Do they really need levothyroxine?

Maybe not. Prescribing the drug is usually based on a patient’s level of thyroid-stimulating hormone and free thyroxine. But Yale researchers found that those levels vary with the seasons, meaning “an enormous number of unnecessary levothyroxine prescriptions.”

That’s because the levels rise in the winter, when depression (e.g., seasonal affective disorder) is more common. As the lead researcher pointed out, “[I]f many of those same people had gotten the same test a few months later, it would have come back as normal.”

“The emerging evidence is very concerning because we’re actively giving patients a drug that they don’t need that can have potentially severe side effects, especially in elderly individuals over 80.”

Strep A spike

Group A streptococcal infections spiked late last year as masking and distancing faded out, so University of Texas researchers want healthcare folks to be on the lookout for kids with sore throats or skin infections — the signs of strep A.

“[D]uring the last quarter of 2022, the number of infections we saw, including invasive infections, were far greater than what we’d ever seen before.”

Reuters ruminates on ruling ripples

Usual warning: This is a story about mifepristone, so let’s all chill because it’s actually pretty interesting.

Regardless of your opinions on the Texas court case questioning mifepristone’s legality, Reuters has an analysis of what a ruling pulling it from the market would mean to the rest of the industry.

The important thing to remember is that the case isn’t technically about mifepristone itself — it’s about the FDA’s approval process and whether it followed proper procedures 23 years ago.

A ruling against the agency’s approval of a drug over 20 years earlier would be unprecedented and could ripple through drug research and development for years, with implications for public health and access to new treatments.

For example, Reuters explains, it could cause the FDA to adopt much more stringent testing requirements, for better or worse, knowing that a court could review every step 20 years down the line. And the spectre of that kind of court challenge would hang over every product — imagine, for example, a competitor suing to have a medication removed claiming the approval process was flawed.

As we said: Interesting.

Obesity drugs: Well that was fast

The World Health Organization is considering adding anti-obesity drugs to its list of essential medicines. By “essential” it means these are drugs that countries should be sure to provide for citizens, and can often lead to lower costs in low-income nations.

The argument is that obesity leads to so many other health problems, an ounce of prevention spending could lead to a lot of pounds saved in curing. And “At present, there are no medications included in the [list] that specifically target weight loss for the ongoing global burden of obesity.”

On the other hand, GLP-1 receptor agonists are pretty new and do have side effects. Also, “ some public health experts warn against introducing such medicines too broadly as a solution to a complex condition that is still not completely understood.”

From the Broccoli Files

If you want your mice to have a better chance at being healthy, feed ’em broccoli — that’s what a study out of Penn State concluded. (And no, it wasn’t funded by Big Broc.)

The researchers found that “broccoli contains certain molecules that bind to a receptor within mice and help to protect the lining of the small intestine, thereby inhibiting the development of disease.”

The down side for picky eaters: The mice that benefitted from the broccoli were fed a diet that was 15% broccoli — “equivalent to about 3.5 cups per day for humans.”

Captain Obvious mumbles something about “Sherlock”

“China holds the key to understanding COVID-19 origins”

Short Takes

Peeps of destruction

Consumer Reports warns that some Peeps are made with FD&C Red #3, a known carcinogen. Stick with the yellow ones. (It’s not just a carcinogen in California, either. The FDA has banned Red Dye #3 from cosmetics because of the cancer risk.)

AI comes for medicine

“Everyone whose job is safe from artificial intelligence, step forward.”

Not so fast, pathologists.