‘Pulsing’ prednisone

If you’ve got some fat mice and someone suggested giving them prednisone, you’d (rightly) decline — daily prednisone can cause obesity (or make it worse), along with elevated blood sugar.

But what if you gave it to them weekly? That turns out to have the opposite effect, according to Northwestern geneticists.

Obese mice that were fed a high-fat diet and that received prednisone one time per week had improved exercise endurance, got stronger, increased their lean body mass and lost weight.

For reasons they’re still teasing out, “once-weekly prednisone promoted nutrient uptake into the muscles, and the mice also had increased muscle metabolism.”

Next up: Trying to determine the specifics of dosing, and figuring out why it works the way it does.

Bad metaphors, but a great reason to give

As March Madness gives way to the Final Four, the Georgia Pharmacy Foundation is betting on Georgia’s student pharmacists!

The word of the day: Alley-oop [ ăl″ē-oo͞p′ ]
A play in which a player throws the ball high towards the basket and their teammate jumps up, catches the ball, and slams it through the hoop.

Those student pharmacists have done the alley part. We need you to do the oop — support the Foundation 100 today!

All donations go directly to fund student scholarships at Georgia’s four pharmacy schools. Won’t you assist?

The price of dementia

The story: “Half of older adults now die with a dementia diagnosis, up sharply”

The rather important detail:

The biggest jump in the percentage of people dying with a dementia diagnosis happened around the time Medicare allowed hospitals, hospices and doctors’ offices to list more diagnoses on their requests for payment.

Not to mention…

[A]round this same time, the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease also went into effect, with a focus on public awareness, quality of care, and more support for patients and their caregivers.

Perchance to dream … of your own pharmacy

Some of us have the floating-but-sort-of-flying dream. Others dream they’re late for a high school math exam, or that they’re successfully involved in a land war in Asia.

But what if you dream about pharmacy ownership? Or what if you already own a pharmacy but want to crank it up to 11?

NCPA is here for you with the NCPA Innovation Center’s Pharmacy Ownership Workshop (sponsored by McKesson) — coming to Atlanta April 9 and 10!

More than 2,500 pharmacists have already attended the workshop — they know the secret handshake and what it takes to run a successful pharmacy. So wake up and start making your dream a reality (unless it’s that math-exam one).

Click here to sign up, then learn why attendees have called it “a must” and “the highest ROI you can get” in understanding what ownership takes.

You lookin’ at me?

Guys, here’s another reason to keep your blood pressure under control. You might think the world is out to get you. Sort of.

Apparently (say German researchers), not only are you more likely to notice angry expressions in others, but doing so can raise your blood pressure over time. It’s a vicious cycle that can’t end well.

“Hypertensive men recognized anger more often than any other emotion. So they overrated anger displayed in other people’s faces as compared to our healthy control group.”

With pioglitazone, less is more

Pioglitazone has ups and downs for treating type 2 diabetes. It can reduce insulin resistance, sure, but at typical doses it has some unwanted side effects.

But what if you used a lower dose? Say, just 15mg? According to a biomedical researcher and physician at the University of Buffalo, it works just fine — and without those side effects.

[H]e has been prescribing pioglitazone over the past decade at a low dose of 15 milligrams with excellent results of glycemic control without the side effects of weight gain and edema.

Captain Obvious just doesn’t inhale

“As Covid-19 cases fall and masks come off, flu cases are rising”

Admit it just doesn’t work

When pseudoephedrine went behind the counter, drug makers came up with an alternative for people who didn’t feel like asking for it: phenylephrine.

But as far back as 2006, we knew phenylephrine didn’t work. It just had kind of a similar name, and it didn’t hurt. But it did nothing.

There’s a word for that, and in 2015, pharmacotherapy researchers at the University of Florida’s College of Pharmacy called it like it is: “Over-the-Counter Oral Phenylephrine: A Placebo for Nasal Congestion” — they even called on the FDA to take it off the market.

“Scientific evidence continues to show that the most popular products on the market containing phenylephrine are ineffective. Patients who seek an over-the-counter remedy should get what they pay for: an effective and safe alternative to a prescription drug.”

That was seven years ago. It’s still on the market, prompting the authors of that 2015 paper to write a new editorial, “Why Is Oral Phenylephrine on the Market After Compelling Evidence of Its Ineffectiveness as a Decongestant?” (Most of the paper is behind a paywall, unfortunately.)

Secondhand bong

No, a contact high isn’t the biggest danger from hanging out with someone (not you, of course) using a bong. It’s the air pollution — it’s worse that cigarette smoke according to a study out of UC Berkeley. [Insert joke here.]

Particulates from cannabis bong smoking “were at least four times greater than concentrations from secondhand tobacco smoke from cigarettes or hookah.”

The researchers also confirmed what anyone with a pot-smoking friend knows: The air takes a long time to clear.

In one session, levels remained at more than 10 times the original concentration 12 hours after the group stopped smoking. This suggests people entering a home hours after a bong session could still be affected by secondhand smoke.”