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The weight-loss drug Zepbound provides more health benefits than dropping pounds and controlling diabetes, a new study shows. It also appears to help people with obesity manage their high blood pressure, results show. Patients taking Zepbound (tirzepatide) experienced a significant reduction in their systolic blood pressure, the top number in a blood pressure reading, according to a study published Feb. 5 in the journal Hypertension. Systolic blood pressure is a stronger predictor for heart-related death than the diastolic bottom number, researchers said in background notes. “Although tirzepatide has been studied as a weight-loss medication, the blood pressure reduction in our patients in this study was impressive,” said lead researcher Dr. James de Lemos, chair of cardiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Tirzepatide works by mimicking two hormones in the body that stimulate insulin secretion and sensitivity after a person eats. The drug helps slow down digestion, reduce appetite and regulate blood sugar levels. For the study, 600 adults with obesity were assigned to take either a placebo or varying doses of tirzepatide, which is administered through injection. After 36 weeks, results showed that: Participants taking 5 mg of tirzepatide had an average systolic blood pressure reduction of 7.4 mm Hg People taking 10 mg had an average systolic blood pressure reduction of 10.6 mm Hg Participants taking 15 mg had an average systolic… read on > read on >

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Friday addressed a continuing issue with pulse oximeters — that they give less accurate readings for folks with darker skin. The devices are designed to measure oxygen levels in the blood, so correct readings are critical, experts say. During its daylong meeting, the FDA’s Anesthesiology and Respiratory Therapy Devices Panel reviewed ways to better evaluate the accuracy of pulse oximeters in patients with darker skin. Although there is more work to be done when it comes to making pulse oximeters more accurate, panel member Dr. Jeffrey Feldman said the devices’ benefits of these devices still outweigh their limitations. “This technology has and continues to save lives on a daily basis in this country. … It needs to be improved. We need to look at health disparities, and we need to do better,” he said after the meeting, CNN reported. “But we also need to recognize how valuable this technology is for patients every day, at home and in the hospital.” Precisely because the general public can use these devices at home to check their oxygen levels, the panel honed in on how to ensure the accuracy of pulse oximeters for all skin tones before they reach drugstore shelves. So, the panel focused on the structure of company trials testing the products. Back in 2013, the FDA issued premarket guidance for… read on > read on >

Accessing mental health care via telehealth boomed during the pandemic, and it continues to be a valuable resource for patients. However, it could still be tough to find, depending on the clinics available in your area, new research finds. “We found considerable variation in the types of services telehealth offered by mental health clinics across the U.S.,” said study author Jonathan Cantor, a policy researcher at RAND Corp., a nonprofit research organization. His team published its findings, based on a “secret shopper” study, in the Feb. 2 issue of JAMA Health Forum. Between late 2022 and March 2023, Cantor and his colleagues tried phoning more than 1,900 outpatient mental health treatment facilities treating adults across the United States. For more than 500 clinics called, the researchers failed to reach anyone. “The fact that we could not reach anyone at one in five facilities suggests that many people may have trouble reaching a clinic to inquire about mental health care,” Cantor noted in a RAND news release. Of the remaining 1,404 clinics that did have someone respond to the “secret shopper” queries, 87% said they were accepting new patients and 80% said they offered telehealth services. Those services varied in terms of how they were offered. For example, about half of clinics offering telehealth said it was available via video appointments only, 5% said it was… read on > read on >

