The AIs’ failure rates exceeded 80 percent when provided with given ambiguous symptoms that could match more than one condition, and for more straightforward cases that included including physical exam findings and lab results, they still failed 40 percent of the time. The researchers also found that unlike human clinicians, the “LLMs collapse prematurely onto single answers,” resulting in “weak performance” across all models. Millions of Americans Are Talking to AI Instead of Going to the Doctor, and It’s Giving Them Horrendously Flawed Medical Advice – https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/millions-americans-ai-instead-doctor-bad-advice
Wow.
From the study discussion section:
Our evaluation suggests that despite rapid advances in pattern recognition and knowledge retrieval, current LLMs still lack the reasoning processes needed for safe clinical use. The consistent gap between differential diagnosis and final diagnosis highlights how differently these systems process information compared with physicians. Clinicians preserve uncertainty and iteratively refine differential diagnoses, whereas LLMs collapse prematurely onto single answers, a limitation that persists across model generations. Their weak performance on differential diagnosis, consistent with a prior study from authors of the current work,8 suggests these limitations persist across early and state-of-the-art models. The risk is not just that LLMs are sometimes wrong but that their reasoning is brittle precisely where uncertainty and nuance matter most. Benchmarks that reward only correct final answers risk reinforcing this shortcutting, widening the gap between marketing claims and the skills actually required at the bedside. Large Language Model Performance and Clinical Reasoning Tasks – Rao AS, Esmail KP, Lee RS, et al. Large Language Model Performance and Clinical Reasoning Tasks. JAMA Netw Open. 2026;9(4):e264003. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.4003 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2847679
Wow.
Should you really trust health advice from an AI chatbot?https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyepyy82kxo. Dr Nicholas Tiller explains: “They are designed to give very confident, very authoritative responses, and that conveys a sense of credibility, so the user assumes that it must know what it’s talking about.” He thinks chatbots should be avoided for health advice unless you have the expertise to know when the AI is getting the answers wrong.
The study’s Conclusions The audited chatbots performed poorly when answering questions in misinformation-prone health and medical fields. Continued deployment without public education and oversight risks amplifying misinformation. Tiller NB, Marcon AR, Zenone M, et al
Generative artificial intelligence-driven chatbots and medical misinformation: an accuracy, referencing and readability audit BMJ Open 2026;16:e112695. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-112695 https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/16/4/e112695
There is a significant chance that you will live for many years beyond the average, and you should consider this possibility when thinking about your retirement. The Actuaries Longevity Illustrator (“ALI”) has been developed as an educational tool by the American Academy of Actuaries and the Society of Actuaries to help you gauge what those chances are. Reflecting on your longevity will allow you to consider the risks of outliving your financial resources, i.e., the chance of running out of money during your lifetime, which we refer to as retiree financial longevity risk . The ALI helps you to consider those risks by letting you see how long you might live. https://www.longevityillustrator.org/
Try this calculator to see your probability of living to certain ripe old age.
“We could replace a great deal of radiologists with AI at this moment, if we are ready to do the regulatory challenge,” Mitchell Katz, president and CEO of New York’s 11-hospital public benefit corporation
Mohammed Suhail, a radiologist at North Coast Imaging in San Diego, told Radiology that Katz’s comments are “undeniable proof that confidently uninformed hospital administrators are a danger to patients (and are) ..“easily duped by AI companies that are nowhere near capable of providing patient care.”
We plan for the money. We don’t plan for the Monday morning when no one needs you to be anywhere.
Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, published a landmark meta-analysis in 2015 involving over 3.4 million participants. Her finding: social isolation increases the risk of premature death by 26%, and loneliness by 29%. Those numbers rival the health impact of smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. We treat smoking as a public health crisis. We treat retirement loneliness as a personal failing.
Though the traditional retirement age in the U.S. typically falls between 62 and 67, many Americans continue working beyond that point. As of 2024, slightly more than 22% of adults aged 65 and older are still employed, either full-time or part-time. Though the traditional retirement age in the U.S. typically falls between 62 and 67, many Americans continue working beyond that point. As of 2024, slightly more than 22% of adults aged 65 and older are still employed, either full-time or part-time. – https://financebuzz.com/working-in-retirement-data
So I’m not the only Old Guy who is still working past age 65.
