In a new study, researchers analyzed 68 studies that compared added sugar intake in sweetened beverages and other foods with weight changes and found that when participants were advised to lower their sugar intake they lost an average of nearly two pounds over six to eight months. Walter Willett, chair of the Department of Nutrition at HSPH and David Ludwig, HMS professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, wrote an editorial that accompanied the study.

There is now a flurry of new trials at cutting-edge medical centers in Boston and elsewhere, and yesterday, a rigorous randomized trial found that most patients with serious, recurrent infections caused by the bacteria C. difficile got better when donor feces were infused into their intestines. George Russell, HMS instructor in pediatrics at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, is quoted.

According to a new study, when people outside of hospitals go into cardiac arrest, their brains are better preserved one month out if emergency medical responders use an older, lower-tech method called bag-valve-mask ventilation in conjunction with CPR to preserve the supply of air to the lungs than if they try to manage the situation more aggressively. Kohei Hasegawa, HMS instructor in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, is one of the authors.