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Elon Musk swears by the weight-loss drug Wegovy, and Kim Kardashian is rumored to have used it to shed 16 pounds in three weeks to squeeze into a vintage gown once worn by Marylin Monroe. But the intense public demand for Wegovy has triggered a shortage of the diabetes version of the injectable medication, known as Ozempic. That’s leaving patients with the blood sugar disease in a real bind. Made by Novo Nordisk, semaglutide (Ozempic) has been on the market since 2017 to help manage type 2 diabetes. But in June 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved semaglutide to treat weight loss under the brand name Wegovy. Ever since Wegovy arrived on the market, Novo Nordisk has struggled to meet demand, experts said. Unfortunately, people who want to drop pounds and can’t find Wegovy are getting doctors to write them off-label prescriptions for Ozempic, eating into supplies of a drug that’s vital in the treatment of diabetes. “We’ve heard reports of people really struggling to fill their prescriptions,” said Dr. Robert Gabbay, chief science and medical officer for the American Diabetes Association. “I still see patients at the Joslin Diabetes Center, and I can tell you that some of my patients have said, oh, yeah, you know, I had to go to lots of different pharmacies to finally find it. It’s been a… read on > read on >

Plenty of people enjoy a cup or two, or maybe three or four, of coffee every day. But new research shows that people with severe high blood pressure (“hypertension”) should steer clear of drinking too much java. The study found that for those with blood pressure of 160/100 or higher, drinking two or more cups of coffee daily was associated with a doubled risk of death from heart disease compared to those who don’t drink coffee. “We were surprised that heavy coffee consumption was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease mortality among people with severe hypertension, but not in those without hypertension or with grade 1 hypertension,” said study author Dr. Masayuki Teramoto. He is with Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan and the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. “In contrast, green tea consumption was not associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease mortality across all blood pressure categories,” Teramoto added. Why no heart harm with green tea? Researchers said polyphenols — micronutrients with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties — may be what’s responsible for the benefits of green tea. “These beneficial effects of green tea may partially explain why only coffee consumption was associated with an increased risk of mortality in persons with severe hypertension, despite both green tea and coffee containing caffeine,”… read on > read on >

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 21, 2022 (American Heart Association News) — Need a healthy way to kick off the new year? You’re in luck. As the calendar turns, cultures across the world focus on good fortune and associate all kinds of foods with it. Here’s a look at which are healthiest – and how to handle those that are less so. Black-eyed peas In the American South, it’s not New Year’s without black-eyed peas, which are actually a type of bean. In some areas, they’re served with rice in a dish called Hoppin’ John. James Shikany, endowed professor of cardiovascular disease at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said black-eyed peas themselves are a healthy food, “but it depends on how they’re prepared.” On their own, black-eyed peas are full of fiber and packed with iron, thiamin and other nutrients. But Shikany, a nutritional epidemiologist and lead author of a 2015 study in Circulation about the traditional Southern diet, said they often are made with a lot of salt and fatty meat. Excess sodium can increase your risk of high blood pressure, and saturated fat can raise LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, which can boost your risk of heart disease. Collard greens “It’s the same story,” Shikany said. Collard greens – said to be symbolic of folded cash – are full of fiber, vitamins and iron. “Most greens, in… read on > read on >

Menopause and the years before it may make you feel like you’re losing your mind. Some of those feelings are changes that occur naturally in this stage of life, but other factors contribute, too, according to the North American Menopause Society (NAMS), which offered tips to achieve some peace. Changes in hormones are a big reason for the mood swings and other symptoms. While most women are accustomed to their own hormonal rhythm, it gets disrupted during perimenopause, the years before a woman’s periods stop for good, according to NAMS. Part of it is just timing — that these physical changes are happening along with other midlife stresses, such as relationship issues, divorce or widowhood. For some women, those stresses include caring for young children, struggles with teens, the return of grown children to the home or being childless. Career, education and aging parents may add to this strain. Women in midlife also may be living with changes in self-esteem or body image because society values youth, NAMS suggested in a news release. One way to feel better is to create balance. Remember to take care of your own needs, not just those of family and work. This can help you meet new challenges and maintain self-confidence. If you experienced depression when younger, you’re more vulnerable to those feelings during perimenopause. Depression is associated with… read on > read on >

Researchers think they’ve figured out why people can become reinfected with COVID-19, despite immunity gained from either vaccination or a previous infection. It turns out that antibodies produced in the nose — the first line of defense against respiratory viruses like COVID — decline faster than antibodies found in the bloodstream, British scientists say. Nasal antibodies tend to drop nine months after COVID-19 infection, while antibodies in the blood last at least a year, according to findings published online Dec. 19 in the journal eBioMedicine. The study also found that vaccination is very effective in creating and boosting blood-borne antibodies that protect against severe disease, but had very little effect on nasal antibodies. “Before our study, it was unclear how long these important nasal antibodies lasted. Our study found durable immune responses after infection and vaccination, but these key nasal antibodies were shorter-lived than those in the blood,” said lead researcher Dr. Felicity Liew, from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London. “While blood antibodies help to protect against disease, nasal antibodies can prevent infection altogether. This might be an important factor behind repeat infections with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its new variants,” Liew added in a college news release. The new study evaluated nearly 450 people hospitalized with COVID-19 between February 2020 and March 2021, before the emergence of the Omicron… read on > read on >

