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Women who consume more plant-based protein tend to age more gracefully, a new study reports. Women with diets rich in protein — especially from plant-based sources — develop fewer chronic diseases and enjoy healthier aging overall, researchers report in the Jan. 17 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Overall, women who ate more plant-based protein were 46% more likely to be healthy into their later years. “Consuming protein in midlife was linked to promoting good health in older adulthood,” said lead researcher Andres Ardisson Korat, a scientist at Tufts University’s Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, in Boston. “We also found that the source of protein matters,” Ardisson Korat added in a university news release. “Getting the majority of your protein from plant sources at midlife, plus a small amount of animal protein, seems to be conducive to good health and good survival to older ages.” For the study, researchers analyzed self-reported data from more than 48,000 women participating in the Harvard-based Nurses’ Health Study, which followed female health care professionals from 1984 to 2016. The women entered the study between the ages of 38 and 59, and all were deemed to be in good physical and mental health at the start. The research team evaluated surveys that tracked participants’ diets, and then compared that information to the women’s overall… read on > read on >

Casgevy, a groundbreaking treatment that was approved to treat sickle cell disease in December, was given the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s blessing on Tuesday to treat another inherited blood disorder. Casgevy is the first CRISPR-based medicine, where gene editing is used to develop the treatment, to be approved for use in the United States. The one-time dose permanently changes DNA in a patient’s blood cells, but experts note the relief will not come cheap. The treatment list price is $2.2 million for its use in both sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, CNN reported. This latest approval allows Casgevy to be used in patients over the age of 12 with transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia. With this disorder, the body doesn’t make enough of the oxygen-carrying molecule in blood known as hemoglobin. “Today’s approval is an important step in the advancement of an additional treatment option for individuals with beta-thalassemia, a debilitating disease that places individuals at risk of many serious health problems,” Dr. Nicole Verdun, director of the Office of Therapeutic Products within the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in an agency news release. “The approval of a cell-based gene therapy for this condition using CRISPR/Cas9 technology reflects FDA’s continued commitment to supporting safe and effective treatments that leverage the most promising and cutting-edge medical technologies,” she added. In December, the FDA approved Casgevy… read on > read on >

Scientists from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration conclude in newly released documents that marijuana has less potential for abuse than other drugs with the same restrictions and it should be reclassified as a less dangerous drug. Not only that, the review found there is some evidence backing its use as a medical treatment. Right now, cannabis is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, a high-risk category that includes heroin and LSD. The move to reconsider the dangers of marijuana first began in 2022, when President Joe Biden asked U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra and the attorney general to begin reviewing how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. As part of that process, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Rachel Levine wrote a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in August supporting the reclassification of marijuana to a Schedule III drug, a list that includes ketamine, testosterone and Tylenol with codeine. The FDA documents, which were posted online Friday, state that the agency recommends rescheduling marijuana because it meets three criteria: a lower potential for abuse than other Schedule I and II substances; an accepted medical use; and a low or moderate risk of physical dependence in people who abuse it. The National Institute on Drug Abuse backed the recommendation, the documents state. Although marijuana is widely used for recreational purposes,… read on > read on >

Drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic, which have become a wildly popular way to lose weight or battle diabetes, show no link to suicidal thoughts or actions, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday. “Our preliminary evaluation has not found evidence that use of these medicines causes suicidal thoughts or actions,” an FDA review released Thursday stated. Still, the agency noted officials can’t rule out that “a small risk may exist,” and it will continue to look into similar reports involving this class of weight-loss drugs, known as GLP-1 medications. The FDA review comes on the heels of a study funded by the National Institutes of Health that showed people taking semaglutide, the active ingredient in both Ozempic and Wegovy, had a lower risk of suicidal thoughts than those taking other drugs to treat obesity and diabetes. In that study, researchers tracked over 240,000 obese people and more than 1.5 million people with type 2 diabetes. They looked at the risk of suicidal ideation within six months of starting the medicines, as well as at later times. At six months, it found that among people taking the drug for weight loss, semaglutide was linked to a 73% lower risk of first-time suicidal ideation and a 56% lower risk of recurrent suicidal ideation. The drugs that semaglutide was compared to included bupropion, naltrexone, orlistat, topiramate and phentermine.… read on > read on >

Women who’ve survived breast cancer may want to up their dietary intake of soy, nuts, beans and whole grains, a new analysis finds. A higher intake of soy compounds called isoflavones was especially tied to better odds that cancer would not return, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and elsewhere. The findings can’t yet determine the ideal dosages of isoflavones or other nutrients that appear to prevent recurrence, the authors said, so more research is needed in that area. The study also can’t determine “whether starting to consume them after diagnosis has the same effect as a lifelong dietary habit before diagnosis,” senior study author Dr. Channing Paller said in a Hopkins news release. That’s information that “patients are looking for,” he said. The review of data on nutrition and breast cancer recurrence was conducted by Paller’s group at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, along with researchers at other centers worldwide. Investigators looked at data from 22 major studies that focused on soybeans, lignans (compounds found in a variety of plants such as seeds and nuts), cruciferous vegetables (crunchy veggies like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower), and green tea. They also looked at the effect of phytonutrients (compounds derived from plants) that are found in these foods. Paller and her colleagues discovered that a high intake of soy isoflavones was linked to a… read on > read on >

