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3 Common Drugs Older Adults Might Be Overusing
Not all older people need benzodiazepines, antibiotics, or daily aspirin — and taking them can carry increased risks.
Popular drugs for bone health linked to significantly lower Alzheimer's risk
A Hong Kong study of 121,492 older adults links nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates for osteoporosis to a 16% lower Alzheimer's disease risk.
Woman allegedly walked naked into Watertown business, assaulted first responders
A woman allegedly high on drugs is accused of walking into a Watertown business naked before assaulting first responders.
Maryland health officials are watching illegal markets as kratom products are restricted
Officials at the Rapid Analysis of Drugs are keeping an eye on if demand for the drug will emerge on the black market and the potential for other adulterants to be added to the drug. The state regulated kratom in 2024 and banned 7-OH in July. Kratom can still be bought, but only with certain potencies and warnings.
Specialties Honor Roll: Health Law
Health care is big business, and it’s constantly changing. New medicines and medical devices enter the market, regulations change and artificial intelligence is quickly changing the health care landscape. Ads for prescription drugs and health products are everywhere, while debates over access to care continue to make headlines. Behind all of it are legal issues. […]
Philly band the War on Drugs is back with new music
PHILADELPHIA — The War on Drugs have returned. The Philadelphia band fronted by songwriter Adam Granduciel has released its first new music in five years. The band’s new single, “Who’s
Philly band the War on Drugs is back with new music
PHILADELPHIA — The War on Drugs have returned. The Philadelphia band fronted by songwriter Adam Granduciel has released its first new music in five years. The band’s new single, “Who’s
Harvard scientists design evolutionary traps to stop viral mutations
When a virus mutates, the world usually finds out the hard way. Variants of influenza and SARS‑CoV‑2 can slip past vaccines and antibody drugs before scientists fully understand what has changed.
Scientists Reveal Malaria’s Method of Attack
A major new discovery by Columbia scientists is raising hopes that more-effective drugs could be developed.
Bill Directing Federal Health Officials To Track Testing For Marijuana And Other Drugs In Hospital ERs Set For House Vote This Week
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on a bill this week to require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to study how prevalent drug testing for marijuana, fentanyl and other drugs is in hospital emergency departments. The legislation, which cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a unanimous 46-0 […]
Drugs for autoimmune diseases are pricey. This bill could switch patients to a cheaper one
Nearly 25,000 Californians could get switched to a cheaper drug next year — unless their doctor objects.
Rhelion Life Sciences' Wholly Owned Subsidiary Filament Health to Deliver Oral Comments at FDA Public Hearing on the Potential Future Therapeutic Use of Psychedelic Drugs
Sarit Hashkes, President of Filament Health Corp., will provide oral remarks at the United States Food and Drug Administration public hearing "Considerations for Potential Future Therapeutic Use of Psychedelic Drugs", being held later today, September 14, 2026Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 14, 2026) - Rhelion Life Sciences Corp. (CSE: RHEL) (FSE: 4YX0) (OTCQB: TRUFF) ("Rhelion" or the "Company"), an Ontario-based organization advancing innovation and research within the legal...
Kentucky looks to expand GLP-1 drug access for Medicaid patients
A federal program could help Kentuckians on Medicaid get GLP-1 drugs, but outdated state rules block the path.
Bone Health Without the Hype
I am at the Australasian Menopause Society meeting and we had a fantastic lecture on Bone Health on Day 2, called, “Everything you need to know about bones - except the boring bits!” Spoiler alert, there were no boring bits. The lecture was given by Dr. Amanda Beech, who is a senior staff specialist in Obstetric Medicine and Endocrinology at the Royal Hospital for Women, where she is director of the Bone Density Unit. I want to summarize my top 10 take-aways for you. Share Osteoporosis is a disease of low bone mass, disruption of bone microarchitecture, and fragility of the skeleton. It is a silent disease…until someone develops a fracture. The diagnosis of osteoporosis is based on either fragility/minimal trauma fractures or a T-score of less than -2.5 on a DXA (Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry) or bone scan. It is important to recognize that about 50% of minimal trauma fractures occur when women have low bone mass (often referred to as osteopenia), but not osteoporosis. This tells us that bone strength is more complicated than a number on a DXA report. I am going to add a little here that wasn’t in the talk (one can only include so much in 25 minutes), as many women might read the above paragraph and think, “Shouldn’t we be treating everyone with low bone mass if this is when 50% of the fractures occur?” Many fractures happen for women with low bone mass because there are so many women with low bone mass –it is a statement about the population on a whole, not about the fracture risk of low bone mass. For you as an individual, bone density is only one component of fracture risk and many women with lower bone mass will not have a significantly elevated fracture risk. This is why individualized risk assessment matters. Subscribe We build bone in our teens and twenties, and by the time we are about thirty we have reached peak bone mass. This is why, when we discuss risk factors for osteoporosis, it is important to consider factors that might have affected us in our teens and twenties when we were actively building bone, such as nutritional restriction/energy imbalance. It is important to ask women about a history of eating disorders, and for those with such a history, getting a bone scan in perimenopause or at age 50 is likely warranted. (This image below isn’t from the talk, but is similar to one that was). Bone mass is relatively stable until about two years before the final menstrual period, and perimenopause marks a time of rapid bone loss for women. Using urinary markers of bone loss we know that the time of significantly accelerated bone loss starts about 1 year before the final period and ends about 2 years after the final period. The Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) shows that over the menopause transition women lose an average of 10.6% of the bone at their lumbar spine and 9.1% at the femoral neck While this wasn’t covered in the lecture, I want to add that the rapid bone loss during perimenopause is clearly related to more than estradiol, because during this time estradiol levels can be erratic and not uniformly low. Bone loss during perimenopause is likely a multi-hormone event. For example, rising FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) tracks with bone loss better than estradiol, and there is evidence that FSH may act directly on bone. While decreased estrogen matters, there is clearly more going on. FSH and bone is an active area of research. Subscribe Screening for osteoporosis was recommended fairly broadly before age 65, and was taken from the “Practitioner’s Toolkit for Managing Menopause,” from Monash University. Here is a screenshot from the toolkit that was used as a slide: I am going to add a little bit more about body weight here for clarification. Low body mass (typically 152.1 lb): 0 points (risk neutral) 60–69 kg (132.3–152.1 lb): 3 points (adds some risk)
Scientists find Ozempic may slow aging itself
Semaglutide helped older healthy mice live longer while improving memory, muscle function, blood sugar control, and several biological signs of aging. Its effects went beyond those seen with calorie restriction, raising the possibility that GLP-1 drugs could tap into a separate biological pathway linked to longevity.
ACA, Medicare or health insurance through work? Your health insurance bills are about to go up
The premium increases stem in part from rising healthcare costs, including higher prices for medical care and expensive prescription drugs.
Your next prescription could be treating a side effect from the last one
A major Ontario study found 24 common medication chains in which one drug’s side effects can be mistaken for a new medical problem, leading to another prescription. Researchers say closer medication reviews, pharmacist involvement, and automated alerts could help prevent these potentially harmful prescribing cascades.
