Shocking task-force recommendation

In a stunning move, the US Preventive Services Task Force has said that that people at risk of HIV infection should take a treatment designed to reduce the risk of HIV infection.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for reducing the risk for HIV infection among individuals at increased risk for HIV acquisition.

This follows on the heels of the agency’s recommendations that if it’s cold outside you should wear a jacket, and that people with bad breath consider mouthwash.

Our dopey mistake

In yesterday’s edition, we^* wrote about pharmacists being harassed possibly due to “the amount of melatonin in [their] skin”. Well that was a foolish mistake! As reader Jasmine pointed out, we meant melanin, but none of our team of copy editors or proofreaders caught it (likely because we have no such team).

^* The royal we, of course. This is all on me.

Diabetics love this one simple trick

How can you help manage type 2 diabetes? By not eating at random times during the day.

The trick, says a study out of the Endocrine Society, is to only eat during a consistent window of 8-10 hours each day — say, from 8:00 am to 5:00 or 6:00 pm. “Eating at random times breaks the synchrony of our internal program and make us prone to diseases,” said one of the study’s authors, the wonderfully named Satchidananda Panda, PhD.

Bonus: You can tell people you’re on an “intermittent fasting diet” and sound hip.

States complain of being drug-blocked

The number of states asking for permission to import drugs from Canada jumped 33 percent this month, as Colorado became the fourth to officially ask for federal permission. (Florida, New Hampshire, and New Mexico are the others.)

President Biden, like Donald Trump before him, supports the idea. The Biden administration, though, like Trump’s before it, hasn’t approved the idea. And states are getting cranky that the FDA keeps finding reasons not to approve their plans — e.g., by not identifying a Canadian wholesaler to supply the drugs.

One reason for that is that Canada is against the plan, and — even though we kindly allow them to play in the “National” Hockey League — we still need their permission for wholesale importation of meds.

Easier methadone, permanently

HHS is proposing a permanent change to the rules that allow more people with opioid-abuse issues to get drugs like methadone and buprenorphine.

Those rules were relaxed during the pandemic to allow patients to get prescriptions via telehealth visits rather than in person, and also allowed more prescribers like NPs and PAs to prescribe them. Considering that the world hasn’t ended, the agency figures keeping the relaxed rules in place will allow more people to get more treatment more easily.

It’s a popular idea; Georgia’s Christopher Carr was one of 44 attorneys general who asked HHS to make the change permanent:

“Enabling creative, effective strategies, such as telemedicine, is critical to reducing the number of overdose deaths in our country, particularly in underserved areas, and ending the overdose crisis.”

Help your patients with shrinkage

If you’re looking to offer your patients other services — or just add a new revenue stream — you might want to look into weight-loss counseling.

Why that in particular? Because physicians, it seems, aren’t talking to patients about it, and when they do, they’re not doing a very good job.

[T]heir advice is generic, lacking in scientific evidence, and not tailored to each patient’s behaviors or habits.

Granted, the study that uncovered this comes out of the UK, but aside from problems with spelling, British doctors aren’t much different than doctors here.

Blood pressure myth-busting

Myth: Stress causes high blood pressure

Anyone who’s watched Saturday-morning cartoons knows this is true. Turns out it’s not. A big study out of LA’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center found that…

Rather than everyday stressors, the real culprits are genetics and poor habits that are often linked to stress, like overeating, smoking and hitting the bottle.

That’s not to say that big stress doesn’t momentarily affect blood pressure, but when it comes to long-term hypertension, [look for long-term issues][bp]. (In fact, during the pandemic, many people had lower blood pressure, according to one expert, “probably because they weren’t consuming as many salty restaurant meals.”

Myth: High lipoproteins increases cardiovascular disease risk

This one’s obvious … but it’s also (at least according to the American Heart Association) untrue. High lipoprotein cholesterol does increase CVD risk — but only in people who also have high blood pressure.

“CVD risk,” new research showed, “was not higher among those without hypertension.”

“The fact that lipoprotein appears to modify the relationship between hypertension and cardiovascular disease is interesting, and suggests important interactions or relationships for hypertension, lipoprotein and cardiovascular disease, and more research is needed.”

Bad guts, bad teeth

If you know someone with inflammatory bowel disease, you might suggest they keep their next dental appointments — and that’s especially true if they have Crohn’s disease.

A new European research project studied more than 4,500 of those shifty Danes, and it found “that patients with IBD have more periodontitis and fewer teeth compared to people without IBD.” It also goes the other way: If they have oral health issues, patients with IBD are likely to have a worse intestinal condition.