Report finds US children would have extra 25.4m cavities in five years if plan backed by RFK Jr were implemented

A new study published in Jama Health Forum estimates that if the US were to remove fluoride from public drinking water supplies – as Donald Trump’s health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has advocated – American children would suffer an additional 25.4m cavities in five years.

The additional cases represent a 7.5% increase in cavities, an added cost of $9.8bn and the loss of 2.9m quality-adjusted life years. Those cases would disproportionately be borne by children most at-risk for tooth decay – those on public health insurance or who lack insurance entirely.

Failures uncovered as US health secretary touted ‘gold-standard’ science in health report ordered by Trump team

Robert F Kennedy Jr’s flagship health commission report contains citations to studies that do not exist, according to an investigation by the US publication Notus.

The report exposes glaring scientific failures from a health secretary who earlier this week threatened to ban government scientists from publishing in leading medical journals.

Campaigners say failings have ‘ruined lives’ after figures show up to 2.5m people in country could have condition

ADHD campaigners have accused the NHS of presiding over a “widely failing system” as it emerged that as many as 2.5 million people in England could have the condition, with more than half a million people waiting for an assessment.

According to the first figures of their kind published by the health service, 3-4% of adults, and 5% of children and young people, in the country have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Language tariffs | Preventing divorce | Dogs v children | Canine love | Migrant swifts | No full stops

Following Donald Trump’s demand that news agencies amend their style guides to reflect current US terminology (like “Gulf of America”), has the Guardian now fallen into line too? Martin Kettle (Opinion, 29 May) tosses in a casual “gotten” (“so far Charles has gotten away with it”) and Rebecca Nicholson (TV review, 28 May) idly talks of turning on a “faucet” (“the faucet of public attention”). I suggest a 25% tariff on unwonted and unwanted Americanisms.
Simon Elmes
London

• Gwyneth Paltrow once said that, according to her father, the secret behind her parents’ 30-year marriage in the divorce-ridden world of Hollywood was that “they never wanted to get divorced at the same time” (Letters, 27 May).
Richard Ehrlich
London

Experts say knowing more about death – or ‘death literacy’ – can actually help quell fears of dying

• Tell us: how has your sex life changed after 60?

“Who would like to hear about what happens when you’re dying?”

In the final episode of the FX series Dying for Sex, a hospice nurse with an oddly comforting sense of enthusiasm explains to a patient what to expect as she dies.

Scientists say device could alert workers such as pilots and healthcare staff when they are feeling the strain

Whether it is doing sums or working out what to text your new date, some tasks produce a furrowed brow. Now scientists say they have come up with a device to monitor such effort: an electronic tattoo, stuck to the forehead.

The researchers say the device could prove valuable among pilots, healthcare workers and other professions where managing mental workload is crucial to preventing catastrophes.

Explore 6 new exclusive prints from our Well Actually series. Available only until Saturday, June 7. Buy your print here

For this limited-time print release, we’ve turned to our Well Actually section - a space that cuts through the noise of today’s unrealistic, perfection-obsessed wellness coverage, and brings you stories about the ways people are trying to live good lives. In celebration of this, we’ve curated a selection of six exclusive illustrations by three outstanding artists. Buy your print here

Carmen Casado - holasoyka. Madrid, Spain

As an illustrator I’m lucky to be able to work with international clients who propose different and interesting projects, it’s always a pleasure to illustrate stimulating articles. Especially if you can mix an idea with humour and converse at the same time with the text. I also like to play with retro aesthetics and current visual elements that we all identify.

Ian Sample is joined by Dr James Kinross, colorectal surgeon and author of the book Dark Matter: The New Science of the Microbiome, to answer all your questions about gut health.

In episode two, Kinross explains what else, beyond antibiotics, can damage our microbiome, how we can start to repair it, and gives his top tips for keeping our gut microbes happy

Order Dark Matter by James Kinross from the Guardian bookshop

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Patients Association fears winter of delays as Wes Streeting calls for no vote from resident doctors in England who argue pay has fallen 23% in real terms since 2008

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has urged doctors in England to vote against industrial action as the British Medical Association (BMA) ballots resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, for strike action that could last for six months.

Writing in the Times on Thursday, Streeting said: “We can’t afford to return to a continuous cycle of standoffs, strikes, and cancellations … Strikes should always be a last resort, and I don’t think they are in anyone’s interest today.

Report finds children eat proportionally more processed meat than adults and calls for more pulses, grains and vegetables

Guidance urging schools in England to serve children meat at least three times a week should be overhauled in order to increase the eating of vegetables and legumes, a leading charity has said.

A report published by the Food Foundation has found that children eat proportionally more processed meat than adults, with more than a third (36%) of meat eaten by children coming from processed meat such as bacon, ham, and sausages, compared with 29% of adults.

Trump officials offer to move 300 birds to Mehmet Oz’s Florida ranch after Canada’s kill order over avian flu fears

• What is bird flu, and should you be worried about it?

Senior officials in the Trump administration have intervened in attempt to save more than 300 ostriches on a farm in British Columbia which the Canadian government had ordered to be killed over fears the flock is infected with avian flu.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, and Mehmet Oz, a physician and former TV host appointed by Trump as the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, have offered to move the birds to Oz’s ranch in Florida – despite the kill order imposed by Canadian health authorities.