Fact check: Trump, RFK Jr. and others make false claims on night 2 of GOP convention
(CNN) — President Donald Trump delivered another rapid-fire series of false claims on the second night of Republicans’ midterm convention on Thursday. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did his own barrage of wrongness. And various other speakers uttered statements that were untrue, misleading or missing critical context.Here is a fact check of some of the assertions from the final day of the convention. This is not intended as a comprehensive list of Thursday’s falsehoods.Trump’s many false claimsTrump made numerous false claims, some of which he also made in his longer speech Wednesday.Trump claimed that there were “no empty seats” in the Dallas arena as he spoke Thursday, which was visibly untrue. CNN White House correspondent Alayna Treene, who was there, wrote in a live chat right after Trump made the claim that “I’m looking at rows of empty seats” and that “the idea that there are ‘no empty seats’ is just laughably untrue,” though she also said the room was mostly full. Trump has for years made false claims about supposedly never having had an empty seat.Trump further inflated one of his favorite fictional figures, claiming Thursday that “$22 trillion” in investment has come into the US; on Wednesday, he had put it at “over $20 trillion,” and even that lower figure has no apparent basis in reality. As of the time he spoke Thursday, the White House’s own website claimed there had been “$11.2 trillion” in “major investment announcements” this term, not “over $20 trillion,” and the White House figure was itself a major exaggeration of actual investment.Trump, talking about elections, lied that “there’s never been bigger cheaters” than Democrats; there is no basis for broadly describing Democrats as election cheaters. For the second straight night, Trump falsely claimed that the Biden administration allowed “25 million people” to pour into the country, though that number is nowhere close to correct. Trump again falsely claimed that former President Joe Biden and other Democrats “created the worst inflation in American history,” though even peak Biden-era inflation, 9.1% in June 2022, was far from the all-time record of 23.7%; it was a 40-year high, but the rate then fell sharply before Trump returned to office.Trump also baselessly claimed that Democrats would “defund the police” and give “voting rights and welfare to 25 million illegal aliens” if they won the midterms. Republicans will still control the White House in 2027 and 2028 and the president would be in position to veto any such changes if a Democratic-controlled Congress sought to make them, but there is no indication that Democrats want to do so. Also, even groups favoring strict immigration policies estimate that the total undocumented population is far less than “25 million” or even 20 million.As he did Wednesday, Trump claimed the US now has the world’s lowest prescription drug prices. The assertion is so broad that it is unclear what exactly Trump is referencing. But experts told CNN they highly doubt that the prices for brand-name drugs in the US are generally less than they are in other countries, and the Trump administration has not provided details to prove the claim.“It’s tough to claim that you’re getting the lowest prices anywhere in the world and then also not have any evidence to support that,” said Andrew Mulcahy, a senior health economist at RAND, while Diederik Stadig, senior healthcare economist at financial institution ING, said, “To say that the US now has the lowest drug prices in the world is at this moment not true.”And as he did Wednesday, Trump said “more Americans are working today than ever before” – which is true but nearly meaningless, since the number of people working in the US generally rises over time simply because the population rises over time.“There are more Americans working because there are more Americans. That’s the entire analysis,” Justin Wolfers, a University of Michigan professor of public policy and economics, wrote in his newsletter in August.RFK Jr.’s false claims on the pandemic, Trump’s record and moreFalse claim about Democrats and the 2024 electionKennedy unsuccessfully ran for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination before withdrawing to run as an independent and then eventually endorsing Republican candidate Donald Trump. In Kennedy’s Thursday convention speech, he complained of how the Democrats handled the nomination race.At one point, he said, “For the first time in history, they cancelled their own convention. No voter ever cast a primary ballot for Kamala Harris, no elected delegate was ever consulted; the party of ‘No Kings’ simply anointed a queen.”Kennedy is entitled to express unhappiness about how quickly Democratic leaders coalesced around then-Vice President Harris after Biden unexpectedly dropped out of the race in July 2024, after the primaries were over and less than four months from Election Day. But it’s not true that the party canceled its convention or that delegates didn’t get any say.The convention was held; it was a four-day event in Chicago in August 2024. Democratic convention delegates officially nominated Harris in a virtual roll call vote in advance of the convention. It’s true that Harris was the only candidate on the roll call ballot, but that’s because she was the only candidate who gathered enough delegate signatures to appear on the ballot.It’s clear that party elites’ backing of Harris played a key role in the unusual nomination process. But Kennedy’s specific allegations that the convention was abandoned and delegates were cut out of the process are not true.False claim that Democrats closed ‘every church’ during the Covid-19 pandemicWhile attacking Democrats, Kennedy claimed that, during the Covid-19 pandemic, “They closed every church in our country for a year.”It’s not true that every church in the country was closed for a year, nor even that every church in a Democratic state was closed for a year.Every state issued some type of guidance or order about social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic, but many states – including some led by Democrats and some led by Republicans – incorporated religious exemptions into those limitations on social interactions.According to a Pew Research Center analysis from April 2020, 15 states allowed religious gatherings to continue without a limit on their size. That set of states included Colorado, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which all had Democratic governors. And at least two states with Republican governors, Alaska and Idaho, were among the states that prohibited religious gatherings at least briefly.False claim that Trump ‘ended nine wars’Trump has repeatedly claimed that he has ended “eight wars.” Kennedy went one higher on Thursday, declaring, “President Trump has ended nine wars.”That’s false. Trump hasn’t even ended eight wars.Trump’s list of eight includes two situations that were never actually wars during his tenure: a diplomatic dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia and a mysterious supposed situation between Serbia and Kosovo. The list also includes a war, involving Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, that hasn’t actually ended despite a peace agreement brokered by the Trump administration.In addition, the list includes the war between Israel and Hamas, but Israel continues to conduct frequent attacks in Gaza despite a US-brokered ceasefire agreement. And it includes the brief 2025 conflict between Israel and Iran, though Israel proceeded to join the US in starting another war against Iran in 2026.Claim about reversing a decline in longevityKennedy speaking of the Trump administration, claimed Thursday: “We have now reversed a 30-year decline in longevity. “Kennedy referenced preliminary data that he said he had received from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week, but it’s unclear what metric of longevity he’s referring to.CDC data shows that US life expectancy had been steadily increasing for decades before a sharp drop during the Covid-19 pandemic. Life expectancy had already started to rebound in 2022, under the Biden administration, and reached a new record high in 2024 before Trump’s second term began.Preliminary data shared by the CDC in July suggests that life expectancy probably hit another record high in 2025.CNN has reached out to HHS for clarification on Kennedy’s comments.Claim that Democrats ‘lost 360,000 children’Speaking about Democrats, Kennedy said: “They somehow lost 360,000 children and they turned our federal government into the biggest child trafficking operation in world history.”Trump and other Republicans have made similar claims. But there’s no basis for the assertion that Democrats “lost” so many children or that the federal government was engaged in human trafficking.A 2024 report from the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement had reported that more than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children failed to appear as scheduled for immigration court hearings after being released or transferred out of custody between fiscal years 2019 and 2023 – a period that, notably, includes two years and four months under the first Trump administration. The report also said that 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children during this period were not given notices to appear in court.The report said that ICE had “no assurances” these children “are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.” But it did not say all the children were actually “lost” and did not definitively assert that any of them were trafficked – let alone that the government was somehow involved in a trafficking operation. And, again, the report spanned parts of both a Republican administration and a Democratic administration.Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, told CNN in 2024: “Long story short, no, there are not 320,000 kids missing. 