Vaccines: Do inhale

When it comes to vaccines, mouth-breathers might have something going. Canadian researchers have found that, when it comes to respiratory viruses, inhaled vaccines provide better protection than nasal sprays. (And, at least in some studies, nasal sprays outperformed injections.)

“The immune response you generate when you deliver the vaccine deep into the lung is much stronger than when you only deposit that material in the nose and throat because of the anatomy and nature of the tissue and the immune cells that are available to respond are very different.”

Good news for thyroid patients

It’s safe to drink coffee after taking levothyroxine. People on the thyroid hormone replacement therapy have been told they need to take it on an empty stomach, but now the folks at Vertice Pharma (which makes the drug) say the absorption isn’t affected by a cuppa joe. Drink up.

(This hasn’t been released as a study, but it was presented at the Atlanta meeting of the Endocrine Society. Almost as good, right?)

Live long and prosper less

When later-born generations get old, they have more chronic conditions than their parents and grandparents.

In a way, that’s not a bad thing — there’s a good chance this is a result of them living longer thanks to access to better medical treatment.

The flip side, though, is that those chronic conditions will need to be treated (and paid for). And as the Penn State/Texas State researchers point out, that will put a strain on the U.S. health system, which is already behind the rest of the developed world:

[T]he past 30 years has seen population health in the U.S. fall behind that in other high-income countries, and our findings suggest that the U.S. is likely to continue to fall further behind our peers.”

Ready for Hendra

Have you lain awake at night wondering “But what happens if there’s a Hendra virus outbreak?”? Fear not: Researchers at an Ohio State University say they’ve developed a cocktail of four antibodies that can neutralize the newest variant of the Hendra virus, which appeared in Australia earlier this year.

They also found that an existing vaccine candidate seemed to work against the new virus. Now get to sleep!

PFA pressure

PFAs are quickly becoming the CFCs of the 21st century. They’re in lots of stuff, and it’s becoming clear they do a lot of damage.

The latest: Exposure to them can lead to hypertension in women. University of Michigan researchers found that the higher the exposure (and the more PFAs you’re exposed to) the greater the risk.

Women with higher concentrations of specific PFAS were more likely to develop high blood pressure: women in the highest one-third concentrations of [list of specific PFAs] had 42%, 47% and 42% higher risks, respectively, of developing high blood pressure, compared to women in the lowest one-third concentrations of these PFAS. Women in the highest one-third concentrations of all seven PFAS examined had a 71% increased risk of developing high blood pressure.

Good news: They aren’t necessarily forever

By journalism rule, every story about PFAs must immediately refer to them as “forever chemicals.” Buuuuut … UC Riverside researchers have found a way to destroy them: Iodide, sulfite, and UV light “destroys up to 90% of carbon-fluorine atoms in PFAS forever chemicals in just a few hours.”

They call it “The Dip”

You would think the pustules would be a hint

“CDC director: Monkeypox may be tricky to diagnose”

“It’s important to be aware that monkeypox cases may present similar to some sexually transmitted infections and could be mistaken for other diagnose.”

Got protection?

Old news: Rapid tests for Covid-19.

New news, courtesy of researchers at Mount Sinai: a rapid test to measure Covid immunity. (Well, sort of rapid — it takes 24 hours.) The test measures T-cell response, not the shorter-lived antibodies. It’s can help vulnerable individuals, but also measure vaccine effectiveness in an wider area — useful, especially as new variants emerge.

(Link above goes to news story. Click here for the paper.)

The Long Read: Today’s Drugs edition

The title isn’t as interesting as the article itself: “Breaking The Rules Of Healthcare: Overpaying For Drugs That Underachieve.”

Today’s “blockbuster” (or worse, “game-changer”) drugs aren’t nearly the Very Big Deals that manufacturers make them out to be. That’s because in the 1980s, deregulated drug companies switched from focusing on creating great drugs to creating safe and profitable drugs.

The companies behind Aduhelm and Trodelvy have issued a combined total of 70 press releases (34 from Biogen and 36 from Gilead) about their respective flagship drugs.

[N]either drug will have a meaningfully positive impact on the lives of people with Alzheimer’s or breast cancer.