Shake it till you make it

The FDA has given a Breakthrough Device designation to a whole-body vibrator — one that’s supposed to “stop the progression of bone loss and prevent the onset of osteoporosis.”

An initial study showed that one 30-minute treatment with the vibration belt reduced bone loss activity among all study participants, providing an average decrease of 14%, a reduction on par with bisphosphonate drugs.

What’s in your mouth?

The mouth microbiome has already been associated with a bunch of cancers, and now it seems that it can affect lung cancer development as well.

The more Bacteroidetes and Spirochaetes in the mouth, the lower the risk of lung cancer. But if you have a lot of Firmicutes? Your risk goes up.

The authors caution that “This is an observational study, and therefore can’t establish cause,” but it’s certainly worth a raised eyebrow … and further study.

…ringing in your perfect ears

Well here’s good news: Despite some anecdotal evidence, it seems that Covid-19 does not damage the auditory system. More likely (Israeli researchers say), it was simply “a temporary symptom caused by fluids clogging the middle ear.”

More vaccines could be coming

Pfizer is having trouble keeping up with demand for its vaccine. What’s to be done? How about a little pressure from Uncle Sam to free up supplies of the raw materials the company needs?

Do you know Georgia’s vaccine protocol rules?

If you’re not sure, get thee to GPhA’s Vaccine Protocol Update, TONIGHT, December 17, from 7:00-8:00 pm and presented by the always-terrific Dr. Johnathan Hamrick, PharmD.

It’s a webinar, so you don’t even need to dress up. A mere $20 for GPhA members, it’s worth every cent (and an hour of CPE).

Click here for info and to register!

Things to worry about with the Covid-19 vaccine

Bell’s palsy. “[I]t’s not necessarily a side effect but worth watching out for after a handful of trial participants got the condition.”

Allergic reactions. “The middle-aged worker had no history of allergies, but had an anaphylactic reaction that began 10 minutes after receiving the vaccine.”

Gotta touch this

Simply put: Non-contact infrared thermometers aren’t accurate enough for Covid-19 screening. So say researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland.

It’s not that the thermometers are bad. It’s that, while a fever is still rising, blood vessels near the skin’s surface constrict, giving a lower reading than the actual core temperature.

“So, basing a fever detection on [non-contact thermomenter] measurements that measure heat radiating from the forehead may be totally off the mark.”

Lies!

How good is that medical app?

No one wants to go to the doctor’s office these days, so obviously they turn to the tiny physicians living in their phones. But how good are “symptom spotting” apps? Some are better than others.

Ada was also rated as the most accurate for accuracy, suggesting the right condition in its top three suggestions 71% of the time while the average across all the other apps was just 38%, indicating that they didn’t identify the correct condition in the majority of cases. Once again, GPs were top with 82% accuracy.

Your brain wants to seize up

Every day, every minute, microglia cells in your brain expand and contract, surveying the cells around it. Why-for? Not, as neurologists thought, to check for infections. (That would be a huge waste of energy.) Instead, it’s to stop overly-active neurons from triggering seizures.

“Microglia seem to sense which neuron is about to become overly active, and keep it in check by making contact with it, which prevents that neuron’s activity from escalating.”

Freeze the microglia in a mouse’s brain, and it has a seizure. So yes, your brain is constantly try to keep itself from seizing. Try not to think about it too much.

You don’t say

A study funded by the Hass Avocado Board* (from the University of Illinois) found that eating an avocado a day “had a greater abundance of gut microbes that break down fiber and produce metabolites that support gut health.”

* It literally says it “exists to help make avocados America’s most popular fruit.”