A new model for evaluating changes to life satisfaction can be used to inform public health measures to improve people’s sense of wellbeing.
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Unsplash
On October 2 in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health, Steve Haake from Sheffield Hallam University and colleagues published a model for evaluating life satisfaction. They demonstrate their model using participants in a weekly running event as a case study, finding that increases in health, especially mental health, most strongly predict improvements in life satisfaction.
In the UK, where the study was conducted, the average life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10 is 7.5, as last measured in 2024. Personality is the most significant factor for a person’s life satisfaction, but many other factors that are more variable over time—such as relationship status or economic conditions—also influence how people feel about their lives. Health is another major contributor to a person’s general feelings of wellbeing, and thus the researchers aimed to evaluate how regularly participating in communal physical activity increases ratings of life satisfaction.
The study focused on participants of a free, weekly 5k event called Parkrun, over 78,000 of whom responded to a survey about their life satisfaction. The survey included questions about other factors that can influence someone’s sense of fulfillment, including general health status and activity levels both before and throughout their participation in Parkrun events. The researchers matched these survey responses to almost a million participants who had done at least one parkrun in the previous 12 months.
A sense of improved health was most closely tied to increases in life satisfaction. The majority of Parkrun participants were already highly active and rated their health as “good” or “very good.” However, when the researchers looked at individuals who rated their health as “very bad” at the start of their participation in Parkrun, they found that these people had much greater capacity to improve their increases in life satisfaction compared to people who initially viewed their health as “good.”
While physical health also had significant effects, the biggest changes in life satisfaction were related to mental health. The survey asked participants about their happiness, general mental wellbeing, and feelings of personal achievement and fun. Higher ratings of these responses were most closely related to growing life satisfaction.
The researchers were also able to measure differences for variables not affected by participation in the activity, such as age and gender. Age has a non-linear relationship with life satisfaction, being the lowest in early middle age, and older people were more likely to report a sense of improvement in life satisfaction. This was also true of women compared to men.
In addition to the health and life satisfaction benefits, the estimated economic benefits of parkrun to the UK economy were estimated to be £668m. This included £75m for the number of runs or walks completed (£1.92 per run or walk per person), £132m for the increase in activity after participation, and £463m for an estimated improvement to health status of 3% (found in a previous study).
Not only can these data inform public health measures, such as organized physical activity, but this study presents a model for evaluating changes to life satisfaction that can be more broadly applied.
The authors add: “Our previous paper showed that life satisfaction increased for those participating in parkrun – what we didn’t know was how parkrun ‘worked’. This new paper has given us an answer to this question: health status, increases in activity level and the pleasure from cumulative parkruns. Rather than the physical aspects of parkrun, it is the improvements to mental health that are most important, things like happiness, a sense of personal achievement and having fun. Importantly, we now have a model that we can use for any public health initiative, even if it’s not related to health. In a world of limited resources, the model is a useful way of working out which initiatives are most effective.”
New research finds that UK teens who vape are 33% more likely to smoke cigarettes
Photo by Nery Zarate on Unsplash
Teens who regularly use e-cigarettes are equally as likely as their peers from the 1970s to take up cigarette smoking, despite a substantial reduction in the prevalence of teenage cigarette use over the last 50 years, according to a study co-led by the University of Michigan.
U-M researchers, in collaboration with Penn State University and Purdue University, concluded that teenagers who had never used e-cigarettes had an approximately less than 1 in 50 chance of weekly cigarette use, whereas those who had previously used e-cigarettes had more than a 1 in 10 chance. More importantly, teenagers who reported consistent e-cigarette use had nearly a 1 in 3 chance of also reporting current conventional cigarette use.
The study illustrates shifts in the likelihood of youth cigarette use over time and the impacts of e-cigarettes on this trend. The results were derived from three longitudinal studies collected by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the University College of London, following teens from three different U.K. birth cohorts.
The research was published in the journal Tobacco Controland was supported by the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, and a seed grant from the Criminal Justice Research Center at Penn State University, while data collection by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies was supported by funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.
“The use of e-cigarettes and the proliferation of e-cigarettes have really disrupted those awesome trends and improvements. For kids who have never used e-cigarettes, we do see those historic declines in risk,” said Jessica Mongilio, a research fellow at the U-M School of Nursing and one of the lead researchers on the study. “But for kids who do use e-cigarettes, it’s almost as if all of those policies and all of those perceptions have done nothing, and they’ve got a really high risk of smoking cigarettes.”
