The teeth-dementia connection

The more teeth you’re missing, the greater your odds of dementia — so says a study out of NYU. But if you have dentures, the risk goes down.

The researchers found that adults with more tooth loss had a 1.48 times higher risk of developing cognitive impairment and 1.28 times higher risk of being diagnosed with dementia, even after controlling for other factors.

So what’s happening? It could be any of several things, aside from “people with missing teeth probably have other socio-economic issues.” It might be that tooth loss leads to cognitive issues, as “missing teeth can lead to difficulty chewing, which may contribute to nutritional deficiencies.”

Or it could be the same factors affecting the teeth and the brain: “A growing body of research also points to a connection between gum disease—a leading cause of tooth loss—and cognitive decline.”

Our number two story

Polish researchers were surprised to have cured at least two people of Covid-19 using … fecal transplants. They were trying to treat C. Diff. infections in two patients who also had Covid-19, and found that not only did the C. Diff. clear up, so did the Covid.

[T]hese data let us speculate that gut microbiome manipulation may merit further exploration as an immunomodulatory strategy in COVID-19.

Their research was published in the BMJ’s journal Gut.

Head shots are coming

Did you get your head shot taken at the convention? Good news: They’ll be coming to your inboxes starting next week, once the photog is finished touching you up. (Not that you need touching up; you’re beautiful just the way you are.)

A new kind of navel-gazing

An investigation into the FDA’s approval of Biogen’s Aduhelm Alzheimer’s treatment is being called for … by the FDA.

The agency cited STAT’s reporting that FDA officials worked hand in hand with Biogen executives to get the drug on the market, including an off-the-books meeting and an unprecedented decision to approve Aduhelm through a regulatory shortcut.

“Suffering and death” … of their profits

The drug company mantra has always been that they have to charge crazy-high prices, especially to Medicare, because they need to fund, er, research and development. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Except … that turns out not to be the case. The numbers are easy enough to crunch; they’re in the companies’ annual reports. So the House Committee on Oversight and Reform did just that. It found that, contrary to their claims, pharmaceutical companies spend more on stock buybacks and dividends than on R&D.

Oh, and the report isn’t breaking new ground here. Pharma using money for stock buybacks was in the news a couple of years ago.

But here’s my favorite part:

Pharmaceutical companies have deployed legions of lobbyists to thwart the House Democrats bill, arguing that it would deter the creation of new drugs and lead to suffering and death.

Translation: “Do what we say and no one gets hurt.”

High Fido

I guess this isn’t surprising: With more humans using drugs like marijuana and opioids, more dogs are getting into it, meaning more calls to the canine poison-control hotline.

The pertinent facts:

• The higher a county’s opioid-prescription rate, the more often opioid poisoning for dogs is reported to the ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center.
• Who’s at risk? “Non-neutered, younger and smaller dogs.”
• The lower the penalty for using marijuana, the more often cannabis poisonings were reported.
• The more urban a county, the higher the odds of a “poisoning event”.

ADHD and the risk of +1

Here’s an interesting connection: People with ADHD who are taking meds for another mental disorder are more likely to stop taking their stimulants.

According to the study in the American Journal of Psychiatry, 45 percent of the people with ADHD and bipolar disorder or schizophrenia stopped taking their ADHD meds within two years. (That number is higher if their ADHD was diagnosed after age 13.)

Twist: The risk of stopping didn’t apply to those with ADHD, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

ICYMI

A part of his broad ‘promoting competition’ economic plan President Biden signed an executive order that has a bunch of parts affecting pharmacy, from looking at importing drugs from Canada (still never gonna happen) to banning “pay-for-delay” of generics, to … well there’s a lot.

Here’s the news story.

Here are the details from the White House.

Totally non-pharma but-still-really-cool story (because it’s Saturday)

SILENCE! Swedish engineers and acousticians have developed a new kind of screw that they say, if used in the walls of buildings, can reduce outside noise (and allow thinner building materials, too).