Prescription opioids taken during pregnancy are not associated with a substantial increase in risk of developmental disorders like ADHD in children, a new study has found. “A slightly increased risk of neuropsychiatric disorders was found, but this should not be considered clinically meaningful” because it was limited to mothers taking more than one opioid, prescribed high doses and using the drugs over longer periods of time, concluded the research team led by Dong Keon Yon, a professor of pediatrics with Kyung Hee University College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea. About 7% of women in the United States are prescribed opioids during pregnancy, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previous studies have had mixed findings regarding opioid use during pregnancy and various health outcomes in children, mainly due to small sample sizes and short follow-up periods. To produce a high-powered examination of the potential problem, researchers analyzed health data for more than 3.1 million infants born in South Korea between 2010 and 2017 to nearly 2.3 million mothers. Moms were grouped according to the dose, duration and frequency of opioid prescriptions during their pregnancy, and babies were followed an average of six years after birth. About 7% of infants were exposed to opioids during pregnancy, researchers found. The team found a small, but clinically insignificant, increased risk for developmental disorders among…  read on >  read on >

People taking heartburn meds have a higher risk of migraines and other types of severe headaches, a new study warns. All classes of acid-reducing drugs — proton pump inhibitors, H2 blockers, and even antacids — appear to promote an increased risk of migraine and headache, results show. “Given the wide usage of acid-reducing drugs and these potential implications with migraine, these results warrant further investigation,” said researcher Margaret Slavin, an associate professor of nutrition and food science with the University of Maryland in College Park. “These drugs are often considered to be overprescribed, and new research has shown other risks tied to long-term use of proton pump inhibitors, such as an increased risk of dementia,” Slavin added. Acid reflux occurs when stomach acid backs up into the esophagus, researchers said. It usually occurs after a meal or when lying down, and it can cause heartburn and ulcers. In extreme cases, it can lead to cancer of the esophagus. For the study, researchers looked at data on nearly 12,000 people using acid-reducing drugs, to see whether they’d had migraines or severe headaches within the past three months. Proton pump inhibitors block acid production and help the esophagus heal. Brand names include Prevacid, Prilosec and Nexium. H-2 blockers reduce acid production. Brand names include Tagamet, Pepcid and Axid. And then there are simple antacids containing calcium carbonate…  read on >  read on >

It’s long been known that exposure to agricultural pesticides can greatly raise a person’s odds for Parkinson’s disease. New genetics research now reveals those who might be most vulnerable. A team at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), pored over genetic data from 800 Parkinson’s patients living and working in that state’s agricultural heartland, the Central Valley. Many of these people “had long-term exposure to 10 pesticides used on cotton crops for at least a decade prior to developing the disease, with some patients having been exposed as far back as 1974,” the researchers noted in a UCLA news release. They honed in on certain gene variants connected to lysosomes, parts of cells that break down cellular waste. Impairment in lysosomal function has long been linked to the genesis of Parkinson’s, explained a team led by Dr. Brent Fogel, a professor of neurology and human genetics at UCLA. The variants associated with lysosomal processes were “enriched” in patients who’d had prolonged exposures to pesticides, the study showed. The findings were published April 25 in the journal NPJ Parkinson’s Disease. These gene variants also appeared to interfere with proper protein function. According to the researchers, this suggests that aberrant waste-disposal in the cell could be an underlying cause of Parkinson’s, occurring alongside chronic exposure to pesticides. As toxic compounds — including a protein called alpha…  read on >  read on >

