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WEDNESDAY, Nov. 8, 2023 (Healthday News) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it plans to pull a veterinary drug used commonly in the pork industry because it might pose a cancer risk to humans who eat pig products. The antimicrobial, carbadox (Mecadox), is typically added to pig feed to fight infections and fatten up the animals. But pork contaminated with “carcinogenic residues” from the drug could wind up in foods like hot dogs and cold cuts, though the agency stressed in its notice that it isn’t telling people to change their food choices at the moment. The FDA’s concerns with carbadox date back decades: When it was first approved in 1998, the agency’s worries were abated by a strategy that involved testing edible parts of pigs that had been given carbadox. According to the agency, data now shows that those testing methods do not adequately measure the cancer risk posed by pork produced while using the drug. After issuing its first warning about pulling the drug in 2016, it isn’t clear why the agency didn’t move sooner to actually do so, CBS News reported. “This action itself arrived long overdue. The European Union and Canada prohibited use of carbadox in 1999 and 2006, respectively, due to concerns about residues and the safety of workers handling the drug,” advocacy groups wrote in… read on > read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received at least three reports of people being hospitalized after taking counterfeit versions of the wildly popular weight-loss drugs known as semaglutides. At least one of these reports includes mention of a counterfeit version of the Novo Nordisk medication Ozempic, CBS News reported. Ozempic and Wegovy, another semaglutide medication made by Novo Nordisk, have been tough to find for months as millions of Americans turn to them for weight loss. In total, 42 reports that mention the use of counterfeit semaglutide were submitted to the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System through the end of September, CBS News reported. Of those, 28 were classified as “serious,” with outcomes that included deaths. All were submitted to the FDA by Novo Nordisk. However, the records do not prove the counterfeits directly caused the adverse events. An FDA spokesperson told CBS News that the agency has “no new information to share regarding reports of adverse events” linked to semaglutide counterfeits. “The FDA will investigate any report of suspect counterfeit drugs to determine the public health risks and the appropriate regulatory response. The FDA remains vigilant in protecting the U.S. drug supply from these threats,” agency spokesperson Jeremy Kahn told CBS News. Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk has said that it is working with the FDA to make consumers aware of the counterfeits and how they differ… read on > read on >

California banned menthol cigarettes and flavored vaping products in late 2022, based on concerns the flavors encouraged teens to get hooked on nicotine. But a new study finds many smokers simply shrugged and turned to online shopping for their flavored vapes. Online shopping for flavored cigarettes and vapes increased significantly in the weeks following the implementation of the ban, according to findings published Nov. 7 in the journal Tobacco Control. Researchers discovered that shopping queries were 194% higher than expected for cigarettes and 162% higher than expected for vape products after the law went into effect. “Retailer licensing programs have proven to be effective in enforcing tobacco control laws. However, the exclusion of e-commerce retailers from these programs can undermine their impact,” said lead researcher Eric Leas, an assistant professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at the University of California, San Diego, and director of the Tobacco E-commerce Lab. Web searches revealed that at least two and as many as 36 online retailers continue to offer access to flavored vapes or menthol cigarettes, researchers found. “The absence of explicit regulations on e-commerce sales can create loopholes in enforcing tobacco control laws, allowing consumers to easily access restricted products online,” Leas explained in a university news release. “By including e-commerce in the definition of ‘tobacco retailer’ and ensuring strict… read on > read on >

Forget “Jaws”: The remarkable wound-healing power of shark skin could end up helping humans, new research claims. Shark skin is coated with a special film of mucus that more closely resembles mucus generated by people than that generated by other types of fish, noted researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm. They conducted their investigation at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Wood’s Hole, Mass., and reported their findings recently in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. It’s long been known that sharks have an unusual ability to quickly heal and recover from wounds, explained researchers Jakob Wikström, an associate professor of dermatology and principal investigator at Karolinska, and his colleague, senior study author Etty Bachar-Wikström. However, “much more is known about fish biology than shark biology, for obvious reasons,” Wikström explained in an MBL news release. “Fish are easier to handle, and there’s a bigger commercial interest in them.” Sharks are cartilaginous and, along with skates, make up just 1% of fish species, while bony fishes comprise the other 99%. “Our aim in this paper was to characterize shark skin at the molecular level, which hasn’t been done in depth,” Bachar-Wikström said. How do sharks heal so quickly from wounds? To try to find out, the researchers focused on the thin layer of mucus that overlies a shark’s rough-textured skin. They found its chemical… read on > read on >

