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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 people take these medicines, so it is important to study potential risks associated with them,” said study lead author Björn Pasternak. He’s principal researcher at the department of medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. “Our study covers a broad group of patients and provides strong support that GLP-1 analogues are not associated with an increased risk of thyroid cancer,” he said in an institute news release. The findings were published April 9 in the BMJ. In the analysis, Pasternak’s team used data from a major Scandinavian database involving 145,000 people who were taking GLP-1 analogues such as liraglutide (Victoza) or semaglutide (Ozempic), and 290,000 people who were taking one of another class of diabetes drugs called DPP4 inhibitors. The study found no higher odds for thyroid cancer among folks taking GLP-1 analogues compared to those on DPP4 inhibitors. That finding was repeated when GLP-1 analogue users were compared to patients taking a third class of diabetes meds, called SGLT2 inhibitors. Study co-author Peter Ueda, an assistant professor of medicine… 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 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The findings were presented simultaneously at the American College of Cardiology’s annual meeting in Atlanta. The drug also reduced blood levels of two other contributors to clogged arteries, apolopoprotein B and “bad” cholesterol, results show. Olezarsen inhibits the activity of APOC3, a gene that typically restrains the liver’s ability to filter triglycerides out of the bloodstream, the researchers said. “These findings indicate that targeting APOC3 is a promising new pathway for lowering triglycerides and potentially reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke,” said researcher Dr. Brian Bergmark, of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. Triglycerides are fatty particles in the bloodstream that contribute to the risk of heart disease, both on their own and in combination with “bad” LDL cholesterol, according to Harvard Medical School. For the study, researchers recruited 154 adults already on cholesterol-lowering therapy. They were split into three groups and assigned to either take a placebo or a low or high dose of olezarsen, through injections… read on > read on >

Teenagers suffering from anxiety, depression or bipolar disorder are likely to have a tougher time getting their driver’s license, a new study finds. Teens and young adults with these types of mood disorders are 30% less likely to obtain a driver’s license than peers without a mood disorder, researchers report April 8 in the journal JAMA Network Open. Youths with mood disorders also have nearly twice the risk of losing their license and a slightly elevated risk of crashing a vehicle, the researchers discovered. “Our results indicate that newly licensed youths with mood disorders have a greater risk of crashing than other young drivers, but that this is a manageable risk,” said senior researcher Allison Curry, an associate professor of pediatrics with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Center for Injury Research and Prevention. As many as one in 10 teens and young adults have been diagnosed with a mood disorder, researchers said in background notes. These disorders often develop around the age a teen becomes eligible to get a driver’s license, researchers noted. However, skills required for safe driving — attention, memory, motor skills — are often impaired in those with mood disorders. For the study, researchers compared nearly 1,900 teens with mood disorders to more than 84,000 teens without such a disorder, all of whom were eligible to get their license. They linked… read on > read on >

There’s no evidence that acetaminophen use during pregnancy increases the risk of childhood autism, ADHD or intellectual disability, the largest study to date on the subject has concluded. The analysis of more than 2.4 million children born in Sweden included siblings not exposed to the drug before birth, researchers said. Siblings share genetics and upbringing, allowing researchers to weed out other factors that might contribute to autism, ADHD and developmental delays. In this study, researchers found no increased risk when they compared siblings exposed to acetaminophen in the womb to brothers or sisters who weren’t, according to results published April 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “This study’s findings may be welcome news for birthing people who use acetaminophen as a pain or fever management option, since there are few safe alternatives for relief available,” said co-senior author Renee Gardner, a principal researcher with Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. “We hope that our results provide reassurance to expectant parents when faced with the sometimes fraught decision of whether to take these medications during pregnancy when suffering from pain or fever,” Gardner added. Acetaminophen is the active ingredient in Tylenol, and is also an ingredient in cold and flu remedies like Theraflu, Excedrin and Mucinex, researchers said in background notes. Concerns regarding the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy have grown in recent years. In 2021,… read on > read on >

People who’ve survived a heart attack and have been given a stent may be better off quitting low-dose aspirin a month after the procedure, a new study finds. The strategy is “beneficial by reducing major and minor bleeding through one year by more than 50 percent,” said study lead author Dr. Gregg Stone, a professor of medicine (cardiology) and population health science and policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City. “Moreover, there was no increase in adverse ischemic [artery-blocking] events” when folks stopped using aspirin early, “meaning continuing aspirin was causing harm without providing any benefit,” Stone added. His team presented its findings Sunday at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) annual meeting in Atlanta. The study was published simultaneously in The Lancet. For folks who’ve had a heart attack or are at very high risk of experiencing one, low-dose daily aspirin is often given to cut their odds for blocked arteries. However, long-term use of aspirin is also tied to another health danger: Bleeding. So, the duration of aspirin use has long been up for debate. In the new trial, outcomes were tracked for up to a year in over 3,400 heart patients treated at 58 centers in four countries. All the patients had undergone non-surgical, catheter-guided placement of a heart stent to open up a blocked… read on > read on >

