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☆ Opinion | How to Use the Debt Ceiling to Inflict Cruelty on the Poor
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( David Firestone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

In 2021, 61 percent of the 25 million people on Medicaid were working in full- or part-time jobs. The bill would also require many adults 19 to 55 to work 80 hours a month to receive federally subsidized health coverage from Medicaid. Republicans couldn’t repeal the act through the front door, so they are using the leverage provided by the debt ceiling to try to achieve their ideological aim. It’s been clear for years that these kinds of work requirements don’t actually put people back to work; they just pry people away from the benefits they need. In 2018, Arkansas became the first state to impose very similar work requirements on Medicaid, before a federal judge ended the experiment the next year.

☆ Addiction Treatment Medicine Is Vastly Underprescribed, Especially by Race, Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Jan Hoffman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Despite the continuing rise in opioid overdose deaths, one of the most effective treatments for opioid addiction is still drastically underprescribed in the United States, especially for Black patients, according to a large new study. Within six months following a high-risk event like an overdose, white patients filled buprenorphine prescriptions up to 80 percent more often than Black patients, and up to 25 percent more often than Latino patients, the study found. Rates of use for methadone, another effective treatment, were generally even lower. Noting that all the patients regardless of race encountered doctors roughly once a month, he said, “There are two mechanisms left that could explain disparities this large. One is where people of color get their health care, which we know is highly segregated, and another is racial differences in patient trust and demand for buprenorphine.“

☆ How promising are new drugs to treat obesity?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Katia Hetter | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —The pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly announced last week that a medication developed to treat diabetes, tirzepatide, also had a substantial effect on reducing weight. Another pharmaceutical company, Novo Nordisk, manufactures the medication semaglutide, which the FDA has already approved to treat diabetes under the brand name Ozempic and to treat obesity under the brand name Wegovy. How promising are they to treat obesity? CNN: How promising are these drugs to treat obesity? It is really important to treat obesity as the disease that it is — and having effective medications to do so is crucial.

☆ Link Between Long Telomeres and Long Life Is a Tall Tale, Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Cells have a molecular clock that determines how long they live. The clocks come in the form of caps on the end of chromosomes — the long twisted strings of DNA carrying the cells’ genes. Every time a cell divides, its telomeres get a little shorter, until finally they get so short that the cell dies. While short telomeres do lead to health problems, long telomeres lead to health problems of their own. Far from extending life, long telomeres appear to cause cancer and a blood disorder known as CHIP, a condition that increases the risk of blood cancers and heart disease.

☆ R.S.V. Vaccine Approved for Older Adults
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Christina Jewett | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

advisory panel reviewed data from trials for two vaccines aimed at older adults, one from GSK and one from Pfizer. The virus can lead to pneumonia, which is far more worrisome for older adults and especially for those with underlying medical conditions like heart and lung disease or diabetes. vaccine for older adults is also expected to receive F.D.A. in older adults and said it expected authorization in the first half of this year. Last week, the European Medicines Agency did recommend approval of GSK’s vaccine for adults 60 and older.

☆ Michael Brescia, Who Gave Up Profits to Comfort the Dying, Dies at 90
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( James R. Hagerty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Michael Brescia developed a lifesaving method of connecting kidney patients to dialysis machines. Photo: Calvary HospitalIn the early 1960s, Michael Brescia and a colleague, James Cimino, invented a lifesaving procedure to connect dialysis machines to people with failing kidneys. Their method—which involves joining an artery and a vein to allow rapid flows of blood into and out of the body—became a standard in medical care. Investors were eager to help the two doctors set up dialysis centers that could have cashed in on the technology. “I was 33 years old, and this was going to make me rich,” Dr. Brescia said later.

☆ A drug company abandoned a treatment for ‘bubble boy disease.’ After a 5-year fight, this little girl is about to get it
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Elizabeth Cohen Lauren Mascarenhas | Elizabeth Cohen | Lauren Mascarenhas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +29 min

The Sulacks weighed their options: Have a transplant with a match that was less than ideal – far less – or wait for gene therapy to become available. The news release didn’t say anything else about the SCID gene therapy. Or was the company abandoning its plans for SCID gene therapy altogether? In February, 2021, the parents of more than 20 children who were waiting for the gene therapy treatment, including the Sulacks, wrote a letter to Gaspar. Insurance companies have sometimes balked at paying for gene therapy, which is typically given in one treatment.