32,000 kids missed court. That doesn’t mean they’re missing, it means they missed court (either because their sponsor didn’t bring them or they are teenagers who didn’t want to show up). The remaining 291,000 cases mentioned by the (Office of the Inspector General) are cases where ICE hasn’t filed the paperwork to start their immigration court cases.”Vance on inflation, crime and taxes on Social SecurityA false claim about the media and Biden-era inflationVice President JD Vance mocked the media during part of his speech on Thursday. But he made a false claim about Biden-era inflation while lampooning how the media supposedly challenged him over another false claim on that subject.Vance said: “The president and I would go during a campaign, we’d say, ‘You know, inflation is as high as it’s been in 100 years,’ and the fake news would say, ‘No, no, no, it’s as high as it’s been in 68 years.’ That ain’t good, ladies and gentlemen.”Mainstream journalists, at least, wouldn’t say that inflation under Biden was as high as it had been “in 68 years.” Rather, CNN and others noted that peak inflation under the Biden administration, 9.1% in June 2022, was the highest in about 40 years.Vance is entitled to make his general point that this correction still doesn’t make Biden-era inflation sound good, but his specific number was, again, wrong. And he didn’t acknowledge that inflation fell sharply under Biden after hitting the 40-year high, declining to 2.9% in Biden’s last full month in office, December 2024, and 3.0% in January 2025, when Trump and Vance were inaugurated.The rate was 3.4% in July 2026, the most recent month for which data is available.Trump didn’t end taxes on Social SecurityVance claimed, “We’ve ended taxes on Social Security.” Several other convention speakers, including Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan, Rep. Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania and Ohio House candidate Derek Merrin, similarly said the administration has achieved “no tax on Social Security.”It hasn’t. The big domestic policy bill Trump signed in 2025 did create an additional, temporary $6,000-per-year tax deduction for individuals age 65 and older (which phases out for individuals earning $75,000 per year or more), but as the White House has implicitly acknowledged, millions of Social Security recipients will continue to pay taxes on their benefits even before the temporary new deduction expires after 2028.The Social Security Administration said in 2025 that “the bill ensures that nearly 90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits.Claim about violent crime rate under BidenWhile criticizing the Biden administration, Vice President JD Vance claimed Thursday that the US “became a country where violent crime exploded, unless, of course, you could afford private security.”But violent crime did not explode under Biden. In fact, as FactCheck.org reported last month, data collected and published by the FBI shows that the national violent crime rate was at a lower level in 2023 and 2024, the last two full calendar years of Biden’s term, than it was in 2020, the last full calendar year of Trump’s first term. The year 2020 was highly unusual in many ways – violent crime jumped amid the Covid-19 pandemic – but Biden nonetheless left office with violent crime lower than it was when he took over. In fact, the 2024 violent crime rate was even lower than the 2019 rate under Trump before the pandemic.There was an increase in violent crime during the earlier part of Biden’s term. But given the subsequent decline, it’s misleading at best to claim violent crime “exploded” with no further context.Asked earlier this month about Trump’s similar previous claims to have reversed a Biden-era upswing in violence, crime data expert Jeff Asher said in an email: “No, crime began dropping significantly in 2023 during the Biden administration. Murder fell at record rates in 2023, 2024 and 2025 and, while 2026 may not feature a record decline nationally, it is still on track to see a sizable double-digit decline this year. Violent crime similarly fell nationally in 2023 and 2024, though the drops were more muted than the decline that was recorded by the FBI in 2025.”Other GOP speakersMike Johnson’s false claim about the inflation Republicans inherited from BidenSome other speakers at the convention took aim at inflation under Biden. House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed that “Republicans inherited from the Biden administration record-high inflation.”That’s not true. The inflation rate was 2.9% in Biden’s last full month in office, December 2024, and 3.0% in January 2025, when Trump took over. That’s lower than the most recent rate, 3.4% in July 2026, and nowhere close to the all-time record of 23.7%, which was reached in 1920, or the highest point of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, 14.8%, which was reached in 1980.Johnson correctly said moments later that inflation reached “a 40-year high of 9.1% inflation” under Biden. But a 40-year high is not an all-time record. More importantly, Johnson didn’t explain that 9.1% was much higher than the rate Trump inherited or that the 9.1% rate occurred in June 2022, with roughly two-and-a-half years left in Biden’s term.The cumulative increase in prices from the beginning of the Biden administration to the end was also not the highest in US history. Federal figures show that beginning-to-end inflation under Biden was less than half of that during Carter’s term.What Johnson left out of his claim about a congressional resolutionWhile attacking Democrats as extreme, Johnson said: “Just last week, nearly every Democrat in the House of Representatives voted against condemning socialism and Marxism. They voted against it.”But the resolution didn’t use the word “Marxism.” And Johnson didn’t mention that the resolution wasn’t only about condemning socialism. Rather, it contained other language that Democratic leadership said was the focus of the party’s opposition to the resolution.The resolution’s first provision said it “condemns and denounces socialism in all its forms, including the Democratic Socialists of America, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States.” But its fifth provision said it “calls for enactment of the SAVE America Act,” Trump’s favored elections bill, which contains various provisions opposed by many Democrats.So while it’s very possible many Democrats would have opposed the resolution even without its expression of support for the SAVE America Act, the call to pass this elections bill served as a poison pill that ensured most Democrats wouldn’t support it.“House Resolution 1490 explicitly calls for enactment of the so-called SAVE America Act, which is the top legislative priority of far-right extremists,” Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement last week.A New Mexico candidate left out key context in an attack on his opponentGreg Cunningham, a Republican House candidate in New Mexico, used some of his Thursday speech to criticize his Democratic opponent, Rep. Gabe Vasquez. Cunningham said of Vasquez: “He even voted against a resolution honoring the sacrifices and service of the brave men and women in law enforcement who protect, every day, our communities.”But Cunningham left out important context about the resolution. While its focus was expressing support for law enforcement, its preamble contained statements praising the Trump administration and criticizing “leftist activists,” “progressive politicians” and “sanctuary city policies” for allegedly making law enforcement less safe.In other words, a House member might vote against such a resolution, as the vast majority of Democrats did, because they disagreed with conservative components of it, not the general expressions of support for law enforcement. (CNN has reached out to Vasquez’s campaign and House office for comment on his vote.) It’s common for parties to write resolutions in a way that would make it difficult for opponents to support but would open those opponents to campaign attacks if they voted “no.”An Ohio candidate’s misleading attack about Democrats and votingMerrin, the Republican candidate running against Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur for a House seat in Ohio, claimed in his speech, “While Democrats talk about letting illegal immigrants vote in our election, Republicans fight for proof of citizenship, photo ID and fair elections.”It’s a big country, so it’s possible some Democrat somewhere is talking about letting undocumented people vote in some election. But Merrin’s claim is misleading at best. There is no proposal from Democrats in Congress to let undocumented people vote in the 2026 midterms – the election Merrin appeared to be referring to when he said “our election” – or vote in future federal elections.CNN has reached out to Merrin’s campaign for an explanation of his claim.House Majority Leader Steve Scalise invoked a similar theme in his speech Wednesday, claiming that Democrats had voted last week “to allow illegals to vote in our federal elections.” But there was no congressional vote on letting undocumented immigrants vote in any elections.Rather, there was a vote on the non-binding Republican resolution that included multiple provisions, including one that “reiterates the notion that American elections are for American citizens only,” one supporting Trump’s favored elections bill and one denouncing socialism.Opposing that multi-clause resolution doesn’t necessarily mean someone supports voting by any non-citizens, let alone non-citizens in the country illegally.This article has been updated with additional items.CNN’s Deja Oliver contributed to this report.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Humans experimented with drugs 23,000 years earlier than we thought
Betel nut use among hunter-gatherers may turn back the clock.
Childhood Chemotherapy Leaves Lasting DNA Damage in Healthy Tissues
Certain chemotherapy drugs can age children’s healthy cells to levels comparable to those found in adult tissues.
Appeals court considers future of nationwide access to medication abortion
The issue of medication abortion was back before a New Orleans-based appeals court on Wednesday, in the latest iteration of a years-long legal effort to end the provision of abortion drugs via telehealth.
Webinar: The Massive Scale of GLP-1s: Evolving Health, Healthcare and Markets
Watch this discussion on how GLP-1 drugs for obesity are changing the shape of U.S. healthcare. From direct-to-consumer portals to pharmacy deals, how these drugs reach patients is changing—and leading to debates over pricing and coverage. Learn how your company can be both patient-forward while also maximizing revenue in this unique environment.
