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Half a century after Americans began fighting hunger with monthly food stamps, the nation’s physicians and policymakers are focusing more than ever on what’s on each person’s plate. In the 21st century, food is seen as medicine — and a tool to cut health care costs. The “food is medicine” concept is simple: If chronically ill people eat a nutritious diet, they’ll need fewer medications, emergency room visits and hospital readmissions. (Mercer, 9/7)

Scientists reported on Thursday that, in any one patient, untreated metastases are driven by the same genetic mutations, whether they’re in the lung or liver or anywhere else. That conclusion, based on the most extensive analysis to date of metastatic tumors, bodes well for targeted therapies, because it means a single drug should work against all of a patient’s metastases — and it is the metastases, not the primary tumor, that are responsible for 90 percent of cancer deaths. (Begley, 9/6)

The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending that everyone older than 6 months get a flu shot for the 2018-19 season as soon as it is available, preferably before the end of October. The policy statement, published in the October issue of Pediatrics, states that the inactivated influenza vaccine, which is given as a shot, is best. Children with egg allergy, even severe allergy, can take the shot safely. (Bakalar, 9/6)

[Dr. Pieter] Cohen’s latest target is the stimulant higenamine, an ingredient listed on the labels of weight loss and sports supplements. Working with a public health team from the Netherlands and an international testing lab, the Harvard Medical School associate professor studied 24 products containing higenamine. The amount on the label was never the same as the amount found in the bottle, the team found in a study published Thursday, and the serving sizes also varied, from trace amounts to 110 milligrams per day. (Cooney, 9/6)

Do you think that the private thoughts in your head could influence how other people — or creatures — act? The answer is "Of course not," right? Because to say yes would be to admit you believe in mind control or telekinesis or some other phenomenon usually reserved for superhero comic books. But early in his career, a research psychologist named Bob Rosenthal wasn't so sure. So to test his hypothesis, he designed a devious experiment. (Simstrom, 9/7)

They have been pouring into emergency rooms around the nation all summer, their bodies bearing a blend of injuries that doctors normally associate with victims of car wrecks — broken noses, wrists and shoulders, facial lacerations and fractures, as well as the kind of blunt head trauma that can leave brains permanently damaged. When doctors began asking patients to explain their injuries, many were surprised to learn that the surge of broken body parts stemmed from the latest urban transportation trend: shared electric scooters. (Holley, 9/6)

There is no screening test for a disease that is expected to strike more than 22,000 women and kill more than 14,000 in the United States this year. Those figures are the American Cancer Society's projections for ovarian cancer, the deadliest gynecologic cancer and the fifth-leading cause of cancer-related death among women. Ovarian cancer used to be called "the silent killer" because its symptoms mimic other diseases and are treated as such. Consequently, it's often diagnosed in later stages, when there is a lower survival rate. But the news is getting better. (Molly Callahan, 9/6)

Do not panic, but there is a medical condition in which a person's tongue can take on a dark, woolly appearance — and it is appropriately called “black hairy tongue." Doctors in Missouri diagnosed a 55-year-old woman with the condition last year after she reported feeling nauseated and having a foul taste in her mouth — and a black, hairy-looking tongue, according to a study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Bever, 9/6)