The one-question diabetes quiz

Did you know that having diabetes increases your risk of kidney disease?

If you answered yes, congrats — you’ve been doing your reading. If you answered no … well, you’re not alone. It seems almost half of Americans didn’t know it either.

Nearly half of Americans (46 percent), including some who have been diagnosed with diabetes, were not aware that having diabetes puts someone at greater risk for kidney failure, and nearly one third (31 percent) aren’t aware it also puts a person at greater risk of kidney disease.

Insulin fights viruses

Strange, true, and potentially very cool: Giving insulin to mosquitoes makes them immune to viruses including dengue, West Nile, and Zika. And that means they can’t spread those to humans.

Simply feeding the mosquitoes blood with a high level of insulin appears to do the trick — the insulin binds to a receptor that triggers an immune response. Of course, considering the price of insulin, you’d need to buy it somewhere other than the U.S.

“If we can activate this arm of immunity through the insulin receptor in the mosquito, we can reduce the overall viral load in the mosquito population. If the mosquitoes are carrying less virus when they bite you, they will transmit less of the virus, and there’s a better chance you won’t acquire the disease.”

Get your immunization certificate

The flu season is upon us, so now is a great time to get your immunization skills up to snuff. We’re talking of course about APhA’s “Pharmacy-Based Immunization Delivery: A Certificate Program for Pharmacists” presented by GPhA.

We’ve got one last class in 2019: Sunday, December 8, from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. in the GPhA classroom in Sandy Springs. It’s only $349 for GPhA members and gives 20 hours of CPE credit (including the home study). Get the details and sign up today at GPhA.org/2019immunization— space is limited!

Chicken Soup for the Malarial Soul

You might pooh-pooh “traditional” remedies (like chicken soup), but there’s often a reason that a particular food (or plant) got its curative reputation.

Just for fun, one British researcher decided to test “natural remedies”: soups that kids at the local primary school brought from home.

You wouldn’t be reading this if there wasn’t a surprising result.

[F]ive of the 56 soups blocked [malarial] parasite growth in the human blood stage by about 50%; two of those were as effective as a leading antimalarial, didydroartemisinin. Four other broths were able to block the male parasite’s sexual development by around 50%.

The results were published in the BMJ.

Supplement news

Fish oil (icosapent ethyl) does seem to fight plaque in arteries — but it has to be prescription strength. And there’s a big caveat: “Notably, the fish oil drug did not appear to actually melt away plaques, but only slowed down their growth.” Still, it’s a step to fighting one of the biggest killers around.

Heart disesase? Surgery, schmurgery

Doing surgery on a patient with a hear blockage is a common treatment, but a new, big study founds that — while stents can improve quality of life, they “didn’t lower their risk of heart attack or stroke any more than taking medications or implementing lifestyle changes.”

Where was this when I was 10?

The FDA has approved Cooper Vision’s MiSight contact lens — a lens that can reduce nearsightedness in kids. Unlike traditional glasses or contacts, which simply correct poor vision, MiSight actually slows the progression.

The Long Read: TANSTAAFL* edition

How much insurance companies pay for a “free” flu shot — costs that invariably are passed on as premiums — can vary widely.

“The Startlingly High Cost Of The ‘Free’ Flu Shot”

“The patient is immune from the cost, but they are the losers because eventually they pay a higher premium.”

* Google it