by Rachel Tompa, Stanford University For anyone over the age of 30 reading this article, here’s some bad news for you: Your brain is already on the decline. The good(ish) news? From the brain’s peak performance in our mid-20s, that decline is gradual, said Stanford neurologist Sharon Sha, MD. Despite common lore about aging and...
by Ernie Mundell A cancer drug duo more than doubled the survival of people battling the most common form of advanced bladder cancer, trial results show. Patients who took a combo of meds called EV+P—enfortumab vedotin and pembrolizumab (Keytruda)—had an average of 31.5 months survival, compared to just over 16 months for those on standard...
by Ian Hamilton and Harry Sumnall, The Conversation There has been a significant rise in deaths linked to the commonly prescribed anxiety drug, pregabalin. While in 2018 there were 187 deaths linked to pregabalin in England and Wales, this number was more than double in 2022—with 441 deaths linked to the drug. Recent press reports...
by Nathalie Juge, The Conversation Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Having a sweet tooth isn’t just a human characteristic. It turns out our gut microbes can have a preference for sweets, too—and one of these selfish, sugar-loving bacteria is Ruminococcus gnavus. Ruminococcus gnavus (R gnavus for short) is one of the many bacterial species normally found...
Marilynn LarkinVitamin D levels are unlikely to have an impact on the clinical features of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) in adults newly diagnosed with the chronic inflammatory disorder, new research suggests. The substantial increase in EoE incidence and the association of low vitamin D levels with increased risk for allergic sensitization prompted the researchers to assess...
by Ed Stannard, Hartford Courant Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public DomainHealth insurance premiums keep rising and many employees carry high-deductible plans that mean bills of $100 or more for a visit to the doctor. Meanwhile, the CEOs of the top 10 health insurance companies were paid between $13 million and $22 million in total compensation in 2022,...
by De Gruyter Credit: CC0 Public DomainTen percent of respondents to a recent survey of Norwegian adults had undergone cosmetic surgery, with one in eight of these experiencing chronic post-operative pain, according to results published in the Scandinavian Journal of Pain. The study is the first to examine the prevalence of cosmetic surgery among Norwegian...
F. Perry Wilson, MD, MSCE This transcript has been edited for clarity. Welcome to Impact Factor, your weekly dose of commentary on a new medical study. I’m Dr F. Perry Wilson of the Yale School of Medicine. Imagine, if you will, the great Cathedral of Our Lady of Correlation. You walk through the majestic oak...
Beth Snyder BulikSenior Editor(This story is from our new Health Tech newsletter. If you’d like to sign up, just click here.) Eli Lilly has struck a deal with Amazon Pharmacy to deliver its obesity, diabetes and migraine medicines directly to patients. Amazon will work through Lilly’s recently launched LillyDirect telehealth platform. It’s the first time...
Alicia Ault Nearly 18 months after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first acknowledged a national shortage of Adderall, the most common drug used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), there is now a widespread scarcity of other stimulant medications — with no end in sight. How did this crisis develop and what measures are...