A budget-busting 3.6 million Medicare recipients could now be eligible for coverage of the weight-loss drug Wegovy, a new KFF analysis says. That’s because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Wegovy (semaglutide) to reduce the risk of heart attacks and stroke in certain patients, the study says. The FDA’s ruling potentially allows Wegovy prescription coverage for more than a quarter of 13.7 million Medicare patients who’ve been diagnosed with obesity or excess weight, KFF says. Those 3.6 million people — about 7% of all beneficiaries — have established heart disease as well as excess weight, and thus could be eligible for coverage of Wegovy. However, KFF notes that among this group 1.9 million also have diabetes and therefore are already eligible for coverage of weight-loss drugs like Wegovy or Zepbound. “Although Wegovy already had FDA approval as an anti-obesity medication, Medicare is prohibited by law from covering drugs when prescribed for obesity,” KFF said in a news release. How the FDA’s change affects Medicare spending will depend in part on how many Part D plans add coverage for Wegovy, and the extent to which plans will restrict coverage, researchers said. Assuming just 10% of eligible Medicare patients use Wegovy in a given year, and assuming a 50% rebate on the list price, the program would still incur nearly $3 billion…  read on >  read on >

Want to prevent a respiratory infection? A fingerful of Neosporin antibiotic swabbed inside your nose might help you fight off a range of invading respiratory viruses, a new study claims. Lab animals whose noses were treated using neomycin — the main ingredient in over-the-counter Neosporin ointment — mounted a robust immune defense against both the COVID virus and a highly virulent strain of influenza, researchers found. The same nasal approach also appeared to work in humans, this time with Neosporin itself. The ointment triggered a swift immune response from genes in the human nose that serve as a first line of defense against invading viruses, researchers reported April 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “This is an exciting finding, that a cheap over-the-counter antibiotic ointment can stimulate the human body to activate an antiviral response,” said Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology and dermatology at Yale School of Medicine, in New Haven, Conn. Neosporin contains neomycin, bacitracin and polymyxin B, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Medicine. The COVID-19 virus has infected more than 774 million people and killed nearly 7 million, researchers said in background notes. Meanwhile, flu viruses cause up to 5 million cases of severe disease and a half-million deaths annually. Against these threats, humans deploy treatments that are typically taken orally or intravenously, researchers said. These…  read on >  read on >

An early marker of multiple sclerosis could help doctors figure out who will eventually fall prey to the degenerative nerve disease, a new study says. In one in 10 cases of MS, the body begins producing a distinctive set of antibodies in the blood years before symptoms start appearing, researchers reported April 19 in the journal Nature Medicine. This antibody pattern was 100% predictive of an MS diagnosis, researchers found. Every patient who carried this set of antibodies went on to develop MS. Researchers hope these antibodies will someday form the basis of a simple blood test to screen for MS. “Over the last few decades, there’s been a move in the field to treat MS earlier and more aggressively with newer, more potent therapies,” said senior researcher Dr. Michael Wilson, a neurologist with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). “A diagnostic result like this makes such early intervention more likely, giving patients hope for a better life,” Wilson added in a news release. MS occurs when the body’s own immune system attacks the central nervous system, damaging the protective sheath around nerve fibers called myelin. This disrupts signals to and from the brain, causing a variety of symptoms that impede the senses and impact the ability to move. An autoimmune disease like MS is believed to result in part from rare immune reactions…  read on >  read on >

Jobs that challenge your mind could help your brain age more gracefully, a new study suggests. The harder your brain works on the job, the less likely you are to have memory and thinking problems later in life, researchers reported April 17 in the journal Neurology. “We examined the demands of various jobs and found that cognitive stimulation at work during different stages in life — during your 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s — was linked to a reduced risk of mild cognitive impairment after the age of 70,” said researcher Dr. Trine Holt Edwin, of Oslo University Hospital in Norway. For the study, researchers analyzed data on 7,000 people in 305 occupations across Norway. Researchers measured the degree to which each job taxed the brain and the body, based on the different skill sets required for the work. They then divided the study subjects into four groups, based on their work routine and whether the job required more manual skill or brain power. Teaching wound up being the most common job with the highest demands on a person’s brain, while mail carriers and janitors had the most common jobs with the least demands on brain skills. After age 70, participants completed memory and thinking tests to judge how well their brain was aging. About 42% of people with jobs involving little brain work had…  read on >  read on >