Lower Healthcare $$ With Empagliflozin; FDA Warns on Amazon’s Diet Pills

Adults with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease who took empagliflozin (Jardiance) had lower total annual healthcare costs versus those who took other name brand diabetes medication, according to a retrospective analysis from Highmark and Boehringer Ingelheim.

The FDA warned against purchasing a slew of over-the-counter weight loss products, largely sold on Amazon and eBay, that contain dangerous unlabeled ingredients.

A joint task force from the National Kidney Foundation and American Society of Nephrology on reassessing inclusion of race in the diagnosis of kidney diseases is calling for commentary in January to help draft their final report.

In an analysis of nutrition and diet peer-reviewed studies published in the 10 most-cited journals in 2018, 13.4{50531db320f8e8a316d79d6a285e47c71b6e4f6739df32858cb86474d7e720e9} of papers listed disclosures involving the food industry; the publication with the highest proportion was the Journal of Nutrition at 28.3{50531db320f8e8a316d79d6a285e47c71b6e4f6739df32858cb86474d7e720e9}. (PLoS ONE)

Bone Health Technologies announced it was granted breakthrough device designation by the FDA for its OsteoBoost Vibration Belt, which is designed to reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

Novo Nordisk announced it would initiate a phase III trial to assess the GLP-1 receptor agonist semaglutide (Ozempic) as a possible early Alzheimer’s disease treatment.

No surprise here: people who had obesity for longer tended to have worse cardiovascular outcomes, a cohort study in PLOS Medicine found. “Our findings suggest that health policy recommendations aimed at preventing early obesity onset, and therefore reducing lifetime exposure, may help reduce risk of diabetes, independently of obesity severity,” the researchers wrote.

Even a year after therapy with gender affirming hormones, transwomen still displayed an athletic advantage, running on average 9{50531db320f8e8a316d79d6a285e47c71b6e4f6739df32858cb86474d7e720e9} faster than other women, though most advantages showed declines. (British Journal of Sports Medicine)