An old scourge, syphilis, is returning with a vengeance in the United States, affecting not only adults but also the most vulnerable — newborns. Rates of congenital syphilis soared 10-fold between 2012 and 2022, according to new data released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The congenital syphilis crisis in the United States has skyrocketed at a heartbreaking rate,” CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry said in a statement. “New actions are needed to prevent more family tragedies. We’re calling on healthcare providers, public health systems and communities to take additional steps to connect mothers and babies with the care they need.” Congenital syphilis occurs when the illness is passed from the mother to her newborn. According to the March of Dimes, “If not treated right away, congenital syphilis can cause problems for your baby later in life,” including deformities of the bones and teeth, paralysis or seizures, problems with vision and hearing and developmental delays. In 2022, more than 3,700 babies across the United States were born with syphilis, a rate that’s 10 times that of the previous decade. The CDC blames the steep rise in cases among women of childbearing years on restrictions in access to good prenatal care, among other factors. “Almost 9 in 10 cases of newborn syphilis in 2022 might have been prevented with timely testing and… read on > read on >

When doctors advise patients to lose weight, an optimistic approach is more likely to get results. Researchers found that patients were more likely to participate in the recommended program and shed pounds if doctors presented obesity treatments as an “opportunity.” They compared that upbeat approach to emphasizing the negative consequences of obesity or using neutral language. International guidelines recommend that primary care doctors screen patients and offer treatment for those who are overweight or obese. Patients have said that clinicians’ words and tone matter to them. For this study, a University of Oxford team analyzed recordings of doctor-patient conversations at 38 primary care clinics about a free, 12-week behavioral weight-loss intervention. The researchers were looking for relationships between language used in the visit and patient behaviors, such as participation in the program and weight loss outcomes. The authors characterized these interactions in three ways. The “good news” approach was the least common. It communicated positivity and optimism, focused on the benefits of weight loss and presented the program as an opportunity. In that approach, doctors made little mention of obesity, weight or body mass index (an estimate of body fat based on height and weight) as a problem. The information was presently smoothly and quickly, and conveyed excitement. The “bad news” approach emphasized the “problem” of obesity. Physicians asserted themselves as experts. They focused on… read on > read on >

Many people with type 2 diabetes also struggle with depression, and this combination can lead to premature death, researchers say. “More than 35 million Americans have diabetes, and more than 95 million have prediabetes, making diabetes one of the leading causes of death in the U.S.,” said study co-author Jagdish Khubchandani. He is a professor of public health sciences at New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces. “Unfortunately, a large proportion of these people struggle with depression, anxiety or poor mental health,” Khubchandani said in a university news release. To explore this association, the researchers used data on nearly 15,000 people from the 2005 to 2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The research team then linked the data to death records from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The investigators found that more than 10% of American adults suffer from depression or diabetes. Overall, participants with diabetes were 1.7 times more likely to die prematurely than those without diabetes, the data showed. The risk of death more than quadrupled for participants with both diabetes and depression compared to those without diabetes or depression. “Diabetes alone is a debilitating disease, and the co-occurrence of depression makes it worse,” Khubchandani said. “Unfortunately, many Americans with diabetes continue to struggle financially and emotionally, making it difficult to manage the disease.” Many demographic, psychosocial and biological… read on > read on >

