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Two monoclonal antibody treatments to slow Alzheimer’s disease, lecanemab (Leqembi) and donanemab (Kisunla), have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the past two years. It’s thought the drugs curb Alzheimer’s by reducing levels of toxic amyloid protein plaques in the brain. But what if another neurological effect could explain the benefit? Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have discovered that Leqembi and Kisunla boost levels of a healthy form of amyloid beta (Aβ42) protein in the brain, even as they reduce its more toxic form in amyloid plaques. “If the problem with Alzheimer’s is the loss of the normal protein, then increasing it should be beneficial, and this study showed that it is,” explained study lead author Dr. Alberto Espay, a professor of neurology at Cincinnati. “The story makes sense: Increasing Aβ42 levels to within the normal range is desirable,” he said in a university news release. Aβ42 is a complex protein made up of 42 amino acids, giving it its name. Sometimes these proteins can harden and clump together to form the brain tissue plaques that have long been associated with Alzheimer’s disease. However, Aβ42 in its natural state should not do that. It is normally soluble, and when in a soluble state Aβ42 plays a crucial role in maintaining the health of brain cells, the Cincinnati team explained. Espay’s… read on > read on >

Ozempic and Wegovy can prevent heart problems in overweight and obese people, particularly if they also suffer from kidney disease, a new clinical trial shows. The drugs’ active ingredient, semaglutide, reduced heart health risk by 20% in heavyset people who took it for more than three years, researchers reported Wednesday at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting in Madrid. The study “found a similar percentage reduction in cardiovascular disease with semaglutide in those with and without poor kidney function,” said lead researcher Helen Colhoun, chair of medical informatics and life course epidemiology with the University of Edinburgh in the U.K. That’s especially good news for people with kidney troubles, Colhoun explained. “Because those with poor kidney function have higher background risk of cardiovascular disease, the absolute benefit is greatest in this group,” Colhoun said in a meeting news release. “People with impaired kidney function have increased risks of cardiovascular disease and the results show that semaglutide is safe and effective in reducing this risk substantially.” Semaglutide mimics the hormone GLP-1, which plays a role in hunger, digestion and insulin control. For the clinical trial, researchers randomly assigned more than 17,600 overweight or obese people around the world to take either semaglutide or a placebo for an average of 40 months. The participants had all previously suffered a heart attack or stroke… read on > read on >

The weight-loss drug liraglutide helped obese children lower their BMI and reach a healthier weight, researchers report. The findings, published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented simultaneously at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting in Madrid, are the first to demonstrate the effects of liraglutide (Saxenda) on children ages 6 to 11. “The results of this study offer considerable promise to children living with obesity,” study author Dr. Claudia Fox, co-director of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota, said in a meeting news release. “To date, children have had virtually no options for treating obesity. They have been told to ‘try harder’ with diet and exercise. Now, with the possibility of a medication that addresses the underlying physiology of obesity, there is hope that children living with obesity can live healthier, more productive lives.” Most adults and children 12 and older can take newer weight-loss medicines like the GLP-1 drugs Wegovy and Zepbound, experts say, but younger children must rely on diet, exercise and counseling alone to lose weight. “Obesity is the most common chronic disease of childhood,” Fox noted. “Left untreated, obesity in childhood almost universally persists into adulthood and is associated with significant ill health, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and for some, premature death. Early intervention is therefore critical.” “However,… read on > read on >

An experimental weight-loss pill appears to help people quickly shed pounds, a new study says. People who took the drug amycretin lost up to 13% of their body weight over three months, according to early clinical trial results presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting in Madrid. Amycretin mimics the action of two different hunger-related hormones at once, says Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharma company developing the drug. The drug mimics glucagon, which is the hormone also imitated by the cutting-edge GLP-1 diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, which are given via weekly injection. On top of that, amycretin also mimics amylin, another hormone implicated in hunger and insulin control. “A single molecule that targets both amylin and GLP-1 biology in a tablet form could offer a more convenient approach to achieving better outcomes for individuals with overweight or obesity,” Novo Nordisk researchers wrote in a company news release. For the study, researchers tested amycretin on overweight and obese people who didn’t have diabetes. They found that amycretin outperformed placebo in helping people lose weight, and that higher doses of amycretin caused more weight loss. Participants taking a single daily 50-milligram dose of amycretin lost a little more than 10% of their body weight, on average, within 12 weeks, researchers found. Those taking the 50-mg pill twice a day… read on > read on >

Widespread and easy access to guns is the reason behind the shockingly high rate of firearm deaths in the United States, and not any rise in mental health problems suffered by perpetrators, a new study shows. The United States has the same burden of mental health disorders as 40 other countries with comparable populations, researchers reported recently in the journal PLOS One. However, the U.S. rate of death by firearms is 20 times greater than those other countries, results show. “We have the same degree of mental health issues as other countries, but our firearm death rate is far greater and continuing to increase,” said lead investigator Dr. Archie Bleyer, a clinical research professor with Oregon Health & Science University. “In most of the countries, firearms deaths are decreasing.” Polling has shown that most of the public believes that mental health disorders are to blame for the high U.S. firearm death rate, Bleyer said. But the latest findings indicate that firearm availability is the true cause of America’s gun death epidemic, Bleyer said. For the study, researchers compared the United States to 40 other countries with similar demographics between 2000 and 2019 using data drawn from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Global Health Burden. The research team looked specifically at firearm deaths and the burden of mental health issues in the countries. Since… read on > read on >

