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Despite recent concerns that taking Ozempic, Wegovy or other GLP-1 medications might be unsafe before a surgery, a new review has uncovered no such danger. The issue arose because weight-loss drugs slow gastric emptying. The thought was that food might linger in the stomach so patients might be at higher risk of aspirating food particles and choking while under anesthesia. But a new review of data from 15 randomized studies found only a minimal change in gastric emptying among GLP-1 users, not enough to pose any danger during surgery. “While GLP-1 medications affect gastrointestinal tract motility [movement], their quantified impact may not be as significant as previously assumed,” said study senior author Dr. Walter Chan. “It appears safe to continue these medications before a procedure requiring anesthesia or sedation, with minor precautions like abstaining from solid food for a day to minimize any potential risk of aspiration,” said Chan, who directs the Center of Gastrointestinal Motility at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. His team published its findings in the June issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology. As the researchers explained, guidelines around GLP-1 use prior to a surgery are mixed. The American Society of Anesthesiologists recommends that patients stop taking GLP-1 medications for up to a week before elective surgeries and procedures. On the other hand, the American Gastroenterological Association suggests proceeding with… read on > read on >

Teenagers who are part of close-knit neighborhoods and families are less likely to have sex at a young age, a new study has found. On the other hand, teens’ schools have less influence on their sexual behavior, researchers report. “Our results echo other studies’ findings on the importance of families and neighborhoods in protecting youth from risky behaviors, and show that feeling connected to one’s local community can mitigate sexual risky behaviors,” said lead researcher Dr. Camila Cribb Fabersunne, a pediatrician with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Teens whose parents restricted their dating were 55% less likely to have sex by 10th grade, results showed. So were kids who spend less time alone when home (8% less likely), and who had tight-knit families (7% less likely). Teenagers from close-knit neighborhoods were 10% less likely to have sex by 10th grade, results show. However, no school factors were associated with delaying sex until later in high school, researchers found. Meanwhile, teens from disadvantaged neighborhoods with less education were about 24% more likely to have sex by 10th grade, researchers added. “Parents should not underestimate the impact they can have on their children,” said senior researcher Dr. Tracy Richmond, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. “Simple parenting strategies like limiting dating can make a big difference on the timing of their child’s first sexual encounter, which… read on > read on >

One of the biggest obstacles to treating brain cancer is getting tumor-killing drugs past the blood-brain barrier that normally protects the brain from foreign invaders. Now, new research shows that ultrasound waves emitted from a device implanted in a cancer patient’s skull could be the key to getting chemotherapy and immunotherapy drugs into the brain. This ultrasound technology allowed doctors at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago to get a small dose of these drugs past the blood-brain barrier, according to a report published June 6 in the journal Nature Communications. What’s more, the treatment boosted the immune system’s recognition of brain cancer cells, the researchers added. “This is the first report in humans where an ultrasound device has been used to deliver drugs and antibodies to glioblastoma to change the immune system, so it can recognize and attack the brain cancer,” said researcher Dr. Adam Sonabend, an associate professor of neurological surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “This could be a major advance for the treatment of glioblastoma, which has been a frustratingly difficult cancer to treat, in part due to poor penetration of circulating drugs and antibodies into the brain,” Sonabend added in a Northwestern news release. The study involved four patients with advanced brain cancer. They had already been treated with chemotherapy and had taken part in an experimental clinical trial, but… read on > read on >

Drug-resistant fungal infections are appearing in the United States, resulting in highly contagious and tough-to-treat cases of ringworm, also known as jock itch or athlete’s foot, experts warn in a pair of reports. The two fungi reported are among a group that cause skin rashes of the face, limbs, groin and feet, researchers said. Unfortunately, the rashes can look very different from the neat, regular circles seen in most forms of ringworm, researchers said. They might be confused with eczema, and go for months without proper treatment. A man in his 30s developed such a rash on his penis, buttocks and limbs after returning home to New York City from a trip to England, Greece and California, according to a report published June 5 in the journal JAMA Dermatology. Genetic tests revealed the infection was caused by a sexually transmitted form of ringworm called Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII. The man told doctors he’d had sex with multiple male partners during his travels, none of whom reported similar skin issues. “Healthcare providers should be aware that Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII is the latest in a group of severe skin infections to have now reached the United States,” said lead author Dr. Avrom Caplan, an assistant professor of dermatology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. Infections caused by that fungus are difficult to… read on > read on >

Doctors already warn folks off salt due to its heart risks, but new research suggests sodium isn’t helping your skin either. Researchers found that as daily salt intake rose, so did the odds for the skin disorder eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis. “Restriction of dietary sodium intake may be a cost-effective and low-risk intervention for atopic dermatitis,” concluded a team led by Dr. Katrina Abuabara, associate professor of dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The data came from on an ongoing British research database called the UK Biobank, involving almost 216,000 people aged 37 and older at the time they were recruited into the study. As part of the Biobank effort, people were asked to provide a urine sample, which could then be used to gauge a person’s sodium intake. About 5% of the people in the Biobank had a diagnosis of eczema. The average person’s 24-hour “urine sodium excretion” was about 3 grams, but the study found that folks’ daily excretion of sodium went up by just 1 gram, their odds for a flare-up of their eczema rose by 22%. The effect seemed stronger among women than men. People whose urine sample suggested high salt intake faced an 11% higher odds of severe eczema, the researchers said. On the other hand, folks who stuck to health guidelines when it came… read on > read on >

