Another day, another vitamin D story

This time it’s about mothers and kids. Moms — well, mice moms — who are vitamin D deficient are more likely to have kids who develop diabetes sometime in their lives. That comes out of Washington University in St. Louis, where researchers think the lack of vitamin D affects the development of certain stem cells — stem cells that develop into immune cells in the babies.

Not only does that mean the offspring are more likely to develop diabetes, by the time they’re born it’s too late to fix.

“In studies of mice born to vitamin D-deficient mothers, we have found that the animals go on to develop insulin resistance and diabetes later in life. That was true even when pups were treated with adequate amounts of vitamin D after birth. Those animals improved their glucose control, but they never normalized.”

Just two days left!

You only have until 11:59 pm this coming Thursday — the day after tomorrow! — to cast your vote for members of the 2023–24 GPhA Board of Directors.

You should have received your electronic ballot from AssociationVoting to the email address GPhA has on file for you. Can’t find your ballot or have a question? Reach out to Lia Andros, GPhA’s governance manager, at (404) 419-8173 or landros@gpha.org.

Our national nightmare is over

“FDA Approves First Treatment for Constipation in Kids”

(The FDA “has expanded the indication for linaclotide to children as young as age 6 years with functional constipation, making it the first approved treatment for pediatric functional constipation. The recommended dosage in pediatric patients is 72 mcg orally once daily.”)

Hypertension and the Pill

Swedish researchers have confirmed what’s long been suspected: Oral contraceptives can raise the risk of depression, especially for teenagers. Raise by how much? For adults, about 92%. (Yes, that’s almost double the risk.) But for teens it’s “a 130% higher incidence of depression symptoms.”

Worse, the symptoms persist for teens even after they stop using the Pill.

This is based on medical records of more than a quarter of a million women “from birth to menopause.” So … yeah, pretty comprehensive. The good news is that risk is only confirmed with progestogen/estrogen pills:

“Since we only investigated combined contraceptive pills in this study, we cannot draw conclusions about other contraceptive options, such as mini pills, contraceptive patches, hormonal spirals, vaginal rings or contraceptive rods. In a future study, we plan to examine different formulations and methods of administration.”

Captain Obvious knows how time works

“Going to bed a little earlier greatly increases total sleep time for teens”

Keep the soap gentle

A new study out of the UK’s University of Sheffield found that — despite what you might think — gentle soaps are as good at killing viruses and bacteria than harsh ones.

The problem was that healthcare workers were using harsh soaps, getting contact dermatitis, and either washing less or switching to a quick dab of sanitizer — neither of which is as good as washing properly. But now it’s confirmed that you don’t need something harsh to kill SARS-CoV-2. In fact, additives designed to make the soaps less harsh didn’t affect their virus-killing ability one whit.

The one big caveat: Non-enveloped viruses like the norovirus aren’t killed by soap, harsh or otherwise. “Bleach was the only agent [that] affected the virus.” So come winter, clean those surfaces (and still wash your hands).

Oh, the other caveat? The study was funded by CeraVe, the moisturizer maker.

Short Take

Doesn’t even taste like chicken

About one in four — a quarter! — of people who contracted Covid-19 still don’t have their senses of smell and taste back at full power. (24% of patients reported only partial recovery of smell, while over 3% had no recovery at all.) The worse the initial symptoms, the less likely the sensory recovery.