The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it has finalized a first-ever rule that will drastically lower the amount of PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” in the nation’s drinking water. “Drinking water contaminated with PFAS has plagued communities across this country for too long,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in an agency news release announcing… read on > read on >
Wegovy, Ozempic and other drugs known as GLP-1 analogues have become wildly popular for controlling diabetes and helping folks lose weight. There were concerns that longer term use of the drugs might raise users’ odds for thyroid cancer, but a Swedish study of more than 435,000 people finds no evidence to support that notion. “Many… read on > read on >
A new drug can slash triglyceride levels nearly in half by targeting a genetic driver of high fat levels in the bloodstream, researchers said. The injectable drug, olezarsen, lowered triglyceride levels by 49% at the 50 milligram (mg) dose and by 53% at the 80 mg dose compared to a placebo, researchers reported April 7… read on > read on >
New research questions the effectiveness of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s accelerated drug approval program after finding that many cancer drugs remain unproven five years later. The study, published Sunday in the Journal of the American Medical Association and presented simultaneously at the American Association of Cancer Research’s annual meeting in San Diego, found… read on > read on >
Obese folks are less likely to benefit from a nerve-stimulation treatment for sleep apnea that’s recently been made available to them, a new study reports. The treatment is likely to be 75% less effective among obese people with BMIs of 32 to 35, compared to patients with lower BMIs, researchers found. “Our study shows that… read on > read on >
A test to gauge if it’s safe to prescribe a patient an addictive opioid may have been approved too soon by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, claims a letter sent to the agency by a group of experts. The test, called AvertD, is meant to screen for genetic markers suggesting that a person has… read on > read on >
THURSDAY, April 4, 2024 (HealthDayNews) — Following disappointing trial results, the maker of a controversial ALS drug said it is pulling the medication off the market. In a statement issued Thursday, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals said that Relyvrio failed to help patients in a large follow-up study, and the drug “will no longer be available for new… read on > read on >
Two newly discovered genetic variations can have a powerful effect on a person’s risk for obesity, a new report says. Variants in the gene BSN, also known as Bassoon, can increase risk of obesity as much as sixfold, researchers report April 4 in the journal Nature Genetics. These variants affect about 1 in every 6,500… read on > read on >
Three anti-smoking groups announced Tuesday that they have sued the U.S. government yet again after it missed its latest deadline for enacting a ban on menthol cigarettes. This is the second lawsuit that the plaintiffs — the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, Action on Smoking and Health and the National Medical Association — have… read on > read on >
Research into germs that travel through the human digestive tract shows that some may promote obesity while others might help prevent it. Not only that, but those microbes may act differently in men versus women, the same study found. “Our findings reveal how an imbalance in distinct bacterial groups are likely to play an important… read on > read on >
