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Owners whose cats have diabetes now have a new option to care for the condition in their otherwise healthy pets. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first pill to improve control of diabetes in some cats. The drug, called Bexacat (bexagliflozin tablets), is not insulin and is not meant for cats who have the type of diabetes that requires treatment with insulin. Rather, it is what is called a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor. The active ingredient in this pill prevents the cat’s kidneys from reabsorbing glucose into the blood. This excess glucose leaves the body through the urine, lowering blood sugar levels. As part of the approval, the FDA requires that Bexacat labels include a boxed warning about the importance of patient selection. Only certain cats should take the drug, determined through careful screening. Potential patients must be screened for kidney, liver and pancreatic disease, as well as ketoacidosis, a high level of a type of acids known as ketones in the blood. Bexacat also shouldn’t be used in cats who are being treated with insulin or in those who have previously been treated with insulin. The drug should not be started in cats who are not eating well or who are dehydrated or lethargic at diagnosis. Cats taking this medication should be monitored regularly with exams and blood tests,… read on > read on >

The updated bivalent COVID-19 boosters are now approved for use in children as young as 6 months of age, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today. Children can receive either a Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent booster shot, although the rules differ depending on their age and what type of vaccine they got as their primary series, the FDA said. Kids 6 months to 5 years who received the original Moderna vaccine can receive the Moderna booster at least two months after completing their first round of shots. Children 5 and older also can receive the Pfizer-BioNTech booster at least two months after they’ve completed their first series of COVID shots. The new Pfizer-BioNTech booster will replace the third dose of the primary series of shots for that vaccine for children 6 months through 4 years of age, the FDA said. But children 4 and younger who already completed the three-dose Pfizer-BioNTech primary series will not be eligible for the bivalent booster at this time, the agency said. The FDA will decide on the updated booster for this group of kids after January, when fresh data is expected. The updated boosters contain two components to protect against both the original strain of COVID and widely circulating Omicron variants. “More children now have the opportunity to update their protection against COVID-19 with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine,… read on > read on >

THURSDAY, Dec. 8, 2022 (HealthDay News) – Lasik eye surgery is a common vision-correcting procedure that many Americans view as safe and effective, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has now drafted guidance that warns of potential complications. Although many patients are happy with the results after surgery, the recommended new guidance says complications can include dry eyes, double vision, difficulty with night driving and, in rare cases, chronic eye pain. Even after surgery, some patients will still need eyeglasses. The draft also notes that certain types of patients may be at higher risk of problems, including people with chronic conditions such as diabetes and those who take certain medications, the New York Times reported. Since the recommendations were first released this summer, more than 600 people and professional organizations have weighed in on the issue. “All we’re asking for is balance,”said Dr. Vance Thompson, incoming vice president of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, told the Times. “This document mainly emphasizes the dangers and complications of Lasik, with no mention of the advantages, and the tone is negative enough that it will scare patients.” Thompson noted that more than 90% of patients in the FDA’s studies were satisfied because they were “achieving good vision without spectacles, which is the goal of most patients.” Surgeons and device manufacturers have sought to have… read on > read on >

Statins may do more than help your heart: New research shows the cholesterol-lowering drugs may also lower your risk for a bleeding stroke. An intracerebral hemorrhage, which involves bleeding in the brain, comprises about 15% to 30% of strokes, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. It is also the most deadly. With this type of stroke, arteries or veins rupture, and the bleeding itself can damage brain tissue. The extra blood in the brain may also increase pressure within the skull to a point that further harms the brain. “While statins have been shown to reduce the risk of stroke from blood clots, there has been conflicting research on whether statin use increases or decreases the risk of a person having a first intracerebral hemorrhage,” said study author Dr. David Gaist, of the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. “For our study, we looked at the lobe and non-lobe areas of the brain, to see if location was a factor for statin use and the risk of a first intracerebral hemorrhage,” Gaist said. “We found that those who used a statin had a lower risk of this type of bleeding stroke in both areas of the brain. The risk was even lower with long-term statin use.” The researchers used health records in Denmark, identifying 989 people who had an intracerebral hemorrhage in the… read on > read on >

Adding a little yoga to an exercise routine can be the fix someone needs to drop high blood pressure, a small study suggests. “As observed in several studies, we recommend that patients try to find exercise and stress relief for the management of hypertension [high blood pressure] and cardiovascular disease in whatever form they find most appealing,” said Dr. Paul Poirier, of the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute — Laval University in Quebec, Canada. “Our study shows that structured yoga practices can be a healthier addition to aerobic exercise than simply muscle stretching,” he said. The findings were published Dec. 8 in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology. “While there is some evidence that yoga interventions and exercise have equal and/or superior cardiovascular outcomes, there is considerable variability in yoga types, components, frequency, session length, duration and intensity. We sought to apply a rigorous scientific approach to identify cardiovascular risk factors for which yoga is beneficial for at-risk patients and ways it could be applied in a health care setting, such as a primary prevention program,” Poirier said in a journal news release. Yoga is, of course, a spiritual and exercise practice for millions of people worldwide. It is widely accepted as a form of exercise. The researchers recruited 60 people for this study. Each had been diagnosed with high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome, which… read on > read on >

