In last month’s Letter from the Editor, I introduced you to our growing editorial team, which includes scientists, journalists, poets, and adventurers. This month, I want to focus on the other side of the equation: you.

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Who are our readers? And what drives their curiosity to learn more with Medical News Today?

Who are our Medical News Today readers? We know that around 70 percent of you are consumers and roughly 30 percent are healthcare professionals (HCPs). The largest majority of you are between the ages of 18 and 34, and over 60 percent of you are female.

The majority of you live in the United States, and more than 50 percent of the time, you’re accessing our content from your smartphone.

But what is it that drives you to learn more with MNT? Perhaps you or a loved one were recently diagnosed with a condition. Maybe you like staying up to date on the latest findings so that you can impress at parties. Or perhaps, like the editorial team, you’re innately curious about how things work.

Whatever the reason, we’re glad you’re here. In fact, we listen closely to what our readers are talking about. This month, for example, there was a lot of discussion about a new study on the relationship between cannabis and psychiatric disorders, with several readers throwing their hat into the ring and pointing to further studies and statistics.

Another hot topic for you was food allergies. Our news team uncovered a study that suggested a gluten-free diet is not recommended for people who do not have celiac disease.

Following on from this, News Editor Honor Whiteman looked into whether food allergies are overdiagnosed.

You were also curious about the cause of baldness and gray hair, and how chronic disease risk can rise with just 14 days of physical inactivity.

However, it was how poor sleep affects our ability to learn that really grabbed your attention this month, causing me to wonder whether you’re getting enough sleep. Are you?

Over in the Knowledge Center, you were most interested in articles pertaining to blood sugar, including the dawn phenomenon and meal planning to manage blood sugar. Many of you have also been interested in specific diet articles, such as what foods to avoid with high cholesterol.

Along with curiosity, the pursuit of eating healthfully is another commonality we share with you; at MNT HQ, we’ve got a snack cupboard stocked with fruits, nuts, rice cakes, and yogurt so that we can keep our energy levels up throughout the workday, while keeping you up to date.

For our HCPs, we’ve investigated how doctors are connecting through a book club, as well as provided insight into a day in the life of a general practitioner.

Chatting with a primary care physician was revelatory for us, but would you like to chat with a robot? MNT have a new chatbot function on our Facebook page. Click on “Send Message” to interact with our news “healthbot” and sign up for daily news, delivered to you via messenger.

Our chatbot is as curious as we are, so it will likely ask you some preliminary questions.

Have any questions for us? Reach out for anything you’re curious to know more about, from how science fiction is becoming reality, to what our favorite Late Cretaceous dinosaur is (spoiler alert: it’s the Gigantoraptor). What’s yours?

[Marie signature]