A regulation allowing the use of brominated vegetable oil in food was revoked Tuesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after the agency concluded the additive was unsafe for human consumption. Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) contains bromine, which is found in fire retardants. Small quantities of BVO have been used legally in some citrus-flavored… read on > read on >
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it is now investigating nearly 50 illnesses and one death that may be linked to eating Diamond Shruumz edibles. Of the 48 people in 24 states who said they got sick after eating the chocolate bars, cones and gummies, one patient has died and 27 have been… read on > read on >
Health officials in the Florida Keys have issued a dengue fever alert after two confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne disease were reported there. In the alert, issued this week by the Monroe County Department of Health, officials said they were taking precautions to curb the spread of dengue fever. Those measures include stepping up door-to-door… read on > read on >
Weight gain is a common side effect of antidepressants, but some types cause people to pack on pounds more than others, a new study says. Bupropion users are 15% to 20% less likely to gain a significant amount of weight than those taking the most common antidepressant, sertraline, researchers reported July 2 in the Annals… read on > read on >
Screening for chronic illnesses like diabetes or fatty liver disease could one day be as simple as checking the temperature of your nose, eyes or cheeks. The temperature of different parts of the face are associated with various chronic diseases, researchers reported July 2 in the journal Cell Metabolism. Armed with an AI-driven thermal camera,… read on > read on >
A 30-minute sauna or warm bubble bath every day might help women of a certain age fend off unwanted weight gain. That’s the promising takeaway from a study in mice that shows the potential of heat treatments in postmenopausal women. Researchers found that older female mice who received a half-hour-long whole-body heat treatment gained less… read on > read on >
Your children’s never-ending colds and sniffles may have protected them from the worst effects of COVID-19, new research suggests. Throughout the pandemic, it was clear that the SARS-CoV-2 virus tends to cause less severe symptoms in children than in adults, but it wasn’t clear why. Based on a new analysis of nasal swabs taken during… read on > read on >
Opioid addiction often starts with a prescription for post-surgery pain relief, and two new studies identify a handful of procedures that account for large shares of those prescriptions. The findings were published recently in two major medical journals. “Our findings suggest that surgical opioid prescribing is highly concentrated among a small group of procedures,” said… read on > read on >
A new drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday. In clinical trials, donanemab (Kisunla) modestly slowed the pace of thinking declines among patients in the early stages of the memory-robbing disease. But it also carried significant safety risks, including swelling and bleeding in the brain. “Kisunla… read on > read on >
U.S. health officials announced Tuesday that the federal government will pay Moderna $176 million to speed development of a pandemic flu vaccine based on mRNA technology. Such a vaccine could be used to treat bird flu in people, as concern grows about H5N1 cases spreading in dairy cows across the country, the U.S. Department of Health and… read on > read on >
