Medical Bulletin 19/February/2026 - Video

Here are the top medical news for today:

Post-Exercise Milk Intake Linked to Better Bone Density After 60: Study

A recent study published in the Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging examined whether combining protein supplementation, nutrition education (NE), and resistance exercise could improve muscle and bone health in older adults. The researchers also compared milk and soy milk as post-exercise protein sources.

As people age, loss of muscle mass and bone mineral density (BMD) increases the risk of sarcopenia, osteoporosis, and osteosarcopenia — conditions linked to falls, disability, and reduced quality of life. Nutrition and resistance exercise are considered key strategies to slow this decline, especially since many older adults struggle with appetite and chewing, making liquid protein sources like milk and soy milk practical options.

The study recruited 82 community-dwelling adults aged 60 and above. All participants completed an 8-week resistance and balance training program (three sessions per week). They were divided into four groups: exercise only; exercise plus NE; exercise plus NE with milk supplementation; and exercise plus NE with soy milk supplementation. The milk and soy milk groups consumed their drinks shortly after exercise, along with sweet potato for balanced carbohydrate intake.

All groups showed improved walking speed, indicating better mobility. The milk supplementation group demonstrated broader benefits, including improved handgrip strength, chair stand performance, overall physical function, and increases in bone health markers such as T-scores and upper-limb BMD. Milk supplementation was associated with greater gains in handgrip strength compared to soy milk. However, no group showed significant increases in muscle mass, possibly due to the short intervention period.

While findings suggest that resistance exercise combined with milk-based protein and nutrition education may support musculoskeletal health, the modest sample size and study design limit firm conclusions. Larger randomized trials are needed to confirm these results.

REFERENCE: Liao, T. et al. (2026) Muscle performance and bone density following a multi-intervention program with milk or soy milk supplementation in older adults: Quasi-experimental study. The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging. 30(3), 100784. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnha.2026.100784. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12861217/

Study Finds Minimal Immediate Gains From Exercise in Osteoarthritis

An umbrella review published in RMD Open suggests that exercise therapy may provide only minimal and short-lived relief for people with osteoarthritis, raising questions about its universal recommendation as a first-line treatment.

Exercise is widely advised to reduce pain and improve physical function in individuals with knee, hip, and hand osteoarthritis. However, growing evidence has cast doubt on how strong and long-lasting these benefits truly are. To better understand the overall picture, researchers conducted an overarching systematic review and pooled analysis of existing data.

They analyzed five systematic reviews involving 8,631 participants and 28 randomized clinical trials including 4,360 participants with knee, hip, hand, or ankle osteoarthritis. The studies compared exercise with placebo, usual care, no treatment, medications, injections, manual therapy, and surgery.

The pooled results showed that for knee osteoarthritis, exercise was associated with small and short-term pain relief compared to placebo or no treatment. However, the certainty of the evidence was very low, and the effects were even smaller in larger and longer-term trials. For hip osteoarthritis, moderate-certainty evidence suggested negligible benefit, while small effects were observed for hand osteoarthritis.

Outcomes were generally comparable to patient education, manual therapy, painkillers, steroid or hyaluronic acid injections, and arthroscopic knee surgery. In some trials, surgical options such as osteotomy and joint replacement provided greater long-term improvements than exercise alone.

The authors conclude that evidence supporting exercise as a standalone first-line treatment is largely inconclusive. Still, they acknowledge that exercise has broader health benefits and may be preferred by some patients.

They recommend shared decision-making between clinicians and patients, weighing modest symptom relief against safety, cost, overall health benefits, and alternative treatment options.

REFERENCE: Schleimer, T., et al. (2026). Effectiveness of exercise therapy for osteoarthritis: an overview of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials. RMD Open. https://doi.org/10.1136/rmdopen-2025-006275. DOI: 10.1136/rmdopen-2025-006275. https://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/12/1/e006275

Breakthrough Study Identifies Enzyme Fueling Cancer DNA Changes

Scientists at the University of California San Diego have identified the enzyme that triggers chromothripsis — a catastrophic genetic event in which a chromosome shatters into pieces and is stitched back together in the wrong order, accelerating cancer evolution and drug resistance.

The findings, published in Science, reveal that an enzyme called N4BP2 acts as the molecular “spark” behind this destructive process. Chromothripsis allows cancer cells to undergo dozens or even hundreds of genetic alterations in a single event, rather than accumulating mutations gradually. This rapid burst of genome rearrangement can make tumors more aggressive and harder to treat.

Chromothripsis begins when errors during cell division trap chromosomes inside small compartments known as micronuclei. When these fragile structures rupture, the exposed DNA becomes vulnerable to enzymes that cut genetic material. Using advanced imaging-based screening, researchers examined all known human nucleases and discovered that N4BP2 uniquely enters micronuclei and fragments the DNA inside.

When the team removed N4BP2 from brain cancer cells, chromosome shattering dropped sharply. Conversely, forcing the enzyme into healthy cell nuclei caused chromosomes to break apart, confirming that N4BP2 is sufficient to trigger chromothripsis.

Analysis of more than 10,000 cancer genomes showed that tumors with higher N4BP2 activity had more chromothripsis and structural rearrangements. These cancers also contained elevated levels of extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) — circular DNA fragments linked to aggressive growth and therapy resistance.

The discovery positions N4BP2 as a promising therapeutic target. By blocking this enzyme or its pathways, researchers hope to reduce the genomic instability that enables tumors to evolve, recur, and resist treatment.

REFERENCE: Ksenia Krupina, Alexander Goginashvili, Michael W. Baughn, Stephen Moore, Christopher D. Steele, Amy T. Nguyen, Daniel L. Zhang, Jonas Koeppel, Prasad Trivedi, Aarti Malhotra, David Jenkins, Andrew K. Shiau, Yohei Miyake, Tomoyuki Koga, Shunichiro Miki, Frank B. Furnari, Peter J. Campbell, Ludmil B. Alexandrov, Don W. Cleveland. Chromothripsis and ecDNA initiated by N4BP2 nuclease fragmentation of cytoplasm-exposed chromosomes. Science, 2025; 390 (6778): 1156 DOI: 10.1126/science.ado0977