Heart damage from Tylenol?

When you think of the risks of acetaminophen, you usually think of liver damage. But a new study out of UC Davis found that regular use at moderate doses (500 mg per day) “causes numerous signaling pathways inside the heart to be altered.”

The results suggest that long-term medium- to high-dose acetaminophen use could cause heart issues as a result of oxidative stress or the buildup of toxins that are produced as acetaminophen breaks down. […] While our bodies can usually clear such toxins before they cause damage, it may be harder for the body to keep up when medium- to high- doses are taken consistently over time.

They point out that the study was done in mice, but the lead author still said, “These results prompt me to consider using acetaminophen at the lowest effective dose and for the shortest duration possible.”

GLP-1 drugs’ next trick

They could be used to treat Parkinson’s. In one of the first hints of success against the disease, French researchers found that lixisenatide — a GLP-1 receptor agonist — helped reduce some symptoms in a trial of 156 people with Parkinson’s that lasted about a year.

During that time, Parkinson’s symptoms like tremor, stiffness, slowness and balance worsened in those taking the placebo but not in those taking the drug.

It’s not entirely a surprise, as it’s been known that there’s some connection between diabetes and Parkinson’s. They’re hoping to do a larger study, but Sanofi is pulling lixisenatide from the market because it’s not selling very well.

UGA’s better(ish) Covid test

UGA engineers have developed a better, stronger, faster test for Covid-19. Unfortunately it requires specialized equipment and is only useful (at this point) for large-scale population testing.

Still, it’s faster than the gold standard PCR tests and just as accurate — even better, it gives a reading of a patient’s viral load rather than just a positive/negative reading. It can also be updated easily to test for new variants.

Eventually they hope to be able to cut the price of the equipment to read results so individuals could afford the devices, and those devices could share results with a central database. Because people will be happy to do that.

Robot double-checks

The Brits are turning to AI to cut prescription errors. Oxford University wonks have created “DrugGPT,” which, rather than being trained on the sum total of human knowledge, is specifically fed information about drugs and medical conditions.

It’s meant to be an assistant to clinicians — a kind of double-check before sending patients home.

Doctors and other healthcare professionals who prescribe medicines will be able to get an instant second opinion by entering a patient’s conditions into the chatbot. Prototype versions respond with a list of recommended drugs and flag up possible adverse effects and drug-drug interactions.

Not only does this double-check the docs, it also gives an explanation for its choices, and that explanation (written by a friendly robot) can help with adherence.

Short takes

CVS covers The Pill

CVS Health will cover Opill — the OTC birth control pill — at no cost to most patients on its health plans

Paxlovid limitations

A study by Pfizer (!) found that Paxlovid doesn’t do much to help people who have been fully vaccinated against Covid.

A new antibiotic

The FDA has approved Zevtera (ceftobiprole medocaril sodium for injection) for treating staph infections, acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections, and kids with community-acquired bacterial pneumonia.

Zantac: Some suits settled

Zantac came, Zantac caused cancer, Zantac left^* — and thousands of lawsuits followed. Now drugmaker Sanofi said it’s settled 4,000 of those suits. Actually, it could be as many as 5,000 because the settlement covers 49 states. Only Delaware suits weren’t settled … but there are something like 20,000 of them.

Sanofi won’t say how much it’s paying out, but the company did focus on the important part: It shouldn’t affect the stock price.

^* Zantac returned, reformulated

E-cigs increase heart risk

A preliminary study has found that using e-cigarettes can increase a person’s risk of heart failure by 19%. (That’s based on health data from almost 176,000 Americans, 29,000 of whom said they used vapes.) Worse, if they also use other nicotine products that risk jumps to 59%.

The caveat is that the study was observational and doesn’t explain the relationship — it’s correlation, but not necessarily causation. You know the mantra: More research is needed.

Side note: E-cigs are so risky it’s ethically impossible to do human studies on them beyond this kind of statistical analysis. That says something.

Captain Obvious gets his squirt bottle ready

“Skin Wetting Helps Cool Older Adults in Very Hot, Dry Weather”