Over the past few decades, cigarette smoking has evolved from a once glamorous status symbol to an unhealthy and socially discouraged practice, according to the researchers. This evolution was, in large part, driven by aggressive campaigning that labeled cigarette smoking as a public health risk.
By the late 1990s and into the early 2000s, cigarette smoking was structurally and socially stigmatized, embedded in national federal regulations and health policy. In recent years, cigarette smoking in youths dropped to an all-time low, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control.
E-cigarettes, colloquially known as vapes, often sold in bright colorways and in fruity flavors, have quickly emerged as a perceived “safer” alternative to the conventional cigarette. They stand to threaten decades of advocacy, health policy and cultural aversion toward smoking in both the U.K. and United States, the researchers say.
The Millennium Cohort Study, or MCS, tracked teens born in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2000 and 2001 and who were children when e-cigarettes were first commercialised. The British Cohort Study tracked individuals born in 1970, who were teenagers during the 1980s when cigarette use was fairly common and in their 40s when e-cigarettes were commercially available. Finally, the National Child Development Study tracked individuals born in 1958, who were young children when cigarette use was at its cultural peak.
“We took data from different cohorts, essentially different generations of people who live in the U.K., and looked at their probability of smoking cigarettes at least once a week, based on some well-known risk and protective factors,” Mongilio said. “For the most recent cohort, we also examined how use of e-cigarettes changed those probabilities.”
According to Mongilio and her collaborators, it’s not entirely clear whether e-cigarette use directly caused cigarette use, but it’s clear their incidences are strongly related. Still, the MCS cohort will be continuously surveyed over time to further understand how the use of e-cigarettes during the critical developmental teen years will affect their health in the long term.
Ultimately, with the findings of this study, the researchers hope to demonstrate the profound impact of e-cigarettes on today’s youth in an attempt to exact meaningful legislative, social and economic change.
“The more you can build evidence – the bigger the pile of support – the harder you can make it to ignore. This will lead toward policy changes and toward increased regulations for e-cigarettes and for producers of e-cigarettes,” Mongilio said. “I think we’re in a place where change is possible and to have increased regulations and enforcement of those regulations for companies that are producing e-cigarettes.”
Any amount of alcohol consumption may increase risk of dementia, according to the most comprehensive study of alcohol consumption and dementia risk to date.
Led by the University of Oxford, Yale University, and the University of Cambridge, the research challenges previous suggestions that light-to-moderate drinking may have a protective effect against dementia. The study is published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.
Alcohol consumption is widespread and is linked with an increased risk of many diseases. Heavy drinking has previously been linked to higher risk of dementia. The connection between moderate levels of drinking and higher risk of dementia was uncertain with some studies suggesting that moderate drinking may even reduce dementia risk. However, recent studies involving brain scans have shown that drinking alcohol even at low levels may increase the risk of dementia.
This study combined observational data from more than half a million participants in two large and diverse population studies: the US Million Veteran Program and UK Biobank to assess whether self-reported alcohol use was linked with risk of developing a broad range of types of dementia.
The researchers also investigated links between genetically-predicted likelihood of drinking alcohol and alcohol use disorder for more than 2.4 million participants in 45 individual studies. This approach helped the researchers overcome some of the difficulties in distinguishing correlation from causation.
Key findings:
Observational analyses seemed to support previous findings that current low and moderate drinking is associated with lower risk of dementia when compared with non-drinking and heavy drinking; however, some current non-drinkers were previously heavy drinkers, which could account for their increased dementia risk compared to consistently low drinkers;
Genetic analyses, however, revealed a continuously increasing trend of higher dementia risk with greater alcohol intakes, suggesting that any level of alcohol consumption increases the risk of dementia, with no evidence that drinking alcohol may have a protective effect;
A doubled increase in a person’s genetically-predicted risk of alcohol use disorder was associated with a 16% higher risk of dementia, while a three times higher increase in number of alcoholic drinks per week increased the risk of dementia risk by 15%;
The study also showed that people who later developed dementia reduced their alcohol intake before diagnosis, another explanation for prior findings of protective effects of alcohol, rather than true benefit.
Dr Anya Topiwala, Senior Clinical Researcher at Oxford Population Health, Consultant Psychiatrist, and lead author of the study, said ‘Our findings challenge the common belief that low levels of alcohol are beneficial for brain health. Genetic evidence offers no support for a protective effect – in fact, it suggests the opposite. Even light or moderate drinking may increase the risk of dementia, indicating that reducing alcohol consumption across the population could play a significant role in dementia prevention.’