AZ's R&D chief Barr touts internal 'science success story' after IL-33 antibody's stellar showing in COPD
With a detailed data drop that AstraZeneca’s R&D chief described as an internal “science success story,” the British Big Pharma has secured an FDA priority review for what it believes could become a flagship biologic in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In detailed results from the late-stage Oberon and Titania trials—first teased in March and detailed in full at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Barcelona this week—the drugmaker laid out the extent of its IL-33 inhibitor’s potential to reduce moderate and severe exacerbations in a wide range of COPD patients still struggling with those “lung attacks,” as AstraZeneca’s Sharon Barr, Ph.D., called them, despite using standard-care inhaled therapy. In the headline results, a 300 mg dose of tozorakimab given once every four weeks curbed those moderate and severe exacerbations in the studies’ primary population of former smokers by 29% in the Oberon study and 34% in Titania. In the overall population of both current and former smokers, these reductions were 30% and 29%, respectively, versus placebo and inhaled standard of care. The benefits also extended to clinically meaningful exacerbation reductions in all prespecified patient subgroups and specifically turned up promising signals in patients across a range of blood eosinophil counts, with Barr telling Fierce that “it’s the details that make this even more exciting than the high-level results that we’ve already shared.” In fact, during AZ’s tozorakimab poster presentation at the ERS 2026 Congress this past weekend, attendees were so enamored by the data that event organizers had to encourage people to clear the room and look at the other presentations on offer, Barr said in an interview. “I think it really speaks to the fact that there is a lot of buzz around these data because the entire respiratory community has been so desperate for new therapies for these patients,” she explained. The respiratory disease continues to represent a “staggering unmet medical need,” Barr said, highlighting the COPD exacerbations that the Oberon and Titania studies homed in on, which she added carry a greater mortality risk than a heart attack. “When a patient has a severe exacerbation, only about half of them are still alive within three and a half years,” she pointed out. As for tozorakimab specifically, Barr christened the molecule “an AstraZeneca science success story,” harkening several years back to the point at which researchers began to explore IL-33 as a driver of respiratory disease, and COPD in particular. At the same time, “there was still so much that wasn’t understood,” she admitted, highlighting the insight that IL-33 signals through both ST2 and EGFR through the RAGE pathway, a discovery Barr attributed to AstraZeneca's own scientists. Understanding the need to tackle both pathways in COPD—and aware of competitor candidates in the hopper, including one that bound ST2—the company ultimately had to make some “courageous decisions,” Barr said. These included taking a prior COPD molecule offline and going back to the drawing board to reinvent its potential IL-33 label “to make sure that we had a molecule that could block signaling through both arms of the pathway, through both the reduced form and the oxidized form, knowing that we wouldn’t be first, but striving to be best.” “When we put [tozorakimab] into the clinic, we firmly believed that we had a differentiated molecule, and we saw the other molecules blocking just ST2 or partially blocking IL-33, unable to deliver two positive pivotal studies in COPD,” Barr explained. “We kept marching forward because we believed our molecule was differentiated, and now I think we have the clinical validation that supports that.” Ultimately, AstraZeneca finds itself on much better footing these days when it comes to potential biologic rivals to tozorakimab in COPD. Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent, for instance, is approved to treat COPD exacerbations in patients with high eosinophil counts, but not low ones. Meanwhile, the future has become cloudier for other next-gen IL-33 candidates from Sanofi and Regeneron, as well as Roche, which have suffered trial flops in recent years. One other potential ingredient for AstraZeneca’s success in its duo of studies was that the company was “ambitious in the trial design, willing to look at an all-comers population,” Barr said, “and willing to enroll the most severe patients.” Prior studies for would-be biologics rivals in COPD “avoided enrolling” those patients, she pointed out. She also highlighted the Big Pharma’s painstaking design of exacerbations in its trial, which “gave us a very rigorous readout,” and pointed to “the extra effort and investment” the company put in to understand the effect of mucus plugs in patients. Barr described mucus production as a “key feature in disease diversity,” noting that mucus plugs—obstructing clumps of mucus that block patients’ airways—are associated with worse outcomes in COPD. In its data announcement, AstraZeneca noted that an integrated analysis of Oberon and Titania found tozorakimab “demonstrated a reduction in patients’ mucus plug score,” with the pharma claiming its biologic is the first to deliver such results in a broad COPD population. “So being able to reduce those mucus plugs, we expect, is an important part of driving benefit for patients who are living with COPD,” Barr said. Again touching on the breadth of the study populations, Barr added that tozorakimab “worked across all eosinophil levels in both current and former smokers across all levels of lung function,” which she suggested “really simplifies decision-making for clinicians, and it allows them to offer therapy to the broadest possible patient population.” In the highest patient eosinophil count group, tozorakimab helped chart a 43% reduction in exacerbation risk, which Barr stressed were “unprecedented data.” In the mid-level group, AZ’s drug delivered a 23% reduction and, in the lowest group, a 34% reduction in eosinophils, which Barr said suggests efficacy “in all patient subgroups.” As for AZ’s recent guidance upgrade on the medicine’s sales opportunity, the lift from a $3 billion to $5 billion range to $5 billion plus was informed by multiple factors, Barr said, including the fact that “in 2024, there were multiple competitors, and there aren’t anymore.” Additionally, “we know that this is a massive unmet medical need, and this is a really incredible set of data that we think will be very convincing to the clinical community,” Barr said. Looking ahead to a potential evolution of the COPD treatment landscape, Barr noted that most patients start treatment in the community with an option like a triple therapy, and for them, having an option like AstraZeneca’s inhaler Breztri will remain a “really important part” of that journey. But of the patients uncontrolled on triple therapy, which Barr described as “about half of them today,” just a “small fraction” are currently eligible for biologic therapy, which she emphasized AstraZeneca is working to change. Understanding that COPD is not a “one-size-fits-all” disease, AstraZeneca is also looking at its antibody drug Tezspire for patients with T2-driven disease, and the company continues to think about new mechanisms for tackling COPD through both systemic and inhaled drugs, Barr said.
Ozempic and Wegovy may have an unexpected mental health benefit
Semaglutide, the drug behind Ozempic and Wegovy, may have benefits that extend well beyond weight loss and diabetes. In a large Swedish study of nearly 15,000 people with bipolar disorder, its use was linked to a 21% lower risk of psychiatric hospitalization. Researchers think effects on inflammation and brain-related biological pathways could help stabilize mood, though other GLP-1 drugs did not show the same association.
Cravings ‘like heroin withdrawal’: what happens when weight-loss drugs don’t work?
GLP-1 medications have been a gamechanger in the fight against obesity. But for a minority of patients, their impact is negligible. Why?
A $480,000-a-year pill reflects a new normal for cancer drugs
Cancer drug prices have steadily increased. The expense is borne by government programs like Medicare, employers, patients and Americans who pay taxes and health insurance premiums.
Kentucky Sues Mayday Health Over Abortion Pill Advertising
Kentucky is the latest state to take action against the nonprofit Mayday Health for advertising that points people to a website providing information about abortion-inducing drugs.
Health benefit costs to jump 8.2% in 2027, highest since 2003
Marsh survey finds GLP-1 drugs, AI billing, and No Surprises Act disputes are each adding a full percentage point to trend
7 Science-Backed Ways to Curb Your Appetite—Without Weight-Loss Drugs
While our appetite-control system is quite complex, there are easy ways to help you feel fuller for longer for better digestion and weight loss.
GOP candidate gets busted trying to plant drugs on his political rival
Thomas Ross allegedly conspired to plant cocaine and Adderall in his Republican rival's purse, but his campaign manager wore a wire for the FBI.
Carla Jeffery’s family denies drugs played a part in Disney Channel star’s death
The “Zombies” star died at the age of 33 on Wednesday.
Carla Jeffery’s family denies drugs played a part in Disney star’s death
Carla Jeffery, known for Disney Channel’s ‘Zombies,’ died at the age of 33 on Wednesday; a cause of death was not immediately revealed.