☆ A Century-Old Vaccine Fails to Protect Against Covid
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Roni Caryn Rabin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An old tuberculosis vaccine known to bolster the immune system did not prevent Covid infections among health care workers, scientists reported on Thursday. But the trial was shorter and smaller than originally designed, and the investigators said that the results did not rule out other potential benefits associated with the vaccine, known as B.C.G. The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, was the largest clinical trial of the vaccine’s potential to protect against Covid infections. The trial of health care workers began in March 2020, during the early days of the pandemic, when no effective treatments for Covid were available and a new vaccine against the highly infectious disease seemed to be a remote fantasy. The hope was that the old vaccine might be repurposed to save lives.

☆ Medicare is prohibited from covering weight-loss drugs — Ozempic could change that
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Medicare is prohibited from covering new weight-loss medications. Medicare, the federal program that covers healthcare for people 65 and older, is prohibited by law from covering any weight-loss medications. That includes looking at programs that test out Medicare coverage and proposed limits to coverage, The Journal reports. The future of the $100 billion weight-loss drugs marketExpanding Medicare coverage to new weight-loss medications could drastically change how Americans access the drugs. Meanwhile, other Americans will continue to go to Canada, Mexico, and unregulated online pharmacies to get the weight-loss medications for cheap.

☆ People Can't Get Ozempic, New Weight-Loss Drugs Because of Broken Healthcare System
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Wegovy is just one of a wave of revolutionary weight-loss drugs, which also includes the buzzy Ozempic, that represents a watershed moment for obesity treatment. Demand for weight-loss drugs is surgingDoctors and healthcare professionals searched for a healthy, safe, and effective weight-loss solution for years before the drugs, known collectively as GLP-1 agonists, exploded on the scene. If there is one key that could unlock access to expensive weight-loss drugs for Americans, it's Medicare. Expanding coverage for Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs for just a small segment of the population could cost Medicare up to $26.8 billion a year. Patients lose outYears from now, patients may have an easier time getting their hands on weight-loss drugs.

☆ Pfizer RSV vaccine for older adults should be monitored for nervous system condition Guillain-Barre, scientists say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A health worker prepares a flu vaccine shot before administering it to a local resident in Los Angeles, the United States, on Dec. 17, 2022. People who receive Pfizer 's RSV vaccine for older adults should be monitored for Guillain-Barre syndrome, after two people developed the nervous system disorder after they received the shot, scientists said in clinical trial results published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The scientists concluded the vaccine was effective in preventing lower respiratory tract illness in adults ages 60 and older without any evident safety concerns. But they flagged the Guillain-Barre cases as a potential cause for concern moving forward. Guillain-Barre syndrome is a rare disorder in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks the nerves.

☆ Coffee and Your Heart: The Impact May Be Different Than You Think
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

America’s favorite stimulant might not be so risky for cardiac health after all, but there may still be other health effects, researchers say. Coffee consumption doesn’t increase abnormal heart beats associated with an increased risk of the most common heart rhythm disturbance, according to a new study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers monitored the hearts, activity and sleep of 100 people without underlying heart conditions over two weeks. They found that the key cardiac risk marker remained about the same for coffee drinkers as it did for non-coffee drinkers. The irregular heart rhythm known as atrial fibrillation, can lead to dangerous blood clots that can cause stroke and heart failure.

☆ Economists warn of costs if Medicare covers new obesity drugs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Nancy Lapid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

March 11 (Reuters) - The cost of expanding U.S. Medicare prescription drug coverage to pay for expensive, new obesity medications could be catastrophic, health economists warned in a report published on Saturday. Big-selling diabetes drugs have been repurposed as obesity treatments after demonstrating weight loss of more than 20% in clinical trials. While they are far more effective than older drugs, lifetime use might be required to keep lost weight off. But should the bipartisan The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act get reintroduced and passed by Congress, Medicare will be compelled to cover drugs for weight loss. The Medicare health program covers more than 60 million Americans, most over age 65.

