Could the blockbuster GLP-1 meds like Wegovy and Ozempic have a role to play in helping people cut down on problem drinking? A new study suggests so. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland report that obese folks with drinking issues who took the drugs to shed pounds had an up to 56% reduction in re-occurrence of alcohol use disorder over one year later, compared to those not using the meds. “This is very promising news in that we may have a new therapeutic method to treat alcohol use disorder,” said lead researcher Rong Xu. She’s a professor of biomedical informatics at the Case Western’s School of Medicine. Prior data has suggested that something about GLP-1 diabetes/weight-loss drugs can have the effect of curbing excess drinking. And the Case Western team have already shown that semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) can have other unexpected health benefits. “In January we showed that semaglutide is associated with a decrease in suicidal thoughts, and in March, we demonstrated that semaglutide is also associated with a reduction in both new diagnoses and recurrence of cannabis use disorder,” Xu noted in a university news release. So what about alcohol intake? In the new study, Xu’s team pored over the electronic health records of nearly 84,000 patients with obesity.  Compared to people who weren’t taking semaglutide, those who took the med saw a…  read on >  read on >

Ozempic and Wegovy might help lower the risk of pancreatitis in patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes, a new study says. Up to now, doctors have been cautious about prescribing semaglutide to patients with a history of pancreatitis, because they feared the drug could worsen the condition, said lead researcher Dr. Mahmoud Nassar, a fellow in endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at the University of Buffalo in New York. In fact, the drug’s prescribing information even warns about this potential side effect, Nassar noted. “Our research highlights the safety and the potential for GLP-1 receptor agonists [like semaglutide] to reduce the risk of acute pancreatitis recurrence in individuals with obesity and type 2 diabetes, challenging previous concerns and offering new hope for effective disease management,” Nassar said. For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 638,000 patients with a history of pancreatitis. The patients were located across 15 countries, but they were mainly from the United States. Researchers tracked how many patients developed pancreatitis again within 15 years of starting either semaglutide or other drugs for diabetes and obesity. The other drugs included SGLT2 inhibitors, which decrease blood sugar levels by preventing glucose from being absorbed in the kidneys, and DPP4 inhibitors, which help the pancreas release insulin. About 15% of patients taking semaglutide had wound up suffering a recurrence of pancreatitis, compared with…  read on >  read on >

Nerve surgery can reduce the number of headache days for people who suffer frequent migraines, a new review finds. The procedure also can decrease the frequency and intensity of migraine attacks, according to results published in the June issue of the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. “Our study adds new evidence that headache surgery improves both sets of measures, providing a more comprehensive assessment of the results of headache surgery,” said researcher Dr. Jeffrey Janis, a professor of plastic surgery, surgery, neurosurgery and neurology at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Migraine surgery seeks to relieve nerve compression at trigger sites in the head and neck, researchers explained. This pressure is thought to contribute to headaches. Neurologists assessing migraine treatments tend to focus on whether they reduce the number of days a person has a headache, Janis said. On the other hand, plastic surgeons performing headache surgery typically use an index that evaluates the frequency, intensity and duration of migraines, Janis added. “This discrepancy is one reason why some headache specialists have been slow to recognize the growing body of evidence showing the effectiveness of headache surgery,” Janis noted in a journal news release. For this review, researchers decided to consider both ways of assessing the effectiveness of migraine surgery, so that both groups of professionals could find common ground regarding the procedure. The…  read on >  read on >

Cerebral aneurysms: For most people, the word signals a sudden, fatal brain bleed that seemingly comes out of nowhere. However, an expert at Penn State Health says that in many cases these brain blood vessel ruptures are spotted early, before they rupture. And even when they do occur, they are not uniformly fatal. What is a cerebral aneurysm? “An aneurysm is like a blister on a water hose,” explained Dr. Scott Simon, a neurosurgeon at Penn State Health’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. “They can happen on any blood vessel in the body.” The trouble is, as they form in the brain in their earliest stages, most people have no idea they’re in any danger. Sometimes, a doctor may spot one in a brain scan conducted for other reasons, Simon said. If a cerebral aneurysm does rupture, about half of the time the event proves fatal, Simon said. Among those who survive, 68% will experience permanent neurological damage. According to Simon, cerebral aneurysms take the lives of half a million people around the world each year. Cerebral aneurysm causes and risk factors According to Simon, the simple answer as to what causes a cerebral aneurysm is, “We don’t know.” Certain risk factors do seem to come into play, however. “We know that they can run in families,” he said in a Penn State news release.…  read on >  read on >

About one in eight U.S. seniors will be treated for a traumatic brain injury, typically during a fall, a new study finds. Medicare data shows that about 13% of seniors suffered a severe concussion during an average follow-up period of 18 years, researchers report. Although these injuries can be treated, they increase the risk of serious conditions like dementia, Parkinson’s disease, seizures, heart disease, depression and anxiety, they added. “The number of people 65 and older with TBI is shockingly high,” said senior researcher Dr. Raquel Gardner, a neurologist with the Sheba Medical Center in Israel. For the study, researchers tracked about 9,200 Medicare enrollees with an average age of 75. Women, white people, the healthier and the well-off appear at higher risk of concussion, according to the data — a finding that runs counter to prior research. For example, about 64% of people who had a traumatic brain injury were female, even though women represented 58% of the total group studied, researchers said. Likewise, about 84% of people in the total group were white, but whites represented 89% of concussions, results show. About 31% of those with traumatic brain injury were in the top 25% of wealth, while 22% were in the lowest quarter, researchers said. Seniors with concussion also were less likely to have lung disease or to struggle with activities of daily…  read on >  read on >