Dr Stephen Burgess, Statistician at the University of Cambridge, said ‘The random nature of genetic inheritance allows us to compare groups with higher and lower levels of alcohol drinking in a way that allows us to make conclusions that untangle the confusion between correlation and causation. Our findings do not only hold for those who have a particular genetic predisposition, but for anyone who chooses to drink, our study suggests that greater alcohol consumption leads to higher risk of dementia.’
Dr Joel Gelernter, Professor at Yale University and senior author of the study, said ‘These results, which add to our understanding of the relationship between alcohol and dementia, have clinical implications – there was a time when medical knowledge seemed to support that light drinking would be beneficial to brain health, and this work adds to the evidence that this is not correct’.
This study adds to growing evidence that alcohol use, even at moderate levels, may have no safe threshold when it comes to brain health, reinforcing the case for preventive strategies that reduce alcohol consumption in the general population.
There’s a long-held belief in diabetes prevention that weight loss is the main way to lower disease risk. Our new study challenges this.
For decades, people diagnosed with prediabetes – a condition affecting up to one in three adults depending on age – have been told the same thing by their doctors: eat healthily and lose weight to avoid developing diabetes.
This approach hasn’t been working for all. Despite unchanged medical recommendations for more than 20 years, diabetes prevalence continues rising globally. Most people with prediabetes find weight-loss goals hard to reach, leaving them discouraged and still at high risk of diabetes.
Our latest research, published in Nature Medicine, reveals a different approach entirely. We found that prediabetes can go into remission – with blood sugar returning to normal – even without weight loss.
About one in four people in lifestyle intervention programmes bring their blood sugar back to normal without losing any weight. Remarkably, this weight-stable remission protects against future diabetes just as effectively as remission achieved through weight loss.
This represents a significant shift in how doctors might treat overweight or obese patients at high risk for diabetes. But how is it possible to reduce blood glucose levels without losing weight, or even while gaining weight?
The answer lies in how fat is distributed throughout the body. Not all body fat behaves the same way.
The visceral fat deep in our abdomen, surrounding our internal organs, acts as a metabolic troublemaker. This belly fat drives chronic inflammation that interferes with insulin – the hormone responsible for controlling blood sugar levels. When insulin can’t function properly, blood glucose rises.
In contrast, subcutaneous fat – the fat directly under our skin – can be beneficial. This type of fat tissue produces hormones that help insulin work more effectively. Our study shows that people who reverse prediabetes without weight loss shift fat from deep within their abdomen to beneath their skin, even if their total weight stays the same.
Subcutaneous fat can be beneficial. Photo by Andres Ayrton on Pexels
We’ve also uncovered another piece of the puzzle. Natural hormones that are mimicked by new weight-loss medications like Wegovy and Mounjaro appear to play a crucial role in this process. These hormones, particularly GLP-1, help pancreatic beta cells secrete insulin when blood sugar levels rise.
People who reverse their prediabetes without losing weight seem to naturally enhance this hormone system, while simultaneously suppressing other hormones that typically drive glucose levels higher.
Targeting fat redistribution, not just weight loss
The practical implications are encouraging. Instead of focusing only on the scales, people with prediabetes can aim to shift body fat with diet and exercise.
Research shows that polyunsaturated fatty acids, abundant in Mediterranean diets rich in fish oil, olives and nuts, may help reduce visceral belly fat. Similarly, endurance training can decrease abdominal fat even without overall weight loss.
This doesn’t mean weight loss should be abandoned as a goal – it remains beneficial for overall health and diabetes prevention. However, our findings suggest that achieving normal blood glucose levels, regardless of weight changes, should become a primary target for prediabetes treatment.
This approach could help millions of people who have struggled with traditional weight-loss programmes but might still achieve meaningful health improvements through metabolic changes.
For healthcare providers, this research suggests a need to broaden treatment approaches beyond weight-focused interventions. Monitoring blood glucose improvements and encouraging fat redistribution through targeted nutrition and exercise could provide alternative pathways to diabetes prevention for patients who find weight loss particularly difficult.
The implications extend globally, where diabetes represents one of the fastest-growing health problems. By recognising that prediabetes can improve without weight loss, we open new possibilities for preventing a disease that affects hundreds of millions worldwide and continues rapidly expanding.