Court docs: Candidate accused of trying to plant drugs on political opponent
Court documents have revealed why a southwestern political candidate was facing a federal charge.Federal prosecutors charged Thomas Christopher Ross, 37, of Jop
HHS announces $77M in grants to curb drug addiction, prevent suicide
The agency said $22 million will be sent to community-based initiatives to aid areas hit hardest by the opioid crisis.
Martin Scorsese says Tribeca neighborhood used to be ‘really good for’ stealing hubcaps, sex, and drugs at night (exclusive)
Martin Scorsese reminisces about New York’s crime-ridden Tribeca neighborhood in an exclusive clip from the upcoming documentary ‘Tribeca 25,’ premiering on Netflix Sept. 11.
Martin Scorsese says Tribeca neighborhood used to be ‘really good for’ stealing hubcaps, sex, and drugs at night (exclusive)
Scorsese reminisces about the New York hotspot with Robert De Niro in the new documentary “Tribeca 25,” premiering on Netflix on Sept. 11.
Trump: 90% of prescription drugs covered by 'most favored nation' price deals
Several of the companies that agreed to lower drug prices also announced U.S. research and development investments Monday
Why doctors still can’t predict which migraine drug will work
Migraine prevention drugs are more targeted than ever before, and new guidelines may help doctors predict which will work for each patient.
Hims & Hers offers GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, men's health treatments in Australia
Telehealth company Hims & Hers said on Monday it has begun offering branded GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and other treatments to men in Australia as it continues to expand its international business.
GLP-1 drugs are almost single-handedly forcing employers to reconsider workers' health care
Another hospital system sues CVS Health, how Medicaid cuts will change everything, and more
One injection could keep osteoarthritis drugs working for weeks
Scientists have created an injectable gel that can remain inside arthritic joints for weeks, slowly releasing medication while also improving lubrication. The approach could make it easier to deliver disease-modifying drugs directly where they are needed while limiting exposure elsewhere in the body.
Is it true that … mental health is affected by inflammation?
Studies have found that anti-inflammatory drugs can improve your mood. But what does that mean for conditions such as depression and anxiety?
Why some companies may not be offering coverage for GLP-1 weight loss drugs
Some companies have said they are no longer offering health insurance coverage for GLP-1s for weight loss. Experts say this may be a "business decision."
Dutch institute issues warning over Trump-shaped ecstasy pills
The drugs have a delayed effect which "increases the risk of overdose", the institute has advised.
Dolly’s generosity to Vanderbilt Health highlighted; reading test results before your doctor has a chance; staying healthy this fall; plus other stories with Vanderbilt Health sources
Dolly Parton’s generosity to Vanderbilt Health was mentioned in many of her obituaries. A sampling: The New York Times, the BBC, NPR, NBC News, The Guardian, and Scripps News. Vanderbilt Health News posted a tribute to her, as well, and Mark Denison, MD, Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics and former director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, spoke to NewsNation for a story about her impact on his research. Everyday Health interviewed Trent Rosenbloom, MD, MPH, Professor of Biomedical Informatics, for a story about a new JAMA study that found two-thirds of patients read test results before connecting with a doctor. Comprehension of test results varied: 6.6 percent said they had a poor understanding, 26.8 percent understood the results fairly well, 31.7 percent understood them well, and 34.9 percent understood the results very well. William Schaffner, MD, Professor of Preventive Medicine, was quoted by several news outlets about public health issues, including: Healthline (cyclosporiasis cases now in 47 states); “The Naked Scientists” podcast (salmonella outbreak sickens hundreds); Medscape (the lighter-than-usual just-completed Australian flu season); and People (how to stay healthy this fall). Scripps News interviewed Jessica Young, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology, about Vanderbilt researchers launching a study to determine if GLP-1 drugs can help people with opioid use disorder. WSMV Channel 4 News reporter Diana Rocco interviewed Kashish Goel, MBBS, Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of Transcatheter Heart Valve Interventions, for a story about patient Dixie Watt and her minimally invasive valve replacement with the M3 device, the first Food and Drug Administration-approved transseptal transcatheter mitral valve replacement. Fogarty International Center writer/editor Susan Scutti interviewed John Koethe, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, for a profile article for their newsletter, Global Health Matters. The article presents him as an example of a Fogarty Fellow success story and focus on his past and present research, including the HIV/AIDS research he conducted for his Fogarty project at the Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Zambia in 2008 and 2009.
Can California help lower the cost of GLP-1s? Here’s what lawmakers are proposing
An LA-area Democrat wants California to partner with drug manufacturers to make weight loss drugs cheaper — drawing on her own experience paying out of pocket.
‘There’s a whole process’: Bangor business owner highlights needle disposal challenges after patio incident
James Gallagher owns Bangin’ Whoopie in Bangor. He said he was first alerted to the person injecting drugs by a five-year-old and her grandmother.
Other Ways of Knowing: Ethno Epistemic Challenges to the Universality of Science
From toe rings for a healthy pregnancy to a president who scrapped AIDS drugs for a dream-given herbal cure, this essay confronts a growing academic movement claiming spirits, astrology, and ancestral visions rival science—and what’s at stake for medicine, education, and truth.
Affairs? Drugs? You could ask Dolly Parton about anything and get a laugh. Just stay away from politics …
One autumn day in 2023 I bathed in the luminous glow of this utterly authentic star – and while she did have one weak spot, her life and music will speak for themselves
Using FDA addiction science, researcher asks: Do salty, high-fat foods act like drugs?
Click for more on new grant from the National Institutes of Health
GLP-1 Benefits Beyond Weight Loss: Heart Health, Lower Cancer Risk And More
Doctors say GLP-1 drugs seem to have “profound benefits” beyond weight loss and diabetes. Some wonder whether they can help people live longer, but stress need for more research.
More US employers to drop weight-loss drugs in 2027, as healthcare costs increase
About 14% of employers in the United States have already or plan to drop GLP-1 drugs in 2027, as companies see rising healthcare costs, according to a survey released on Tuesday by the Business Group on Health.
More US Employers to Drop Weight-Loss Drugs in 2027, as Healthcare Costs Increase
By Amina Niasse NEW YORK, Aug 25 (Reuters) - About 14% of employers in the United States have already or plan to drop GLP-1 drugs in 2027, as companies see rising healthcare costs, according to a survey released on Tuesday by the Business Group on Health. Healthcare costs are set to increase ...
Common medications may change your gut for years
Common medications may reshape the gut microbiome long after the last dose is taken. In a study of more than 2,500 people, researchers found lasting microbial changes linked not only to antibiotics, but also to antidepressants, beta-blockers, acid-reducing drugs, and benzodiazepines. Some effects were still detectable years later, suggesting past medication use may strongly influence the gut bacteria people carry today.
Our Grandmothers Only Had 3 Products in Their Bathroom and Their Skin Was Better Than Ours, Here's What They Knew That We Forgot
You have probably spent more than you care to admit on serums, gadgets, and miracle creams that promised to change everything – only to end up back at square one. Meanwhile, the women who raised us seemed to manage effortlessly with a handful of drugstore staples and a few clever rituals they never bothered to...
Experimental compound helps burn fat without muscle loss
A decades-old compound may point to a new way of treating obesity by making the body burn more energy rather than simply reducing appetite. In mice, TOFA increased energy use by as much as 18%, reduced body fat without significant muscle loss, and improved blood sugar, triglycerides, and fatty liver disease. It also produced stronger results when combined with GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound.
Watch: Mark Cuban Says You Can’t Fix Healthcare Until Every Price Is Known
With his online pharmacy, Mark Cuban changed how generic drugs are sold — and he has thoughts about how to fix the healthcare system. The billionaire businessman talks to KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to answer the question: “How Would You Fix It?”
