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 >
In a case that will test the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s authority to approve or reject new vaping products, the U.S. Supreme Court said Tuesday it will weigh whether the agency was legally allowed to ban flavored e-cigarettes. In recent years, the FDA has declined to approve flavored vapes, saying they pose a health… read on > read on >
As millions of Americans grapple with blistering heat this summer, the Biden Administration on Tuesday proposed a new rule to address excessive heat in the workplace. If the first major federal safety standard of its kind becomes final, the measure would aim to protect an estimated 36 million U.S. workers from injuries related to heat… read on > read on >
Simple exercises performed during rounds of chemotherapy can help people avoid nerve damage normally associated with the cancer-killing drugs, a new study suggests. About twice as many cancer patients on chemo wound up with long-lasting nerve damage if they didn’t exercise, compared with two groups assigned different exercise regimens, researchers reported July 1 in the… read on > read on >
Cutting-edge weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic can help treat alcoholism, a new study says. People taking semaglutide had 50% to 56% decreased odds for either becoming alcoholic or relapsing into alcoholism, researchers reported recently in the journal Nature Communications. Few drugs are now available to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD), so adding semaglutide to… read on > read on >
Two well-known healthy diets can lower heart disease risk in people with type 1 diabetes, a new study says. People who ate similarly to the Mediterranean diet or the DASH diet had lower levels of blood markers that are used in clinical settings to assess heart health risk, researchers reported Sunday at a meeting of… read on > read on >
A girl’s genetics can indirectly influence the age when she has her first period, by accelerating her weight gain in childhood, a new study finds. A number of other genes also can directly affect the age of puberty, some with profound effects, researchers added. More than 1,000 genetic variants are tied to the age of… read on > read on >
Benzodiazepines do not appear to increase dementia risk, but could have subtle long-term effects on brain structure, a new study reports. Researchers found no link between use of the sedative drug and a higher risk of dementia in a group of more than 5,400 adults in the Netherlands, according to findings published July 2 in… read on > read on >
