Autism from antibiotics?

Mess with a child’s gut bacteria in the first year and you could raise the risk that he or she develops autism or ADHD. That’s what Swedish and American researchers found after looking at the health records of 16,000 Swedish children born between 1997 and 1999 — kids the Swedes have studied over the past 25 years.

“We can see in the study that there are clear differences in the intestinal flora already during the first year of life between those who develop autism or ADHD and those who don’t.”

What’s going on? They think something is affecting those bacteria — e.g., antibiotic treatment. For example, “Children who had repeated ear infections during their first year of life had an increased risk of being diagnosed with a developmental neurological disorder later in life.”

In fact, they’ve narrowed it down to two particular bacteria that affect risk — “the presence of Citrobacter bacteria or the absence of Coprococcus bacteria increased the risk of future diagnosis.” That info might lead to a concurrent treatment (some kind of probiotic?) to go with antibiotics. As usual, though, more research is needed.

Fighting asthma’s cause

What if asthma wasn’t caused by inflammation, rather the inflammation was a result of the disease?

That, say British cell biologists, is exactly the case. It’s the mechanical constriction of the airways that leads to an asthma “attack,” including inflammation. Current treatments focus on that inflammation, but that only alleviates symptoms.

The issue may lie in the death of the airway’s epithelial cells: When the airway contracts, a process called cell extrusion kills the epithelial cells lining it. So many epithelial cells dying leads to inflammation and excess mucus — an asthma attack.

Thus blocking cell extrusion might be a way to prevent attacks rather than dealing with symptoms. And guess what? There’s already a chemical that does that.

“[A]n inhaler such as Albuterol opens the airways, which is critical to breathing but, dishearteningly, we found it does not prevent the damage and the symptoms that follow an attack. Fortunately, we found that we can use an inexpensive compound, gadolinium, which is frequently used for MRI imaging, to stop the airway damage in mice models as well as the ensuing inflammation and mucus secretion.”

Two more days!

Don’t forget: Early-bird registration for the Georgia Pharmacy Convention ends this Thursday, April 11. Save $50 by registering by then!

Heart surgery? Skip the aspirin

People who get coronary stents often continue taking aspirin after the procedure. They shouldn’t. A new study out of Mount Sinai found that the standard-of-care guidelines are probably wrong. The best thing patients can do (that we know of) is to use ticagrelor alone.

“Our study has demonstrated that withdrawing aspirin in patients with recent ACS [acute coronary artery syndromes] one month after PCI [percutaneous coronary intervention] is beneficial by reducing major and minor bleeding through one year by more than 50 percent. Moreover, there was no increase in adverse ischemic events, meaning continuing aspirin was causing harm without providing any benefit.”

From the Stupidity Files

Say “Cheese”

What do you someone who tests their partner for STIs by sending a picture of his nether regions to an app? A patient.

Yep, there’s an app called Calmara.ai claiming to detect sexually transmitted infections from a photo of a gentleman’s privates.

In seconds, the site scans the image and returns one of two messages: “Clear! No visible signs of STIs spotted for now” or “Hold!!! We spotted something sus.”

Pro tip: It doesn’t work — “Doctors say it’s a disaster”.

“Stupid don’t get tired.” —Alonzo Bodden

What are infomercials influencers peddling for health now? (spins Wheel of Idiocy) Butter. Eating sticks of butter. Why? “Proponents claim it aids weight loss by contributing to feelings of fullness and has other wellbeing benefits like improved mood and energy.”

Many users [on TikTok] also snack on sticks of butter as a weight loss tactic, with some using butter as a meal replacement.

More semaglutide effects

Add “skin issues” to the list of side effects of taking semaglutide. Specifically, a study out of Brown “found a higher incidence of ‘altered skin sensations’” among patients taking it, including dyses-, hyperes-, or paresthesia (i.e., various unpleasant or abnormal touch sensations) as well as alopecia or other “adverse dermatologic events.”

Xylazine vaccine

Scripps Research chemical biologists have developed a vaccine against xylazine, the latest ultra-potent chemical that’s being added to street drugs (and adding to the overdose crisis).

It works by training the immune system to attack the fentanyl so it doesn’t add its effect to whatever it’s mixed with. That’s important because naloxone doesn’t work against xylazine, so it’s critical to take it out of the equation.

Granted this is still just proof-of-concept, but assuming the technique proves out, it could also be used to create a vaccine against fentanyl — another drug that’s naloxone-proof.

Short take: Pharmacist pay by state

Wondering how your pay stacks up against your peers in other states? The good folks at Becker’s have you covered. (Spoiler: There isn’t that much difference state to state, except maybe between the highest paying (California) and the lowest paying (Rhode Island). )