New study raises concerns over use of weight-loss drugs in elite sport
Researchers surveyed 114 sports medicine physicians from 38 countries, covering 93 different sports, to explore their views on athletes' use of GLP-1 drugs. Twelve percent said they were aware of athletes ...
Orexins: the brain’s Ozempic moment?
Drugs that mimic hormones involved with wakefulness, attention and motivation could transform narcolepsy treatment, and offer hope for depression and ADHD
Cancer doctor reveals 5 habits that may reduce disease risk and improve outcomes
A breast surgical oncologist shares five everyday strategies to reduce cancer risk, including how GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic could play a role.
HCM drug advances have been a breakthrough—but more invasive treatments are still vital
Some HCM experts are concerned about the potential loss of surgical and interventional expertise as procedural volumes decline.
Long-empty Jersey Shore drugstore poised for return as family entertainment center
The entertainment center is expected to open by the end of 2026.
NJ towns, school districts in debt to 'death spiral' health plans
As rates about to rise, about 50 local entities owe millions of dollars, led by Paterson, Newark and a Hudson County school district
How Claude is accelerating protein design and analytical chemistry
In this post, we share two results that show how Claude can help life scientists increase the pace of their research. In the first, we tested Claude’s ability to design protein binders from scratch, a key step in creating protein-based drugs that has historically taken a specialist weeks or months per target. In the second example, we evaluated whether Claude can accelerate chemical analysis. Claude Opus 5, a generally available model, was given NMR and LC-MS data (the data that allows chemists to assess the identity and purity of the compounds they work with).
Mississippi weighs three-year short-term health plan as coverage drops
One-year short-term plans are already available. The state is working on a three-year option through an online portal where people could compare doctors, drugs and provider networks.
Kratom poison center cases have surged 6,500% in the U.S.
Kratom use and serious health problems linked to it have risen dramatically across the United States over the past decade. Poison center reports jumped from just 19 cases in 2010 to more than 1,200 in 2023, while severe outcomes—including life-threatening complications, disability, and death—also climbed sharply. Researchers warn that kratom can trigger seizures, abnormal heart rhythms, liver damage, and breathing problems, with risks potentially increasing when it is combined with other drugs.
Justice Department watchdog to review DEA tactic that permitted deadly fentanyl to hit streets
The review will examine government policies and wiretap investigations in which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration may have learned of fentanyl deliveries before they happened but stood down to avoid jeopardizing larger prosecutions.
Could a drug designed for weight loss help athletes perform better?
GLP-1 weight-loss drugs can reduce weight and improve health, but could they also boost athletic performance?
GLP-1 weight loss drugs may boost results but raise oral health risks, dentist warns
Scientists solve the mystery of a brain “switch” that can trigger weight loss in opposite ways
Scientists have uncovered why two seemingly opposite ways of targeting the same brain receptor can both promote weight loss. In mice, activating the GIP receptor in the brainstem reduced appetite, while blocking it in the hypothalamus removed a kind of “brake” on fullness signals. The discovery helps explain why very different obesity drugs can achieve similar results and suggests that carefully combining GIP-targeting treatments with GLP-1 drugs like those related to Wegovy and Ozempic could produce stronger effects.
Spanberger touts progress keeping insulin, prescriptions affordable during tour of Northern Va. health clinic
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger is touting the progress the state has made in capping insulin costs and keeping prescription drugs affordable.
Ozempic may have revealed the brain’s hidden “craving center”
Ozempic-like drugs appear to weaken more than hunger—they may also reduce cravings for alcohol and other addictive substances. Scientists are increasingly tracing this effect to the lateral septum, a brain region that helps connect memories and surroundings with rewarding experiences. Packed with GLP-1 receptors, it may act as a crucial control point between thinking about a reward and feeling compelled to pursue it. The discovery could open new approaches to treating addiction as well as obesity.
Cardinal Health forecasts full-year profit above estimates on specialty drug strength
U.S. drug distributor Cardinal Health on Tuesday forecast fiscal 2027 profit well above Wall Street expectations after topping fourth-quarter profit estimates, driven by sustained demand for specialty drugs.
Chrissy Metz Talks '& Juliet' and New Music, Shares Health Update
Chrissy Metz, “This is Us” and “The Hunting Wives” star, joins TODAY to open up for the first time about her decision to use GLP-1 medication and announce her new partnership with health care company Ro. Metz details why she was originally skeptical around weight loss drugs, shares how the medication has improved her life, dishes on performing in “& Juliet” and teases new music in the works.
AbCellera women’s health data top ‘most aggressive upside scenario,’ putting Astellas and Bayer on notice
AbCellera has reported phase 2 results “beyond even the most aggressive upside scenario” that its CEO dared to consider, boosting the biotech’s chances of challenging Astellas and Bayer for a women’s health market. The phase 2 clinical trial compared ABCL635, an antibody targeting NK3R, to placebo in patients with hot flashes caused by menopause. Investigators enrolled 92 postmenopausal women experiencing a mean of about 10 moderate or severe hot flashes per day. By Week 4, the number of moderate or severe hot flashes had fallen by a mean of 8.8 on ABCL635 and by 3.5 on placebo. That statistically significant, placebo-adjusted reduction of 5.3 hit the trial’s primary endpoint. The level of efficacy also cleared the bar set by existing drugs. While cross-trial comparisons can be misleading, AbCellera CEO Carl Hansen, Ph.D., had seen enough to start hyping the program. “We now view ABCL635 as a potential best-in-class non-hormonal therapy with strong differentiation against approved NK3R competitors across all important dimensions, including efficacy, safety, dosing and convenience,” Hansen said on a Monday morning conference call with investors to discuss the data. “We believe ABCL635 is now a highly de-risked program.” Last week, Hansen used AbCellera’s earnings call to set expectations for readout, with the CEO defining success as a clean safety profile and efficacy comparable to the two approved small molecules. The data vaulted over that bar. Astellas linked (PDF) one of the small molecules, Veozah, to placebo-adjusted reductions in hot flash frequency of 2.1 and 2.6 at Week 4 of its two phase 3 trials. Bayer reported (PDF) placebo-adjusted reductions of 3.04 and 3.29 at Week 4 of pivotal studies for its small molecule, Lynkuet. At 5.3, the placebo-adjusted reduction in AbCellera’s trial comfortably cleared the standard set by the incumbents. Veozah and Lynkuet came to market based on evidence of their ability to reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes. AbCellera’s phase 2 study covered both endpoints, with the Canadian biotech reporting a mean reduction in severity of 1.4 points at Week 4 on ABCL635, compared to 0.3 points for placebo. Again, the placebo-adjusted result compares favorably to data on Veozah and Lynkuet. Analysts shared Hansen’s enthusiasm for the data. The phase 2 results “firmly validate ABCL635 as a potentially best-in-class treatment,” BMO Capital Markets analysts said in a note to investors Monday. ABCL635’s apparent efficacy edge “is likely attributable to the higher dosing/target engagement the asset is able to reach vs. the oral agents due to its wider therapeutic index,” the analysts added. The analysts, who model $2.3 billion in unadjusted peak sales for ABCL635, flagged the safety profile as another positive of the phase 2 readout. While Veozah carries a boxed warning for liver damage, nobody on ABCL635 in the phase 2 trial had elevated liver enzymes or bilirubin values. If replicated in phase 3, the lack of a liver signal could allow approval without the monitoring requirements imposed on Veozah. Investors appeared equally enthused, sending AbCellera's stock up 32% to $9.21 in premarket trading Monday from a Friday closing price of $6.93. Next, AbCellera will collect the Week 12 data and talk to its advisors about further development. The results open up “a wide variety of possibilities of how we might take this forward into phase 3 studies to truly maximize the value of the asset and make sure that ABCL635 is able to demonstrate its differentiation potential,” Sarah Noonberg, M.D., Ph.D., AbCellera’s chief medical officer, told investors.
