Tag Archives: medicine

FDA Advisors: Popular Oral Decongestants Don’t Work

The Associated Press reports: The leading decongestant used by millions of Americans looking for relief from a stuffy nose is likely no better than a dummy pill, according to government experts who reviewed the latest research on the long-questioned drug ingredient. Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Tuesday against the effectiveness of the ingredient found in …

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Anti-Vaxxers Claim Vaccines Cause “Canine Autism”

IFL Science reports: A new study has found that dog owners in the US have become increasingly skeptical of vaccinating their canine companions. Researchers found that 30 percent of the 2,200 dog owners surveyed believed that canine vaccines were medically unnecessary and more than 20 percent believed that they were ineffective. Nearly 40 percent believed dog vaccinations to be unsafe, …

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Study: Single Mushroom Dose Greatly Eases Depression

Bloomberg News reports: A single dose of psilocybin can lead to a “rapid, robust, and sustained reduction” in symptoms of severe depression when taken in conjunction with psychotherapy, according to a new study. Patients across the US were given either a 25mg dose of the drug, found in magic mushrooms, or a B vitamin, before spending between seven and 10 …

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WH Names 10 Meds Subject To Medicare Negotiations

Reuters reports: The Biden administration on Tuesday released its list of 10 prescription medicines that will be subject to the first-ever price negotiations by the U.S. Medicare health program that covers 66 million people, with big-selling blood thinner Eliquis from Bristol Myers Squibb. President Joe Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law last year, allows the Medicare health …

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CDC Warns Of Spike In COVID-Related Hospitalizations

CBS News reports: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now forecasting an acceleration in new COVID-19 hospitalizations over the coming month, the agency said this week, replacing a previous projection that admissions would “remain stable or have an uncertain trend.” It comes as health officials are racing to study a new highly mutated COVID variant called BA.2.86, nicknamed …

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STUDY: Long COVID Symptoms Can Linger For Years

The Washington Post reports: People who endured even mild cases of covid-19 are at heightened risk two years later for lung problems, fatigue, diabetes and certain other health problems typical of long covid, according to a new study that casts fresh light on the virus’s true toll. The analysis, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, is believed to be …

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CDC Warns Of New “Highly-Mutated” COVID Variant

CBS News reports: The CDC announced Thursday it is tracking a recently discovered COVID-19 strain, BA.2.86, after a case of the highly-mutated variant was discovered in Michigan. “Today we are more prepared than ever to detect and respond to changes in the COVID-19 virus. Scientists are working now to understand more about the newly identified lineage in these cases and …

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YouTube Begins Mass Takedown Of Medical Misinfo

Posted today to YouTube’s corporate blog: In the years since we began our efforts to make YouTube a destination for high-quality health content, we’ve learned critical lessons about developing Community Guidelines in line with local and global health authority guidance on topics that pose serious real-world risks, such as misinformation on COVID-19, vaccines, reproductive health, harmful substances, and more. We’re …

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Updated COVID Vaccine To Be Available Next Month

Reuters reports: A new COVID vaccine is due out next month, but health experts and analysts say it is likely to be coolly received even as hospitalizations from “Eris”, a variant of the Omicron form of the coronavirus, rise around the country. Some public health experts hope that Americans will welcome the new shot as they would a flu jab. …

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Red Cross Lifts Ban On Blood Donations By Gay Men

Axios reports: More gay and bisexual men will be able to donate blood beginning Monday as the Red Cross starts implementing a historic rule change approved by federal authorities earlier this year. It helps close the chapter on the Food and Drug Administration’s blood donor restrictions for men who have sex with men, which had been denounced as discriminatory by …

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NIH Launches Clinical Trials For Long COVID Treatments

CBS News reports: Two new clinical trials to test potential treatments for long COVID are now set to launch, the National Institutes of Health said Monday, opening enrollment for the first of an array of federally-funded studies aimed at evaluating treatments for long-term symptoms still faced by many COVID-19 survivors. They will begin with a study into using Pfizer’s Paxlovid …

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CDC To Issue Guidance On Preventive Med For STDs

The Washington Post reports: Public health officials are deploying a powerful new weapon in the war against rising sexually transmitted infections: a common antibiotic that works as a morning-after pill. It is the latest advancement as the sexual health field shifts to preventive medicine — not just condoms, abstinence and tests — as the best hope for quashing the pathogens …

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FDA Approves First Over-The-Counter Birth Control Pill

The New York Times reports: The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved a birth control pill to be sold without a prescription for the first time in the United States, a milestone that could significantly expand access to contraception. The medication, called Opill, will become the most effective birth control method available over the counter — more effective at …

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FDA Approves Drug That May Slow Down Alzheimer’s

NPR reports: The Food and Drug Administration has fully approved the first drug shown to slow down Alzheimer’s disease. The action means that Leqembi, whose generic name is lecanemab, should be widely covered by the federal Medicare health insurance program, which primarily serves adults age 65 and older. So more people who are in the early stages of the disease …

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FDA Issues Guidance For Psychedelic Drug Trials

Axios reports: Federal regulators are laying out guidance for psychedelic drug trials for the first time, in a move that could encourage the mainstreaming of substances like magic mushrooms and LSD as behavioral health treatments. Psychedelics are turning into a multi-billion industry and gaining widespread acceptance after decades of concerns about recreational use of the products — and the high …

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UK Study: HIV Drug Shows Promise Against Dementia

Fierce Biotech reports: An HIV drug from GSK or ones like it could have new therapeutic potential against neurodegenerative disease, findings in mice suggest. In a report published April 26 in Neuron, scientists from the University of Cambridge described how they established a link between microglia and autophagy in the etiology of dementia and Huntington’s disease. They also showed that …

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DOJ Charges 18 In Massive COVID Fraud Schemes

CNBC reports: Eighteen people, some of them doctors, were criminally charged with Covid-19 health-care fraud schemes that netted hundreds of millions of dollars from false billings and theft from federally funded programs, the Department of Justice said Thursday. The charges, which span nine federal judicial districts, comprise the largest coordinated law enforcement action in the U.S. targeting fraud schemes that …

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New OB-GYNs Are Avoiding Residencies In Red States

Axios reports: New doctors applying to medical residency programs were likelier to avoid practicing in states with the most stringent abortion restrictions, an analysis from the Association of American Medical Colleges found. The drop in applications, particularly for OB-GYN residencies, could exacerbate the lack of maternal health care in those states, which already have the highest maternal mortality rates in …

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FDA Approves Narcan For Over-The-Counter Sales

The New York Times reports: Narcan, a prescription nasal spray that reverses opioid overdoses, can now be sold over the counter, the Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday, authorizing a move long-sought by public health officials and treatment experts, who hope wider availability of the medicine will reduce the nation’s alarmingly high drug fatality rates. By late summer, over-the-counter …

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CDC Issues Warning On Drug-Resistant Fungus

NPR reports: The fungus Candida auris is becoming a more dangerous public health care threat, as the number of drug-resistant cases jumped in 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. The national public health agency is calling C. auris an urgent threat because of its resistance to medications. It can cause serious illness and death in people …

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