Even mild cases of COVID can trigger insomnia in most people, a new study reports. About three out of four people with mild COVID (76%) reported experiencing insomnia following their illness. Further, nearly one in four (23%) said they’d experienced severe insomnia, according to results published Feb. 5 in the journal Frontiers in Public Health. “If you experience insomnia after COVID-19, don’t think that is normal,” said lead researcher Huong Hoang, head of the surgical nursing unit at Phenikaa University in Vietnam. For the study, Hoang and colleagues surveyed more than 1,000 adults who’d been diagnosed with COVID but did not require hospitalization. The surveys were conducted between June and September 2022. Half of the participants said they woke more often in the night. A third said they found it harder to fall asleep, had worse sleep and slept for less time. The severity of COVID infection did not seem linked with the severity of insomnia, researchers noted. Although COVID patients without symptoms scored lower on an insomnia index, the difference was not statistically significant. There were two groups of patients who did appear more likely to have insomnia following COVID — people with a preexisting chronic condition and people who scored highly for symptoms of depression or anxiety. Both of those groups had a higher rate of insomnia than the rest of the COVID… read on > read on >

Driving at night can be risky business, as a dangerous combination of darkness and the glare of bright lights can make it hard to see the road, but one expert offers some safety tips. “If you have to drive in the evening time and you’re not comfortable, try to stick with roads that you know and make sure you know where you’re going so you don’t have to be looking at street signs, which are harder to see at night,” said Dr. Sumitra Khandelwal, a professor of ophthalmology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. If you do have to venture out in your car after dark, check your vehicle first, she stressed. “One of the first things to do for nighttime driving has nothing to do with the eyes; it’s to optimize all aspects of driving with your car that allow for better nighttime vision,” Khandelwal explained. A dirty windshield can make starbursts, halos, glares, smearing and streaking more apparent in the dark, so cleaning it is critical for clear vision. Headlights get dirty just as easily, particularly if it rains and mud or water gets splattered on them, so Khandelwal recommends wiping off any dirt or splash marks before you get behind the wheel. Even after cleaning your windshield and headlights, there are plenty of vision issues that can make it difficult for… read on > read on >

It’s known by the street name “gas station heroin,” but a new government report finds the highly addictive supplement Neptune’s Fix may also contain synthetic pot. The product has already been linked to seizures, brain swelling and hallucinations, researchers reported Thursday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC report centered on a 2023 investigation of 17 adults in New Jersey who had severe reactions after consuming Neptune’s Fix or similar products containing tianeptine. Thirteen were hospitalized in intensive care as a result. Tianeptine, an antidepressant that can act like an opioid, is sold as a dietary supplement at gas stations and convenience stores across the United States. It’s often marketed for pain relief, depression or anxiety. While not approved for use in the United States, it is approved for use in some European, Asian and Latin American countries. In the CDC study, doctors in New Jersey tested six samples of Neptune’s Fix consumed by two of the patients. They discovered the presence of more than tianeptine: kavain, a substance used for anxiety, and two different types of synthetic pot were also detected in the test samples. “It was a surprise to find those compounds in there at all,” senior study author Dr. Diane Calello, medical director of the New Jersey Poison Control Center, told NBC… read on > read on >

It might take a combination of treatments to rein in problem acne in teens and adults, updated guidelines from the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) suggest. The guidelines on the all-too-common condition (acne affects 85% of teens and many adults) haven’t undergone a revision since 2016. The 2024 updates include “discussion of new topical medications, which are directly applied to the skin, and systemic treatments, which are taken by mouth,” explained Dr. John Barbieri, co-chair of the AAD’s Acne Guideline Workgroup. The new updates are all evidence-based, with 18 recommendations in all. Four items fell under the guidelines’ “strong recommendation” header: The use of benzoyl peroxide creams to curb the amount of acne-linked bacteria on the skin The use of retinoid creams such as adapalene, tretinoin, tazarotene and trifarotene, to help clear pores and lower inflammation Oral antibiotics such as doxycycline, as well as antbiotic creams, to also help lower bacteria levels and inflammation Combination use, as needed, of all of the above The AAD also had five “good practice” recommendations for dermatologists when treating acne: The guidelines advise “combining multiple different treatment types, as this can lead to better results.” Use antibiotics sparingly, because overuse can trigger resistant strains of bacteria Using benzoyl peroxide alongside an antibiotic can lessen the risk for resistance Patients plagued by larger acne bumps may need injected corticosteroid therapy… read on > read on >

