Ozempic provides a wide variety of health benefits for people with kidney disease and type 2 diabetes, a major clinical trial has found. The drug significantly reduces the risk of severe kidney events, heart problems and death from any cause in patients who have both conditions, researchers found. “These benefits signify a profound clinical impact saving kidneys, hearts and lives for patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease,” said researcher Vlado Perkovic, provost of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. “Additionally, the reassuring safety findings further support the strong potential value of [Ozempic] in this population.” Chronic kidney disease affects more than 800 million people worldwide, and is particularly common among people with type 2 diabetes, researchers said in background notes. Ozempic was originally developed as a treatment for diabetes, as it helps control the release of insulin and keeps blood sugar levels lower. Its potential benefits for weight loss were later tested and approved. However, its potential to help people with kidney disease had not been fully examined, researchers said. For the study, investigators recruited more than 3,500 patients who had both kidney disease and type 2 diabetes. Patients were randomly chosen to receive weekly Ozempic (semaglutide) or a placebo. Patients taking Ozempic had a 24% lower risk of kidney problems, heart disease and death related to either the…  read on >  read on >

Folks regularly taking fish oil supplements might not be helping their health as much as they might think, a new study suggests. Regular use of fish oil supplements could increase the risk of first-time heart disease and stroke among those with good heart health, new research suggests. However, the long-term study also found that fish oil can help those whose hearts are already in trouble, potentially slowing the progression of heart problems and lowering the risk of death. Healthy people taking fish oil supplements had a 13% increased risk of developing atrial fibrillation, a heart rhythm problem that increases the risk of heart attack and stroke, researchers found. They also had a 5% increased risk of stroke, results show. “Our findings suggest caution in the use of fish oil supplements for primary prevention because of the uncertain cardiovascular benefits and adverse effects,” wrote the research team led by Dr. Hualiang Lin, an epidemiologist with Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China. But in those with existing heart disease, regular use of fish oil lowered risk of a heart attack due to atrial fibrillation by 15%, and the risk of heart failure leading to death by 9%. “Regular use of fish oil supplements might have different roles in the progression of cardiovascular disease,” based on whether someone already has heart problems, the researchers suggested. “Overall, I would…  read on >  read on >

Doctors have long known that excessive marijuana use can trigger psychosis, especially in the young. But new research suggests the link is stronger that ever imagined before. Teens who use cannabis face 11 times the odds for a psychotic episode compared to teens who abstain from the drug, new Canadian research contends. The teen years may be an especially vulnerable time in this regard, the researchers noted. “We found a very strong association between cannabis use and risk of psychotic disorder in adolescence. Surprisingly, we didn’t find evidence of association in young adulthood,” said lead author André McDonald, who led the study as part of his PhD work at the University of Toronto. The findings were published May 22 in the journal Psychological Medicine. McDonald finished the research while at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). Psychotic episodes involve a dangerous psychiatric state in which people lose their connection with reality. These episodes can get so out of control that people may need hospitalization. It’s long been known that marijuana use can help trigger psychosis, and the potency of cannabis is much stronger now than in decades past, the Toronto investigators noted. They estimate that the average THC potency of cannabis in Canada rose from roughly 1% in 1980 to 20% in 2018.  So how is all that super-strong weed affecting the developing brains…  read on >  read on >

Improved inhalers are now available to help control asthma and treat sudden attacks, but a new study shows that hardly anyone’s using them. The new inhalers combine inflammation-fighting corticosteroids with a long-acting drug called formoterol that opens up the airways, researchers report. These combo inhalers are used twice a day to treat moderate to severe asthma, and they can also be used as a rescue inhaler during an asthma attack. Guidelines from both the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program and the Global Initiative for Asthma now recommend the use of what are called “SMART” inhalers. But fewer than 1 in 6 adults with moderate or severe asthma have been prescribed a SMART inhaler, and more than 2 of 5 lung and allergy specialists haven’t adopted the combo therapy, researchers found. “Our findings suggest current asthma management guidelines are not being routinely implemented or adopted by clinicians,” said senior study author Dr. Sandra Zaeh, a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician at Yale University School of Medicine. Previous guidelines have recommended the use of maintenance inhalers twice a day, in addition to a short-acting rescue inhaler containing a drug like albuterol that opens airways, researchers said. By 2021, U.S. guidelines had been updated to recommend Single combination corticosteroid and formoterol inhaler for both Maintenance And Relief Therapy (SMART). SMART inhalers available in the United States…  read on >  read on >

If you’ve quit smoking and have switched to vaping instead, your odds for lung cancer won’t fall as steeply as if you quit nicotine altogether, new research suggests. “This is the first large population-based study to demonstrate the increased risk of lung cancer in e-cigarette users after smoking cessation,” said study lead author Dr. YeonWook Kim. He’s an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, in Seongnam, South Korea. Kim’s team presented its findings Monday at the annual meeting of the American Thoracic Society in San Diego. Many smokers are turning to nicotine-laden vapes in what they may believe is a “safe” switch from traditional cigarettes. But does their risk for lung cancer drop to levels that equal those of quitting nicotine completely? To find out, Kim’s team tracked outcomes for over 4.3 million South Koreans who enrolled in the country’s National Health Screening Program in either 2012-2014 or 2018. Follow-up was conducted in 2021. Participants were divided into categories by smoking/vaping habits. Over the follow-up period, over 53,000 developed lung cancer and 6,351 died from the disease. Folks who’d quit smoking for five years or more but were vaping still faced higher odds for fatal lung cancer than those who’d quit smoking for the same length of time but hadn’t taken up e-cigarettes, Kim’s team found. And…  read on >  read on >

Heat waves and heat domes are particularly dangerous to kids with asthma, a new study finds. Daytime heat waves are associated with 19% increased odds that a child with asthma will wind up in the hospital, researchers discovered. What’s more, heat waves that stretch for days double a kid’s risk of being hospitalized due to asthma. “We found that both daily high heat events and extreme temperatures that lasted several days increased the risk of asthma hospital visits,” said researcher Morgan Ye, a research data analyst with the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine (UCSF). For the study, the team analyzed data from the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland between 2017 and 2020, using climate data to determine the timing of heat waves for each zip code in the hospital’s service area. “We continue to see global temperatures rise due to human-generated climate change, and we can expect a rise in health-related issues as we observe longer, more frequent and severe heat waves,” Ye said in a UCSF news release. Hot and humid weather is a common asthma trigger, the American Lung Association says. Such weather also increases smog levels. Past studies have linked extreme heat with asthma, but it’s been unclear whether heat waves can lead to asthma attacks so bad that children will need hospitalization, researchers said. This study also is…  read on >  read on >