Psychiatrists and Ozempic

Adding to the semaglutide shortage are psychiatrists, who are prescribing the new weight loss drugs for patients who are gaining weight because of antidepressants and antipsychotics.

Well, not all. Half are iffy because they don’t know how GLP-1 inhibitors might interact with other drugs:

“There’s next to no data” on people with depression, bipolar disorder or other mental illnesses taking semaglutide […] and until there’s more evidence, “you’re sort of flying blind.”

Meanwhile others are hoping Ozempic and kin will help patients overcome their hesitation to treat their mental health. Regardless, the shortage continues.

Causation or correlation?

Using medical marijuana, say a pair of new studies, is associated with a higher risk of heart attack or stroke in older patients.

One study found that cannabis use among older patients increases the risk of heart attack or stroke by 20%. The second study found that using cannabis increased the risk of heart failure by 34%.

But — and it’s a big but — it’s entirely unclear whether it’s the marijuana that’s causing the increase, or if the folks using it are simply more prone to heart issues.

As one researcher put it, “My presumption is it’s the association with other unhealthy behaviors rather than cannabis use per se that is driving the association.”

Until the actual cause is determined, file this under “Keep an eye out.”

Me and my friends believe this is true

“Hearing bad grammar results in physical signs of stress” — British study

Home-grown diabetes treatment

It’s possible (as you probably know) to transplant pancreatic islet cells into diabetes patients so their bodies can produce insulin. The downsides are a shortage of donors and the recipient needing anti-rejection drugs for life.

Canadian researchers, though, have a better idea: Build some of the patients’ own cells to do the job. They took pancreas-based stem cells, put them in the W.A.B.A.C. machine (to “chemically wind them back in time”), did some more science, and turned 90% of them into insulin-producing cells — and they belong to the patients, so no rejection issues.

Regardless of whether the cells belonged to a patient with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, or someone who has surgical diabetes due to removal of the pancreas, all the cells were able to reverse diabetes.

Obviously this is in the lab at this point, but as the lead researcher pointed out, “What we’re trying to do here is peer over the horizon and try to imagine what diabetes care is going to look like 15, 20, 30 years from now.”

Pharmacist value quantified

It’s no shock that pharmacists aren’t used enough in the healthcare system, but now Virginia Commonwealth University researchers gave their slide rules a workout and calculated just how much a difference they could make.

[P]harmacists who are given more leeway to help patients living with hypertension could prevent more than 15 million heart attacks, roughly 8 million strokes, and more than 4 million cases each of angina and heart failure and save $1.1 trillion over 30 years, or more than $10,100 per patient.

That’s just for hypertension! And it’s without a wholesale change in their roles — just “offering advice on health and wellness, helping patients adhere to their medication regimen, and assisting in prescribing certain medications.”

So what’s the barrier? Pharmacists aren’t recognized as providers under the Social Security Act.

The Long Read: The Need to Hear edition

Over-the-counter hearing aids have been available for a year, but uptake has been slow. That’s too bad, because loss of hearing is a serious risk factor for dementia. The problem is that the people who need them are the people most confused by the marketing jargon.

Captain Obvious always leaves a big tip

“Money Can Make Life More Satisfying, Survey Shows”