This research fundamentally reframes diabetes prevention, suggesting that metabolic health improvements – not just weight reduction – should be central to clinical practice. For the many people living with prediabetes who have felt discouraged by unsuccessful weight-loss attempts, this offers renewed hope and practical alternative strategies for reducing their diabetes risk.
Taking vitamin D2 might lower the body’s levels of the more efficient form of vitamin D, vitamin D3, according to new research from the University of Surrey, John Innes Centre and Quadram Institute Bioscience.
Many people take vitamin D supplements to support their bone and immune health and meet the UK government recommendation of 10 micrograms (µg) each day, especially during the winter months.
There are two forms of vitamin D supplements available: vitamin D2 and vitamin D3. Researchers have found that taking vitamin D2 supplements can lead to a drop in the body’s concentration of vitamin D3, which is the form our bodies naturally produce from sunlight and use most effectively to raise overall vitamin D levels.
The study, published in Nutrition Reviews, analysed data from randomised controlled trials and found that vitamin D2 supplementation resulted in a reduction in vitamin D3 levels compared to those not taking a vitamin D2 supplement. In many of the studies, the vitamin D3 levels went lower than in the control group.
Vitamin D supplements are important, especially between October and March, when our bodies cannot make vitamin D from sunlight in the UK. However, we discovered that vitamin D2 supplements can actually decrease levels of vitamin D3 in the body, which is a previously unknown effect of taking these supplements. This study suggests that subject to personal considerations, vitamin D3 supplements may be more beneficial for most individuals over vitamin D2.
Emily Brown, PhD Research Fellow and Lead Researcher of the study from the University of Surrey’s Nutrition, Exercise, Chronobiology & Sleep Discipline
This research supports a previous study published in Frontiers in Immunology, led by Professor Colin Smith from the University of Surrey, which suggests that vitamin D2 and D3 do not have identical roles in supporting immune function. Vitamin D3 has a modifying effect on the immune system that could fortify the body against viral and bacterial diseases
We have shown that vitamin D3, but not vitamin D2, appears to stimulate the type I interferon signalling system in the body – a key part of the immune system that provides a first line of defence against bacteria and viruses. Thus, a healthy vitamin D3 status may help prevent viruses and bacteria from gaining a foothold in the body.
Professor Colin Smith, University of Surrey
Further research into the different functionalities of vitamin D2 and D3 should be a priority in deciding whether vitamin D3 should be the first-line choice of vitamin D supplement, subject to individual requirements.
Weight-related peer teasing is a strong predictor of disordered eating behaviours in adolescents, particularly those at higher genetic risk, new research shows.
Focusing on teenagers, the Flinders University study found that specific environmental factors including peer pressure and conflict with parents can increase the risk of sometimes dangerous disordered eating behaviours – particularly among those with higher genetic risk.
“This study demonstrates that genetic risk for anorexia nervosa exerts a stronger influence on disordered eating behaviours in adolescent girls when combined with adverse parental and peer relationships. These social factors – including parental expectations, criticism, and care, as well as weight-related peer teasing – are pivotal in shaping vulnerability to disordered eating,” says Professor Sarah Cohen-Woods, senior author of the article in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
“It appears that modifiable factors, such as positive peer relationships, and parental behaviour and relationships with their children, may be leveraged to reduce the impact of increased genetic risk for disordered eating behaviours.”
Preventative efforts should target environmental influences such as weight-related peer teasing, and parental interactions and relationships with their children, particularly in those that are genetically at risk.
“For example, high parental expectations or criticism may increase genetic risk for self-induced vomiting and avoidance of eating.
“Weight-related peer teasing was found to increase the influence of genetic factors on disordered eating behaviours, such as objective bulimic episodes.”
The study of 383 Australian teenage twin girls aged between 14 and 19 collected responses to capturing their self-reported experiences of parental expectations, parental criticism, parental care, weight-related peer teasing and parental conflict.
Professor Cohen-Woods, from the Flinders Institute for Mental Health and Wellbeing, says research into the complex interplay between genetic predisposition and environmental factors can in the long term inform and improve clinical and non-clinical solutions to eating disorders.
“The research into anorexia nervosa polygenic risk scores in context with other known environmental risk factors highlights that a person’s genetic risk is not an isolated factor but can be significantly influenced by their social and family environment.”
The research, led by the Blackbird Initiative at the Flinders Institute for Mental Health and Wellbeing, bridges a gap between psychosocial research and molecular genetics, demonstrating a gene-environment interaction using polygenic risk scores and existing parental and peer teasing data.