Gun violence causes a ripple effect that creates a lasting impact on young people lucky enough to survive being shot, as well as their families, a comprehensive new study finds. Child and teenaged gunshot survivors carry the physical and emotional scars of violence, and their families suffer even more dramatic aftereffects, the Harvard-associated researchers found. “The unspeakable tragedy of youth gun violence has overshadowed the massive health crises that occur in the wake of injuries and deaths,” said study author Zirui Song, an associate professor of health care policy and medicine in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Children 19 and younger who survive gun violence experience a 68% increase in psychiatric disorders and a 144% increase in substance use disorders, compared with young people who haven’t been shot, researchers found. Their moms and dads suffer alongside them, experiencing a 30% increased risk of psychiatric disorders compared with parents whose children haven’t sustained a gunshot injury, results show. “Gunshot survivors and their families often experience long-lasting, invisible injuries, including psychological and substance use disorders with roots in the shared trauma they have experienced,” Song, who is also a general internist at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a hospital news release. “It’s important for clinicians to be aware that these families are at an increased risk for these conditions so that they can… read on > read on >

Amid reports of more illnesses and additional product recalls, U.S. health officials have expanded their investigation into potentially lead-tainted pouches of apple cinnamon pureed fruit. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in an updated alert posted Friday that it has received reports of seven illnesses in at least five states possibly linked to contaminated puree. Two new companies, Schnucks Markets of St. Louis and Weis Markets of Sunbury, Pa., announced recalls of certain cinnamon applesauce products because they may contain high levels of lead. WanaBana of Coral Gables, Fla., had previously recalled all lots and expiration dates of its apple cinnamon fruit puree. Eating the contaminated products could result in “acute toxicity,” FDA officials said. Parents and caregivers should not buy or serve the cinnamon applesauce products, which are sold through multiple retailers, including Amazon, Dollar Tree, Weis Markets, Schnucks and Eatwell Markets. Children and others who have consumed the products should be tested for possible lead poisoning, the agency said. Just last week, the FDA issued an initial warning after four children in North Carolina were found to have high levels of lead in their blood that was linked to the WanaBana products, the FDA said. State health officials detected “extremely high” concentrations of lead in the pouches after analyzing multiple lots. Lead can enter food products through soil, air, water and industrial… read on > read on >

Nearly 30,000 pounds of dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets have been recalled by maker Tyson Foods Inc. after customers discovered small bits of metal in some of the nuggets. There has been one reported minor oral injury associated with consumption of the nuggets, which were produced on Sept. 5, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said in a statement it released Saturday. FSIS said it has received no additional reports of injury or illness from consumption of these products. Anyone who’s worried about an injury or illness should contact a healthcare provider, the agency said. The recall is specifically for the 29-ounce plastic bags of the product called Fully Cooked Fun Nuggets Breaded Shaped Chicken Patties, the FSIS said. Approximately 29,819 pounds of the Fun Nuggets are affected by the recall, and they were shipped to distributors in Alabama, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin. The plastic packages contain “Tyson FULLY COOKED FUN NUGGETS BREADED SHAPED CHICKEN PATTIES” with a Best If Used By date of SEP 04, 2024, and lot codes 2483BRV0207, 2483BRV0208, 2483BRV0209 and 2483BRV0210, the agency added. The products subject to recall also have the number “P-7211” on the back on the package. The problem was discovered after Tyson Foods notified FSIS that it had received consumer complaints reporting small metal pieces in the chicken patty… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

FDA Will Pull Vet Drug Used in Pork Industry Over Cancer Concerns for Humans

FDA Investigating Hospitalizations Linked to Counterfeit Ozempic

When California Banned Flavored Vapes, Many Just Shopped Online

Sharks’ Amazing Ability to Heal From Wounds Might Help Humans

U.S. Syphilis Cases in Newborns Rose 10-fold Over a Decade

Doctors: Want Patients to Lose Weight? Stay Upbeat

Depression Can Be a Killer for People With Diabetes

Gun Violence Takes Huge Mental, Financial Toll on Kids & Their Families

FDA Expands Investigation of Pureed Fruit Pouches

Tyson Chicken Nuggets Recalled Over Small Metal Pieces in Product