We love it when legislators give us this kind of time

Charlotte Kaye of U.S. Senator David Perdue’s office recently spent an afternoon visiting Briarcliff Pharmacy, a local independent pharmacy to learn on a first hand basis how prescriptions are processed and the software used to do so.

While visiting she had the opportunity to learn more and ask questions about spread pricing and many of the the current problems facing independent pharmacy, including DIR fees, steering, medication pricing, insurance processing, and host of others.

Charlotte is not new to GPhA members who have attended the NCPA fly-in’s. She had graciously hosted us in Senator Perdue’s office both this year and last. It was great to have her reciprocate and spent time with pharmacists inside a store.

Left to right: Steve Montgomery, APCI; Brian Fernandez, PIC at Briarcliff Pharmacy; Jonathan Marquess, GPhA past president and president/CEO, the Marquess Group; Sally Wright, MD; Charlotte Kaye, legislative correspondent, Senator David Purdue; Bob Coleman, CEO, GPhA; Larry Alaimo, regional director of franchise operations, McKesson.

The gout-cancer connection

People with gout (or “the gout” if you’re my dad) have a 50 percent (!) greater risk of cancer — especially prostate cancer.

It’s that %$#&@* uric acid. At low levels it’s an antioxidant, but at higher levels it leads to inflammation… and cancer.

Crack some walnuts

Penn State: “We switched their saturated fat with walnuts to see if they’d notice a difference, and it lowered their blood pressure.”

“When participants ate whole walnuts, they saw greater benefits than when they consumed a diet with a similar fatty acid profile as walnuts without eating the nut itself,” [Penn State professor Penny] Kris-Etherton said. “So it seems like there’s a little something extra in walnuts that are beneficial.

Vaccine helps addicted rodents

Good news if you know any rats who are addicted to fentanyl: Scripps Research has developed a potential vaccine that “has been shown to reduce fentanyl choices and increase food choices with effects lasting several months.”

A lonely Englishman walks into a Walgreens….

(or “How we combined two stories into one”)

A new study out of the U.K. finds that living alone increases a person’s risk of “common mental disorders.” But if you’re picturing the crazy old man down the street, think again: “This association was observed in all age groups including young adults and both sexes.”

Meanwhile, here in the States, Walgreens announced that it’s going to train its pharmacists in “mental health first aid” as part of Mental Health Month. And then, in case that training pushes those pharmacists over the edge, the company is also giving similar training to 300 human resources employees.

Who needs science when we have … anecdotes!

“Man Claims Cheap Dog Deworming Medicine Cured His Terminal Cancer”

(Admit it. You’re going to read that if only to give your eye-rolling muscles some exercise.)

Want more? How about taking baking soda to cure your rheumatoid arthritis*?

Actually, that one has some basis in science even if it smacks of Medicine by Dr. Facebook.

Odd medical news: some (zombie) pig

Once again we are faced with scientists who have obviously never seen a horror movie: “System restores some pig brain function hours after death.”

Researchers isolated the brain of a postmortem pig from a meatpacking plant and circulated a specially designed chemical solution. They observed many basic cellular functions once thought to cease seconds or minutes after oxygen and blood flow cease, the scientists report.

The long read: Is mental illness entirely biological? Pharma thinks so.

“How Drug Companies Helped Shape A Shifting, Biological View Of Mental Illness“