Want to know if you’ll develop dementia?

You probably won’t find this one in Cosmo: Researchers at an Ohio State University claim that their “Self-administered cognition test predicts early signs of dementia sooner.”

After eight years of testing the test…

Researchers found that the SAGE test [Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination] accurately identified patients with mild cognitive impairment who eventually progressed to a dementia diagnosis at least six months earlier than the most commonly used testing method.

You can download the test here. It’s free, and it only about 10-15 minutes to complete — and a lifetime to contemplate.

Saving kidneys from cancer drugs

So cisplatin, the anti-cancer drug, has a problem: For 25 percent of patients, it causes kidney damage. Now, though, Yale medical researchers think they’ve found a concurrent medication that can prevent it. They call it a “kidney-targeted renalase agonist peptide.”

They gave mice two doses of cisplatin. Some then got the renalase agonist peptide, some didn’t. And what d’ya know, the renalase peptide cut the incidence of chronic kidney disease, improved the kidneys’ filtration rate, and cut down on inflammation while it was at it.

(And yes, before you ask, of course this peptide was encapsulated in nanoparticles. This is 2021, after all.)

That’s not an artificial pancreas; THAT’S an artificial pancreas

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have implanted a device in patients (human ones) filled with genetically engineered stem cells that can monitor insulin levels and produce it on demand. And the Big Deal: Because it contains living cells, the device can keep producing insulin.

These devices are about half the size of a credit card, and contain “millions of lab-grown cells that […] were ‘coached’ into maturing into beta cells” that produce insulin.

Six months after implantation, the researchers observed that the cells had not only survived but successfully matured into insulin-producing beta cells, helping the patient’s body to sense blood sugar levels and release insulin when needed.

And yes, it worked: “Patients in the study also spent 13 per cent more time in target blood sugar range and some were able to reduce the amount of insulin they injected.”

Next up: More and bigger trials.

Where have you gone, Walter Cronkite? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you

A German study out of Ruhr University Bochum looked at why people won’t get a Covid-19 vaccination. Nothing new there. But towards the bottom of the press release comes this eyebrow-raiser:

In almost all countries, the research team found a link between not using television as a source of information and refusing vaccination. In Poland, Sweden, and the USA, the use of social media as a source of information contributed to people being more likely to reject vaccination.

You read that right: Using television (!) for information makes you smarter (than using social media).

Covid quickies

The latest answer to “Which vaccines should you get?” comes from the UK, where the answer is … start with Pfizer or AstraZeneca, then boost with Moderna nine weeks later. (Read the article quickly, please, before totally contradictory results are released.)

=AND=

The latest info about Omicron is that is seems highly transmissible, but causes a milder sickness. (That’s based on reports from South Africa and more importantly Norway.) Again, stay tuned for when this information changes.

Opioids: It’s about supply, not demand

A couple of Harvard economists took a look at the opioid crisis — specifically the 400% rise in opioid prescriptions since the late ‘90s, when the demand for painkiller began to skyrocket.

Or did it?

In the years following, many believed that the rise in opioid use was driven by demand for painkillers from those with physical pain, depression, despair, and social isolation.

In fact, looking at the “rise in painful conditions reported by patients” compared to the the number of prescriptions being written, they concluded that it wasn’t demand that drove* the epidemic — “that the increase in opioid use can better be explained by growth in the supply of pills.”

Quoth the American Economic Association analysis:

Government approval in 1995 of the blockbuster drug OxyContin, then billed as a safer alternative to previous opioids, flooded the market with new opioids prescribed for alleviating pain.\

You can read their full paper here, free (192-page PDF, but mostly in plain English).

* Drives. Present tense.

Norwegians apparently have big hands

Norwegian Cruise Lines reported a “handful” of Covid-19 cases aboard the MS Norwegian Breakaway. The ship docked in New Orleans, where it turned out it was at least 17 passengers and crew. None of them disembarked, all claimed to be vaccinated, and none claimed to have any symptoms.

The ship is continuing to Belize, Honduras, and Mexico with more than 3,200 souls on board.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to the ship as the MS Agar Slant. We regret the error.