(HealthDay News) – The U.S. Justice Department on Monday appealed a Texas court ruling that invalidates the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval in 2020 of mifepristone, the first of two drugs taken during a medical abortion. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas is “extraordinary and unprecedented,” the Justice Department said in its appeal. “If allowed to take effect, the court’s order would thwart FDA’s scientific judgment and severely harm women, particularly those for whom mifepristone is a medical or practical necessity.” Pharmaceutical executives have also weighed in on the ruling, signing a letter on Monday warning about the impact if the Texas order was to take effect. “If courts can overturn drug approvals without regard for science or evidence, or for the complexity required to fully vet the safety and efficacy of new drugs, any medicine is at risk for the same outcome as mifepristone,” stated the letter, according to the Associated Press. While Kacsmaryk’s ruling said the order would not take effect for seven days, within 20 minutes of the order a federal judge in Washington state issued a ruling directing the FDA to make no changes that would restrict access to the drug in 17 states where Democrats had sued, the AP reported. The Justice Department has asked for clarification on that ruling. The Texas lawsuit was filed…  read on >  read on >

Intermittent fasting is all the rage due to its laundry list of potential health benefits — from weight loss to longevity. Now, new research suggests that it may beat low-calorie diets when it comes to preventing type 2 diabetes in high-risk people. Folks who only ate between 8 a.m. and noon for three days a week and ate normally for the other four days showed greater improvements in blood sugar metabolism for at least six months when compared with people who followed a low-calorie diet. Interestingly, folks in both groups lost the same amount of weight during the study period. “Our study indicates that meal timing and fasting advice extends the health benefits of a restricted calorie diet, independently from weight loss, and this may be influential in clinical practice,” said study author Xiao Tong Teong, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Adelaide in Australia. For the study, researchers compared a time-restricted intermittent fasting diet to a low-calorie diet in more than 200 people, to see which had a greater effect on the risk for developing type 2 diabetes. They looked at postprandial blood sugar, a measure of glucose in the bloodstream after eating. If these levels are too high, it suggests a greater risk of type 2 diabetes, the form of the disease most closely related to obesity. Previous studies suggested eating earlier…  read on >  read on >

A Texas federal judge has issued a preliminary ruling that invalidates the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in 2000 of mifepristone, the first of two drugs most commonly taken during a medical abortion. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk added a seven-day stay to his order, issued Friday, to give the FDA time to mount an appeal. About an hour later, Washington state federal judge Thomas Rice issued a countering decision in a case filed there, ordering a halt to “any action to remove mifepristone from the market or otherwise cause the drug to become less available.” The two opposing rulings would suggest that any final decision on the availability of mifepristone, which is typically given alongside misoprostol to cause an abortion, may end up at the Supreme Court. The Washington state lawsuit originated with Democratic attorneys general who were challenging restrictions in place that made it difficult to obtain mifepristone. The Texas decision involves a lawsuit filed by a coalition made up of doctors and anti-abortion groups who sought an end to the use of mifepristone, claiming that the FDA’s decision 23 years ago to approve the drug was made hastily and without proper regard for its overall safety. In his decision, Kacsmaryk said that, ”The court does not second-guess [the] FDA’s decision-making lightly. But here, FDA acquiesced on its legitimate safety concerns — in violation…  read on >  read on >

Dangerously low blood pressure is considered an “invisible” consequence of paralysis, adding to the woes of as many as 9 out of 10 people with spinal cord injuries. Now, a new implant has been developed that treats the problem by delivering electrical stimulation to a select group of spinal neurons. The device, called a neuroprosthetic baroflex, stimulates the lower part of the spine, which contains the most neurons involved in blood pressure control, researchers said. The findings were published April 6 as an essay in Science. Spinal cord injury often interferes with the brain’s ability to modulate blood pressure when a person changes posture, such as moving from a sitting to a standing position. This ability, called the baroreceptor reflex, involves a series of quick responses within the body to keep blood pressure in a normal range when someone abruptly changes position, the Cleveland Clinic says. The brain senses that artery walls are stretching due to a sudden increase in blood pressure. In response, the brain can order the body to compensate, though a series of reactions that take place within a couple of heartbeats. A person with a spinal cord injury can be rendered dizzy, nauseous or prone to fainting if their baroreceptor reflex fails and their blood pressure drops to very low levels as a result of trying to move. “Almost all of…  read on >  read on >