New Guidance for Stroke Prevention Includes Ozempic, Other Weight Loss Drugs

Experts this week identified new risks and issued updated recommendations for preventing strokes, a leading cause of death and disability in the U.S. It’s the first time in a decade that health experts at the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association have issued significant updates to their guidelines. Among the findings, the report published Monday highlights the impact of Ozempic, other GLP-1 drugs and hormones used in gender-affirming care and lays out sex- and gender-specific risks of stroke. USAToday.

COVID Map Update: US States With ‘High’ Wastewater Viral Activity Revealed

This map shows the median wastewater viral activity level of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) reported by wastewater treatment plants within each state or territory over the previous week. States and territories may have a higher density of sampling sites in certain geographic areas, so the median wastewater viral activity level may not represent the wastewater viral activity level for every community in the state or territory. CDC.

They’re in Health Care and They’re for Harris

Some 500 women health care leaders are rallying support for Vice President Kamala Harris in the final weeks before the election. “We have seen what happened in the first administration under Trump, so we have very clear evidence of — the direction away from science, away from access to care — and we’re deeply concerned,” said Missy Krasner, who led health care projects at Google and Amazon and served as a special adviser to the national coordinator for health information technology in the George W. Bush administration. Politico.

Can Harris’s Proposed ‘At-Home Medicare’ End The Dreaded ‘Spend Down’ Of Senior Assets?

A new proposal for “at home Medicare” by the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, could help ease the burden of the cost of elder care for many families, experts say. However, Republicans have already criticized the proposal as too expensive, a reminder of the political difficulties of enacting healthcare expansions in the US. Guardian.

Infant Death Rates Found to Be Higher Post-Roe 

Infant death rates were higher than expected for several months after the Supreme Court struck down the federal right to abortion, with most of the increase coming from infants with birth defects, researchers reported on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. Axios.

Birth Control Doesn’t Cause Abortions – But That Misconception Is Blocking Access

Birth control remains legal everywhere, but in some states, it’s become harder to access due to abortion misconceptions. 

…Major medical groups and ten health researchers interviewed by USA TODAY say there is no evidence that any of the popular forms of birth control end human lives. And some groups that oppose abortion still support the wide availability of birth control to help prevent unwanted pregnancies. USAToday.

Liam Payne had ‘pink cocaine’ in his system at time of death – reports

An official in Argentina, where the boy band star died last week, has spoken anonymously ahead of the final toxicology results being released

Former One Direction singer Liam Payne had multiple drugs including crack cocaine and methamphetamine in his system when he fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Argentina, according to anonymous Argentinian sources familiar with the initial toxicology reports. Guardian.

What is pink cocaine? The party drug reportedly taken by Liam Payne

The drug cocktail that can contain ketamine, ecstasy, meth and crack has grown in popularity in recent years

Pink cocaine is a cocktail of drugs that usually does not include cocaine. The mixture, which owes its colour to the addition of food dye and sometimes strawberry flavouring, usually contains at least one stimulant drug and one depressant. The drugs most commonly found in pink cocaine include methamphetamine; ketamine, a dissociative anaesthetic with hallucinogenic effects; and MDMA (ecstasy), as well as benzodiazepines, crack and caffeine. Guardian.

Smoke pollution from wildfires may be killing an extra 12,000 people a year, new research suggests

Global heating particularly increasing risk of death from smoke inhalation in Australia, South America, Europe and parts of Asia

… While the results varied, the authors from eight countries, including the UK, the US, Germany and China, found that in all cases global heating was causing a rising number of deaths from people breathing PM2.5 from wildfires. Guardian.