Cannabis and nicotine use hold at record highs; endometriosis linked to higher diabetes risk; screen time gets a second look — Morning Medical Update

Cannabis and nicotine use hold at record highs

Cigarette smoking and drinking keep declining, but young adult heroin use ticked up for the first time in about 10 years.

Adults in the U.S. reported cannabis use at or near record highs in 2025, with nicotine vaping also holding near all-time highs, according to the latest Monitoring the Future Longitudinal Panel Study. Daily cannabis use among adults 35 to 50 rose to 8.5% from 6.6% in 2024, and past-year nicotine pouch use among all adults has more than doubled since 2023.

Cigarette smoking stayed low, from 8.3% of young adults to 10.6% of adults 55 to 65, and young adult drinking held steady. Past-year heroin use among adults 19 to 30 rose to 0.6% from 0.2%, the first significant uptick in about 10 years, though still below the 2013 high of 0.7%. Figures are self-reported. The University of Michigan has the full panel results.

Endometriosis linked to higher diabetes risk

The largest study of its kind found a 46% higher risk, strongest among premenopausal women and women without obesity.

Women with endometriosis had a 46% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than women without the condition, according to a retrospective cohort study published in Diabetologia. Researchers led by the George Mason College of Public Health analyzed records for nearly 3 million women in the Utah Population Database from 1996 to 2021, including nearly 100,000 with diagnosed endometriosis.

Risk varied by subtype, with the strongest association among women with extra-pelvic endometriosis. The link was also strongest in premenopausal women and women without obesity, groups not typically considered high risk for type 2 diabetes.

The authors said the findings show an association, not that endometriosis causes diabetes, and that chronic inflammation may play a role. Endometriosis affects about 1 in 10 women of reproductive age.

Screen time gets a second look

A Finnish follow-up study tied more screen time since childhood to better cognitive processing in adolescence.

More screen time since childhood was associated with better cognitive processing in adolescence, according to an eight-year follow-up of the Finnish PANIC study published in Pediatric Exercise Science.

Researchers at the University of Jyväskylä assessed learning, attention and working memory with the CogState battery in 124 girls and 136 boys with an average age of 15.8 years.

Findings on physical activity were mixed. Light-intensity activity since childhood was associated with better working memory in girls, and guided activity with better working memory in boys, while less self-reported unsupervised activity was tied to better cognitive processing.

Activity and sedentary time measured by heart rate and movement sensors showed no association. The sample is small and the design observational, and the researchers said intervention studies are needed to establish causation.