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 >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating reports of additional dangers linked to several wildly popular weight-loss drugs. In a quarterly report issued this week, the agency said it is investigating cases of hair loss; aspiration (when food or other objects get into the airways); and suicidal ideation in people who used the medications. Some of the drugs in this class, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RA), include Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound. While these reports can turn out to be false alarms, previous investigations have prompted the FDA to update a drug’s labeling or call for additional study on the issue. This isn’t the first time the agency has looked into potential complications with these weight-loss drugs: Last year, the agency investigated reports of intestinal obstructions linked to the medications. Ozempic’s labeling was subsequently updated to acknowledge that risk, CBS News reported.  “We are aware that, as part of those monitoring efforts, [the] FDA is evaluating several potential signals related to GLP-1 RA medicines and has posted information about those ongoing assessments on its website,” a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic and Wegovy, told CBS News. “Novo Nordisk stands behind the safety and efficacy of all of our GLP-1 RA medicines when they are used as indicated and when they are taken under the care of a licensed healthcare professional,” the spokesperson added.…  read on >  read on >

A tasty vegetarian salad could be the fresh meal that fuels a space flight to Mars, a new study contends. Researchers came up with the salad while searching for the optimal “space meal” that would supplement prepackaged foods on long voyages between planets. The salad contains soybeans, poppy seeds, barley, kale, peanuts, sweet potato, and sunflower seeds, according to a report in the journal ACS Food Science & Technology. These ingredients meet male astronauts’ special nutritional needs and can be grown in space, the researchers said. Astronauts in space burn more calories than humans on Earth do, researchers said in background notes. They also require extra nutrients like calcium to stay healthy during extended periods of weightlessness. Previous efforts have explored ways to grow food in space, but no specific fresh meals have been developed for future space travel, noted senior researcher Volker Hessel, a professor of sustainable chemical engineering at the University of Adelaide in Australia. For this study, researchers assessed combinations of fresh ingredients that could be grown in space because they require less water, fertilizer, time and area. They also considered whether inedible portions of the grown foods could be recycled onboard a spaceship. After settling on their space salad, the researchers whipped one up and subjected it to an Earthbound taste test for four people. One tester raved about the salad,…  read on >  read on >

You may think that artificial sweeteners can help you lose some weight, but a new study finds they are no good for your gut’s microbiome. People who use aspartame (Equal), sucralose (Splenda), saccharin (Sweet’N Low), or stevia leaf extract tended to have intestinal bacteria colonies that differed significantly from those of people who didn’t use sugar substitutes, researchers found. They had less rich colonies of bacteria in their small intestines or, even worse, higher levels of bacteria that churn out harmful toxins. “Artificial sweeteners are not benign for the microbiome of the gut,” said study author Dr. Ruchi Mathur, a professor and endocrinologist with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. More than 140 million Americans use artificial sweeteners to lower their sugar intake, researchers said in background notes. However, concerns have been raised that sugar substitutes don’t help with long-term weight loss and might be tied to increased risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, researchers said. The gut microbiome plays a key role in a person’s health, and diet can influence the makeup of these bacteria in significant ways. So, in a controlled study, researchers analyzed the microbial diversity of the small intestines in people who used artificial sweeteners, including nine who used aspartame and 35 who used other sugar substitutes. They compared the gut microbiome of those patients to a group of…  read on >  read on >

A diet laden with omega-3 fatty acids found in nuts and oily fish might help slow the progression of pulmonary fibrosis, researchers report. Pulmonary fibrosis is a relentless, potentially fatal disease where lung tissue scars and hardens over time. Often tied to smoking, the illness impairs lung function so that patients become short of breath, weak and disabled. The new study was led by Dr. John Kim, a pulmonary and critical care expert at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and UVA Health, in Charlottesville. His team tracked the health of 300 patients with interstitial lung disease — the class of respiratory ailments that includes pulmonary fibrosis. Most had “idiopathic” pulmonary fibrosis (meaning the exact cause of the illness is unknown) and most were men (males are more prone to the disease). Blood tests were taken to gauge each patient’s dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids. The team found that “higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids were predictive of better clinical outcomes in pulmonary fibrosis,” Kim said in a university news release. Specifically, people with higher levels of the nutrient had lungs that were better able to exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen — a process necessary to life. They also were better able to survive without needing a lung transplant, the study found. “These findings were consistent whether [or not] you had a history of…  read on >  read on >

