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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first nonhormonal medication aimed at easing menopause hot flashes. The new pill, called Veozah (fezolinetant), is from a class of drugs called neurokinin 3 (NK3) receptor antagonists. It targets a specific brain neuron that’s thought to be set off balance as estrogen levels naturally decline during menopause. “It works by binding to and blocking the activities of the NK3 receptor, which plays a role in the brain’s regulation of body temperature,” the FDA explained in a news release issued Friday. “Hot flashes as a result of menopause can be a serious physical burden on women and impact their quality of life,” said Dr. Janet Maynard, who directs the Office of Rare Diseases, Pediatrics, Urologic and Reproductive Medicine at the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “The introduction of a new molecule to treat moderate to severe menopausal hot flashes will provide an additional safe and effective treatment option for women,” she said in the news release. According to the FDA, over 80% of menopausal women experience sudden, often debilitating hot flashes lasting several minutes that can be accompanied by sweating, flushing and chills. While estrogen-based hormone replacement therapy has long been used to help ease these symptoms, long-term use has been linked to a heightened risk for breast cancer and stroke. In addition, “some… read on > read on >

Think you might be struggling with depression? It’s not always easy to recognize, but identifying the symptoms is the first step toward getting the help you need. Depression is a common mental health condition that affects millions of people worldwide. In the United States alone, an estimated 21 million adults had at least one major bout of depression in 2020, representing about 8.4% of the adult population, according to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Symptoms of depression vary from person to person, but some are more commonly experienced than others. Exploring the most common symptoms will help you know what to look for if you suspect that you or someone you know may be struggling with depression. What are symptoms of depression? Craig Sawchuk, a clinical psychologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said “understanding the basics of depression can help you take the next step.” In a Mayo Clinic video, he noted: “Depression is a mood disorder that causes feelings of sadness that won’t go away … and people who experience depression can’t just snap out of it.” Depression can show up in many ways and can affect each person differently. But some common symptoms are associated with this condition. They can range from feeling persistently sad or hopeless to losing interest in activities you once enjoyed. Other symptoms may… read on > read on >

Receiving a diagnosis of asthma may be frightening, but learning what the treatment options are can help alleviate the anxiety that comes with diagnosis. Depending on the severity, certain asthma medications may help you manage your symptoms. Here, experts break down the most common long-term and quick-acting medications for asthma, how they work and potential side effects. Long-term medications These drugs are ones the patient takes daily as a means of controlling asthma and preventing asthma attacks. These can be in pill form or used as inhalers. Bronchodilators: Long-acting beta-2 agonists (LABA) relax the muscle bands around your airway (bronchi), making it easier to get air in and mucus out. These medications for asthma are taken twice a day through an inhaler and last up to 12 hours, according to the Cleveland Clinic. LABA medications should be given with a corticosteroid. (See combination medications below.) The main side effects of LABA medications are nervous or shaky feelings, hyperactivity, overexcitement, increased heart rate, upset stomach and trouble sleeping. Salmeterol (Serevent) Formoterol (Foradil) Long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMA) also relax the muscle bands around your airway, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) says. This asthma medication is used if the steroid/LABA combination doesn’t give enough relief. Do not use this medication if you have glaucoma or are at risk of urinary retention. Tiotropium bromide (Respimat) Theophylline.… read on > read on >

Older Americans are dying of falls at more than double the rate of 20 years ago — with women, men and all racial groups showing increases, according to a new study. In 2020, the study found, just over 36,500 Americans age 65 and up died of a fall-related injury. That was up from roughly 10,100 deaths in 1999. Adjusted for age, those numbers translated into a more than twofold increase in the rate of fall-related deaths among older Americans: from 29 per 100,000 in 1999, to 69 per 100,000 in 2020. It’s well known that falls are the leading cause of injury death among older Americans, and that the problem is growing. The new findings underscore that, and show that no demographic is unaffected, according to researcher Alexis Santos-Lozada, an assistant professor of human development and family studies at Pennsylvania State University. He found that fall-related death rates more than doubled among both women and men. Among racial and ethnic groups, white older adults had the highest death rate from falls, and the biggest increase — reaching 78 deaths per 100,000 in 2020. But death rates also rose among Black seniors, Hispanic seniors, Asian seniors and Native American seniors alike. “For every group, it’s going in the same direction,” Santos-Lozada said. “That’s concerning.” Yet, he added, “fall prevention is not something we talk about a… read on > read on >

Outside advisors for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted Thursday to recommend approval of Neffy, the first epinephrine nasal spray for severe allergic reactions. Although most of the Pulmonary-Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee members supported the spray for adults (16:6) and children (17:5), key questions linger about whether more data is needed from its maker, ARS Pharmaceuticals, CBS News reported. But Richard Lowenthal, co-founder, president and CEO at ARS, said in a company statement following the vote that, “We believe our clinical data from more than 600 individuals demonstrate Neffy’s absorption-enhancing nasal spray technology is comparable to injectable products in delivering potentially lifesaving epinephrine, but with unique advantages of being small, needle-free and conveniently sized.” Lowenthal added, “We are committed to making it easier for patients and caregivers to carry and administer epinephrine without the anxiety and hesitation associated with using a needle-based device.” Neffy delivers a 2-milligram dose of epinephrine. Instead of large clinical trials, the drug company compared its product to already approved injectable epinephrine products, such as the EpiPen. It showed the results for Neffy were neither substantially higher or lower than injectable epinephrine. “Patients need options — with different administration methods — to facilitate actual epinephrine use in an emergency event,” Dr. Carlos Camargo, a professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, said in the company’s news release.… read on > read on >

