New med to keep Mr. Fluffikins chill

The FDA has just approved a new drug designed to relax your feline friend so you can safely take Mittens to the vet.

Best of all is the name: Bonqat — pronounced “bonk-cat.”

The drug is administered orally approximately 1.5 hours before the start of the transportation or veterinary visit and can be given on two consecutive days.

Good news for both Snuggles and her owner.

Our number two story

Probiotics are hit-and-miss — we know they can do good stuff in general, but teasing out which bacteria have the effect we want is a lot tougher. You can’t just load up on your favorite yogurt.

But now Chinese researchers think they’ve found one cause and effect: Strains of the gut bacteria Bifidobacteria longum can “kickstart gut motility.” That is, B. longum can relieve constipation.

The catch is that it has to be a strain that contains the abfA gene cluster, which helps gut bacteria process some plant-based nutrients. So now they know not only which bacteria can help, but also why — and that can lead to finding other probiotics that do the same thing.

You know the headline writer was giggling

“Nuts may enhance fertility for men: study” The gist is — per Aussie researchers — that eating about two handfuls^* of nuts per day improved the quality, although not quantity, of sperm.

That’s based on a review of four published studied that looked at walnuts, hazelnuts, and almonds, raw and roasted, although they think any nut combo would have the same effects.

Hypothesis: “[T]he high concentration of omega-3 polyunsaturated fats, dietary fibres, vitamins, minerals and polyphenols found in nuts could improve reproductive health.”

Bonus: No, it was not funded by Big Nut. This was legit.

^* (snicker)

Things that make you go “Hmmm”

What is a drug?

↑ That’s the question an Australian medical philosopher asks. And he couldn’t find a good answer, only lists of what’s officially considered a drug.

Despite their centrality to medicine, we have no idea what medical drugs are. We can’t even tell the difference between drugs and food, let alone drugs and so-called “natural” alternatives.

That makes it hard to write regulation or even decide what can be prescribed. It’s not about chemistry, or origin, or function, or outcome. In fact, he says, “there is nothing, chemically speaking, all drugs have in common.”

Why not 12 months?

How can you reduce pharmacist workload and maybe even increase adherence? Why not stop making patients pick up their meds every month? So argues one drug supply chain expert.

[I]nstead of dispensing 30- or 90-day prescriptions, convert patients to receive six or twelve months of medication in a single prescription pick-up. I’m not talking about new prescriptions a patient is trying for the first time, where titration is still occurring, or controlled substances. I’m talking about the long-term chronic medications on which a patient is stable on therapy.

Teamwork makes the dream work (if the dream is lower blood pressure)

Researchers at Tulane University have found a new way to tackle high blood pressure, especially in low-income folks: Have a small team spend a little more time with them.

They ran a trial^* of a new hands-on approach, where nurses, pharmacists, and medical assistants got down to business, coaching patients on lifestyle changes and sticking to their meds. Plus, patients learned to check their blood pressure at home.

The results? Those in this more involved group saw their systolic blood pressure drop by a solid 16 mmHg, compared to a 9 mmHg drop in the usual-care group. That ‘involved’ group was also better at taking care of themselves at home over the long term.

^* 18 months long, with more than 1,200 low-income patients in Louisiana and Mississippi 

Legal, schmegal — what’s the fam doing?

The latest twist to the effects of marijuana legalization comes out of the University of Massachusetts. Researchers’ finding: High school students are more likely to try pot if their family or friends use it, but — and this is the news part — legalization had no effect on that.

When comparing data from 2016, before legalization [in Massachusetts], and 2018, after legalization but before retail cannabis stores had opened, the researchers found no statistically significant differences in the prevalence of past 30-day marijuana use.