Exercise is crucial to recovering from a stroke, helping victims regain lost physical and mental function. And stroke survivors are more likely to remain physically active — or even exercise more than before — if they have access to a neighborhood rec center or gym, a new study finds. The odds of a patient being more active in recovery than before their stroke was 57% higher among participants who lived in areas with more recreational and fitness resources, according to findings to be presented next week at the American Stroke Association’s annual meeting in Phoenix. Similarly, the odds of maintaining the same level of physical activity one year after a stroke were 47% higher in people living near rec centers and gyms. “Our findings suggest that it’s important to have a conversation with stroke patients about physical activity resources available in their area so they are able to continue their recovery after hospital discharge,” said lead researcher Jeffrey Wing, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Ohio State University. This access to fitness resources is so important that doctors should consider it a factor in a patient’s release, Wing added. “If their neighborhood does not offer fitness resources, neurologists should consider discharging the patient to a rehabilitation facility where they can participate in physical activities,” Wing said in a meeting news release. For the study, researchers… read on > read on >

Advanced brain recording techniques have revealed how neurons in the human brain work together to produce speech. The recordings provide a detailed map of how people think about what words they want to say and then speak them aloud, researchers report in the Jan. 31 issue of the journal Nature. Specifically, the map shows how speech sounds like consonants and vowels are represented in the brain well before they are spoken, and how the brain strings them together during language production. “Although speaking usually seems easy, our brains perform many complex cognitive steps in the production of natural speech — including coming up with the words we want to say, planning the articulatory movements and producing our intended vocalizations,” said senior study author Dr. Ziv Williams, an associate professor in neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “Our brains perform these feats surprisingly fast — about three words per second in natural speech — with remarkably few errors,” Williams added in a hospital news release. “Yet, how we precisely achieve this feat has remained a mystery.” The findings could form the basis of sophisticated brain-machine interfaces capable of producing synthetic speech, the researchers said. They also could provide insight into a wide array of disorders that hamper or prevent speech. “Disruptions in the speech and language networks are observed in a wide variety of neurological… read on > read on >

Certain copycat eyedrops may be contaminated and could give users an antibiotic-resistant eye infection, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Wednesday. The packaging for South Moon, Rebright and FivFivGo eyedrops mirrors the packaging for Bausch & Lomb’s Lumify eyedrops, an over-the-counter product approved for red eye relief. However, samples of the knockoff South Moon eyedrops were contaminated with Burkholderia cepacia complex, a strain of bacteria that could result in an antibiotic-resistant infection, the FDA said in a news release. B. cepacia is a known cause of infections in hospitalized patients, and poses a particular risk to people with weakened immune systems or chronic lung diseases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People with symptoms of an eye infection should talk with their doctor or seek medical care immediately, the FDA advised. Rebright tested negative for contamination, but both Rebright and South Moon lacked the active ingredient in Lumify, brimonidine tartrate. No samples of FivFivGo drops could be obtained for testing and analysis. The FDA recommends consumers not use any of the products, since they are unapproved and should not be for sale in the United States. Consumers who’ve bought these products should throw them out. The origin of the products is currently unclear, the FDA added. South Moon’s label says it is made by Shantou Cross-border Premium Products E-Commerce Co.… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Weight-Loss Med Zepbound Lowers High Blood Pressure in Obese People

FDA Panel Tackles Faulty Pulse Oximeter Readings That Come With Darker Skin

Need Mental Health Services Via Telehealth? Many Clinics Still Don’t Offer It

Even Mild Cases of COVID Can Leave Lingering Insomnia

Nighttime Driving: Know the Risks

CDC Warns That ‘Gas Station Heroin’ May Contain Synthetic Pot

Dermatologists’ Group Offers Latest Guidance on Acne

Neighborhood Gyms Can Be a Lifeline for Stroke Survivors

Scientists Spot Brain Cells That Prepare You to Speak

FDA Warns of Dangerous Counterfeit Eyedrops