Unexpected(ish) skin-gut connection

The more severe someone’s psoriasis is, the more likely they are to have some type of inflammatory bowel disease. That’s what Israeli researchers looking at the health records of 61,000 patients found. In fact, someone with psoriasis is 47% more likely to have IBD than someone without it.

More importantly, perhaps, was the connection with severity: “Patients with severe psoriasis exhibited a notably higher risk of developing IBD compared to those with mild psoriasis.”

Why? The details aren’t clear, but it’s likely because the two conditions “share common underlying inflammatory pathways.” Regardless, they say, it’s worth keeping an eye on folks with psoriasis in case they develop Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.

Low iron, long Covid?

The long-Covid mystery continues, and the latest suspect is iron. Well, the lack of it. A team of researchers from Cambridge and Oxford universities found whether someone contracts long Covid seems to be determined by how quickly their iron levels recover after their infection.

People who took a longer time to demonstrate regulation, and had more severe initial infections, were at an increased risk of long Covid.

Iron levels drop during infections, but the body’s method of making more red blood cells to compensate is thwarted by Covid’s inflammation. (That also explain why long-Covid sufferers are so tired.)

Treating the inflammation might help, but iron supplements won’t: “It isn’t necessarily the case that individuals don’t have enough iron in their body, it’s just that it’s trapped in the wrong place.”

Move over, Wegovy

Why lose only 6% of your weight in a few months (and have to use an injection) when you can lose twice that with a pill, Jetsons-style? Novo Nordisk wondered the same thing, and now the company says it’s got that high-powered pill. Well, in testing. The company claims that early data show its Amycretin “helped patients in the trial drop 13% of their weight over 12 weeks” with just a daily pill that “targets two hormones involved in regulating hunger and blood sugar levels: GLP-1 and amylin.”

Of course, this was just an early trial; phase 2 testing won’t begin until later this year. It was enough to send Novo’s stock price soaring, though, and that’s what really matters.

ICYMI: Clearasil releases benzene

Independent lab (and product watchdog) Valisure says it “found high levels of benzene formed in acne products containing benzoyl peroxide,” and if you remember your 9th grade chemistry, benzene is something you want to avoid.

Valisure tested dozens of prescription and over-the-counter benzoyl peroxide products and found that they were “fundamentally unstable and can generate unacceptably high levels of benzene when handled or stored at higher temperatures.”

And by “unacceptably high,” they mean 800 times the FDA’s “conditionally restricted” concentration.

The issue isn’t with impurities or the quality of the products, but the chemistry of benzoyl peroxide itself — that fundamental instability means it breaks down into benzene. Said the company, “This means the problem broadly affects benzoyl peroxide products, both prescription and over-the-counter, and necessitates urgent action.”

40Hz is the frequency, Kenneth

“[S]ensory gamma rhythm stimulation clears amyloid in Alzheimer’s mice,” reads the headline. What it means in English is that a combo of flickering lights and clicking clicks at the right frequency — 40 Hz, aka the brain’s “gamma rhythm” — “can reduce Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression and treat symptoms in human volunteers as well as lab mice.”

That’s not from some shady website, either: It’s from a study out of MIT that found his particular frequency had surprising beneficial effects. Why it works … well, that they’re not clear about, although they think stimulating particular neurons at 40 Hz might improve the brain’s waste-removal — specifically “promot[ing] increased amyloid clearance via the glymphatic system.”

But, as always, more research is needed.

Inhalers: the price of a deep breath

After CFCs were banned as propellants in asthma inhalers in the 1980s, drug makers used the switch to new propellants to extend their patents, especially for HFC inhalers. That means high prices for people without insurance … well, in the US anyway.

The same asthma medication for which US patients pay top dollar is available elsewhere at much cheaper prices. Consider the following case for inhalers. The pharmaceutical company Teva sells QVAR RediHaler, a corticosteroid inhaler, for $286 in the US.

In Germany, Teva sells that same inhaler for $9.

Some uninsured patients cross the border to Canada or Mexico to get , but that’s not possible for most people — they’re stuck with un- or barely-affordable asthma meds.

The good news

Following the introduction of a generic version of its Spiriva HandiHaler — and accusations by the FDA of patent shenanigans — Boehringer Ingelheim has suddenly announced that starting in June it will cap the out-of-pocket prices of its inhalers at $35 per month.

The Long Read: A different psychedelic

Low doses of ibogaine, a seriously powerful psychedelic, might be a major tool to fight opioid addiction. Lots of people around the world swear by it, but there’s one problem: It’s not legal in the US … yet.

In the United States, the renewed interest in ibogaine has largely been fueled by the thousands of Americans who have sought treatment abroad and returned home with tales about overcoming addiction after a single session. The fact that many of them are military veterans has helped ease some of the longstanding institutional resistance to psychedelic medicine.