WEDNESDAY, April 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) — A budget-busting 3.6 million Medicare recipients could now be eligible for coverage of the weight-loss drug Wegovy, a new KFF analysis says. That’s because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Wegovy (semaglutide) to reduce the risk of heart attacks and stroke in certain patients, the study says. The FDA’s ruling potentially allows Wegovy prescription coverage for more than a quarter of 13.7 million Medicare patients who’ve been diagnosed with obesity or excess weight, KFF says. Those 3.6 million people — about 7% of all ben ..read more

WEDNESDAY, April 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Anne Helms is one busy mom, constantly juggling the demands of working from home with parenting two young children. Despite that whirl of activity, Helms says she often feels isolated and lonely. “I work from home full time and I actually have a job where I’m on camera a lot and I’m Zoom calling people very often,” Helms, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, said in a news release. “However, you don’t get the small talk, so you don’t get the, ‘How are your children? How’s it going?’ And you don’t get a lot of genuine answers when you do ask, ‘How is it goin ..read more

WEDNESDAY, April 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Bits of inactive bird flu virus have been discovered in samples of pasteurized milk from across the United States, health officials said Tuesday, although they stressed the viral fragments don’t threaten humans. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration did note that testing suggests that bird flu has likely infected far more dairy cows than officials realized. Still, “to date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the agency stressed in a statement updating the investigation. Over ..read more

WEDNESDAY, April 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) — New Jersey native Lisa Pisano was staring down the end of her days. The 54-year-old had heart failure and end-stage kidney disease, but several chronic medical conditions excluded her as a candidate for heart and kidney transplants. “All I want is the opportunity to have a better life,” Pisano said in a news release. “After I was ruled out for a human transplant, I learned I didn’t have a lot of time left.” But Pisano has gotten a new lease on life, thanks to a combined transplant of a mechanical heart pump and a gene-edited pig kidney. It’s the fir ..read more

WEDNESDAY, April 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) — ChatGPT shows promise in polypharmacy management and deprescribing medications among the elderly, according to a study published online April 18 in the Journal of Medical Systems. Arya Rao, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues evaluated ChatGPT performance in polypharmacy management via its binary (yes/no) deprescribing decisions in standardized clinical vignettes. The researchers found that in yes/no binary deprescribing decisions, ChatGPT universally recommended deprescribing medications regardless of activities of daily livi ..read more

WEDNESDAY, April 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Wearable technology is feasible to assess postural ergonomics and provide objective biofeedback to neurosurgeons, according to a pilot study published online April 19 in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine. Alejandro Zulbaran-Rojas, M.D., from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and colleagues examined the feasibility of using wearable technology as a biofeedback tool for neurosurgeons. For the study. 10 neurosurgeons were equipped with two wearable sensors attached to the back of their head and their upper back. The analysis included 16 recording ..read more

WEDNESDAY, April 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Middle-aged Black women with better heart health are less likely to show a decline in mental function, according to a study published online April 24 in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Imke Janssen, Ph.D., from the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and colleagues sought to determine the impact of cardiovascular health (CVH) on decline in the two domains of cognition that decline first in White and Black women at midlife. The analysis included 363 Black and 402 White women participating in the Study of Women’s Health Across th ..read more

WEDNESDAY, April 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Self-administered acupressure (SAA) is an efficacious and cost-effective approach to relieve knee pain in middle-aged and older adults with probable knee osteoarthritis (OA), according to a study published online April 19 in JAMA Network Open. Wing-Fai Yeung, Ph.D., from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and colleagues evaluated the effectiveness of SAA taught via a short training course on reducing knee OA pain in middle-aged and older adults (aged 50 years and older). The analysis included 314 participants randomly assigned to acupressure ..read more

WEDNESDAY, April 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Northeastern U.S. seafood consumers may be exposed to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) concentrations that potentially pose a health risk, according to a study published online April 12 in Exposure and Health. Kathryn A. Crawford, Ph.D., from the Environmental Studies Program at Middlebury College in Vermont, and colleagues surveyed 1,829 New Hampshire residents in June 2021 to determine consumption frequency, portion size, types, and sources of seafood among adults and children (aged 2 to 11 years). Additionally, the researchers purchased ..read more

WEDNESDAY, April 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Computed tomography fractional flow reserve (CT-FFR) improves assessment of vessel blockages and reduces the number of stenosis patients referred for invasive revascularization procedures, according to a study published online April 4 in Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging. Mangun K. Randhawa, M.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues assessed three-month clinical outcomes among 284 patients with significant stenosis who underwent CT-FFR analysis of dual-source CT scans without heart rate control. T ..read more