Boston-based Syntis Bio, which is working on a daily pill that mimics the effects of gastric bypass—no actual surgery required. Today, the company announced early data from animals and a small group of human volunteers showing that its approach is safe and may be able to suppress hunger. The company presented the findings Thursday at the European Congress on Obesity and Weight Management.
I am putting this up just to point out a couple things:
In a first-in-human pilot study of nine participants, the drug was safe with no adverse effects.
9 patients. You cannot draw any conclusions from a study this tiny. It is supposed to prove safety, but even that is only at “it has a fatality rate of less the 20-40% for sure” sort of level. There is just no way this would not lead to bloating, diarrhea and nausea. They are creating an intentional chronic malabsorption situation. Now, would folks be willing to put up with that? They absolutely do with gastric bypass, which has the same sort of mechanism and side-effects, so probably. But I would take the “no side effects” claim with a grain of salt big enough to raise your BP. Intriguing idea, but far from ready for prime time. I expect it will get a lot of press attention, though. Also, just for completeness sake, the current study puts a tube into the small intestine to deliver the med. The pill form has not yet been developed. So, yeah, we shall see.
There have been previous studies raising issues about the ingredients in the ink. Unfortunately, this is an epidemiologic study, which is excellent for raising questions, not so great at answering them. My take would be that if thete are potential carcinogens being used in tattoo ink, and the is an increase in cancers among those who are exposed, it damn sure ought to be looked into. But you are absolutely correct that one study does not warrent that breathless headline.
After some cursory fact-based searching, I learned that the local cost of a measles titer test is basically the same cost as the local cost getting a measles booster here in the U.S. So for that money (and it will be out of pocket), I may as well get the measles booster, which has been recommended for some people especially born in a specific range of years.
I wish I could say that getting a multiple titer test verifying a slew of childhood vaccinations is a simple, reliable, cost-effective way forward. Quest, Labcorp… nationwide common factory-like labs… have been in the news recently re: error-filled lab results reports. Even if I were to get titers for various lethal communicable diseases, there will always be a question in my mind as to the lab’s accuracy and reliability. All this points to just getting the necessary boosters to be certain, and dispensing with antigen/antibody titers.
I could be wrong. If I learn more or different, I’ll post it here.
My husband’s doctor ordered a measle titer test and, as expected, no trace of measles vaccination (birth year 1962). He did have the mumps, so he doesn’t need that one. I have a regular yearly appt scheduled for 6/2, so I’m going to ask my doctor for a booster.
Thank you for looking into this. Will keep checking in.
There are two main NIOSH functions at the South Park campus that the agency shares with the much larger staff of the National Energy Technology Laboratory. One is the mining safety research division, which works on ways to prevent any type of hazard, injury or fatality at mining sites. The other is the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, which certifies respirators ranging from N95 masks to full-face coverings worn by firefighters.
It’s really fucked up because many take out food places just toss the receipt in the bag next to wrapped and unwrapped food, and fast food places generally don’t have the ability to email receipts.
We also stopped having receipts emailed because it seemed to give permission to send spam. I’m telling my husband to start using my junk email address (Yahoo) if he buys anything.
Secretary Kennedy is not anti-vaccine; he is pro-safety,
This bullshit line has been used for decades by antivaxxers. Just yesterday we read he was critcizing the lack of placebo-controlled trials, just ignoring how incredibly unethical that would be. It’s a strawman justification for yhe broader antivaxx platform.
I also don’t like the “several foods that I often eat” angle.
Scientists particularly probed the role of oxalic acid – found in many foods like tomatoes, spinach, nuts and berries – as the molecule binds with metal ions and is implicated in the formation of kidney stones.
Just tomatoes, berries, nuts, and citrus is my diet every day
And what about emergency MRI?! Maybe the focus should be on finding a contrast that doesn’t have this potentially deadly effect
I was shocked at the statistic cited until I read more slowly and caught the “that lead to admission” part. The ones that lead to admission should be the sicker, more urgent cases. A 4 hour wait in our local ED would be just a day ending in “Y”. The vast majority of those who are in an ED should never be in an ED. They are minor illnesses or injuries that should see their PCP’s. Of course, adults rarely have PCP’s anymore, and kids frequently can only get to medical care when their parents are off work, often after office hours. And most urgent care centers don’t or won’t see kids. Waiting 6, 8 12 hours for a cold seems ridiculous, but we see it all the time. And it is going to get worse if the mess of a budget plan goes through. My wife is convinced that they would never do something that would hurt so many people. She is a pure soul. I have no such hope.
I will give props to ABC for including tis in the article:
The experts, however, said Kennedy and others are missing important context about why autism rates are increasing. In addition to the broadening of the definition of ASD, they say reasons for rising rates may include people having children at older ages, better awareness and access to diagnostic testing.
But this was the very last paragraph in the article. It should have been the first!
My theory is that while older parents, and particularly fathers, are associated with increased rates of autism, older parents are also more likely to have the resources to pursue a diagnosis and access the support services out there. I don’t think this is the whole story, by any means, but it is part of it.