Researchers, however, say future research is needed with larger cohorts and a broader range of environmental measures to further investigate these complex relationships to guide support and prevention efforts for young people, benefiting everyday families and communities in the future.
The discovery challenges decades of assumptions and points to new hope for patients with depression, Alzheimer’s, and beyond
The most basic assumption about how psychedelic medicine works is at least partially flawed: Psychedelics are altering not just a few specific brain cells, but the vast majority of them, according to a new University of Michigan study.
The research, published in Molecular Psychiatry, shows that even neurons without serotonin 2A receptors – which are important for physiological processes, including mood regulation, perception and cognitive functions – can dramatically benefit from psychedelic compounds. This means that the therapeutic use of psychedelic medicine is far broader than currently appreciated, with important implications for Alzheimer’s disease and PTSD.
“We identified brain regions where most neurons are completely lacking serotonin 2A receptors. Surprisingly, psychedelic treatment was still able to strongly boost connectivity onto these neurons,” said the study’s senior author Omar Ahmed, U-M professor of psychology whose lab studies behavioural neural circuits and attempts to repair them when they go awry in specific disorders.
Psychedelic medicine is being successfully used in clinical trials to treat major depression. For decades it has been presumed that psychedelics work therapeutically by targeting the serotonin 2A receptor found on neurons in the frontal cortex and boosting connections onto those neurons. It has been assumed that frontal neurons with this serotonin 2A receptor were the only neurons benefiting from psychedelic therapy. This is why psychedelic medicine has focused on treating conditions relating to frontal dysfunction, such as major depression, Ahmed said.
When the research team studied the genes expressed in neurons of the entire cortex of the brain, they identified brain regions that did not express the serotonin 2A receptor that is supposed to be needed for psychedelic therapy to work. Ahmed’s lab, including co-first authors Tyler Ekins and Chloe Rybicki-Kler, showed that the retrosplenial cortex, a brain region important for memory, orientation and even imagining oneself in the future, was remarkably devoid of these receptors. The retrosplenial cortex is one of the first brain regions to be impaired in Alzheimer’s disease.
The team then recorded from these neurons lacking serotonin 2A receptors and found that they also show robust neuroplasticity (more synapses) after psychedelic treatment.
“This was a very unexpected finding given the current assumptions about how psychedelic medicine works,” Ahmed said.
The next step used a genetic engineering technique called CRISPR-Cas to reveal the rules that govern this surprising boost in brain connectivity, leading to a revised theory of how psychedelics control the brain’s ability to adapt and change. These new rules do not require neurons to have serotonin 2A receptors themselves to receive a synaptic boost from psychedelics, dramatically increasing the number of brain connections that can be potentially repaired by psychedelic medicine.
“The most successful medicines are those where we fully understand how they work. That is why it is so important to understand the fundamentals of how psychedelic medicine actually works,” Ahmed said.
The new findings are cause for both caution and optimism, he said. Caution, because they show that we need to be wary of psychedelics acting on unintended neurons. Optimism, because they open up the possibility of using psychedelic-like compounds to restore brain connections in Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders involving the retrosplenial cortex, such as PTSD.
“We are actively working on essential preclinical research to test this hypothesis related to Alzheimer’s disease,” Ahmed said.
Types of teeth. Credit: Scientific Animation CC4.0
Until now the sensory neurons inside the tooth were primarily thought to send pain signals to the brain, but a new study shows those neurons are multitaskers that also trigger a jaw-opening reflex that almost instantaneously prevents damage and further injury to teeth.
The reflex that pops open the lower jaw was a widely known craniofacial reflex, but until this study the cellular origins of this phenomenon were not known.
University of Michigan researchers in sensory neuroscience, dentistry and mechanical engineering found the origin using special live imaging, behaviour-tracking tools and mice molars to uncover the neurons’ additional role of monitoring the inner tooth and outer enamel.
The discovery and understanding of this additional role shows how important healthy, active nerves are for preserving teeth.
“We suspected there was a more fundamental role for tooth nerves,” said Joshua Emrick, senior author of the study and assistant professor at the U-M School of Dentistry. “When we consider regenerating a tooth pulp, we need to bring back the nerves.”
Emrick’s research team looked at how nerve cells reacted to stimulation of the molar teeth of mice in real time. Their experiments revealed a newly defined, protective role for intradental High-Threshhold Mechanoreceptors, highly specialized sensory neurons that respond to tooth damage. These HTMRs detect dangerous threats and send the message rapidly to the brain for instantaneous action.
