Health

An experimental weight-loss shot from Amgen Inc.—taken less frequently than wildly popular treatments from Eli Lilly & Co. and Novo Nordisk A/S—appears to keep weight off even after patients stop taking it.Patients given a monthly injection of Amgen’s drug, dubbed MariTide, lost up to 14.5% of their body weight in just 12 weeks, according to a small, early-stage study published Monday in the journal Nature Metabolism. And some people kept the weight off for up to 150 days after stopping the drug, findings show.“That is really a remarkable and distinguishing characteristic of this molecule,” Narimon Honarpour, senior vice president of global development at Amgen, said in an interview.Investors and analysts have been eagerly awaiting updates on Amgen’s shot since the Thousand Oaks, Calif...

COVID-19 doesn’t always affect people the same way. If someone gets sick, for example, not everyone in that person’s close social circle will get infected—even if they recently spent time together. But why? In a paper recently published in Nature Communications, researchers delve into the different factors at play, from genetics to public health interventions, all of which affect how a virus spreads from one person to another. They found that at the beginning of the pandemic, environmental factors like social distancing, isolation, hand washing, mask wearing, and vaccination played a bigger role in whether people got infected, while over time, genetic factors have become more important. Now, genetics may account for anywhere from 30% to 70% of one’s chance of getting COVID-19, they conclud...

Rizo-López Foods, a California-based cheese and dairy company, is recalling more than 60 products sold nationwide following a listeria outbreak that has killed two people and caused more than 20 hospitalizations. The CDC previously investigated a listeria outbreak of the same strain in 2017 and 2021, but was unable to trace it back to a specific brand. Last month, they reopened the case after new illnesses were reported in December and the same strain was found in a cheese sample from Rizo-López Foods.What foods have been recalled? The recalled products include cheese, yogurt, and sour cream sold under the brand names Tio Francisco, Don Francisco, Rizo Bros, Rio Grande, Food City, El Huache, La Ordena, San Carlos, Campesino, Santa Maria, Dos Ranchitos, Casa Cardenas, and 365 Whole Foods Ma...

Viagra is best known for helping erectile dysfunction, but the latest research suggests it might also lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.Viagra belongs to a group of drugs known as phosphodiesterase Type 5 inhibitors, which work by relaxing blood vessels and increasing blood flow in the penis. In a study published in Neurology, researchers found that the drugs were also associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease.The study analyzed the health records of nearly 270,000 men in the U.K. who were diagnosed with erectile dysfunction from 2000 to 2017. The researchers compared rates of Alzheimer’s disease among men who had been prescribed drugs to treat their erectile dysfunction (primarily sildenafil, the generic name for Viagra) to those among men who had not been prescribed the dru...

Forget climate anxiety: many people are in flat-out climate despair. About two-thirds of Americans (65%) report being worried about global warming, according to a January report from the Yale Program for Climate Communication. One in 10 say they've recently felt depressed over their concerns for the planet, and a similar percentage describe feeling on edge or like they’re unable to stop worrying about global warming.No wonder more people are seeking care from climate-aware therapists. Some go to therapy to figure out whether they should have kids in the age of rapid climate change. Others are dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder from natural disasters or are burned out from advocacy work.But if the threat is existential, is there value in sorting out how you feel about it? “The very...

A California cheese and dairy company is the source of a decade-long outbreak of listeria food poisoning that killed two people and sickened more than two dozen, federal health officials said Tuesday.New lab and inspection evidence linked soft cheeses and other dairy products made by Rizo-Lopez Foods of Modesto, California, to the outbreak, which was first detected in June 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.Since then, at least 26 people in 11 states have been sickened. They include a person who died in California in 2017 and one who died in Texas in 2020, CDC officials said.On Monday, the company recalled more than 60 soft cheeses, yogurt and sour cream sold under the brands Tio Francisco, Don Francisco, Rizo Bros, Rio Grande, Food City, El Huache, La Ordena, San Ca...

"You are allergic to your oral chemotherapy,” explains my oncology team at a recent appointment. “We are going to try a newer drug,” I am on my fourth attempt to find an oral treatment suitable for both my body and my cancer, so that I can maintain a remission that took three years and a stem cell transplant to achieve. “We want to get ahead of it before it gets ahead of us.” In my headphones, Weezer achingly croons, "Say it ain't so, your drug is a heartbreaker."Since being diagnosed with phase three chronic myeloid leukemia in 2017, finding oral chemotherapy that my body agrees with has been a turbulent experience. While these targeted therapies are often considered a more humane method of leukemia treatment, they have almost always brutally interrupted my life. From bouts of nerve pain ...

CHICAGO — A Chicago children's hospital has been forced to take its networks offline after an unspecified digital attack, limiting access to medical records and hampering communication by phone or email since the middle of last week.Lurie Children's Hospital initially described the issue Wednesday as a network outage. On Thursday, officials released public statements saying the hospital had taken its networks offline as part of its response to a “cybersecurity matter."“We are taking this very seriously, investigating with the support of leading experts, and are working in collaboration with law enforcement agencies,” the hospital said in a statement Thursday. “As Illinois’ leading provider for pediatric care, our overarching priority is to continue providing safe, quality care to our patie...

As much as fans will have to spend to attend the Feb. 11 Super Bowl, the game of football costs some professional players a vastly higher price, particularly when it comes to brain health. Researchers have found high rates of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)—a degenerative brain disease characterized by memory loss, confusion, mood swings, violence, suicidality and more—in autopsy studies of professional football players. CTE is caused by the head trauma and whole-body hits that are characteristic of the sport, which can lead to the dangerous buildup of certain proteins around blood vessels in the brain.Now it appears that the risk of brain trauma may also affect much younger athletes. According to a new study in JAMA Network Open, high-school football players can show alterations in...

It was a quiet Saturday morning, and as a pediatrician who had a busy week, that meant it was the perfect time to cozy up with a large mug of coffee at my kitchen table and make my way through the many lab results that had come into the electronic health record inbox since the previous day. I may not be setting a great example of work-life balance. But clinic days are filled with seeing patients, teaching trainees, and answering questions from our care team. Saturdays are the only time I’m able to give patients and their families undivided attention and no-rush answers.  Most of the labs I was preparing to share with families were related to screening tests that we send for children if their body mass index (BMI), the imperfect but helpful measure of weight for height and age, is elevated ...