Overcrowding, drugs and health crisis behind Mecklenburg jail deaths, sheriff says
Recent deaths spark state investigations as leaders remain split on reopening Jail North
Drug-resistant fungas on the radar in Michigan as health experts monitor spread
The fungus can live on surfaces, move from person to person and, in some cases, resist the drugs used to treat it. For people who are already sick, the fungus can become life-threatening and, in some cases, fatal.
New Orleans Saints Rookie Wide Receiver and Son of WWE Star Suspended 6 Games
New Orleans Saints rookie wide receiver Brock Rechsteiner catches a six game suspension from the NFL league office. While the current reason for the suspension in unknown, suspensions for performance enhancing drugs start at four games. They increase to six games when there is an attempted manipulation. Brock Rechsteiner has been suspended by the Commissioner […] The post New Orleans Saints Rookie Wide Receiver and Son of WWE Star Suspended 6 Games appeared first on HEAVY.
Wearable ultrasound patch boosts REM sleep without drugs or surgery
A new wearable patch may help people reach REM sleep faster and remain there longer without medication or surgery. In a study of 28 participants, the device shortened the time to REM by 43 minutes and extended it by about 16 minutes. Researchers also observed signs of improved stress regulation and changes in brain circuits tied to emotion.
Wisconsin pharmacist says Trump’s tariffs could end his business
The owner of Fitchburg Family Pharmacy says his pharmacy could close due to Trump’s tariffs on generic drugs.
The Beauty Of Settled Science
Commenters convinced me I made a subtle mis-step in my framing of Psychology Research Is Mostly Fine. My framing emphasized that social priming studies had failed to replicate, but that many other subfields of psychology hadn’t. This naturally led commenters to point to failed replications in other subfields. Although none of these were as bad as social priming, few or none were entirely problem-free. Instead of emphasizing the difference between social priming and other subfields, I should have emphasized the difference between settled science and novel research. Here are some of my favorite psychology findings: The brain is sculpted by reinforcement learning, and a key driver of this learning is a prediction-error-based algorithm located in the nucleus accumbens and implemented through dopamine. Psychedelic drugs exert their effects through 5-HT2A receptors, pointing to a role for these receptors in some sort of construct like the balance between priors and new evidence. Certain cognitive functions are localized to certain brain areas (for example, impulse control to the frontal lobes; linguistic structure to Broca’s area, linguistic meaning to Wernicke’s area. But injure one of these areas, or render a certain function useless (eg a blind person having no more use for their visual cortex), and these mappings can gradually shift - suggesting that neurons are general-purpose compute whose specialization is a contingent fact about convenience and efficiency rather than a necessity. Most personality traits and general capabilities are about 50% genetic and 50% random, with little role for family environment or childhood history, with a few notable exceptions like partisan preference. Recent research complicates this story, but the further you go from this basic picture, the gnarlier the chains of indirect causation you require. Neurons fire together in “brain waves”, whose exact frequency corresponds with the character of consciousness; These divide neurons into natural subpopulations and linked graphs. The gamma rhythm corresponds surprisingly well to items in conscious awareness. GABA receptors seem to be involved in something like relaxation. By hitting different GABA receptors in different ways, you can modulate the exact type of relaxation you produce. Hitting GABA-A directly is too powerful and can cause dangerous levels of sedation, but allosteric modulation of GABA is an incredibly fruitful strategy that underlies drugs from benzos to barbituates to alcohol. If you know your GABA-A subunits, you can target specific subtypes of relaxation; for example, Ambien hits GABA-A1 and induces sleep. Memory divides somewhat fuzzily into bins of immediate-sensory, short-term, and long-term, with separate retrieval and storage functions, and separate systems for declarative vs. procedural learning. These can be harmed selectively, usually by hippocampal injury, so that some patients can remember their life stories but not form new long-term memories, or learn new skills like bike-riding but not new facts. The exact substrate of memory is unclear but seems to involve new synaptic connections between neurons in at least some way. The ability of modern psychology and psychiatry to treat mental illness is real but limited. SSRIs work for half or slightly fewer than half of patients; antipsychotics work with extreme side effects; benzodiazpines work but produce addiction and tolerance in many (not all) people. Most supplements are stuck in Poor Quality Study Replication Crisis Hell, but melatonin and l-theanine stand out as especially promising. Psychotherapy works with moderate effect size, but (with a few exceptions) seems to be more about the relationship with the provider than the details of the therapy itself. Mental hospitalization can sometimes defuse immediate crises but work less well than mental hospitals would like, with some studies showing overall negative effects. Schizophrenia is mostly genetic, but risk also increases with prenatal infection (especially rubella) and obstetric complications; there is suggestive evidence for roles of social stress and drug use (with psychedelics and marijuana making things worse, and nicotine if anything making things better). Bipolar and schizophrenia are so closely linked on a pathophysiological level that it seems like they might be the same disease; on the clinical level, they do seem to follow two separate courses/prognoses but can sometimes surprise clinicians by eg someone who seemed condemned to permanent schizophrenia unexpectedly recovering. The brain’s native reinforcement learning algorithms cash out in the phenomena of classical and operant conditioning; different reinforcement schedules reinforce at different levels, which can be exploited by bad actors to make especially compelling products (eg slot machines). None of these are immune to doubt. A few are speculative; one or two are genuinely unorthodox. But they’re all a step above one p = 0.049 paper that might not replicate. If they get overturned, they’ll be overturned by the same sort of genuine scientific shift that replaced Ptolemy with Copernicus or Lamarck with Darwin, not some sort of sordid discovery about someone entering random numbers into a spreadsheet. In 2008, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote about The Beauty Of Settled Science: If you only care about scientific issues that are controversial, you will end up with a head stuffed full of garbage. The media thinks that only the cutting edge of science is worth reporting on. How often do you see headlines like “General Relativity still governing planetary orbits” or “Phlogiston theory remains false”? So, by the time anything is solid science, it is no longer a breaking headline. “Newsworthy” science is often based on the thinnest of evidence and wrong half the time—if it were not on the uttermost fringes of the scientific frontier, it would not be breaking news. Scientific controversies are problems so difficult that even people who’ve spent years mastering the field can still fool themselves. That’s what makes for the heated arguments that attract all the media attention. Worse, if you aren’t in the field and part of the game, controversies aren’t even fun. Don’t be embarrassed to read elementary science textbooks, either. If you want to pretend to be sophisticated, go find a play to sneer at. If you just want to have fun, remember that simplicity is at the core of scientific beauty [...] A steady diet of science news is bad for you: You are what you eat, and if you eat only science reporting on fluid situations, without a solid textbook now and then, your brain will turn to liquid. Psychology isn’t centrally the new paper in Annals Of Recently-Breaking News saying that an n=5 study showing that large portion sizes increase support for terrorism. Psychology is centrally ideas like brain waves, GABA receptors, reinforcement learning, twin studies, and connectionism. People who think differently are worrying too much about BREAKING NEWS!!!, and should stop. The key distinction isn’t “recent research in social psychology” vs. “recent research in cognitive/bio/behavioral psychology”, as my essay last week unfortunately implied. It’s recent research in general vs. the deposit of settled science, battle-tested hypotheses, and carefully-earmarked speculation. And part of the reason social priming in particular was such a disaster was that it defied that heuristic, building itself up over hundreds of studies until it approached or even entered the pantheon of settled science - before collapsing (5-HTTLPR was also sort of like this). This isn’t a claim that settled science is always right - Freud was “settled science” for a long time - just that there’s an intuitive distinction between the level of credence you should have in the existence of power posing vs. the existence of Broca’s Area. (I compounded this error by calling the last