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) – Cold, dry winter air and a trio of spreading viruses could cause children’s asthma to flare up this winter season. But experts at one children’s hospital offer some tips to help parents keep their kids’ worrisome respiratory symptoms in check. While asthma is a lung condition that can make it harder to breathe, some things can make symptoms worse, such as illness, cold air and smoke, according to Children’s Minnesota in St. Paul and Minneapolis. To avoid cold-weather flare-ups, make sure your child has the right clothing to wear outside, including a scarf or neck warmer they can wear over their mouth and nose. This can help warm and humidify the air they breathe. Help prevent a case of influenza by washing hands frequently and making sure your child gets a flu shot. The flu can lead to hospitalization in children with asthma. People with asthma have swollen, sensitive airways already, so they’re more likely to have serious health complications such as pneumonia if they get the flu. The influenza virus can trigger asthma symptoms even in mild asthma or cases that are well-controlled by medication. Teach your children how to wash their hands properly with soap and water, while still encouraging them to keep their hands away from their face. A flu shot doesn’t guarantee prevention of… read on > read on >

Groups of whales, dolphins and porpoises are regularly stranded in shallow waters around the coasts of the United Kingdom. Researchers wanted to understand why, so they studied the brains of 22 toothed whales — or “odontocetes” — that were stranded in Scottish coastal waters. The study included five species — Risso’s dolphins, long-finned pilot whales, white-beaked dolphins, harbor porpoises and bottlenose dolphins. The research showed that four of the stranded animals from different dolphin species had some brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease in humans. “These are significant findings that show, for the first time, that the brain pathology in stranded odontocetes is similar to the brains of humans affected by clinical Alzheimer’s disease,” said lead researcher Dr. Mark Dagleish of the University of Glasgow. “While it is tempting at this stage to speculate that the presence of these brain lesions in odontocetes indicates that they may also suffer with the cognitive deficits associated with human Alzheimer’s disease, more research must be done to better understand what is happening to these animals,” Dagleish said in a university news release. The researchers said their results could support the “sick-leader” theory. This means that healthy dolphins would find themselves in dangerously shallow waters after following a confused or lost group leader. While stranded odontocetes can sometimes be moved to deeper waters by teams of experts, others die.… read on > read on >

Humans have continued to evolve after splitting from chimpanzee ancestors nearly 7 million years ago, according to a new study that found 155 new genes unique to humans that suddenly arose from tiny sections of DNA. Some of the new genes date back to the ancient origin of mammals, according to the researchers. They suspect a few of these “microgenes” have links to human-specific diseases. “This project started back in 2017 because I was interested in novel gene evolution and figuring out how these genes originate,” said study author Nikolaos Vakirlis, a scientist at the Biomedical Sciences Research Center Alexander Fleming in Vari, Greece. “It was put on ice for a few years, until another study got published that had some very interesting data, allowing us to get started on this work.” For this new study, published Dec. 20 in Cell Reports, his team created an ancestral tree to compare humans to other vertebrate species using previously published genetic data. The investigators tracked the relationship of these genes across evolution and 155 popped up from regions of unique DNA. New genes can arise from duplication in the genome, but these started from scratch. “It was quite exciting to be working in something so new,” said senior author Aoife McLysaght, a scientist at Trinity College Dublin, in Ireland. “When you start getting into these small sizes… read on > read on >

Many young U.S. adults are estranged from their parents, at least temporarily — with the father/child bond being especially fragile. Those are among the findings of a new national study that tracked thousands of parent-child relationships from the 1990s to recent years. Researchers found that one-quarter of young adults were estranged from their fathers at some point — four times the number who reported broken ties with their mother. Often, those relationships got back on track to some degree, but reconciliation was less likely with fathers: Of adults who were estranged from their mother at some point, 81% got back in contact; that compared with 69% of people who were estranged from their father. One of the messages from the findings is that family estrangement is common — and not a sign of failure, according to the researchers. “There is a lot of shame and silence around family estrangement, but in my view estrangement isn’t inherently good or bad,” said Rin Reczek, a professor of sociology at Ohio State University. Most often, Reczek said, it’s the adult child who breaks ties, rather than the parent. And there may be many reasons. “As children grow up, they start making choices regarding independence for themselves, and sometimes this includes cutting off or significantly reducing contact with parents for their own healing,” Reczek said. In other cases, someone… read on > read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco unit is “reactive and overwhelmed,” an expert panel reviewing its work reported Monday. In addition, the panel blamed the FDA’s inconsistent regulation efforts for the spread of unauthorized e-cigarettes that are appealing to teens, among other problems. Commissioned by FDA chief Dr. Robert Califf this summer, the review was done by a panel convened by the nonprofit Reagan-Udall Foundation. “This work is particularly critical as we focus on preventing initiation, while also helping people quit, especially the deadliest form of tobacco use, combustible tobacco products,” Califf said in a news release announcing the release of the report. “Despite meaningful declines in cigarette use over the past several decades, nearly 500,000 Americans still die every year from cigarette smoking. Additionally, with more than 3 million youth reporting current use of a tobacco product in 2022, and e-cigarettes being the most used product, we risk another generation becoming addicted to these products.” Califf added that he plans to review the recommendations and develop an action plan by February. In the report, the experts recommended agency leaders set clear objectives and expectations to prevent more “detrimental” effects on the FDA’s work and staff morale. “Something is wrong if FDA can be given these amazing powers in 2009 and here we are at the end of 2022 and it has yet to… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Diabetes Med Ozempic in Short Supply as Americans Use It for Weight Loss

Coffee Might Pose Danger to Folks With Severe High Blood Pressure

AHA News: With a Little Luck, These Foods Will Get Your New Year Started Right

Mood Swings, Memory Troubles: Minding the Mental Toll of Menopause

Defenses Down: COVID Antibodies in Nose Decline First

Winter & Kid’s Asthma: High Time for Flare-Ups

Stranded Dolphins’ Brains Show Alzheimer’s-Like Changes

People Are Still Evolving, Creating New Genes

Adult Children Far More Likely to Be Estranged From Dad Than Mom

FDA’s Tobacco Unit Overloaded and Lacking Direction, Panel Says