A proposed U.S. federal ban on menthol cigarettes doesn’t go far enough and needs to include other menthol products, from pipe tobacco to cigarette tubes, researchers say. New evidence shows both the appeal and the addiction potential of these substitutes in adults who smoke menthol cigarettes, said scientists from Rutgers University Center for Tobacco Studies in New Brunswick, N.J., and Ohio State University. “Tobacco companies have rebranded their roll-your-own cigarette tobacco as pipe tobacco, to avoid taxes, and rebranded flavored cigarettes as flavored cigars to skirt a federal ban,” said co-lead investigator Andrea Villanti, deputy director of the Rutgers Center. “We have already seen companies advertising pipe tobacco and cigarette tubes alongside cigarettes and filtered cigars,” Villanti said in a Rutgers news release. “The products we tested in our study are likely to be products that tobacco companies will promote following a ban on menthol cigarettes.” The researchers looked at 98 adults who smoke menthol cigarettes in four sessions held over three weeks. Participants first smoked their usual brand of menthol cigarettes, and then they were randomized over three other tests. These were smoking a preassembled roll-your-own cigarette using menthol pipe tobacco and a mentholated cigarette tube; smoking a menthol-filtered little cigar, and smoking a non-menthol cigarette. None of these products are part of the proposed ban by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which… read on > read on >

Manufacturers make all kinds of health claims, but can taking a dietary supplement actually lower your heart disease risk? A comprehensive analysis of prior research suggests that in certain cases the answer is yes. Some types of supplements – such as omega-3 fatty acids, folic acid and coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) — do provide a cardiovascular leg up. But many supplements were found to offer no heart health benefit of any kind, and others were potentially harmful. “We evaluated 27 different types of supplements, and found that there are several that offered cardiovascular benefits,” said study author Dr. Simin Liu, director of the Center for Global Cardiometabolic Health at Brown University in Providence, R.I. These included omega-3 fatty acids, which reduced the risk of early death due to heart disease. Other supplements that were shown to benefit the heart included folic acid, L-arginine, L-citrulline, Vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, alpha-lipoic acid, melatonin, catechin, curcumin, flavanol, genistein and quercetin. But some common supplements had no long-term effect on heart disease outcomes or risk for type 2 diabetes, Liu noted. They included vitamins C, D, E and selenium. Beta carotene supplements, meanwhile, were associated with an increase in early death from all causes. The findings are an outgrowth of a research review prompted by what Liu and his colleagues described as lingering confusion in the heart health community as… read on > read on >

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 7, 2022 (HealthDay News) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s foods program is in “constant turmoil” and needs stronger leadership, a panel said Thursday. The Reagan-Udall Foundation, a group with close ties to the FDA, released a 51-page report Tuesday noting the need for a clear mission in the program and more urgency to prevent illness outbreaks. FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf first sought the review in July. The group called for restructuring the program’s leadership and culture to address chronic public health issues and food crises. The report did offer suggestions such as creating a separate food agency at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Other suggestions were creating a deputy commissioner for foods or putting the FDA commissioner directly in charge of the foods program. “They lay out all the options,” Bill Marler, a food safety lawyer who testified to the panel that conducted the review, told the Associated Press. “I kind of wish they would have picked one.” As it stands, the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides oversight for some foods. Meanwhile, the FDA oversees not just foods, but drugs and medical devices for humans and for veterinary uses. Critics had earlier expressed concerns about the limited time frame given for the review and that the veterinary center was also not reviewed, the AP reported. “I will… read on > read on >

Chips, pizza, cookies: Delicious, but a diet full of ultra-processed foods like these may contribute to brain deterioration, researchers report. Ultra-processed foods have lots of added and unhealthy ingredients, such as sugar, salt, fat, artificial colors and preservatives. Examples include frozen meals, soft drinks, hot dogs and cold cuts, fast food, packaged cookies, cakes and salty snacks. These foods have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, metabolic syndrome and obesity. Now, scientists in Brazil have tied them to a greater risk of declining brainpower. The study couldn’t prove cause-and-effect. However, “the cognitive decline could be the result of microvascular lesions in the brain, reduced brain volume or even systemic inflammation caused by the consumption of ultra-processed foods,” theorized study lead researcher Natalia Gomes Goncalves. She’s in the Department of Pathology in the School of Medicine at the University of Sao Paulo. “Dietary choices are a powerful way in helping maintain a healthy brain function,” Goncalves said, and it’s never too late to make healthy changes. “Middle age is an important period of life to adopt preventive measures through lifestyle changes, since the choices we make at this age will influence our older years,” she said. “This does not mean that [even] older adults will not see results if they adopt a healthier lifestyle,” Goncalves added, because “research has shown over and over… read on > read on >

Advertising would have you believe that a big bowl of sugary cereal or a syrupy iced coffee drink will make you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning. But that sort of sugar-laden breakfast may be one of the worst things you can do to help you wake up alert and refreshed. A major new sleep study shows a breakfast rich in complex carbohydrates — think a big bowl of steel-cut oatmeal, with some strawberries for flavor — is key to waking up without feeling sluggish. “We found that when you have spike in your blood glucose after breakfast, you’re going to feel less alert, you’re going to feel more sleepy after that breakfast,” said lead researcher Raphael Vallat, a postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Human Sleep Science. “You want to avoid foods that will drastically increase your blood glucose.” Actually, a good breakfast is only one part of a three-step prescription for avoiding morning grogginess, Vallat and his team reported recently in the journal Nature Communications. People who want to wake up alert also should get more than their usual amount of physical activity the day before, Vallat said, and they should sleep a little longer into the morning. “If you wake up later than usual, you’re going to feel a little more alert,” Vallat explained. These recommendations are based on… read on > read on >