post “Psychology Research Is Mostly Fine”, which suggested I was talking about the new research rather than the settled science. I actually meant to distinguish between research-psychology-the-field vs. clinical-psychology-aka-therapy, but this framing unintentionally pushed against the point I wanted to make) Some commenters on the previous article understood this point, but challenged its weight. It’s very cool, they said, to know how many neurons are in which brain lobe, but the main way that Psychology affected their lives was through bad clickbait studies used to buttress dumb policies; some p = 0.049 study says that exposure to microaggressions makes minorities’ brains shrivel into raisins, and now their company has to implement punitive DEI or be sued for hazardous work conditions. I won’t dispute this as an accurate description of how the sausage gets made, but it’s worth examining the trains of thought that connect this observation to a campaign against psychology in general: The dumb woke psychology was wrong and bad, and I don’t have good heuristics for distinguishing dumb woke psychology from other psychology, so I’m going to assume it’s all wrong and bad. The dumb woke psychology was wrong and bad; it seems useful to punish/discredit psychology as a whole to assist my campaign against it, so for propaganda purposes I will try to discredit psychology as a whole. To people in the first camp, my response is: come on, your heuristics aren’t that bad. “Microaggressions makes minorities’ brains shrivel up like raisins” is in the woke category; “the hippocampal theta rhythm seems to be associated with both memory and pathfinding, suggesting an unexpected yet surprisingly compelling relationship between the two” is in the not-woke category, don’t play dumb here. To people in the second camp, my response is: deliberately exaggerated propaganda campaigns are bad and this is a confession, not an excuse. Inability to view science through anything but a political lens was what got us into this problem; doubling down on it is a temporary solution but a recipe for permanent disaster. If you pronounce entire fields of science to be acceptable collateral damage in your campaign against bad political actors, you will alienate not just scientists but patients, clinicians, and general lovers of truth. Instead, you can say the thing you mean - that woke partisans shouldn’t try to occupy and exploit the otherwise-noble science of psychology for their own political gain - and wage the same campaign with a halo rather than a comic-book-villain goatee. From the font of oracular wisdom that is Weird Sun Twitter: [ Vessel Of Spirit@VesselOfSpirit i love you all conditionally but i love the good part of you unconditionally. even if it becomes a very small part 2:11 AM · Jan 22, 2015 1 Reply · 5 Reposts · 29 Likes ](https://x.com/VesselOfSpirit/status/558084551772471298) This is how I feel about psychology1, too, but with a touch more optimism. The good part of psychology is enormous, a hoard of endless treasures. You just have to look past the headlines! 1 To play devil’s advocate - should one always be so magnamious? Astrology? Phrenology? These seem different in that their entire orientation was flawed from the start; they didn’t simply fail to find the correct constellation-personality connections, the whole project of searching for connections between constellations and personality was doomed from the start. More difficult might be asking the same question about education research, which is notoriously bad. I don’t know enough about education research to know if there’s some settled science of correct and enlightening results lurking in the background beyond the day-to-day froth of poorly-conducted and politically-motivated studies. I think if it’s 90% bad, 10% good, it’s correct to call it bad as a compact way of communicating a useful truth; I think psychology is better than that, but admit it’s a tough judgment call.
Maryland’s youth turning over a new leaf? Survey shows positive trends.
Children used less alcohol and drugs in 2024 and reported less depression in the Maryland Department of Health’s 2024-2025 youth risk behavior survey.
UT San Antonio scientist highlights growing threat of antifungal resistance
For decades, scientists have studied antibiotic resistance, which is how bacteria evolve mechanisms to evade lifesaving drugs. Now, researchers are warning that a similar challenge is emerging among fungi, where resistance to frontline antifungal medications is making serious infections increasingly difficult to treat. Nathan Wiederhold, PharmD, director of the Fungus Testing Laboratory and professor […]
A common sugar may help cancer cells break free and spread
Chemotherapy-surviving ovarian cancer cells may release fructose to help neighboring tumor cells loosen, escape, and spread. The discovery suggests that sugary diets and cholesterol-lowering drugs could influence cancer progression, though the effects have not yet been confirmed in patients.
Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department Narcotics Unit puts drug organization out of business
Two men are under arrest after a two-month-long investigation by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department for selling large amounts of drugs across the city of Cleveland and throughout Cuyahoga County.
UT San Antonio scientist highlights growing threat of antifungal resistance
For decades, scientists have studied antibiotic resistance, which is how bacteria evolve mechanisms to evade lifesaving drugs. Now, researchers are warning that a similar challenge is emerging among fungi, where resistance to frontline antifungal medications is making serious infections increasingly difficult to treat. Nathan Wiederhold, PharmD, director of the Fungus Testing Laboratory and professor […]
Scientists may have found a way to prevent statin muscle pain
Scientists have identified an immune response that may explain why statins cause muscle pain, weakness, and exercise intolerance in some people. The finding could eventually lead to treatments that protect muscles while preserving the drugs’ lifesaving cardiovascular benefits.
He bought a fitness supplement online to bulk up, but ended up losing his mind
Daniel Murphy's mental health spiralled after he took missold drugs which had been mixed with steroids.
FDA advisers support easing restrictions on six peptides. Here’s what those drugs are and what happens next
Peptides have become one of the hottest trends in wellness, with promises like faster muscle recovery and healthier aging. And six of these compounds cleared a major hurdle last week, when an advisory panel to the US Food and Drug Administration voted in favor of making them available through compounding pharmacies.
CMS announces end to Medicare Part D prescription drug subsidies
With the change, premiums are expected to rise. However, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services confirmed they cannot inflate by more than 6%, as capped by the Inflation Reduction Act.
Florida urges doctors not to prescribe mental health medication for children
Florida's surgeon general has warned doctors not to prescribe antidepressants and other psych drugs for children, instead urging comprehensive evaluations and behavioral therapy as first line treatment options.
Biogen Beats Estimates as New Medicines Overtake MS Business
Biogen Inc. reported quarterly revenue and adjusted earnings that beat analysts’ expectations as sales of newly acquired kidney and eye-disease drugs helped offset declining revenue from multiple sclerosis medicines.
An entirely new kind of drug will help us treat the untreatable
The first of a new generation of drugs that works in a completely different way to existing ones has been approved. Columnist Michael Le Page says this approach could transform treatments for all kinds of conditions
Biodegradable implant can deliver targeted cancer immunotherapy while protecting healthy tissue
Scientists at Houston Methodist Research Institute have developed a biodegradable implant designed to deliver cancer-fighting immunotherapy drugs directly into tumors over an extended period, a strategy ...
High drug prices anger the public. Steep hospital costs elicit yawns. Why is that?
How is it that pharma companies—and, by extension, health insurers that cover drugs—have targets on their backs while hospitals live like wallflowers?
Some people are getting shut out when it comes to GLP-1 drugs. Here’s why.
People with obesity in the United States are being sorted between haves and have-nots.
Oral GLP-1 drugs may quiet the brain’s food craving circuit
Newer oral drugs related to semaglutide medications such as Ozempic reduced pleasure-driven eating in mice by quieting a deep brain reward circuit. The finding could open new avenues for understanding food cravings and potentially treating substance use disorder.
FDA panel votes to loosen restrictions for controversial peptides
The vote marks a win for Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy who has said he's a big fan of the drugs, which haven't been well studied for human use.
Federal government to spend $5B on AI-powered health, infrastructure research
More than 15 federal agencies will use AI to investigate the root causes of chronic diseases, develop treatments for pediatric cancer, expedite the discovery of prescription drugs and enhance U.S. energy infrastructure, among other related…
Common Weight Loss Drugs Have Been Linked to a Higher Risk of Hair Loss
Here are the stats.