Reversing osteoporosis?

Aussie researchers say they’ve found a way to reverse osteoporosis. You might think of it as a “wear and tear” condition, they say, but that doesn’t account for 21st century medicine.

What they found was a type of stem cell (called Gremlin 1 cells) in joint cartilage that — when there are enough of them — will lead to “significant recovery of cartilage thickness and reduced osteoarthritis.”

So the Aussies treated those cells with a growth factor (FGF18, or Sprifermin to its friends) and got them back in action, leading to repaired cartilage … and the end of osteoporosis.

“The findings of our study reimagine osteoarthritis not as a ‘wear and tear’ condition but as an active, and pharmaceutically reversible loss of critical articular cartilage stem cells.”

They’re currently in a phase 3 trial of Sprifermin “and researchers envision public access to this treatment soon.”

Fingerprinting pills

Here’s a new idea for finding counterfeit meds: Use the surface of each tablet as a tiny QR code. That’s what German researchers did with a technology they call SmartID^*.

The idea is that every tablet or capsule has a unique surface thanks to the normal manufacturing process. SmartID involves scanning that surface to read its “fingerprint” and creating a barcode that matches it.

The SmartID app developed as part of the project is then used to check whether the information stored in the barcode matches the data captured from the surface texture.

Making counterfeit pills isn’t difficult, but making them with the identical texture as the real deal? Not gonna happen.

^* To be fair, that’s a bit generic, isn’t it? You would think they’d come up with something like “PillID.”

Salt and diabetes

It’s not just too much sugar that can raise your diabetes risk. Apparently too much salt can, too.

Using data on more than 400,000 Brits over almost 12 years, researchers from Tulane University found that the more often people reported using salt — “sometimes,” “usually,” or “always” — the greater the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The most-frequent salt users had a 39% higher risk.

Why? They don’t know for sure, although they speculate that salt makes food taste better, encouraging people to eat more of it. If you’ve ever had British food, this makes a lot of sense.

Happy pills?

Being on the capital-P Pill has — anecdotally at least — been associated with depression. But now a team of UK and US researchers have found the opposite is true.

Analyzing data from more than 6,200 US women from 18–55, they found that contraceptive pill users were less than half as likely to suffer from major depression as former users.

Why? Could be a bunch of reasons. Less anxiety. “Survivorship bias,” where depressed people stopped taking it. Or maybe just more fun times.

^* For their part, the Brits analysed.

Insulin isn’t so sensitive

Today’s fun fact, brought to you by British researchers, is that insulin can last a lot longer at room temperature than you might think.

[I]t was found that unopened vials and cartridges of certain types of insulin can be stored at up to 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) for up to six months.

Additionally, they can be held at 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) for up to two months.

And when the temperature fluctuates — say, between 77°F and 99°F — it could last up to three months “without any significant decline in insulin activity.”

Small caveat: This may not apply to insulin pumps. They didn’t have data to check.

Childhood diseases becoming resistant

Antibiotic overuse continues to come home to roost: Aussie researchers have found that there are now “Alarmingly high rates of bacterial resistance” to the meds commonly used for childhood illnesses.

[M]any antibiotics recommended by the World Health Organization had less than 50 percent effectiveness in treating childhood infections such as pneumonia, sepsis, and meningitis.

Two examples: Ceftriaxone is now only about 33% effective against sepsis or meningitis, and gentamicin is only about 50% effective against sepsis and meningitis.

The study was limited to the Asia-Pacific region, but it’s unlikely the problem will be that limited.