melanoma Vaccine Cuts Recurrence Risk 42% in Phase 3, but Survival Data Are Not In

Intismeran plus pembrolizumab lowered the risk of melanoma recurrence or death with a hazard ratio of 0.58 in 1,137 patients. Nothing was gained in the first six months, and overall survival is immature.

Oct 23

Health

Cranberry Juice Slowed Plaque Regrowth in Two Tiny Trials. Neither Measured a Single Cavity

A UIC study of 8 adults and 14 children found pure cranberry juice cut plaque regrowth by 33 to 44 percent in a lab assay. The sweetened cocktail did nothing significant, and cavities were never counted.

Oct 22

Health

Leg Cuffs Beat Sham by 4.5 Points in Early Alzheimer's, but the Sham Group Also Improved 5.3

A 190-person trial funded by the device maker found external counterpulsation outperformed a low-pressure sham on a cognitive scale. The sham arm gained more than half as much, and the percentages circulating online come from secondary reporting.

Oct 21

Health

FDA Approves Dostarlimab for Rectal Cancer. The Complete-Response Rate Is 47 or 68 Percent, Depending on Who Judges

The October 19 accelerated approval covers about 3 percent of locally advanced rectal cancers. It rests on two small trials with no comparison group, and durability is not yet shown.

Oct 20

Health

One Psilocybin Dose Beat Niacin for Depression at Six Weeks. At One Year, the Gap Was Within Chance

Fifty-three percent of the psilocybin group was in remission at six weeks versus 6 percent on niacin. At one year it was 53 percent versus 41 percent, and nearly every psilocybin recipient had guessed their assignment.

Oct 19

Health

Callers Got a Mental Health Appointment on 24 Percent of Answered Calls. Across All 5,822 Calls, It Was 9 Percent

A secret-shopper study of commercial insurance directories in five states found errors on 55.6 percent of calls that reached a person. One attempt per listing and no voicemails make the 9.1 percent figure a floor.

Oct 18

Health

44 Percent of GLP-1 Users Who Drank Say They Drank Less. The Survey Cannot Say the Drug Did It.

A nationally representative JAMA Psychiatry survey of 2,009 adults found more self-reported cutting back among heavier drinkers. It had no comparison group, and the one small randomized trial found a narrower effect.

Oct 16

Health

Glucose Sensors Cut A1c 0.9 Points More Than Routine Care in Type 2 Diabetes Without Insulin. The Trial Lasted 26 Weeks.

The Dexcom-sponsored CONNECT trial randomized 283 adults not on insulin. A smaller Alberta trial that stopped sensors after six weeks could not detect a lasting gap.

Oct 15

Health

Pfizer's RSV Shot Cut Hospital and ER Visits 60 Percent in Year Three. For Lung Disease, the Range Includes Zero.

A Kaiser Permanente study is the first real-world look at a third RSV season after one Abrysvo dose. Protection fell each year, and one of its two outcomes is too imprecise to call.

Oct 14

Health

Migraine Antibody Drugs Were Tied to 42 Percent Higher Miscarriage Risk. Propranolol Users Showed No Rise.

A JAMA Neurology study of 7,579 pregnancies found a 1.42 hazard ratio for anti-CGRP injections. It is observational, rests on about 300 exposed pregnancies, and cannot separate the drugs from severe migraine.

Oct 13

Health

Headlines Say Antidepressants in Pregnancy Add No Autism or ADHD Risk. The Welsh Study Behind Them Found Higher Odds.

Among mothers with depression, the Welsh data showed no significant autism or ADHD gap between treated and untreated cases. Against unexposed children, antidepressant exposure carried odds of 1.59 for autism and 1.89 for ADHD, which the authors say severity of illness may explain.

Oct 12

Health

Two Matched Meals Drew Different Insulin Responses. Total Blood Sugar Did Not Differ.

A Virginia Tech crossover study of 32 adults found a larger insulin response after the ultra-processed meal. It measured one 300-calorie meal in young, healthy people, not weight or disease.

Oct 11

Health

The FDA Opened 139 Food Standards to Salt Substitutes. The Stroke Trial Behind the Idea Tested Home Cooking Salt.

The rule is voluntary, and the agency says it cannot predict how much potassium will enter the food supply. The best evidence for potassium-enriched salt comes from rural Chinese villages, and it excluded people with known kidney disease.

Oct 10

Health

Maternal RSV Vaccine Cut Infant Hospital Stays 74 Percent in a Pooled Study. Four Studies Back That Number.

A Lancet Regional Health, Europe meta-analysis finds 73.6 percent protection and 27.1 percent early US uptake. A French national study found 50 percent, and hypertension safety data remain mixed.