“Our study challenges the prior assumption that nerves inside the tooth primarily function to elicit pain and force us straight to the dentist for help,” Emrick said. “If you’ve ever accidentally bitten down on your fork, you’ve probably experienced a startling jolt, but also stopped short of fracturing your teeth. You may thank these intradental HTMRs for that.”
The reflex is really about self-preservation.
“We think protection of the teeth through this jaw-opening reflex is highly conserved among mammals that haven’t developed the ability to replace teeth – like humans or in the molar teeth of mice,” Emrick said. “Our work reports an ability to use these neurons to also elicit pain which will open up possibilities for developing new methods for relieving toothache at the dentist’s office.”
To break it down further, the study, published in Cell Reports, showed that when enamel or dentin is damaged, the neurons fire a response. Follow-up experiments determined what happened after the HTMRs were activated. As previously known, the group identified that they trigger acute pain, but more surprisingly they also witnessed a rapid jaw-opening reflex within 5 to 15 milliseconds of the activation.
While the authors focused their work on understanding how the HTMRs function within the tooth, this important subclass of sensory neurons may protect other oral and body structures from damage. Elizabeth Ronan, postdoctoral fellow at the School of Dentistry and lead author of the work, said the findings are the start of a deeper understanding.
“While we typically think of sensation as giving rise to our perceived external experience of the world, sensory neurons are equally essential in protecting and maintaining our tissues throughout life,” she said. “Much remains to be discovered regarding how sensory neurons function within individual tissues, especially internal ones such as the teeth.”
Dr Deidre McPherson is one of ten women trauma surgeons in South Africa’s public healthcare sector. (Photo: Discovery Foundation)
By Biénne Huisman
Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town has one of the busiest emergency centres in the Western Cape. As it turns to the public to raise R20 million for the opening of a new emergency centre, Dr Deidre McPherson chats to Spotlight about the hospital’s trauma frontline.
Deep into the night while most of Cape Town is asleep, trauma surgeon Dr Deidre McPherson slips into work scrubs, hitting the highway to Groote Schuur Hospital to save the lives of critically injured patients.
In a boardroom next to the hospital’s Trauma Centre, McPherson details her solitary early-morning drives along the deserted N1 highway to perform life-saving surgery on people hurt in road accidents, gang violence, and other incidents.
She says she is called out from her home in Bellville past midnight at least once or twice a week. “It’s a surreal feeling,” she says. “I mean driving alone while the rest of the world is sleeping. By now, my husband is used to me leaving at weird times and coming back at like 03:00 or 05:00.”
In South Africa, trauma surgery only became a defined sub-speciality in 2008, meaning a formal training pathway for trauma surgery as its own discipline was created. Trauma surgeons are trained to manage multi-system injuries.
McPerson explains: “We are there at the most crucial moments, when life hangs in the balance. For me, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing a patient arrive critically injured, and walk out the hospital three weeks later, back to their lives.”
R20 million to equip new emergency centre
A new state-of-the-art emergency centre, which includes a new trauma centre, is being constructed at Groote Schuur, beside the existing facility. While it is set to open in 2026, hospital executives are turning to the public for R20 million in additional funding to fit the new premises with upgraded equipment.
As part of the fundraising drive, healthcare professionals recently took journalists on a candid tour of the existing facilities. Inside, corridors are clean but with linoleum floors peeling in places; some patients on trolley beds are stationed against walls, indicating wards filled to capacity.
Just beyond a sign that reads “C14 Welcome to Trauma Centre” – with translations in Afrikaans and isiXhosa – McPherson points out the trauma centre’s resuscitation ward, which can hold six intubated patients, she says. One recent admission can be seen on life support.
Increased capacity and privacy for critically injured patients
McPherson says the new facility will have a more spacious assessment or triage area, where staff decide which patients require immediate life-saving care and which can safely wait.
She says the new trauma centre will expand capacity across all three colour-coded wards. The resuscitation ward (red) will increase from six to ten beds. “This is severe trauma, for example [patients involved in] a motor vehicle accident, with head injury, chest injury and fractures needing life support”. The intermediate ward (yellow) will increase from 12 to 16 beds. “This is moderate trauma, for example, [patients with] multiple fractures, but stable”. The minor ward (green) will increase from 12 to 14 beds. “This is minor trauma for example, [patients with] cuts, bites and bruises – the walking wounded”.
Through the public funding drive, they hope to upgrade the computer system, buy more mobile ventilators for critically injured patients, and get a new full-body X-ray machine for rapid imaging in seconds, which McPherson says is “critical for assessing multiple gunshot or high-impact injuries”.
