A spoonful of metformin helps the insulin go down

Patients with type 1 diabetes? Chinese researchers found that adding metformin to the treatment not only reduces the amount of insulin they need, but can also reduce weight gain.

India: We’ll eventually ship ingredients again

Although India has stopped exporting 26 pharmaceutical ingredients — it wants to take care of its own needs first — the country’s minister of state for chemicals and fertilizer* said the policy hopefully won’t be in place for the long haul … and also that India realizes it needs to reduce its dependence on ingredients from China.

* Winner, March 2020 “Title of the Month”

You got your Tylenol in my Advil!
You got your Advil in my Tylenol!

The nightmare is over: No longer will people have to take two pills and keep two bottles. The FDA has approved the first OTC combination of ibuprofen and acetaminophen.

“For decades, many consumers have been using ibuprofen and acetaminophen to get the benefits of both active ingredients […] [This] will offer U.S. consumers the first-ever alternative option – a single, fixed-dose combination pain reliever.”

Nifty new vaccine delivery system

It’s cheap, easy to make, “preserves live viruses, bacteria, antibodies, and enzymes,” and doesn’t require refrigeration. And it’s already been tested (a proof of concept, but still). It’s a lightweight film that goes in a patient’s mouth, developed at the University of Texas.

If it proves workable, it could be a game-changer for healthcare in poorer areas and those without a stable healthcare infrastructure.

Stronger warning for Singulair

The FDA is requiring that montelukast, aka Singulair, now carry a black-box warning — the agency’s strongest. The potential psychiatric effects are dangerous enough that the agency also warned prescribers to “avoid prescribing montelukast for patients with mild symptoms, particularly those with allergic rhinitis.”

Let’s talk about sleep for a minute

We can remember it for you wholesale: Tel Aviv University researchers have found a technique to study how memories are processed during sleep — one that may allow for treatment of brain injuries. It involves using a “memory-evoking scent” in one nostril (i.e., affecting only one side of the brain).

With this “one-sided” odor delivery, the researchers were able to reactivate and boost specific memories that were stored in a specific brain hemisphere.

Just keep sleeping: A five-year study of 2,000 people found that those with “erratic sleep patterns” (it varied two hours or more a night) “were twice as likely to have heart events as those whose sleep varied by fewer than 60 minutes.”

Treatment for fat mice

Good news for overweight rodents: Aussie researchers have found that a chemical in oranges — nobiletin — not only can help them lose weight, but can also treat the effects, including high cholesterol and atherosclerosis.

Fun fact: They don’t know why it works. Their top theory, that it affects the AMP-activated protein kinase pathway, turned out to be a dead end.

Heart health: Fish oil maybe, occasional eggs OK

Chinese scientists studying British patients found that “Habitual Use of Fish Oil Prevents CVD.” Doesn’t this conflict with an earlier study that says fish oil doesn’t help? Yes, sort of. The bottom line is that it seems that fish oils may reduce cardiovascular ‘events,’ but it’s not clear by how much.

And…

Although eggs are “an oval shaped missile of dietary cholesterol that perpetuate the high cardiovascular disease risk,” a study published in the British Medical Journal found that moderate egg consumption is probably not bad, it’s the entire Western diet that’s the problem.

Are you panicking? Apparently you’re panicking

So says the ever-entertaining New York Post*, which reports that “pharmacists are quietly fretting over a looming shortage of vital prescription medications“.

(Sure, in the story you’re “fretting,” but in the headline you’re “panicking”.)

* Known for the greatest headline of all time: “Headless Body in Topless Bar”