It’s natural for a parent to want to protect their children and keep them from harm. But sometimes this understandable desire crosses over into “helicopter parenting,” an overbearing need to be part of a child’s every decision and dilemma. “A helicopter parent is often fueled by anxiety, and that anxiety can come in different flavors: anxiety for their child to be safe, successful or not to be emotionally harmed, as well as anxiety to keep up with the Joneses or what their family or culture expects,” said Dr. Laurel Williams, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. A helicopter parent typically doesn’t allow their child to pursue normal kid behavior on their own. Their instincts cry out for them to make the pathway easier for their kid. But this actually can hamper their child’s development, Williams said. The child might not learn how to handle failure or disappointment, or how to best interact with other children their age. Parents would be better off modeling how kids should handle letdowns like not making a sports team or getting a bad grade. “Be helpful in planning on how this doesn’t happen again, but if you don’t let them handle it on their own, you can delay their development,” Williams said in a Baylor news release. It’s important to identify when… read on > read on >

An analysis of where suicides are occurring in the United States shows that, tragically, location matters. People living in poorer areas with fewer resources are significantly more likely to fall victim to suicide versus those living in more affluent areas, new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. “Improving the conditions where people are born, grow, live, work and age is an often-overlooked aspect of suicide prevention,” said the report’s lead author, CDC health scientist Alison Cammack. Her team published its CDC Vital Signs report on Sept 10. The analysis looked at factors such as insurance coverage, broadband internet access and household income in counties across the United States. They then compared those statistics to rates of suicide in each county. The results show that income, education and access to resources do matter. Compared to those counties scoring lowest when it comes to income, internet access and insurance coverage, suicide rates were: 26% lower in counties with the highest health insurance coverage 44% lower in counties where most homes have broadband internet access 13% lower in counties with the greatest average household income Initiatives that reduce these disparities might help bring suicide rates down, Cammack said in a CDC news release. “Public health programs that improve conditions in communities, such as those funded by CDC’s Comprehensive Suicide Prevention Program, can help… read on > read on >

Having asthma appears linked to raised odds for miscarriage and troubles with fertility among women, new Danish research shows. “We found that women fulfilling the definition of asthma had a higher rate of fetal loss and an increased use of fertility treatment. The more severe the asthma and the more flare-ups the women experienced, the more likely they were to need fertility treatment,” said study lead author Dr. Anne Vejen Hansen. She works in the department of respiratory medicine at Copenhagen University Hospital. Her team presented its findings Tuesday in Vienna at the annual meeting of the European Respiratory Society (ERS). The new study focused on data from almost 770,000 Danish women born from 1976 to 1999 and then tracked from 1994 to 2017, during their prime reproductive years. Women who had asthma were more likely to experience a miscarriage than women without the respiratory illness, with rates of 17% and 15.7%, respectively. They were also more likely to have a medical record showing that they’d had to try a fertility treatment: 5.6% of women with asthma did so, compared to 5% of women without asthma. However, it seems that most women with asthma did end up overcoming these hurdles and went on to bear a child: 77% of women, regardless of their asthma status, became mothers, the study found. “It’s reassuring that women seem… read on > read on >

New research uncovers a possible reason why teenaged girls struggled so mightily with their mental health during the pandemic: Scans showed their brains aged far faster than expected during that stressful time, even faster than the brains of their male peers. In the study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists measured cortical thinning, a process where redundant brain synapses are pruned and the outer layer of the cortex is thinned. While some experts believe this process is simply the brain rewiring itself for efficiency as it matures, it is known to accelerate in stressful conditions. That speeded thinning is also linked to depression and anxiety. How did the researchers discover that unusual thinning? After pandemic shutdowns started to lift, scans taken in 2021 showed that both boys and girls had experienced rapid cortical thinning during that period. But the thinning was far more pronounced in girls, whose thinning had accelerated, on average, by 4.2 years ahead of what was expected. Meanwhile, the thinning in boys’ brains had accelerated only 1.4 years ahead of what was expected. The greater impact on female brains could have been be due to differences in the importance of social interaction for girls versus boys, said senior study author Patricia Kuhl, director of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington. Teenaged girls rely… read on > read on >

Annoyed that you still have a bit of tummy even though you work out all the time? Exercise actually is helping you develop healthier belly fat tissue, a new study says. That means that even if you don’t obtain six-pack abs, exercise is good for your long-term health, researchers said. “Our findings indicate that in addition to being a means to expend calories, exercising regularly for several months to years seems to modify your fat tissue in ways that allows you to store your body fat more healthfully if or when you do experience some weight gain — as nearly everyone does as we get older,” said researcher Jeffrey Horowitz, a professor of movement science at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. For the study, researchers compared two groups of people with obesity. One group of 16 people said they’d exercised at least four times a week for at least two years, while another group of 16 said they’d never regularly exercised. Samples were taken from belly fat tissue just under the skin, which is considered the healthiest place for the body to store fat. Fat stored under the skin is less likely to cause health problems compared to fat accumulating around or inside organs, researchers said. People who regularly exercised had distinct differences in their fat tissue that increased their capacity to store… read on > read on >

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Alzheimer’s Drugs May Work in Whole New Way, Study Finds

Ozempic Can Prevent Heart Trouble in Folks With Kidney Issues

Weight-Loss Pill Saxenda Helps Kids as Young as 6

Daily Pill Helps People Lose Weight, Combines GLP-1 With Other Drug

It’s High Number of Guns, Not Mental Health Crises, That Drives U.S. Gun Deaths: Study

Helicopter Parenting: Spotting It, and Expert Tips to Curb It

U.S. Suicide Rates Rise in Less Affluent Areas

Asthma Could Raise Miscarriage, Infertility Risks for Women: Study

Pandemic Isolation May Have Caused Rapid Brain Aging in Teen Girls

Exercising Can Help You Have Healthier Belly Fat