☆ Men With Prostate Cancer Can Thrive for Years With Less Aggressive Treatment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Ariana Perez-Castells | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Surgery to address prostate cancer can have lasting negative effects in some men. Many prostate-cancer patients could delay or forgo radical treatment without compromising quality of life or longevity, a study showed, adding to a reconsideration of how aggressively to treat some common cancers. Men with low-grade and some with moderate-grade localized prostate cancer could safely choose surveillance over surgery or radiation, according to a study published on Saturday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Its authors followed about 1,600 men in the U.K. diagnosed with localized prostate cancer for a median of 15 years. They found that mortality was low whether patients received radiotherapy, a prostatectomy or active monitoring: 3% of patients in the study died from prostate cancer.

☆ US CDC concludes cough syrups likely to blame for children's deaths in Gambia -report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Jennifer Rigby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The links between the children's deaths and contaminated medicines first came to light in October, when the World Health Organization sent out an alert saying four cough syrups made by India's Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd contained toxic levels of diethylene and ethylene glycol and should be withdrawn. The new investigation "strongly suggests" that medicines contaminated with the toxins, imported into Gambia, led to the cluster of acute kidney injury among 78 children. Maiden has denied its drugs were at fault for the deaths in Gambia, and the Indian government has said the syrups showed no contamination when it tested them. "This likely poisoning event highlights the potential public health risks posed by the inadequate quality management of pharmaceutical exports," the report said. Since the deaths in Gambia, 201 children have also died in Indonesia, and 19 in Uzbekistan, linked to different manufacturers' contaminated cough syrups.

☆ More Women With Breast Cancer Could Skip Harsh Radiation, Study Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Brianna Abbott | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Researchers are testing whether more limited chemotherapy, surgery or radiation can spare breast-cancer patients harsh side effects while maintaining the benefit of treatment. More older women with low-risk breast cancer could forgo radiation after surgery to avoid further side effects and costs, research showed, as some doctors work to limit tough treatments without hurting survival. Women in the study published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine were 65 and older with early stage breast cancers that could respond to hormone therapy. The women all had surgery and hormone therapy and were divided into a group that underwent radiation and a group that went without it. Ten years after surgery, survival rates in the two groups were almost equal, suggesting more women could skip radiation without affecting their survival.

☆ There will be an 'unprecedented spike' in maternal mortality if a Trump-appointed judge bans the abortion pill, Democratic attorneys general argue
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Banning mifepristone will result in more women dying in pregnancy, Democratic attorneys general argued this month. The argument comes as a judge in Texas is considering a ban on the abortion pill. Republican attorneys general who have weighed in on the case also maintain that its approval infringed on state rights. In her brief, James noted that carrying a pregnancy to term poses significantly greater health risks than an early abortion. As Slate's Christina Cautertucci notes, mifepristone is only one of the two drugs used in a typical medication abortion.

☆ Racism made us believe MSG was dangerous. Now, chefs are bringing the once-controversial seasoning back into the spotlight.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Brianna Holt | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Everything from chips to condiments, and frozen meals and fast foods, are also likely to contain MSG. Similarly, MSG myths impacted the Chinese food industry, so much so that "No MSG restaurants" lists exist all over the internet and many Chinese takeout restaurants still advertise against MSG use today. While dishes at Woon do not have added MSG, Fong says some of the ingredients and sauces used already contain MSG. "It's a complex answer because almost all Italian restaurants contain MSG in their food. At Bonnie's, everything from bloody marys to desserts contain MSG – something Eng takes pride in.

☆ The best acne treatment for teens, according to dermatologists
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Vivian Manning-Schaffel | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +10 min

| How to treat teen acne | What makes teen acne worse? To help you find the right products for you, we spoke to dermatologists about teen acne treatments and ingredients to look for. The best treatments for teen acne to shop, according to expertsBelow, we gathered expert-recommended face washes and spot treatments that can help improve teen acne. It’s fragrance-free, non-comedogenic and should remove any excess oil, dirt or makeup from the skin, according to the brand. Making sure to minimize or avoid ways that could make acne worse is the key to reducing breakouts, according to our experts.

An advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday raised doubts about shifting toward a yearly Covid booster for most adults and children, saying too many questions about the virus still remain unanswered. The FDA convened its Vaccine and Related Biology Products Advisory Committee to discuss how the Covid vaccines may change moving forward. On Monday, the agency published briefing documents proposing annual Covid shots that target the latest variants of the virus — an approach similar to the yearly flu shot. Some committee members said they would prefer to make multiple yearly meetings on the Covid vaccines the norm. In a unanimous vote, the committee recommended using the bivalent formula in all Covid vaccines moving forward, not just for booster shots.

☆ Hormone therapy improves mental health for transgender youths, a new study finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Transgender youths reported more life satisfaction and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety after receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy for two years, according to a new study. However, medical associations such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, among others, oppose efforts to restrict gender-affirming care for minors. In addition to the New England Journal of Medicine study, about half a dozen others have shown that access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy can improve mental health outcomes, including reducing suicidal ideation, among transgender youths. Three studies — two published in 2020 and another published in 2021 — found that earlier access to gender-affirming medical care is associated with better mental health. They also noted that improvement in mental health varied widely, and that some participants continued to report high levels of depression and anxiety and lower levels of positive emotions and life satisfaction.

A key adviser to the Food and Drug Administration's vaccine panel is questioning whether more Covid booster shots are necessary for healthy, younger people. The FDA later backed the vaccine panel, authorizing a new formulation of the booster shots. “The people who are talking about why young people need it are missing the point,” he said, referring to the booster. Levy, the director of the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, continues to encourage Covid boosters for everyone who is eligible. Relatively few people in the U.S. have had updated boosters.

☆ Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. hospitalized patients experience a harmful event, study finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Kaitlin Sullivan | Kaitlin Sullivan Is A Contributor For Nbcnews.Com Who Has Worked With Nbc News Investigations. She Reports On Health | Science | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

The stark findings underscore that, despite decades of effort, hospitals in the United States still have a long way to go to improve patient safety, experts say. A total of 222 adverse events were considered preventable, meaning an error resulted in patient harm. Twenty-nine people, or 1% of the total of those admitted, experienced serious preventable adverse events that resulted in serious harm. The most common adverse events overall (nearly 40%) were related to medications given in the hospital. It used data from patients hospitalized in New York state in 1984, and found that only about 4% of hospitalized patients experienced harm.

☆ New guidelines for treating childhood obesity include medications and surgery for first time
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Kaitlin Sullivan | Kaitlin Sullivan Is A Contributor For Nbcnews.Com Who Has Worked With Nbc News Investigations. She Reports On Health | Science | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Intensive behavioral and lifestyle changes should be the first-line approach, but the AAP also includes recommendations for anti-obesity medications and surgery for the first time. The guidelines say that pediatricians should offer weight-loss drugs for children age 12 and up with obesity. She also acknowledged that these lifestyle changes can be really hard to adopt, especially for overworked and low-income parents. The more adverse the environment around you, the harder it is to live a healthy lifestyle,” Hassink said. Medications and surgery are expensive, and asking overstretched parents to implement lifestyle changes is not always realistic.

☆ Eli Lilly has spent years and billions of dollars in search of an effective Alzheimer's drug. But success is not all or nothing for the stock
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +22 min

Eli Lilly (LLY) has spent decades researching Alzheimer's disease without successfully bringing to market a treatment that slows the memory-destroying condition. For Eli Lilly as a company, an Alzheimer's drug is an important pursuit. Lilly's Alzheimer's history Eli Lilly's "first real foray" into Alzheimer's came in the 1990s, according to Dr. John Sims, Eli Lilly's head of medical development for donanemab. Financial implications for Lilly LLY mountain 2021-10-08 The Club started a new position in Eli Lilly (LLY) in October 2021. The Eli Lilly logo is shown on one of the company's offices in San Diego, California, September 17, 2020.

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