Oct 9

Health

A Dementia Diagnosis Cut Life-Sustaining Care Recommendations Nearly in Half. A Directive Only Partly Closed the Gap.

A JAMA Network Open survey of nearly 6,000 adults found people were about 19 percentage points less likely to recommend life support for a hospitalized patient with dementia, even when a signed advance directive asked for it.

Oct 8

Health

A Two-Time Super Bowl Champion Retired Mid-Season Over Mental Health. He Warned This Was Coming in 2021.

Lane Johnson ended his 14-season career with the Philadelphia Eagles on October 6, citing mental health instead of injury or age. He has talked publicly about an antidepressant withdrawal that cost him three games in 2021, and the NFL's own data shows players are now using mental health resources at roughly double that era's rate.

Oct 7

Health

The FDA Cleared the First Cuffless Blood Pressure Wearable. Rivals Dodged Clearance by Calling It Wellness.

Happy Health's ring won FDA clearance to report blood pressure continuously with no cuff and no monthly calibration, a first for any wearable. Apple's watch only flags possible hypertension without a number, Samsung and Hilo still need a cuff to calibrate, and two rivals skip FDA review entirely by registering as wellness products instead of medical devices.

Oct 6

Health

A Chicago Trial Got 10 of 12 Patients Off Insulin. A 2006 Trial Saw Most Relapse Within Two Years.

Ten adults with decades-long Type 1 diabetes stopped insulin injections within weeks of an islet cell transplant paired with an experimental antibody drug, Eledon Pharmaceuticals reported in March. A similar transplant approach without that drug failed within two years for most patients in a 2006 trial, and this cohort has only been followed for about eight months.

Oct 5

Health

A New Sleep Study Links Noisy Bedrooms to 88 Percent Lower Odds of Good Sleep. The Authors Call That Number Shaky.

Tracking 372 young adults for two weeks, Penn State researchers found heat reliably lowered sleep quality. The bigger numbers for light and noise rest on a small slice of nights, and the study's own authors flagged them as the weaker part of the results.

Oct 4

Health

Victoria's 2021 Vaccine Drive Averted 316,000 Infections. Half the Credit Belongs to People Who Skipped the Shot.

A new analysis in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface estimates Australia's Victoria state avoided about 316,000 COVID-19 infections and 4,900 deaths during its 2021 Delta wave, with roughly half the averted infections traced to indirect herd-immunity protection rather than direct vaccination.

Oct 3

Health

Lilly's Retatrutide Cut Body Weight Up to 20.8 Percent in a Diabetes Trial. It Still Isn't Approved.

The TRIUMPH-2 trial tracked 1,152 adults with type 2 diabetes for 80 weeks and recorded the largest weight loss ever measured in that patient group. A Duke endocrinologist calls the data an advance; a colleague at the same hospital says the drug may be too strong for some patients who could take it.

Oct 2

Health

Pennsylvania Reports a Fifth Measles Death. The CDC's National Count Still Says Two.

943 cases across 39 Pennsylvania counties, five deaths by the state's count, two by the CDC's. The gap traces to a dispute over how a measles-associated death gets defined, playing out as the U.S. heads toward a November review of the elimination status it has held since 2000.

Oct 1

Health

Lilly's Retatrutide Cut Weight by 21 Percent in a Diabetes Trial. That Group Usually Loses Less on These Drugs.

A phase 3 trial published in The Lancet found the experimental drug retatrutide helped people with type 2 diabetes lose an average of nearly 50 pounds over 80 weeks. Independent doctors call the data exciting, and one says it is not the right fit for everyone.

Sep 30

Health

A Presidential Tylenol Warning Cut ER Orders 10 Percent. Two Reviews Say the Autism Claim Doesn't Hold.

A September 2026 review of seven meta-analyses covering more than 3 million people found the acetaminophen-autism association disappears once only high-quality studies are counted, adding to a November 2025 review that traced the apparent link to shared family factors, not the drug.

Sep 29

Health

Blue Cross Says AI Billing Tools Added $942 Million in Hospital Costs. Hospitals Say Patients Got Sicker.

A Blue Cross Blue Shield Association analysis found 55,158 more hospital stays coded as complex over two years, with no matching rise in treatment. The American Hospital Association says its own data tells a different story.

Sep 28

Health

The FAA Initially Disqualifies 1 in 5 Pilots Who Report Mental Health Care. The Senate Just Voted to Fix That.

The Senate passed two aviation bills this week, one of them named for a University of North Dakota student pilot who died by suicide in 2021. Both still need the House before either reaches a president's desk.