Asthma can be a tough disease to control, but to control it you first need to know if you have it. A chronic condition, there are telltale symptoms that crop up when an asthma attack strikes and knowing what those are could help you avoid a life-threatening emergency. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asthma affects 7.8% of Americans. Asthma occurs when the airways become inflamed and narrow, which hinders airflow. More mucus is produced, which further blocks the air from moving in and out of the lungs. When something in the environment causes irritation, tiny muscles squeeze the airways, narrowing them even more. This is called an asthma attack, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. While the effects of asthma vary from minor to severe, here are the most common symptoms of asthma. Shortness of breath One of the most common asthma symptoms, shortness of breath can be quite frightening, Mount Sinai says. When the airways narrow and more mucus is produced you have trouble pulling enough air in, as well as pushing it out. When this happens, you become short of breath, breathe faster and more shallowly, and use more muscles to get enough air in. This shortness of breath can come on suddenly, with exercise, or even when you are… read on > read on >

(HealthDay News) – Millions of Americans take cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, but a new study finds Black and Hispanic adults get the drugs less often than white people do. “This adds to the known racial and ethnic disparities already highly prevalent in heart disease,” said lead author Dr. Ambarish Pandey, an assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “These findings have the potential to affect how we screen for and treat people who do not have heart disease but may have risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking,” he said in a medical center news release. Using national survey data and examining risk factors for heart disease, researchers found about 38% of white participants used statins like Lipitor (atorvastatin) and Zocor (simvastatin) compared with about 24% of Hispanic and Black participants. Statins are among the most prescribed drugs in the United States. Having health insurance and regular access to routine health care were associated with higher statin use. Rates of heart disease are higher in Black and Hispanic adults than white adults, according to past research, so race and ethnicity are considered factors in your individual risk of developing heart disease. Data for the study came from the 2013-2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). A subset of participant records was selected to represent the… read on > read on >

Maintaining a healthy weight may be important for reducing the risk of gastrointestinal cancer, a new study suggests. The research adds to the evidence that excess weight and weight increases in adulthood increase the risk for colon and other gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. “In a time when obesity rates are rising globally and 70% of the U.S. population alone is considered overweight or obese, understanding the association between obesity and long-term disease risk, such as cancer, is critical for improving public health,” said study lead author Holli Loomans-Kropp, a cancer control researcher and epidemiologist with the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, in Columbus. “Our study suggests that being overweight or obese during several phases of life can increase a person’s risk for gastrointestinal cancers in later adulthood,” she added in a university news release. A body mass index (BMI) that reached levels for obese or overweight in early, middle and late adulthood increased the risk of GI cancer. Frequent aspirin use did not change this increased risk in overweight and obese people. Obesity and overweight are linked to at least 13 types of cancer, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute. For the new study, researchers evaluated previously collected data from more than 131,000 patients enrolled in the multicenter Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial between 1993 and 2001. Participants were aged 55… read on > read on >

Severely obese people may need more frequent COVID-19 booster shots to keep their immunity going, new research suggests. Protection from the shots declines more rapidly in those who are severely obese compared to those at a normal weight, according to scientists at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. “Because of the high prevalence of obesity across the globe, this poses a major challenge for health services,” study co-author Sadaf Farooqi said in a Cambridge news release. She is from the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science at Cambridge. Past research has shown that COVID vaccination has been highly effective at reducing symptoms, hospitalization and death, including for people with obesity. Yet antibody levels may be lower in vaccinated obese people, potentially putting them at higher risk of severe disease and death, the researchers noted. To study this, a team from the University of Edinburgh, led by Aziz Sheikh, assessed data tracking the health of 3.5 million Scottish people as part of the EAVE II study. Specifically, they looked at hospitalization and death from COVID-19 in adults who received two doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine or the AstraZeneca vaccine. (The AstraZeneca vaccine is not offered in the United States.) Those with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 40 — considered extreme obesity — had a 76% higher risk of severe… read on > read on >

Months before U.S. health officials warned that tainted eye drops were causing vision loss and even death, a Cleveland woman lost the sight in her eye in a case that puzzled her doctors. The 72-year-old went to an outpatient eye clinic last November complaining of blurry vision. She was sent to a hospital emergency department from there. Ophthalmologists evaluated her eye, cultured the infection and sent the woman home with a combination of strong antibiotic eye drops. But the next day her eye was worse, and she saw yellow discharge on her pillow. This time she saw a cornea specialist, and eventually she was referred to microbiologists and infectious disease experts. “We wondered if she’d accidentally touched something, or there was some freak accident,” said lead study author Dr. Morgan Morelli, an infectious disease fellow at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. “It required a lot of thinking and digging to figure out what was going on,” Morelli said. “And we never thought it was related to a global manufacturing issue,” she added in a news release from the American Society for Microbiology. But that was the cause — tainted EzriCare Artificial Tears. Eye infections linked to the contaminated artificial tears have caused devastating infections for U.S. patients, leading to a warning by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February. By March, the… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

FDA Approves First Nonhormonal Drug to Ease Menopause Hot Flashes

Am I Depressed? The Most Common Symptoms to Look Out For

Get Relief With the Most Common Asthma Medications

Rate of Fatal Falls Among U.S. Seniors Doubled in 20 Years

FDA Panel Recommends Approval of First Nasal Spray to Combat Severe Allergy Attacks

The Most Common Asthma Symptoms You Should Know

Whether or Not You Get Heart-Healthy Statins May Depend on Race

More Evidence That Obesity Raises Odds for Gastrointestinal Cancers

Severe Obesity Could Mean Faster Decline of Immunity From COVID Shot

Cleveland Case Suggests Tainted Eye Drops Were Harming Vision Months Before CDC Alert