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Tuesday voted against recommending the psychedelic MDMA for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In a 10-1 vote, the panel determined the evidence amassed so far fails to show the controversial drug’s benefits outweigh its risks, the Associated Press reported. During the meeting, panel members pointed to flawed study data and significant drug risks, including the potential for heart problems, injury and abuse. “It seems like there are so many problems with the data — each one alone might be OK, but when you pile them on top of each other … there’s just a lot of questions I would have about how effective the treatment is,” Dr. Melissa Decker Barone, a psychologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs, said during the meeting, the AP reported. The FDA is expected to make a final decision by August, but the panel’s vote could bolster the agency’s reasoning for rejecting the treatment, the AP reported. MDMA is the first in a series of psychedelics — including LSD and psilocybin — that are expected to come before the FDA for review in the next few years, the AP reported. But on Tuesday, the FDA advisers pointed to flawed studies that could have skewed the results on MDMA, missing follow-up data on patient outcomes and a lack of diversity among participants.… read on > read on >

In new guidelines released Tuesday, U.S. health officials now recommend that certain people take the antibiotic doxycycline as a morning-after pill to lower the risk of some sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The latest recommendations only apply to gay and bisexual men and transgender women who have had an STD in the past year and are at high risk of getting infected again. While past research has shown that doxycycline works for those populations, there’s not enough evidence to recommend the preventive treatment, known as doxy PEP, for all American adults, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted. The new guidelines were published in the CDC publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. CDC officials stressed that better ways to slow the spread of STDs are needed. “No vaccines and few chemoprophylaxis options exist for the prevention of bacterial sexually transmitted infections… [specifically syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea]. These infections have increased in the United States and disproportionately affect gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men [MSM] and transgender women,” wrote researchers led by Laura Bachmann, chief medical officer of the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention. “In three large randomized controlled trials, 200 [milligrams] mg of doxycycline taken within 72 hours after sex has been shown to reduce syphilis and chlamydia infections by >70% and gonococcal infections by approximately 50%,” they added. When… read on > read on >

Military veterans often struggle with their mental health once their service ends, but the first clinical trial of its kind has found that having a service dog helps lower the risk of PTSD for these former soldiers. Veterans paired with a service dog had 66% lower odds of a PTSD diagnosis, compared to a control group of vets still waiting for a service dog, researchers reported June 4 in the journal JAMA Network Open. These vets also experienced lower anxiety and depression levels, as well as improvements in most areas of emotional and social well-being, researchers found. “This research reinforces what we have been studying for almost a decade — that service dogs are linked to significant benefits for many veterans suffering from PTSD and other invisible wounds of war,” said lead researcher Maggie O’Haire, associate dean for research at the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine. “Service dogs are more than pets — they can be essential partners in helping veterans readjust and thrive after they return from service,” O’Haire said. For the study, researchers tracked more than 150 military veterans over three months. Vets received their dogs through the program K9s For Warriors, the nation’s largest provider of trained service dogs for military veterans. Most of the dogs provided by K9s For Warriors are rescues, researchers noted. The program trains them, on… read on > read on >

Teens on the verge of falling asleep behind the wheel is a common threat to public safety on U.S. roadways, a new study reports. About 1 in 6 teenage drivers say they’ve driven while drowsy, according to a National Sleep Foundation study presented Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Houston. The research was also published in a special supplement of the May issue of the journal Sleep. That finding means that about 1.7 million teenage drivers have driven while sleepy, and more than 400,000 teens drive drowsy at least once a week, researchers estimated. “This is a troubling rate, especially given that teens are new drivers with relatively low opportunity to have engaged in drowsy driving when compared to the lifetime of driving opportunities in adults,” said principal investigator Joseph Dzierzewski, vice president of research and scientific affairs at the National Sleep Foundation. Teens know it’s not safe — about 95% said drowsy driving is extremely or very risky, poll results show. However, they listed drowsy driving as having the lowest risk of death or serious harm when compared to drunk, drugged or distracted driving, researchers found. Most teens said work or school schedules keep them from getting the sleep they need to drive alert. Teen drivers with jobs were more than twice as likely to have driven drowsy… read on > read on >

Less than one-quarter of people who survive serious heart conditions receive the dietary counseling needed to protect their future health, a new study finds. Only about 23% of people treated for major illnesses like heart attack and heart failure receive counseling on their diet within three months of hospitalization, researchers reported recently in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “Nutrition counseling may reduce the risk a person has for cardiovascular episodes and disease, yet our research shows that the vast majority of patients, who are all at risk after significant heart events, are not receiving this essential education,” said senior researcher Dr. Brahmajee Nallamothu, a professor of internal medicine-cardiology at the University of Michigan Medical School. For the study, researchers tracked nearly 150,000 patients seen for serious heart problems at hospitals across Michigan between late 2015 and early 2020. Most of the patients who did receive dietary counseling got it as part of a cardiac rehabilitation program. Only 20% to 30% of eligible patients take advantage of such rehab, researchers noted. Outside of cardiac rehab, doctors offered dietary counseling just 5% of the time. It might be that the doctors don’t have the time to offer diet advice, or don’t consider themselves expert enough to provide good counseling, researchers said. “When patients receive this education, we have seen tremendous results — some… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

It’s Safe to Take GLP-1 Weight Loss Meds Before Surgery: Study

Close-knit Family, Community Key to Teens Delaying Sex

Ultrasound Device Delivers Meds to Better Fight Brain Tumors

Experts Warn of Drug-Resistant Jock Itch, Athlete’s Foot

High-Salt Diets Might Raise Eczema Risk

FDA Panel Says No to MDMA as Treatment for PTSD

CDC Supports Use of Antibiotic as ‘Morning After Pill’ to Stop STDs

Service Dogs Work Wonders for Veterans With PTSD: Study

Too Many Teens Are Driving Drowsy

Few Heart Attack Survivors Get Expert Advice on Diet