BBC – Men who take drugs for erectile dysfunction, such as Viagra, may reduce their risk of Alzheimer's disease, a study suggests.
In research on more than 260,000 men, those taking the drugs were 18% less likely to develop the dementia-causing condition.
But more research is needed to prove that the drugs are causing the effect.
Two new Alzheimer's drugs have shown huge promise at slowing the pace of the disease in its earliest stages.
By attacking ...
NEWSWEEK – Five people may have "caught" Alzheimer's after receiving growth hormone from human cadavers during childhood.
Between 1959 and 1985, over 1,800 patients in the U.K. were treated with human growth hormone extracted from the pituitary glands of dead bodies.
The hormone, which is synthetically produced today, was mostly administered to children to treat severe short stature, often caused by a deficiency of this hormone.
In 1985, one of these patients died from a rare brain...
Mayo Clinic News Network
One of the most common New Year's resolutions is to lose weight. Many may be wondering if weight-loss medications can help them reach their goal.
Medications called semaglutides — better known by the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy — have been shown to help people lose about 15% of their body weight.
But as Dr. Andres Acosta explains in this Mayo Clinic Minute, these medications alone are not a quick solution.
Watch: The...
ARS TECHNICA – Canada issued a warning Monday that it stands ready to defend its prescription drug supply from US importation plans—and also said the plans wouldn't work for the US, anyway.
"Bulk importation will not provide an effective solution to the problem of high drug prices in the US," Health Canada said in a statement.
The defensive stance comes just days after the US Food and Drug Administration granted Florida authorization to directly import cheaper...
NPR – A new study published Monday in the journal JAMA found that cutting one teaspoon of salt a day results in a decline in blood pressure comparable to taking blood pressure medication.
In this latest study, participants who cut out their daily salt intake by one teaspoon had lower blood pressure in just one week. This was even true for people already on blood pressure medication.
But how much sodium is in one teaspoon of...
AP – The fallout from a Pfizer factory being damaged by a tornado could put even more pressure on already-strained drug supplies at U.S. hospitals, experts say.
Wednesday's tornado touched down near Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and ripped up the roof of a Pfizer factory that makes nearly 25% of Pfizer's sterile injectable medicines used in U.S. hospitals, according to the drugmaker.
Pfizer said all employees were safely evacuated and accounted for, and no serious injuries...
KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION HEALTH NEWS – The rush in conservative states to ban abortion after the overturn of Roe v. Wade is resulting in a startling consequence that abortion opponents may not have considered: fewer medical services available for all women living in those states.
Doctors are showing — through their words and actions — that they are reluctant to practice in places where making the best decision for a patient could result in huge...
KFF Health News – Last June, Jay Comfort flew to the United States from his home in Switzerland to attend his only daughter’s wedding. But the week before the ceremony — on a Friday evening — Comfort said he found himself in “excruciating pain.”
“I tried to gut it out for three hours because of the insurance situation,” said Comfort, a retired teacher and American citizen who has Swiss insurance.
When the pain became unbearable, Comfort...
JAMA – In the mosaic floor of the opulent atrium of a house excavated at Pompeii is a slogan ironic for being buried under 16 feet of volcanic ash: Salve Lucrum, it reads, “Hail, Profit.”
That mosaic would be a fitting decoration today in many of health care’s atria.
The grip of financial self-interest in US health care is becoming a stranglehold, with dangerous and pervasive consequences.
No sector of US health care is immune from the...
ARS TECHNICA – Water purification systems installed in two ice machines in a Boston hospital were supposed to make the water taste and smell better for patients on a surgery floor—but it ended up killing three of them, an investigation found.
The purification systems inadvertently stripped chlorine from the municipal tap water, allowing bacteria normally found at low levels to flourish and form biofilms inside the machines.
This led to infections in four vulnerable cardiac-surgery patients...
After eight years, the researchers found having access to the most green space reduced the women’s death rate by 12% — and improved their mental health.