Push begins to unionize pharmacists,  techs

The people who led the chain-pharmacy walkouts are moving to their next phase: unionizing pharmacists and technicians.

A new partnership between the organizers and IAM Healthcare — a union representing thousands of health-care professionals — aims to help pharmacy staff unionize to address what many employees call unsafe staffing levels and increasing workloads throughout the industry

They’re planning it on a national scale to prevent district-level efforts to quash unions before they can form. Step one: Form “the Pharmacy Guild” and collect information to start the process. They’ve got a website just for that.

Willow bark does more

Obviously most of you turn to willow bark to treat mild fevers and aches and pains, whether making tea or just buying aspirin. It seems, though, that willow-bark extract might have another trick up its woody sleeve: “a broad-spectrum antiviral effect.”

They aren’t sure yet which of the bark’s bioactive compounds are responsible for the effect, but they know it’s the result of interactions of different bioactive compounds.

And to answer the obvious, never-gets-old question, yes, it works against Covid-19 and other coronaviruses (as well as enteroviruses).

A small step to easing drug shortages

The federal government can’t force drug makers to produce more medication, but it can ask nicely. And apparently that worked: Makers of stimulants have agreed to produce more of the drugs.

They each have a limit on how much they can make each year, but none of them have been reaching that quota, “leading to a shortfall of 1 billion doses not made.” So they’ve agreed to at least amp up their factories and do more reporting about production and demand to help anticipate shortages.

B3 can block chronic pain

Dutch researchers have figured out how pain can go from acute to chronic … and how (possibly) to stop it.

Pain normally goes away, but if something goes awry with the mitochondria in Dorsal root ganglion neurons, inflammation can continue and the pain turns chronic. How to keep those neurons doing what they’re supposed to? Vitamin B3, specifically nicotinamide riboside.

It seems that mice with chronic pain because of screwy neurons also had low levels of B3. Giving them injections of nicotinamide riboside reduced their pain response, meaning it could be part of a treatment. Of course, more research is needed.

Recovering from alcohol

Heavy drinking isn’t good for your brain — in fact, it actually shrinks parts of your cortex, which handles some important cognitive functions. And that shrinkage isn’t just while you’re drunk. It’s long-term.

The good news, though, is that if you tea-total for 7.3 months your brain can repair itself. That’s what Stanford researchers found in a small (133-person) study, so there’s hope … assuming the reduced cortical thickness doesn’t make it that much harder to quit.

New vax approved

There is now an approved vaccine against chikungunya. Although it’s a tropical disease, the tropics are moving north, so this is good to have in our metaphorical back pocket.

Detecting IBD early — way early

The signs of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis can show up eight years before a patient is actually diagnosed, meaning treatments could begin a lot sooner.

A team of Brits, working with those shifty Danes, looked at the detailed health records of more than 4.6 million people including 20,000 with inflammatory bowel diseases. They found changes in certain minerals and signs of inflammation, “up to eight years before diagnosis in Crohn’s disease and three years in ulcerative colitis.”

[M]ost of the changes observed were subtle and would have appeared within a normal range for standard blood tests, so wouldn’t have been flagged as a cause for concern.

There’s no cure for IBDs, but early treatment can make a huge difference. “We don’t yet know whether preventative measures like changing diet or stopping smoking would stop someone getting these diseases,” said the lead author, “but this opens the door to that possibility.”

The Long(ish) Read: Generic Safety edition

The formulations and ingredients of generic medications are considered safe by the FDA, but what about the actual bottles on the shelf? With generic prices so low, manufacturers cut costs — and corners — so they can eke out a profit. And that’s not always a good thing.