CAR-T dangers?

CAR-T is one of the more new and powerful treatments for cancer, but a potential issue is emerging. The FDA is investigating several cases of patients coming down with different* cancers, including lymphoma, being reported after receiving CAR-T therapy.

Notes:

• The risk applies to all existing CAR-T therapies.
• CAR-T labels already warn of a risk of other cancers, so it isn’t a complete shock.
• The FDA says that, based on current information, the benefits outweigh the risks.

At the moment the FDA is just keeping an eye on things, but that could change if more reports come in.

Good cholesterol’s darker side

There’s good cholesterol (HDL) and there’s bad cholesterol (LDL). But, as with chocolate cake and Marvel movies, it seems there can be too much of a good thing.

A new study out of Australia’s Monash University found that “Abnormally high levels of HDL-C, colloquially known as ‘good cholesterol’, are associated with an increased risk of dementia in older adults.”

When they say “very high,” they mean higher than 80 mg/dL — at that level patients had a 27% higher risk of dementia. And when they hit age 75 it jumped to a 42% increased risk.

Why? They have no idea, so you know the mantra: “More research is needed.”

Part D costs: One step forward, one step back

Good news for seniors: Starting in 2025, your Medicare prescription costs are capped at $2,000 for the year. (Currently it’s capped at $7,000.)

The bad news: To help balance the books, private Medicare Part D premiums are going up big time — as much as 57% next year in the states with the highest Medicare populations, which comes to about $25 to $30 more per month. (That doesn’t include Georgia, but you can expect Georgians’ premiums to rise as well.)

And, of course, it means Medicare Advantage plans, which include prescription coverage, will also see premiums rise to offset the cap.

A fix for post-diuretic glucose

Thiazide diuretics have a downside: high blood sugar thanks to lower blood potassium. And to keep things interesting, potassium supplements don’t help.

What’s a patient to do? Maybe take a supplement developed at the University of Texas that’s a combination of potassium, magnesium, and citrate that they gave the memorable name “KMgCit.”

A study of 60 people found that, while taking either KMgCit or plain ol’ potassium chloride raised potassium levels, only the KMgCit also lowered blood glucose.

Although it’s unclear which component in the combination supplement lowered glucose, previous studies have shown that deficiencies in magnesium can have wide-ranging negative metabolic effects. Future studies will examine the effects of magnesium and citrate separately.

Shocking smoking discovery

If you smoke tobacco and smoke marijuana, your chances of getting emphysema are much higher.

Less shocking (and more interesting) is that the risk when you smoke both is higher than if you smoke only one.

This could mean that weed and cigarette smoke might somehow interact with each other to have even worse effects on the lungs and airways, the researchers said.

ICYMI: US life expectancy finally rises

The other day we told you how the life-expectancy gap is widening in the US between men and women. Now there’s new data that’s a bit better: After two years’ of dropping thanks to the pandemic, US life expectancy has ticked up based on 2022 data from the CDC.

We still lag the rest of the highly developed world (and we’re still below our pre-Covid high), but it’s good to see the numbers moving up again.

ADHD treatment: You gotta believe

There have been a bunch of studies on the effectiveness of transcranial magnetic stimulation for ADHD, but there might be a huge twist to all of them. It seems that a lot of the effect of the brain zapping might depend on the patients’ belief in them.

British psychology researchers found that in four out of five studies…

…patients’ beliefs about whether they were receiving real or placebo treatments explained the treatment […] On some occasions, the subjects’ beliefs explained the treatment’s results better than the actual treatment itself.

Captain Obvious loves the Snooze button

“Sleep Loss Impairs Decision-Making”