Sep 27

Health

A 20-Minute Workout Matched a 90-Minute Nap for Memory After a Sleepless Night

A McGill University study kept 54 adults awake for 30 hours, then tested exercise against napping. Both protected memory about equally, through different brain pathways, in a sample too small and young to generalize from yet.

Sep 26

Health

Lilly's New Weekly Insulin Cuts Injections From 365 to 52. It Doesn't Claim to Work Better.

Onswik is the second once-weekly basal insulin the FDA has approved in five months. Like the first, it matches daily insulin's blood sugar control without beating it.

Sep 25

Health

FDA Panel Voted 6 to 4 That a Cancer Blood Test Works. Its Biggest Trials Missed Their Main Goal.

An advisory committee's closest vote on Grail's Galleri blood test came down to effectiveness, not safety. In the test's two largest trials, covering more than 175,000 patients combined, it did not reduce cancer deaths or hit the goal it was designed around.

Sep 24

Health

Strength Training Shrank Fat Cells in Obese Mice Within a Week, Before Weight Changed, Study Finds

Researchers at Brazil's State University of Campinas found that seven days of climbing exercise activated fat-breakdown pathways in obese mice before the animals lost any measurable weight. The study was done in mice, lasted one week, and has not been tested in people yet.

Sep 23

Health

Second COVID Infections Linked to Sharply Higher Odds of New Diagnoses, Canadian Data Show

A federal report tracking 8,717 Canadian adults found reinfection tied to much higher odds of new back and respiratory diagnoses, though the back-problem estimate carries a wide margin of uncertainty its own authors flagged.

Sep 21

Health

FDA Classifies Six Intercon Hand Soaps as a Class II Recall

Nearly 2,700 cases of foaming hand soap distributed to 15 states carry a Class II recall label from the FDA after two of six products tested positive for five bacteria species tied to skin and bloodstream infections.

Sep 21

Health

Xenon Pauses New Enrollment in Depression Drug Trials After Side Effects

Xenon Pharmaceuticals stopped enrolling new patients in two late-stage trials of azetukalner for depression after neuropsychiatric side effects appeared that had not shown up in earlier testing, and its stock fell more than 26 percent in a single session.

Sep 20

Health

FDA Approves Inluriyo-Verzenio Combination for ESR1-Mutated Breast Cancer

The September 18 approval pairs two Eli Lilly drugs against a resistance mutation that develops in up to 40 percent of women with metastatic ER-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer after hormone therapy, based on a trial that nearly doubled progression-free survival.

Sep 20

Health

Severe Mental Illness Cuts Life Expectancy by 15 to 20 Years, Analysis Finds

A new analysis of NHS data by the charity Rethink Mental Illness found that adults with conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are dying years earlier than the general population, mostly from cancer, heart disease and other physical illness the psychiatric diagnosis itself did not cause.

Sep 20

Health

DR Congo Vaccinates Health Workers Against Ebola as Death Toll Tops 3,600

The vaccine reaching frontline workers in Ituri province was built for a different Ebola strain than the one that has killed more than 3,600 people this year, and DRC's health ministry is running a year-long trial to find out if it works against this one.

Sep 20

Health

An Unvaccinated Measles Patient Rode Amtrak Through Six California Counties. Here Is the Exposure Window.

California health officials say a hospitalized, unvaccinated passenger traveled by train and connecting bus through Los Angeles, Kern, San Joaquin, Butte, Sacramento, and Alameda counties over five days in September, as the state's 2026 case count reached 59.

Sep 20

Health

CDC Cuts Routine Childhood Vaccine Schedule to 11 Diseases, Shifting Several Shots to Shared Decisions

ATLANTA, Jan.

Jan 5

Health

Pfizer and BioNTech Say Their COVID-19 Vaccine Is More Than 90% Effective in Early Results

NEW YORK, Nov.

Nov 9

Health

WHO Calls the Coronavirus Outbreak a Pandemic as NBA Suspends Its Season

GENEVA, March 11 - The World Health Organization on Wednesday said the coronavirus outbreak can be characterized as a pandemic, a word the agency had avoided for weeks, as cases passed 118,000 worldwide and the virus continued to spread across Europe and the United States.

Mar 11

Health

WHO Declares Zika a Global Health Emergency as Brazil Sees Surge in Birth Defects

GENEVA, Feb.

Feb 1

Health

WHO Cancer Agency Says Processed Meat Causes Cancer, Red Meat Probably Does

LYON, France, Oct.

Oct 26

Health

WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak an International Public Health Emergency

GENEVA, Aug.

Aug 8