It’s also a non-dessert topping

We hear “a drug for X can also treat Y,” so often it can seem like a chicken throwing darts at diseases. The latest example: Metformin (the diabetes drug) can prevent gum disease.

British dental researchers found that metformin reduced inflammation and sugar levels in both the body and the mouth^*.

Metformin led to significant prevention of bone-loss during induced periodontal disease and age-related bone-loss in vivo (in living mice). […] The [human] trial showed improved clinical outcomes in the gum disease treatment, and control of sugar levels and inflammation in the mouth and body, even in high levels of bacteria.

* * *

Advertising inside pharmacies

As pharmacies provide more healthcare services, that hasn’t gone unnoticed by advertisers looking for new ways to interrupt our lives. They’re starting to put money into ads inside retail pharmacies. Some are low-tech (shelf signs) and some are high-tech (trans­forming the glass on bev­er­age cool­ers in­to ad­ver­tis­ing screens).

“We’re re­al­ly ex­cit­ed about this and see a great op­por­tu­ni­ty for many of our brands in the space,” said one advertising exec.

“Our hope is that con­sumers will see our in­for­ma­tion at their lo­cal phar­ma­cy and have that con­ver­sa­tion. We al­so plan to sup­port phar­ma­cists with re­sources and pa­tient ed­u­ca­tion to help fa­cil­i­tate dis­cus­sions and ul­ti­mate­ly vac­ci­na­tions.”

He forgot to add “…in their copious free time.”

(One ad-tech company did at least give lip service to bombarded consumers: “If you’re go­ing to a phar­ma­cy or pri­ma­ry point of care in the store, you don’t want to feel like you’re be­ing sold to.”)

Captain Obvious obeys the law

“Kids in state with flu vaccine mandate more likely to be vaccinated, study finds”

There’s a new heart syndrome in town

The American Heart Association has named a new medical condition — one that “reflects the strong links among obesity, diabetes, and heart and kidney disease.” It’s called cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome, or CKM.

Essentially, it defines the criteria for various issues (e.g., high blood pressure, high triglycerides, kidney failure) that can eventually lead to heart disease, with the goal of focusing doctors on seeing the larger picture to prevent heart disease.

[W]hen you look at the organs together, “you can detect disease early and you’re going to prevent bad cardiovascular outcomes, like heart failure, heart attacks and stroke.”

In case you’re curious, “More than 90% of adults fall on the CKM spectrum.” But yes, someone did call it a “game changer.”

Mom’s Tdap vax protects newborns (to a point)

The other day we told you how moms who get the Covid vaccine while pregnant can protect newborns for the first few months. The same seems to be true for Tdap vaccines.

Based on data from almost 280,000 mom-baby pairs, Aussie scientists found that maternal vaccination protected infants for at least the first few months, although it wore off by 8 months.

Twist: Getting the vaccine during pregnancy seems to blunt the effect of the vaccine when the baby gets the third shot (after mom has two).

Protecting the chickens

As bird flu continues to spread to millions of birds and jump to humans — three cases in Cambodia recently, including one death — scientists have turned to the acronym drawer.

The possible solution: CRISPR, the gene-editing tool. Scottish embryologists^* were able to create chickens that have at least some resistance to bird flu. If they’re able to move beyond proof of concept, it could be another tool to help prevent spread beyond vaccination.

If scientists could engineer resistance into chickens, farmers would not need to routinely vaccinate new batches of birds. Gene editing “promises a new way to make permanent changes in the disease resistance of an animal. […] This can be passed down through all the gene-edited animals, to all the offspring.”

Of course, you would have to convince a heck of a lot of people that genetically engineering millions of birds is a safe thing….

^* That’s a new one

1918 flu victims weren’t young and strong after all

Based on death records, we know that the 1918 flu killed young, healthy adults at a crazy-high rate. It’s always been kind of a mystery.

Well it’s not any more — and it’s also not true. A team of Yankee and Canuck researchers looked not just at the records, but also at the bones. Based on the lesions they found, they concluded…

…that the most susceptible to dying of the flu had exhibited signs of previous environmental, social and nutritional stress.

Lesions form for a lot of reasons, including physical trauma or infection. The team found that the people most likely to die had active ones, meaning they were currently suffering from something and thus more frail than the average Joe. (Assuming Joe didn’t also have lesions.)