They really need to clean their dentures

False teeth might give people pneumonia. More specifically, dentures are apparently really, really good at harboring pneumonia-causing bacteria.

If you have pneumonia and you’re wearing dentures, you’ll have more bacteria on those dentures. Seems obvious. But, assuming you clean those dentures regularly, you shouldn’t that much more than people without pneumonia.

Yeah, well, British researchers found that maybe people need to do a better job cleaning and disinfecting^*.

“We were expecting to see a difference but were surprised to see 20 times the number of potentially pneumonia-causing bacteria on dentures in people with pneumonia, compared to people without.”

Bottom line: Those false teeth are like low-rent housing for the kind of stuff you don’t want to be breathing or swallowing.

^* It would be impolite to make any joke about British dental care.

A yummy treat for chiro patients

Got patients seeing a chiropractor for pain? You’ve probably thought to yourself, “I bet it would help to give them a combo of hemp oil, calamari oil, and broccoli!”

Well you’d be right. A study out of North Carolina State University found that just such a combination “can help manage pain intensity, interference, and oxidative stress when combined with standard chiropractic care.”

Patients reported pain intensity decreasing by over half (52%) and a decrease in areas of pain interference like mood and quality of sleep. The authors also report decreases in oxidative stress markers.

How psychedelic drugs work

You know how they say when you reach your 20s your brain is pretty much set in its ways — you are who you are. Unless, that is, you take some psychedelic drugs.

It seems that one feature all psychedelic drugs^* have in common is that they…

…reopen “critical periods” in the brain, when mammals are more sensitive to signals from their surroundings that can influence periods of brain development.

They can help open the brain to being rewired — either learning something new (perhaps helping with stroke recovery) or being able to forget something that’s feels hardwired (PTSD trigger or and depression).

It’s not a permanent treatment, though; the effect only lasts as long as the drug does, which is one reason use needs to be combined with at-the-moment therapy to take advantage of the brain’s temporary flexibility.

Read more from the folks at Johns Hopkins, where they’re figuring all this out.

^* At least ibogaine, ketamine, LSD, MDMA and psylocibin

Treating PTSD headaches

For people with PTSD or concussions, persistent headaches can be a big problem. New research out of the VA has found that there might be a simple pharmacological solution: prazosin, the blood-pressure drug.

Migraine drugs don’t work because, well, these aren’t migraines. And prazosin has been used for treating other aspects of PTSD, but no one thought to see about using prazosin for those headaches. Good thing they did.

Before the trial began, study participants had an average of 18 headache days each month. By the end of the 12-week period, those taking prazosin only had headaches for an average of six days a month. […] Significantly more participants in the prazosin group had at least 50% fewer headaches during the 12 weeks of taking a full dose of medication.

There is (probably) no thyroid-cancer risk for semaglutide

The European Medicines Agency has sort-of raised a yellow flag — a ‘thyroid cancer safety signal’ — for several Novo Nordisk drugs, including semaglutide.

[T]he discussion followed the publication of a study suggesting that there might be an increased risk of thyroid cancers with the use of these drugs in patients with Type 2 diabetes.

The safety signal just means the EMA wants Novo to keep a close eye on “potential adverse events from the use of approved drugs.” There’s no danger, everyone says, just the possibility. (We’re including this story so we can refer back to it in a few years if necessary.)

Short takes

FDA approval #1: for kids’ diabetes

The FDA has approved Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim’s drugs Jardiance and Synjardy to treat type 2 diabetes in children aged 10 to 17.

FDA approval #2: for prostate cancer

And the FDA has approved a drug combo to treat HRR gene–mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer: Pfizer’s Talzenna (aka talazoparib) and Xtandi (that’s enzalutamide).

This follows our story yesterday about the approval of abiraterone, olaparib, and prednisone to treat a different kind of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Yeah, whatevs, if they want it

With a shrug, the FDA has sorta kinda recommended RSV vaccines for people 60 and older. Well, for people 60-65 yeah, why not; but they were iffy about the over-65 crowd.

Instead of telling seniors that they should be vaccinated, the panel has said that people may get a dose of GSK’s Arexvy or Pfizer’s Abrysvo if it is right for them.