Still weighing whether to make a New Year’s resolution? Or perhaps regretting letting your healthy habits slide during the holidays? Either way, the American Medical Association (AMA) has ten recommendations to help Americans improve their health in 2024. “It is quite common after the holidays to think about all you’ve eaten or your reduced physical activity and get discouraged,” said AMA President Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld. “But the good news is you don’t have to make major health changes in one fell swoop. You can make small, positive health choices right now that can have long-lasting effects,” Ehrenfeld added in an AMA news release. The AMA’s recommendations for a healthier new year include: Increase physical activity. Exercise is essential to physical and mental health. Adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week. Eat healthier. Reduce intake of sugary drinks and processed foods, instead drinking more water and eating more nutritious whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, low-fat dairy and lean meats. Get up-to-date on vaccinations. Vaccines are available to protect people against COVID, influenza and RSV during this winter’s cold and flu season. Make sure all members of your family have all their recommended jabs. Go to your scheduled health screenings. Millions of screenings for breast, colorectal and prostate cancers might have…  read on >  read on >

Folks who habitually add an extra sprinkle of salt to their meals are doing no favors for their kidneys, new research confirms. The finding held even after researchers accounted for other health issues, such as being overweight, not exercising or smoking and/or drinking. The bottom line: “Adding salt to foods is associated with increased risk of chronic kidney disease in the general population,” concluded a team led by Dr. Lu Qi, of Tulane University’s Obesity Research Center, in New Orleans. Qi and his colleagues recently published studies showing that adding salt to meals upped people’s odds for heart disease, type 2 diabetes and shortened life spans. However, links between table salt and the odds of kidney disease in the general population hadn’t been well-researched, Qi’s group noted. To remedy that, they analyzed data on more than 465,000 people, averaging 56 years of age, who didn’t have kidney disease when they registered for a British health database known as the UK Biobank. Participants’ health and lifestyle were tracked from 2006 to 2023. According to the researchers, over 22,000 cases of kidney disease emerged over the study period. Compared to folks who never or rarely added salt to their food, people who did so had a higher odds of developing kidney trouble. The risk rose with the frequency at which people said they used table salt. For…  read on >  read on >

New research offers yet more evidence that veggies, whole grains and low-fat dairy products are good for you in the long run. “Our study goes beyond the simple question of, ‘To carb or not to carb?’” said lead study author Binkai Liu, a research assistant in the nutrition department at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. “It dissects the low-carbohydrate diet and provides a nuanced look at how the composition of these diets can affect health over years, not just weeks or months,” Liu explained in a Harvard news release. The key takeaway: Not all low-carb diets are the same when it comes to managing weight over the long haul. In the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 123,000 healthy adults who were part of major research studies between 1986 and 2018.  Participants reported on their diets and weights every four years, and they were scored based on adherence to five types of low-carb diet. They included ones based on animal proteins, plant-based proteins and ones that emphasized animal proteins, unhealthy fats and processed grains. Low-carb regimens high in proteins, fats and carbs from healthy, plant-based sources were linked to slower long-term weight gain. Participants who stuck with total low-carb or animal-based eating regimens gained more weight, on average, than those who followed a healthy low-carb eating plan over time. These…  read on >  read on >

New research suggests the effects of high blood pressure during pregnancy may be long-lasting. Researchers found that women who developed high blood pressure during pregnancy had tell-tale signs of abnormal heart structure and function up to a decade later. “This study helps to clarify that, for some women, pregnancy is not just a ‘stress test’ that unmasks underlying cardiovascular risks,” said senior author Dr. Susan Cheng, director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging in the cardiology department at Cedars-Sinai’s Smidt Heart Institute in Los Angeles. “This risk may also affect the heart years after pregnancy.” Her team looked at more than 5,000 Hispanic women who had at least one pregnancy and identified those who had disorders during pregnancy such as gestational high blood pressure, preeclampsia or eclampsia. After accounting for other risk factors that might lead to early signs of heart disease, researchers reported that heart images showed persistent problems in about 14% of participants who had high blood pressure problems during pregnancy. They included thicker heart walls, abnormalities in the left ventricle and weakened pumping compared to women who had also been pregnant but had no related high blood pressure disorder. “This study confirms the results of others and demonstrates that women who experience a hypertensive disorder during their pregnancy are more likely to have lasting changes in the structure and function…  read on >  read on >

In preliminary findings, Swedish researchers say taking a cholesterol-lowering statin could also slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The study can’t prove cause-and-effect, but might pave the way to a trial that could confirm such a link, said study author Sara Garcia-Ptacek, an associate professor of neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The study was observational, meaning that it was a look at past data, not a gold standard “prospective” trial. The Swedish team analyzed data on 15,500 people diagnosed with dementia who also had heart issues suggesting that they might benefit from using a statin. About 11,000 of them did go on to use a statin. Tracked for three years, “people with Alzheimer’s dementia treated with statins had better cognitive development over time,” Garcia-Ptacek said in an institute news release. That was true “even though they were more likely to have diagnoses such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, all of which are risk factors for dementia,” she added. However, the findings, published Dec. 20 in the journal Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy, remain preliminary.   “The results of the study do not mean that we now have evidence that people with dementia should be treated with statins,” Garcia-Ptacek stressed. “But on the other hand, we can’t see any support for not doing so. So, if a person needs statins for high…  read on >  read on >