From guts to bones

New treatments for rheumatoid arthritis could be coming soon — so say British researchers who’ve not only found a cause of the condition, but a cause that’s treatable.

The cause they found: damage to the lining of the gut. It “allows bacteria to cross the gut lining into the body, intensifying inflammation in the stomach and the joints.”

The treatment that could work: “existing stomach-repairing drugs used for the digestive disorders, coeliac disease, and Crohn’s disease” such as migalastat or vercirnon.

And what causes that damage to the gut lining? There are at least two possibilities: The wrong gut bacteria (i.e., Prevotella copri, as a 2019 paper found) or a genetic defect (as UC Riverside researchers just discovered).

TechU rescheduled!

Due to the latest wave of Covid-19, we decided to err on the side of caution and reschedule TechU to Saturday, November 13.

Everything remains the same, except for the date.

TechU is a one-day CE and social program, developed by GPhA pharmacy techs for pharmacy techs, and it even includes three hours of CE and dinner!

• When: November 13, 2021
• Where: Savannah, on the campus of South University

Cost:

• Before October 14: GPhA members: $35; non-members: $45
• October 14 or later: GPhA members: $39; non-members: $49

Click here to get the details and register today!

Captain Obvious remembers cause and effect

“More kids hospitalized with Covid-19 in states with lower vaccination rates“.

The right amount of worry

Fears of a breakthrough Delta infection are probably being overblown, explains David Leonhard in the New York Times. The latest data show that vaccinated people have about a 1-in-5000 chance of contracting Covid-19 each day, and even lower than that in places with high vaccination rates.

Sure, that’s an average; mask-wearing, crowds, the company you keep — all that will affect the risk. But overall it’s a lot less than people might think.

“The messaging over the last month in the U.S. has basically served to terrify the vaccinated and make unvaccinated eligible adults doubt the effectiveness of the vaccines.” Neither of those views is warranted.

Avocados ‘move’ fat

You’ve got two kinds of fat: subcutaneous fat (under the skin; think “love handles”) and visceral fat (around internal organs). The latter is much worse.

But … if you’re a woman and you eat an avocado a day, it can reduce that visceral fat and improve the visceral-to-subcutaneous fat ratio “indicating a redistribution of fat away from the organs.” So found University of Illinois researchers.

Notes: It doesn’t work for me, it doesn’t change your glucose tolerance, and it doesn’t make you lose the fat — just redistribute it.

Do you like your immune system? Thank a farmer

By settling down and living close together, Neolithic farmers evolved immune systems that learned not to overreact — avoiding cytokine storms that could do more damage than the pathogens themselves. At the same time, though, they kept the robust response to local infections.

With six you get statins

Five times efforts were made to make statins available over the counter. Five times it failed, in part because studies showed too many people who asked for them shouldn’t take them.

But researchers at Duke and the University of Texas developed an application that, when tested with people who had the equivalent of a seventh- or eighth-grade education, was more than 96 percent accurate in deciding who should get the statins and who shouldn’t. That’s higher than most prescribers, and it could open the door for non-prescription statins “right next to the aspirin.”

“We got 96%, we were very pleased and we’re going to now go on and do another study of about 1,000 patients to verify that we’re getting the right people on statin therapy. If that works, this goes to the FDA for approval.”

Asthma answers

Why does asthma get worse at night for so many people? Is it posture? Temperature? Circadian rhythm? Light?

If you chose circadian rhythm, be sure to grab a prize on your way out.

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital did a series of experiments (including keeping participants awake for 38 hours in dim light and in a “fixed sitting posture”) to “eliminate as many behavioral and environmental factors as possible.” When done, they found…

… that those people who have the worst asthma in general are the ones who suffer from the greatest circadian-induced drops in pulmonary function at night.

And that drop in pulmonary function acted like a multiplier — those same people were also affected most by other factors.

But as to why this is the case … no clue. “More work will be needed.”

Moderna’s plan backfires

The company submitted a booster-dose plan to the FDA, but it was for a half-size dose (50 mcg instead of 100 mcg). Moderna says 50 mcg is all that’s needed — the fact that it would double its profit is just, you know, a happy coincidence.

The FDA was not impressed. It wants data on the full-size booster so it can compare the immune response. This means Pfizer could get its booster approved much sooner and leave Moderna playing catchup.

The Long Read: The Air In Here edition

What if, Sarah Zhang muses in the Atlantic, we attacked respiratory viruses the way we attacked cholera or malaria — not with vaccines, but with changing the way we lived? (For cholera it was better sewer systems, for malaria it was pesticides and window screens.)

If we are to live with this coronavirus forever—as seems very likely—some scientists are now pushing to reimagine building ventilation and clean up indoor air. We don’t drink contaminated water. Why do we tolerate breathing contaminated air?