Results from a very small study suggest that a combination of the diabetes drug Ozempic and an innovative new intestinal procedure could help erase the need for insulin in folks with type 2 diabetes. The new trial hasn’t yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal and it included only 14 patients. However, Dutch researchers report that after six months of the combo therapy, 12 of the 14 participants with type 2 diabetes no longer needed supplemental insulin. The findings were presented Sunday at the United European Gastroenterology annual meeting in Vienna. The intestinal procedure used in the new trial was pioneered by researchers at the Mayo Clinic in the United States. It’s called Endoscopic re-cellularization via electroporation therapy (ReCET). The procedure focuses on the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine. The duodenum is responsible for further digestion of food coming from the stomach and nutrient absorption by the body. As explained by the Mayo Clinic’s director of endoscopy, Dr. Andrew Storm, duodenum function goes awry in type 2 diabetes and ReCET seeks to repair the dysfunction. “ReCET is non-thermal procedure that involves delivering [via an endoscope] a pulsed electric field (PEF) to facilitate the re-cellularization of the duodenum with regenerated metabolically active cells,” he explained in a Mayo blog. “The goal of this procedure is to help individuals achieve better control of blood glucose…  read on >  read on >

Bilingual people have more active and flexible brains, a new study has discovered. Brain scans revealed that folks who speak two languages have increased connectivity between their brain regions, researchers reported Oct. 10 in the journal Communications Biology. This connectivity is strongest in people who learned their second language at a young age, researchers noted. “Our work suggests learning a second language during childhood helps build a more efficient brain organization in terms of functional connectivity,” said lead investigator Zeus Gracia Tabuenca, a postdoctoral researcher with McGill University in Toronto. For the study, researchers recruited 151 people who either spoke French, English or both languages. Study participants were given MRI scans that tracked connectivity throughout their brains. Learning a second language appeared to increase the brain’s neuroplasticity — its ability to build new connections within itself. This effect was most powerful when someone had learned their second language at a young age, results showed. “The results indicate that the earlier the second language experience, the broader extent of brain areas involved in neuroplasticity,” Tabuenca said in a McGill news release. “That’s why we are observing higher connectivity of the cerebellum with the cortex in earlier exposures to a second language.”   These results mirror previous studies that show how brain regions work together to understand and produce language, researchers said. Such additional brain connectivity can increase…  read on >  read on >

The Fisher-Price company is recalling more than 2 million of its Snuga infant swings, after the suffocation and deaths of five infants who went to sleep while in the swings. “The swing should never be used for sleep and bedding materials should never be added to it,” according to an alert from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which announced the recall.  “If the product is used for sleep or bedding material is added, the headrest and body support insert on the seat pad can increase the risk of suffocation,” the agency explained. The CPSC’s advice to parents who already have one of the Snuga infant swings at home: “Consumers should immediately remove both the headrest (by cutting the tether) and the body support insert from the seat pad before continuing to use the swing for awake-time activities.” A full list of the 21 recalled Fisher-Price infant swing models, with photos, can be found at the CPSC. As the agency explained, five reported deaths of infants between one and three months of age were linked to use of Snuga swings between 2012 and 2022. “In most of those incidents, the infants were unrestrained and bedding materials were added to the product,” the CPSC noted. Besides the danger from the Fisher-Price products under recall, the agency reminded parents and caregivers that they “should never use any…  read on >  read on >

Microscopic magnetic nanodiscs could provide a much less invasive means of providing deep brain stimulation, a new study says. The tiny discs – about 250 nanometers across, or 1/500 the width of a human hair – would be injected directly into specific regions of a person’s brain, researchers say. From there, researchers said, the discs could be activated by applying a magnetic field outside the patient’s body. Tests in lab mice show that the discs “had an impact on neuron activity and on behavior,” researcher Ye Ji Kim, a doctoral student at MIT, said in a news release. Deep brain stimulation uses electrodes implanted in target brain regions to treat conditions like Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, obsessive-compulsive disorder, tremors and Tourette syndrome, the Mayo Clinic says. But placing the implants involves major brain surgery, which opens patients up to a number of harmful complications, researchers noted. These nanodiscs could provide a less invasive alternative to currently used electrodes, researchers said. The nanodiscs contain a magnetic core and an electrically charged outer shell. When exposed to a magnet, the core presses against the outer shell and causes it to deliver electrical pulses to nearby neurons, researchers said. Stimulation can be switched on and off by flipping a switch on an electromagnet, researchers said. The discs successfully stimulated brain regions in mice associated with feelings of reward and…  read on >  read on >