ALL ABOUT HEALTH -

05Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

FDA Now Allows Retail Pharmacies to Dispense Abortion Pills

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will now allow retail pharmacies to dispense abortion pills to people with prescriptions.Before this recent decision, only specially certified clinics or healthcare providers or mail-order pharmacies could dispense mifepristone, a drug used along with the medication misoprostol to end pregnancies. But under new rules posted on the FDA website, mifepristone can now be dispensed by healthcare providers who prescribe the drug or by retail or mail-order pharmacies.“Being able to access your prescribed medication abortion through the mail or to pick it up in person from a pharmacy like any other prescription is a game changer for people trying to access basic healthcare,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, the president and chief executive officer of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in a statement.FDA Ruling Will…

05Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Coffee Tied to Premature Death Risk in Some People With High Blood Pressure

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Drinking two or more daily cups of coffee is associated with roughly twice the risk of a premature death from cardiovascular disease in people with severe hypertension, a new study suggests.One cup of coffee a day doesn’t appear to carry this risk, and neither does green tea, according to study results published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.“These findings may support the assertion that people with severe high blood pressure should avoid drinking excessive coffee,” said senior study author Hiroyasu Iso, MD, PhD, MPH, in a statement. Dr. Iso serves as a director of the Institute for Global Health Policy Research at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Tokyo, said.“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to find an association between drinking two or more…

05Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

FDA Updates Labeling Rules to Protect People With Sesame Allergy

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Effective January 1, 2023, sesame has been added to the list of major food allergens according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The change is a result of the FASTER Act (Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education, and Research), which became law in April 2021.Sesame joins eight other major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soybeans. The original list dates back to 2004 as a response to the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act.This update is “a game changer” for people with a sesame allergy, says Ruchi S. Gupta, MD, MPH, a professor of pediatrics and director of the Institute for Public Health and Medicine at the Center for Food Allergy and Asthma at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.“Now if a product contains…

05Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Best and Worst Cities for an Active Lifestyle

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If you feel like life sometimes conspires against you when you try to get more active, you might be on to something. A new study suggests that some cities are far better than others at creating the best environment for a healthy lifestyle.Out of the 100 biggest U.S. cities analyzed by WalletHub, Honolulu topped the list of places that set people up for success at adopting an active lifestyle based on factors like gym costs, bike lanes, sidewalks, parks, and the number of physically active residents. San Francisco took second place, followed by New York, Chicago, and Las Vegas.At the very bottom of the list were Fort Wayne, Indiana; Garland, Texas; and North Las Vegas.Affordable Gym Memberships Were Not a Deciding FactorThe top ranked cities didn’t earn their spots based…

05Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Vraylar (Cariprazine) Is Approved as an Antidepressant ‘Add On’

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Many people with major depressive disorder don’t get enough relief from their symptoms despite antidepressant medication. To potentially rectify the problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Vraylar (cariprazine), a so-called “add-on” or adjunctive medication that might make an antidepressant work better.According to a press release from the pharmaceutical company AbbVie, the FDA has already approved cariprazine for the acute treatment of manic or mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder, for the treatment of depressive episodes associated with bipolar I disorder (bipolar depression), and for the treatment of schizophrenia.Vraylar is part of a class of drugs known as second-generation antipsychotics (SGA) or atypical antipsychotics.About 1 in 5 U.S. Adults Will Experience Depression at Some Point in Their Life“As many as one in five U.S. adults will…

04Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

FDA Approves Leqembi, New Treatment for Early-Stage Alzheimer’s Disease

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On Friday, January 6, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval of a new drug, Leqembi (lecanemab-irmb), for the treatment of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.Leqembi works by removing amyloid beta plaques, a protein that can accumulate in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s and that is believed to be a key factor in the disease.According to the FDA, Leqembi was evaluated for the accelerated approval in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that included 856 people with Alzheimer’s disease. The medication, given every two weeks as an intravenous infusion, was given to subjects with mild cognitive impairment who also had imaging scans to confirm amyloid plaques in their brains.Data submitted by Eisai — the company that makes Leqembi — to the FDA shows that patients who received Leqembi had significant…

04Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Expert Picks in Health Tech From CES 2023

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If you’re into tech, then Las Vegas in January is the place to be.That’s where you’ll find tech innovators unveiling their latest offerings at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES). And health is just one of the categories where tech is stepping in to help as more people seek to better understand how their bodies function and take charge of their own well-being.Each year, judges at CES give Innovation Awards to products for outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology, including health-related areas. Several doctors from Everyday Health’s health expert network shared thoughts on those they found most intriguing.Here’s what they highlighted:SmarTooth Dental Health MonitorSmarTooth is a handheld home device that uses an optical sensor to collect “decay data,” sending results to a mobile app. Its manufacturer claims the results…

04Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

The Evie Ring Aims to Be the First Medical-Grade Health Tracker Designed for Women

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Among the many health tech innovations unveiled at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada — such as a $700 pillow that may help you stop snoring and a smartwatch that can tell you when and how much coffee to drink to maximize productivity and wellness — was a new wearable specifically designed with women in mind.The Evie ring and its companion app can measure multiple key health metrics: activity level and calories burned, heart rate and variability, blood oxygen levels (sometimes called SpO2), sleep cycles and quality, and body temperature.The app also lets users track their menstrual cycle and ovulation, and over time can help predict how users will feel depending on the time of the month.The ring is water-resistant, so you can wear it even while…

04Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Age-Related Eye Disease Tied to Increased COVID-19 Risk

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Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors have cautioned people with certain chronic health issues, like type 2 diabetes and obesity, that they face a higher risk of developing severe coronavirus infections. But there’s a common age-related eye disorder that may be even more concerning: age-related macular degeneration (AMD).Some research has found that AMD is associated with a 25 percent higher risk for severe COVID-19 — higher than the increased risk seen with type 2 diabetes or obesity.Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss for Americans over 50, according to the National Eye Institute (NEI). It results from damage to a part of the retina called the macula. There are two types: dry AMD and wet AMD, a rarer and more advanced form of the condition…

04Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Frequent Antibiotic Use Tied to Inflammatory Bowel Disease

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People who receive multiple courses of antibiotics are at higher risk for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) — especially if they take these infection-fighting drugs to treat gastrointestinal pathogens.For the study, researchers examined data on 6.1 million people 10 years and older in Denmark, including 5.5 individuals who received at least one course of antibiotics between 2000 and 2018. During the study period almost 53,000 people were newly diagnosed with IBD, including both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.Compared with people who never used antibiotics, those who did were significantly more likely to develop IBD at all age groups in the study.With each additional course of antibiotics, the risk of IBD climbed by at least another 10 percent, impacting all ages and rising more for those over 40, according to research published in…