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| Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios |
Alarming stat: By 2060, researchers expect about a million Americans to develop dementia a year, according to a study out this month in Nature.The big picture: That estimate is based on the fact that the study found a higher lifetime risk for dementia than previously thought, AP reports. After age 55, people have up to a 4 in 10 chance of eventually developing dementia — if they live long enough. Between the lines: Risk varies a great deal by age.In the study, researchers looked at the health data of around 15,000 older adults across decades.They found that just 4% of people developed dementia between the ages of 55 and 75.Risk jumped to 20% in the next decade, 75–85, and then 42% in the decade after that, 85–95. The two-decade window between 55 and 75 is a critical time for protecting brain health, Josef Coresh, a doctor at NYU Langone Health and a co-author of the study, told AP.What you can do: As we’ve reported, one strategy is to train your brain, just as you would your body.Play brain games, mix it up, and try learning new skills or languages to challenge yourself.Staying social as you age can also keep your brain healthy. The money quote: “What’s good for your heart is good for your brain,” James Galvin, a University of Miami Alzheimer’s specialist, told AP.That means getting exercise has perks for your brain, too.One tip: If you’re already getting your steps in every day, try picking up the pace. Research shows brisk walks can curb dementia risk.A bunch of high-stakes either/ors This potential for minimalist or maximalist policymaking is the reality across nearly every realm of health care.For example …Vaccines: Kennedy could be confirmed, make some new government data public and call it a day. (For the record, I have no idea what that data would be.) Or he could take office and return to false or misleading rhetoric about vaccine safety, making policy decisions that match.The FDA: Kennedy could make good on his vow to end the agency’s “war on public health,” which included a directive for FDA staff to “pack your bags.” Or Makary — the FDA commissioner nominee — could implement a thoughtful, biotech-friendly approach to bringing new drugs to market faster, a common GOP goal.Pharma: Drug executives have started channeling optimism about Trump 2.0. But Trump campaigned with skepticism of the industry and its motives similar to Kennedy’s, and there’s absolutely no reason to rule out the revival, in some form, of Trump’s attempt to bring U.S. drug prices closer to what other countries pay. “Pharma is whistling past the graveyard,” said one source who’s working on the health nominee confirmations.Medicare Advantage: Sure, Republicans have historically been fans of the program, and there’s been a lot of assumption that the Trump administration will be relatively friendly to MA plans. But there’s certainly a vein of anti-industry sentiment that’s rising within the party, and even orthodox GOP policy wonks are questioning how much the U.S. is spending on the program.Dealmaking: Same as above — the GOP is generally friendlier to M&A than Democrats, which is a big deal in the health care world. But Vice President Vance isn’t exactly known as a free market crusader, and one of his advisers has been tapped to lead the DOJ’s antitrust division.Medicaid: Congressional Republicans could extract hundreds of billions, if not trillions, from the program as a way to offset the cost of tax cuts. Or they could decide doing so is too politically toxic and/or they don’t need the payfors, leading to much smaller changes.Tariffs: Trump has insisted that he’ll impose large tariffs on imports from certain countries, which could whack the medical device industry in particular. Or those tariffs could never materialize, at least in their proposed forms — or health care industries could get exempted.I could keep going, but you get the picture.What we’re watching: The health care industry is full of the country’s best lobbyists, but they may not have the same kind of sway over this administration that they’ve had in the past.The bottom line: “We remain in this nebulous time where we know something’s going to happen, but knowing what is going to happen and what the implications will be is difficult until they start doing things and taking actions,” Raymond James’ Meekins said.from STAT:reproductive healthNew abortion pill shows promise — and potential political perilA combined regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol is the international standard for medication abortion in early pregnancies. It’s safe, effective and readily available. People seeking an abortion may soon have an additional option. A new proof-of-concept study in NEJM Evidence has revealed promising results when pairing misoprostol with ulipristal acetate, which is also used as an emergency contraceptive pill, sold in the United States as Ella.The study’s authors found that a 60-mg ulipristal dose followed by 800 micrograms of buccal misoprostol led to a terminated pregnancy in 97% of the 133 participants. No serious adverse events were reported. When mifepristone isn’t available, clinicians usually recommend misoprostol alone as an alternative. Follow up studies will need to determine whether this new regimen with ulipristal is as effective as misoprostol solo. The findings could complicate an already-contentious landscape for abortion pills in the United States. The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to mailed pills in 2024, but a Texas judge ruled last week that states can revive the challenge. Hypoxia is good, maybe?Oxygen keeps our bodies and organs humming, and supplemental oxygen helps when chronic lung disease or respiratory illness hamper breathing. But too many cooks can spoil a broth: new research shows that low oxygen — while deadly in the extreme — in moderate amounts might be a useful therapy for chronic conditions ranging from mitochondrial diseases and autoimmune disorders to Parkinson’s and even aging. To better understand this evolving research, STAT’s Liz Cooney spoke with Vamsi Mootha, a systems biologist leading labs at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Come for the discussions of the “profound” relationship between mitochondrial dysfunction and low ambient oxygen and stay for the natural experiments in 1970s India that provided researchers with an early glimpse into this research. Read the Q&A.Novo’s next-gen amylin injectable shows promise in obesityNovo Nordisk’s next-generation obesity drug, dubbed amycretin, led to 22% weight loss after 36 weeks in a Phase 1/2 trial, a result that — if confirmed in larger trials — could give the medicine an edge over available obesity treatments. Novo’s shares were up more than 10% this morning.The injectable drug targets the GLP-1 and amylin hormones. Novo is also developing amycretin as a pill and reported positive results from an early study of the oral version last year.The successful readout is a needed win for the Danish company, which saw its shares tank by as much as 20% last month after another closely watched obesity medicine candidate, called CagriSema, showed weight loss results that fell short of investor expectations. CagriSema also targets GLP-1 and amylin.Read more from STAT’s Drew Joseph. |
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