Amid an ongoing shortage of the first-line treatment for syphilis in the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will allow the importation of a different syphilis drug from a French drugmaker. In a letter from Laboratoires Delbert, the Paris-based company said it’s working with the FDA to temporarily import 3.5 million units of Extencilline, which is not approved in the United States. The move was approved by the FDA on Wednesday. Bicillin, a long-acting injectable form of penicillin made by Pfizer that is similar to Extencilline, has been in short supply in the United States since the middle of 2023. It is the recommended treatment for syphilis in adults and it’s the only recommended treatment for pregnant women to prevent syphilis passing from mother to newborn. The National Coalition of STD Directors applauded the FDA’s move. “The delays in treatment that women have faced because of the shortage has placed them and their families at grave risk during the nation’s syphilis crisis,” executive director David Harvey said in a statement. “Today, the administration took meaningful action on our ongoing ask they do anything and everything in their power to address the Bicillin L-A shortage and to provide communities with the resources they need to treat patients and solve this public health crisis.” “We hope this is the first step toward seeing a resolution to… read on > read on >

Tending a garden can help young kids develop healthy attitudes about food that will influence their health years later, a new study says. Kids who participated in a gardening and food education program during elementary school were more likely to eat healthier as they grew up, researchers found. “Kids who grow vegetables in a school garden and learn how to prepare meals seem to show a lasting desire for fresh, healthy food as young adults,” lead author Christine St. Pierre, a doctoral candidate and researcher at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, said in a news release. For the study, researchers brought together focus groups made up of current and past participants in the FoodPrints food education program, which is offered in 20 elementary schools in Washington, D.C. On average, older participants in the focus groups were ninth-graders. The program starts when students are 3 years old, in pre-kindergarten, and continues through fifth grade. In the program, kids help grow vegetables and fruits in a school garden, harvest their produce, and then use it to prepare healthy food. Current and former participants said the program helped them better appreciate fresh food offerings at home. “Almost all of the foods that we eat in FoodPrints, I didn’t really eat at home before then,” one participant said. “Like I didn’t eat ABC [apple,… read on > read on >

Vegetarian diets have been tied to a variety of health benefits – lower blood pressure, better blood sugar control and weight loss among them. Now a new study suggests those benefits might even extend to a person’s ability to ward off COVID-19. A predominantly plant-based diet is linked to 39% lower odds of contracting COVID, according to a report in BMJ Nutrition Prevention and Health. “In light of these findings and the findings of other studies, and because of the importance of identifying factors that can influence the incidence of COVID-19, we recommend the practice of following plant-based diets or vegetarian dietary patterns,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Júlio César Acosta-Navarro, an assistant physician with the Hospital das Clinicas in Sao Paulo, Brazil. For this study, researchers tracked more than 700 adult volunteers between March and July 2022. The participants were surveyed on their diet, and divided into either omnivorous (both plant and animal products) or primarily plant-based dietary groups. The plant-based diet group also was divided into flexitarians who ate meat three or fewer times a week, and vegetarians or vegans who don’t eat meat at all. Of the total group, about 47% said they had a COVID infection, including 32% with mild symptoms and 15% with moderate to severe symptoms. About 52% of meat-eaters became infected with COVID, compared with 40%… read on > read on >

Applesauce fruit puree pouches under recall and investigation for toxic lead levels may also contain another toxin, chromium, according to an update released Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The products under recall are WanaBana, Weis and Schnucks brand cinnamon-flavored applesauce pouches. All were made by AustroFoods at a facility in Ecuador that is currently under FDA inspection. High lead levels appear tied to cinnamon used in the applesauce that was supplied by another company, Negasmart, the FDA said. At least 287 confirmed, probable and suspect cases of lead poisoning linked to tainted fruit puree pouches have now been reported in 37 states, according to the latest update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Now chromium has emerged as another possible toxin. “After additional analysis of both recalled cinnamon apple products and the cinnamon collected from the manufacturer in Ecuador, FDA has determined that, in addition to lead, the cinnamon and recalled products also contained a high level of chromium,” the FDA announced in its Friday update. Chromium is a naturally occurring element that comes in various forms. According to the CDC, chromium III is an essential nutrient, while chromium VI is known to cause cancer. At this time, however, FDA “was not able to definitively determine the form of chromium in the cinnamon apple puree sample,” the agency said. … read on > read on >

Drugs already used by millions to lower cholesterol might someday have a new role: Relieving asthma and COPD. That’s the hope of a new line of research underway at the University of California, Davis. A study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health is seeking to determine whether a “statin inhaler” might reduce the airway inflammation that makes breathing difficult for folks with illnesses like asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Taking a statin pill has no significant effect on the airways, but “delivering statins directly to the lung via inhalation might achieve better local tissue drug levels, and therefore, better clinical results,” theorized lead investigator Amir Zeki, a professor of internal medicine who specializes in pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at UC Davis. This research is still in its early stages. However, if it pans out it might offer another treatment option to the more than 26.5 million Americans with asthma and the more than 16 million battling COPD. Zeki’s team is focusing on what’s known as airway smooth muscle (ASM) — tissue which lies within each airway’s wall and helps control airflow. The inflammation that drives asthma can trigger a tightening of smooth muscle, restricting airways. This “hyperactivity” of smooth muscle also plays a role in COPD, the researchers explained. Treatments such as asthma bronchodilators already target receptors on specific… read on > read on >