Today is your last chance until 2044 to see a total eclipse of the sun in the continental United States. But be sure to protect your eyes if you plan to watch the moon block the sun’s rays, briefly plunging Earth into temporary darkness. “The eclipse will last a few minutes,” said Dr. David Hinkle, who chairs the Department of Opthalmology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. “Eye damage can last a lifetime.” There is no time — none at all — when it’s safe to look at the eclipse without proper eye protection, he emphasized. That’s true whether you are in the path of totality or in a broader swath of the nation where the sun will only be partially blocked. Thirteen states from Texas to Maine are in the path of totality. Starting shortly after 1 p.m. Eastern time (ET), the moon will completely block the sun for one to four minutes. Looking directly at the sun is never a good idea. It can burn your retina, Hinkle warned. “The sun’s rays are powerful and can burn your retina very quickly,” Hinkle said in a Tulane news release. That’s because the eye’s cornea and lens focuses the sun’s light directly onto this thin layer of tissue inside the back of eye, causing a burn called solar retinopathy. This damage, which may… 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 that 46 cancer drugs were granted accelerated approval between 2013 and 2017. Of those, 41% showed no benefit after five years of follow-up. And of the 63% that were converted to regular approval, less than half (43%) demonstrated any clinical benefit in confirmatory trials. “Five years after the initial accelerated approval, you should have a definitive answer,” Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a cancer specialist and bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the study, told the Associated Press. “Thousands of people are getting those drugs. That seems a mistake if we don’t know whether they work or not.” First created in 1992 to get new HIV drugs to desperate patients as quickly as possible, more than 80% of the program’s accelerated approvals now go to cancer drugs, researchers found. The program allows the FDA to grant early approval to drugs that show promising results for treating debilitating or fatal diseases. In exchange, drug companies are expected to do rigorous testing and produce better evidence before gaining full… read on > read on >

Just a little exposure to secondhand smoke may increase your risk for the heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation (A-Fib), a new, large study suggests. People who have A-Fib, the world’s most common heart rhythm disorder, are five times more likely to have a stroke than their healthy peers. While passive smoking has been linked to heart disease and early death, links between secondhand smoke and A-Fib have been unclear, researchers said in a European Society of Cardiology news release. This large study appears to make a direct connection. “The dangers of secondhand smoke were significant regardless of whether individuals were at home, outdoors or at work, indicating that exposure universally elevates the risk of atrial fibrillation,” said study author Dr. Kyung-Yeon Lee, of Seoul National University Hospital in South Korea. The study included more than 400,000 people between the ages of 40 and 69 who were part of the UK Biobank, a large biomedical and research database. Current smokers and those who already had A-Fib were excluded. Participants answered questions about their exposure to other people’s smoke at home and elsewhere in the past year. One in five (86,000) said they had been exposed to secondhand smoke, with an average exposure of 2.2 hours. In all, 6% of participants developed A-Fib over a median followup of 12.5 years. (Median means half were followed longer, half… read on > read on >

People preparing to watch Monday’s total eclipse of the sun need to protect their vision during the event, eye doctors say. Powerful ultraviolet rays can do permanent damage to the eyes if people look directly at the sun as the moon is sliding into place before it, said Starr Schroeder, an emergency department nurse at Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center. Special solar viewing glasses are required to watch the solar eclipse progress, Schroeder said. “At no point during a partial eclipse is it safe to look at the sun without special eye protection,” Schroeder said in a Penn State news release. “Not even the darkest sunglasses are safe.” Observing a solar eclipse without proper protection can damage both the cornea and the retina, said Dr. Ajay Soni, a pediatric ophthalmologist at Penn State Health Children’s Lancaster Pediatric Center. One potential condition is photo-keratitis, which is damage to the cornea from UV rays. The cornea is the clear, dome-shaped covering at the front of the eye. “It’s a sunburn on the cornea, and is quite painful because the cornea is so sensitive,” Soni said. Soni added that patients typically recover on their own within a few days. A more serious risk is solar retinopathy, which can cause permanent eye damage. There’s no pain associated with solar retinopathy, which causes scarring on the retina, which is… 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 the more overweight you are, the less likely it is that nerve-stimulation treatment will be effective in treating your sleep apnea,” said senior researcher Dr. Eric Landsness, an assistant professor of neurology with the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “I’m not saying that we shouldn’t put this device in patients with a BMI of 38 or 40,” Landsness added in a university news release. “But my job as a physician is to help overweight patients make an informed decision, to better understand their odds of success and realize that the chances of it working for them may be a lot less.” The increasingly popular therapy, known as hypoglossal nerve stimulation, originally was approved in 2014 for sleep apnea patients whose weight was in the healthy range, researchers said in background notes. But that approval has now been extended to patients with BMIs up to 40, which is considered severely obese. Healthy BMI ranges from 18.5 to 24.9, and 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight. Sleep apnea occurs… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Ozempic, Wegovy Won’t Boost Thyroid Cancer Risk: Study

New Drug Could Slash Blood Triglyceride Levels

Teens with Anxiety, Mood Disorders Less Likely to Get Driver’s License

Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy Poses No Risk of Autism, ADHD in Kids

Stopping Aspirin a Month After Stent Implant Helps Heart Patients

Watching the Solar Eclipse, Safely

Many Cancer Drugs Still Unproven 5 Years After Accelerated Approval

Even a Little Secondhand Smoke Ups Odds for A-Fib

Eclipse Viewing Safety: Keeping Your & Your Kid’s Vision Safe

Nerve Zap Treatment for Sleep Apnea Less Effective in Obese People