She says that the centre’s current computer has been in use for over 15 years and frequently stalls. “Sandy, our secretary, is on the phone to IT every second week,” McPherson says, adding that it isn’t necessarily dangerous but that it’s very frustrating. “Time matters so much in trauma,” she emphasises.
In addition, there are lighting issues in some of the examination rooms, with doctors occasionally having to do sutures by headlamp or the flashlight on their phone, McPherson says.
A woman in a male dominated field
During our follow-up interview in the boardroom, McPherson’s gestures are soft, framing her words. Her eyes are level, her cadence precise and unaffected. At present, she is one of ten women trauma surgeons in South Africa’s public sector, compared to 22 men. She is the only woman of four trauma surgeons at Groote Schuur’s trauma centre, which is led by Professor Andrew Nicol.
“Surgery has always been male-dominated and even more so sub-specialties like trauma,” says McPherson. “I was discouraged from following this path by colleagues and even family. This is not a career for women, they said. What if I have a family? The hours are so unpredictable. And there are the violent things we see each day…”
But she was determined. For McPherson, it was a calling, a job she loves. “it doesn’t feel like work,” she says.
Road accidents and gang violence
On average, 1000 patients are admitted to Groote Schuur’s trauma centre per month. Critical injuries, particularly road accidents, spike around Easter, on public holidays, on pay day, and in December, she says. She suggests semigration to Cape Town has seen an additional traffic burden and increased road accidents. Another major contributing factor is accidents involving delivery motorcycle drivers.
In addition, August and September this year have seen a marked month-on-month increase in gunshot wounds, McPherson says, with up to three patients with firearm injuries admitted each day.
“On particularly violent days, that number can rise to as many as 10 patients in 24 hours,” she says.
“What is particularly striking is not just the frequency, but the severity. These are not single gunshot wounds – we often see patients who have sustained multiple injuries, sometimes up to 20 bullet wounds at once.”
This echoes damning murder statistics recently quoted in The Guardian, which notes six people aged from 19 to 25 shot dead over two days in Wallacedene and Eikendal, on the Cape Flats.
Responding, McPherson says: “Sadly what is described in The Guardian is not an isolated incident – it is our daily reality. At Groote Schuur Hospital, we feel that burden first-hand. Every day we are treating teenagers and those in their twenties – who should be building their futures, not fighting for their lives – in our resuscitation bays.”
The latest crime statistics from the South African Police Service lists four precincts on the Cape Flats among the country’s five police stations with the highest murder rates. From January to March this year, Delft had 66 murders, Mfuleni had 65, Nyanga had 63, and Philippi East had 59. This is topped only by Inanda in KwaZulu-Natal which had 74 murders. In each of the last three years over 25 000 people were murdered in South Africa.
This constant cycle of violence is devastating and disheartening, she says, particularly “the high rate of recidivism – when patients return again and again with new injuries”.
For McPherson, cases linked to gender-based violence are especially disturbing. “And yet, as trauma surgeons, we try to focus on what we can do in those critical moments: stop the bleeding, repair the injuries, and give our patients a second chance at life.”
Are there any solutions?
Ultimately, McPherson says the real solution to trauma lies “upstream” in prevention.
“This means tackling the drivers of violence: unemployment, poor housing, failing schools, and the lack of opportunities that trap so many young people in cycles of crime and despair. It also means building safer communities through stronger policing, a justice system that works, and meaningful gun control laws to reduce the number of firearms circulating in our neighbourhoods,” she says.
Then there is preventable road accidents.
“Road traffic injuries remain one of the leading causes of admissions to our unit. As we move into the festive season, I want to urge the public to take responsibility for one another: do not drink and drive, wear seatbelts, and slow down on the roads. These are simple actions that can save lives,” she says.
To this end, she points out the importance of South Africa’s “Arrive Alive” campaign which aims to decrease the number of lives lost on the country’s roads through raising public awareness of road safety. Western Cape officials estimate that 139 people died in road accidents in the province between 1 December 2024 and 11 January 2025, with 627 arrests made for drunk driving.
Childhood inspiration
Born in Bellville to parents who worked in education, the eldest of three sisters, McPherson’s interest in medicine started early, fuelled by a weekly booklet series called How My Body Works. “It was out every Friday, I couldn’t wait for it to arrive. These booklets sparked my fascination with biology and science and it has stayed with me ever since. I still have them at home, packed away in a box,” she says.