Abortion is now banned in a dozen states, while four have banned the procedure past roughly six weeks of pregnancy

The US supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade may have abolished the national right to abortion, but the state-by-state battle for abortion rights is far from over.

Since Roe was overturned in 2022, 12 states have enacted near-total abortion bans, while four states – Georgia, South Carolina, Florida and Iowa – have banned abortion past roughly six weeks of pregnancy. Other states have enacted laws or held ballot referendums to protect abortion rights.

US health secretary calls leading medical journals such as Lancet ‘corrupt’ and pushes to create state-run alternatives

Robert F Kennedy Jr has threatened to ban government scientists from publishing in the world’s leading medical journals, which he branded “corrupt”, and to instead create alternative publications run by the state.

“We’re probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Jama and those other journals, because they’re all corrupt,” the US health secretary said on the Ultimate Human podcast. He accused the publications of being controlled by pharmaceutical companies.

Incidence of bowel cancer is up to three times higher among Australians born in the 1990s compared with the 1950s cohort

• What are the early signs of bowel cancer? And how can young Australians get tested for it?

Australia’s rates of bowel cancer in people under 50 are the highest in the world, though the reason why remains unclear, experts say.

As incidences of what’s known as early-onset bowel cancer are increasing worldwide, a study of 50 countries – published recently in Lancet Oncology – revealed Australia was ranked worst.

Natalie Phelps, who has stage 4 colorectal cancer, has raised the alarm over how patients in the agency’s clinical trials are facing setbacks in treatment

A 43-year-old woman and mother of two with advanced cancer is experiencing life-or-death delays in treatment because of the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Natalie Phelps, who has stage 4 colorectal cancer, has spoken publicly, raising the alarm about a setback in care for herself and others who are part of clinical trials run by the agency. Her story has made it into congressional hearings and spurred a spat between a Democratic senator and the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr. Behind the scenes, she and others are advocating to get her treatment started sooner.

Alarm as Javier Milei’s government curbs state supply of abortion pills and seeks to reverse landmark legalisation

Argentina is being used as a “testing ground” for stripping back abortion rights internationally as it cuts funding for contraceptives and ends the distribution of abortion pills, Amnesty International warned on Wednesday.

Before the inauguration of President Javier Milei in December 2023, the state bought abortion pills, which were then distributed for free through the public health system.

From preventing serious falls to being able to walk up stairs, it’s power – or how you use your strength – that will bring quality of life as you age

It’s fairly well established that strength training is helpful at every age: as well as building muscle, it strengthens tendons and ligaments, increases bone density and seems to have protective effects against everything from osteoporosis to dementia. But a new study based on data collected over two decades in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, suggests that another physical attribute might be just as important – and it’s one that declines even faster than strength as the years go by. The good news? It might also be less uncomfortable, and even slightly safer, to improve. Also, it will probably make you better at table tennis.

Power, in case your physics is a bit rusty, is force multiplied by velocity – or to put it another way, how quickly you can apply the strength you have. Sprinters, high jumpers and hurdlers need huge amounts of power; marathon runners, who prioritise endurance over explosive strength, don’t. Olympic weightlifting, where heavy barbells are thrown overhead in mere milliseconds, is incredibly power-dependent (unlike the confusingly named powerlifting, where grinding a bench press upwards can take several seconds). As for rugby, “If you said to a rugby coach: ‘Would you want a really strong player or a really powerful one?’, they’re going to pick power every time,” says the strength and conditioning coach Joe Lightfoot. But power also plays a pivotal role in day-to-day movement, from running up a flight of stairs to catching yourself when you fall, and it’s here that it becomes most important for quality of life. In a recently completed study that tracked almost 4,000 men and women aged between 46 and 75, power was a stronger predictor of mortality than relative strength – meaning that, everything else being equal, people who can produce force quickly are less likely to die early.

Former development ministers Valerie Amos, Lynne Featherstone and Liz Sugg call on leaders to commit to ensuring that women and children have access to good nutrition

Malnutrition and hunger are soaring across the world, leading to hundreds of millions of people suffering and posing a major threat to global security. Access to good nutrition is foundational to development. Without it, children cannot reach their full potential, physically or cognitively. As a result, economies are undermined and less productive, poverty is entrenched and instability spreads.

Women and girls are disproportionately impacted. One billion adolescent girls and women worldwide are suffering from malnutrition because they typically eat last and least. This has a generational impact as malnutrition passes from mother to child. Improving maternal nutrition is critical to arresting global malnutrition and building a healthier and more secure world.

Experts decry lack of UK government action and warn a further 6,000 early deaths could occur

The excess pollution emitted as a result of the Dieselgate scandal has killed about 16,000 people in the UK and caused 30,000 cases of asthma in children, according to a new analysis. A further 6,000 premature deaths will occur in coming years without action, the researchers said.

The Dieselgate scandal erupted in 2015 when diesel cars were found to be emitting far more toxic air pollution on the roads than when they passed regulatory tests, due to the use of illegal “defeat devices”.

Glyphosate, a pesticide linked to cancer, found at very high levels in menstrual products in the UK, according to report

Toxic pesticide levels have been found in tampons at levels 40 times higher than the legal limit for drinking water.

Traces of glyphosate, a pesticide linked to cancer, has been found at very high levels in menstrual products, according to a report by the Pesticide Action Network UK (Pan UK), the Women’s Environmental Network and the Pesticide Collaboration.