There’s a new MMR vaccine

The CDC has updated its MMR vaccine recommendations. No longer is M-M-R II the only game in town. Say hello to Priorx.

• It’s for kids 1 year old or older.
• It’s a two-dose series: One at 12 to 15 months, the second at 4 to 6 years.
• Priorx can also be used as a second dose for kids who got M-M-R II as their first dose.

“[T]he CDC considers Priorix and M-M-R II to be fully interchangeable.”

How they come out and how they turn out

Here’s an interesting tidbit: Kids born via C-section may not respond to immunizations as well as kids born the traditional way.

Apparently the vaginal microbiome affects the baby’s intestinal microbiome, and those bacteria [insert science here] allow the body to produce higher antibody levels.

In addition to higher antibody levels against pneumonia and meningitis in saliva, infants born via vaginal delivery showed changes in their populations of good and bad gut bacteria that reflected the higher antibody responses to the two vaccines.

Will that make a big difference, or only one that shows up in the lab? “More information is needed to draw any firm conclusions.”

Neurotic People May Suffer From One Deadly Physical Symptom!

High blood pressure.

A study out of Shanghai “published in the journal General Psychiatry, has found that high diastolic blood pressure is likely to cause neurotic personality traits.” (The study itself is here.)

The white and black of HDL

Forget everything you know about HDL being “good” cholesterol! Well, not everything. But the general idea that your HDL level is related to your heart-disease risk — well, that turns out not to be the case. Not for everyone.

Based on 10 years of data from nearly 24,000 U.S. adults, the NIH-funded study found an interesting disparity:

For White people: Low HDL levels — below — 40 ml/dl — were bad (“ linked with higher odds for developing cardiac problems”) but higher-than-normal levels didn’t add any protection from heart disease.

For Black people: Neither high nor low levels of HDL made a notable difference in heart disease. Lower levels weren’t bad, but — as with white folks — higher levels weren’t good.

(And if you’re wondering, what we know about LDL cholesterol still holds true: It’s bad.)

Stop the presses!

Bayer has launched Children’s Afrin! It comes in “Extra Moisturizing” and “No Drip Extra Moisturizing” varieties.

It’s perfect for divorced and separated couples — squirt it into Junior’s nose before sending him to visit your ex and let someone else deal with “Afrin rebound.”

Whippit, whippet bad

The latest drug scourge sweeping Europe: Nitrous oxide. Instead of just those little cartridges for whipped cream, it’s becoming available in larger cylinders — the beer keg of laughing gas, if you will.

In the United Kingdom, nitrous oxide is the second most prevalent drug among young adults aged 16 to 24 years, after cannabis^*.

How bad is it? Those shifty Danes reported a staggering 134 cases of nitrous oxide poisoning in 2020. And the Dutch say there was a “sharp rise in car accidents caused by driving while intoxicated or trying to fill balloons.”

^* Not counting alcohol and caffeine

Smokers’ babies can C their way^* to breathing a little easier

Smoking during pregnancy is double-plus-ungood — we all know that. But addiction is hard to beat (that’s why it’s addiction and not something you do).

That said, it seems that smokers can help their impending offspring by taking vitamin C supplements while pregnant. By “help” the mostly Oregonian researchers mean it may “decrease the effects of smoking in pregnancy on childhood airway function and respiratory health.”

^* That headline is too cheesy even for us, but we’ll let it stand.

The Long Read: Anti-Pax edition

There are people out there who, even if they test positive for Covid-19, won’t take Paxlovid — the best medicine out there. But get this: It’s not about politics^*. Sure, there are wonky reasons (e.g., not believing the data), but mostly the “anti-pax” logic is … logical.

^* Which has to be the dumbest reason to risk your health evah.