McPherson matriculated at Settler’s High School in Parow and studied medicine at Stellenbosch University. She completed her internship at Tygerberg Hospital with a community service year in Atlantis, on the West Coast, where she first saw “how daily violence devastates young people”.
A mother to three-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, McPherson scrolls on her phone to her WhatsApp profile picture, which features her children dressed up in tiny doctor’s scrubs – pink and blue – each with a tiny stethoscope. “It was ‘career day’ so we chose outfits that was easy,” she says, smiling.
McPherson, who also counts a PhD on her resume, says she has processed pangs of “mum guilt” for her children. “My husband has been a constant pillar of support,” she says.
“Plus, I am happy and fulfilled, my children are growing up with a happy mother – but yes, it’s a juggling act, sometimes I have to decide which ball to drop. Is it a rubber ball, that will bounce back, or a glass ball that might shatter?”
To relax, she says she likes to read “sappy romantic fiction” like novels by Danielle Steele.
On her future radar? Becoming a full professor.
In the meantime, McPherson says she believes every encounter is an opportunity to make a difference. “We don’t just treat the injuries, we also try to offer support and counselling, hoping that this time might change the trajectory of a life,” she says.
A new movement in weight management is taking hold in South Africa as the country confronts weight-related illnesses. A powerful class of medication known as GLP-1 therapies is proving highly effective in cutting obesity rates, lowering cancer risk, and improving overall metabolic health. Their growing popularity marks a new frontline in the fight against sugar-driven disease.
A landmark study published in JAMA Oncology has revealed that patients using GLP-1 medications – a class of therapies originally developed for type 2 diabetes – experienced a 17% lower overall risk of cancer.
The data, drawn from over 86 000 patients, showed striking reductions in specific cancers: ovarian cancer risk nearly halved, meningioma cases fell by 31%, and endometrial cancer dropped by 25%.
Dr Tommie Smook, medical practitioner at Dr Smook & Partners (managed by RXME Group), says these findings reinforce the urgent need to fight back against sugar-related disease:
“We are witnessing the medical consequences of unchecked sugar consumption every day in practice. Obesity has become one of the greatest epidemics of our time. If we are serious about safeguarding public health, we must declare a national war on sugar – and GLP-1s are among the most powerful tools we now have to help people reclaim their health.”
What GLP-1s actually do
The body naturally produces GLP-1 – a hormone that regulates blood sugar, appetite, and digestion. GLP-1 medications mimic this process:
• They slow stomach emptying,
• Reduce hunger and cravings,
• Help patients feel satisfied with smaller portions, and
• Stabilise blood sugar levels.
The result is sustained weight loss. Clinical trials consistently show patients losing 10-15% of body weight, particularly when therapy is combined with nutrition, exercise, and professional support. In South Africa, several GLP-1s are now formally registered for obesity and chronic weight management.
But the benefits don’t end at weight loss. International studies have demonstrated improvements in cardiovascular health – lowering blood pressure, reducing inflammation, and decreasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Emerging evidence also suggests neuroprotective effects, with potential to reduce risks of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
From diabetes treatment to disease prevention
“GLP-1s are no longer just diabetes drugs,” says Dr Smook. “They are transforming the way we think about weight, chronic disease, and prevention. When used responsibly under medical guidance, these therapies can change not only waistlines, but lifespans.”
At Dr Smook & Partners, patients gain access to GLP-1 therapy under the supervision of qualified medical doctors. Medications are prepared only through SAHPRA-approved compounding pharmacies, ensuring quality and safety. This is supported by a multidisciplinary team – dietitians, biokineticists, nurses, and sports physicians, providing holistic care.
Here are the five essentials you should consider before starting GLP-1 therapy:
See a doctor first – these medications require proper screening and monitoring.
Think beyond injections – lifestyle, diet, and exercise remain vital.
Expect an adjustment phase – side effects like nausea are usually temporary.
Protect lean muscle – resistance training and adequate protein intake are essential.
Avoid shortcuts – unregulated, black-market products are unsafe and unpredictable.
A turning point for public health
Obesity is a modern epidemic, and sugar is at the heart of it. GLP-1 medications are not a “quick fix,” but they represent one of the most promising advances in decades – a way to tackle both the causes and consequences of excess weight.
Dr Smook concludes: “The stigma around GLP-1s must end. These therapies are not about vanity – they are about survival. Every patient who regains control of their health is one step closer to breaking sugar’s grip on our society.”