The association between physical activity and mortality and morbidity is well established. A 2023 meta-analysis of large prospective studies that examined dose–response found that physical activity levels equivalent to the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate physical activity reduced all-cause mortality by 31% compared with no physical activity.12 The authors used metabolic equivalent of task (MET), the ratio of work metabolic rate to resting metabolic rate. One MET is equivalent to the energy cost of sitting quietly. A 2019 systematic review and meta-analysis found that, among middle-aged and older adults (aged ≥ 40 yr), higher levels of total physical activity were associated with reduced risk of death in a dose–response relation, such that the most, second-most, and third-most active quartiles were associated with 0.47, 0.35, and 0.28 hazard ratios, respectively, compared with the least active quartile.13 According to a large 2019 observational study, resistance exercise is also associated with reduced mortality independent of aerobic exercise.14 Two 2022 meta-analyses found, respectively, that 60 minutes of resistance exercise per week is associated with a risk reduction of 27% in all-cause mortality15 and that muscle-strengthening activities for 30–60 minutes per week is associated with a 10%–20% reduction.16
Cardiorespiratory fitness and peak exercise capacity are associated with mortality. Peak exercise capacity is a better indicator of risk of death than established cardiovascular risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus.17 A study examining cardiorespiratory fitness in older adults found dose-dependent reductions in mortality across all age groups (including participants aged 60–69, 70–79, and 80–95 yr).18 Substantial improvements (approximately 16%) in VO2max (an individual’s maximum rate of oxygen consumption, a strong indicator of mortality19) in older adults can occur with only 90 minutes of submaximal exercise per week over 16–20 weeks.20
Strength is also associated with reductions in all-cause mortality in older adults. A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis found a linear inverse relation between handgrip strength and all-cause mortality up to sex-dependent thresholds (42 kg for men, 25 kg for women) in older adults.21 In their 2018 systematic review and meta-analysis, the authors found both handgrip and knee extension strength to be predictors of all-cause mortality in adults, with most of the studies examining adults older than 65 years.22 – Move more, age well: prescribing physical activity for older adults CMAJ January 27, 2025 197 (3) E59-E67; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.231336
A key takeaway from the updated guidelines is that the biggest benefits often come from a simple starting point. Transitioning from no resistance training to any regular activity can lead to meaningful improvements. While factors such as load, volume, and frequency can be adjusted, experts say the main priority for most adults should be building a routine they can follow consistently.
Another important shift in the recommendations is the recognition that effective resistance training does not require access to a gym. Exercises using elastic bands, bodyweight movements, or simple at home routines can still produce measurable gains in strength, muscle size, and daily function. McMaster University. “The best strength training plan might be simpler than you think.” ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260319074552.htm
Sports betting is being marketed to young Americans as an investment. Social media has perpetuated the idea that betting on sports is a profitable venture, leading to the normalization of unsafe and risky behavior. The legalization of prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket have only reinforced that messaging. America’s next epidemic – https://www.bettoroff.org/about-6-1
Nearly one in four (23.5%) young adults, aged 18 to 29, who reported gambling online in the past year experienced high levels of gambling-related harms, including financial, emotional, psychological and relationship harms. Online Gambling Among Young Canadian Adults: A Call to Action – https://www.ccsa.ca/en
“But the real question is what is the quality of the weight regain and what is the shift in people’s metabolism, and it seems to be very bad,” she said. “Ongoing studies that haven’t been published yet suggest that hypertension comes back. All the inflammatory markers come back, and lipids go up. And if you have diabetes, it gets worse. Overall, it’s kind of a mess…As these studies and others showed, most people regain the weight. Whether or not they regain all the weight depends in part on diabetes and insulin and many other factors, but people will likely regain most of their weight.”
“But the message isn’t that you regain the weight. The message is that you may be less healthy when you regain the weight. That’s why we need to couple the drugs with lifestyle interventions. And it’s why people who just want to lose 5 or 10 pounds really need to consider that lifestyle change, hard as it is, is the better way to do it.”
Anne Peters, MD, professor Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California
I never envisioned developing an obsession with pharmaceuticals. And after many years of endless blogging into the void I learned I could link to previous posts like this: https://lifeunderwriter.net/tag/glp-1-receptor-agonist/
Sports betting is being marketed to young Americans as an investment. Social media has perpetuated the idea that betting on sports is a profitable venture, leading to the normalization of unsafe and risky behavior. The legalization of prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket have only reinforced that messaging. America’s next epidemic – https://www.bettoroff.org/about-6-1
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