Grindr, heart attack risk, bird flu

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Surprisingly, a narrative by my colleagues Nick Florko and Sarah Owermohle about how Grindr employed a Washington lobbyist is NOT the primary time the, uh, “social networking app” (their phrases!) has appeared in STAT reporting. A fast Google search tells me that the phrase first appeared in an early episode of The Readout LOUD. In “print,” that honor belongs to a First Opinion essay in the course of the mpox outbreak in 2022.

May a proposed new danger mannequin result in extra coronary heart assaults?

Final November, a brand new danger mannequin for assessing an individual’s danger of coronary heart assault or stroke was offered by the American Coronary heart Affiliation. It was developed particularly to enhance upon a 2013 model that was broadly criticized for overestimating danger. Final month, one research centered instructed far fewer Individuals (like, 40% much less!) could be candidates for statins, the cholesterol-lowering drug, with the brand new danger calculator. Now, one other research estimates that it may result in 107,000 extra coronary heart assaults and strokes over 10 years.

The analysis is creating controversy in cardiology circles whereas two medical societies formulate new tips to tell apply, STAT’s Liz Cooney writes. Learn extra.

Quitting smoking might be one other potential use for semaglutide

Add it to the listing: A research revealed yesterday in Annals of Internal Medicine discovered that, amongst individuals with sort 2 diabetes who additionally smoke, new use of semaglutide was related to a decrease danger for medical encounters associated to tobacco use dysfunction in comparison with different anti-diabetes medicines.

Researchers in contrast greater than 222,000 new customers of assorted diabetes meds, together with nearly 6,000 new semaglutide customers. Those that took semaglutide obtained fewer prescriptions and fewer counseling particularly for smoking cessation, including to analysis that means GLP-1 medicines may scale back cravings for addictive substances. The research signifies a necessity for scientific trials evaluating the medicine’s potential as a therapy for tobacco use dysfunction.

Researchers are calling for higher information on trans individuals

Diana Tordoff, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford, needed to discover a option to analyze HIV transmission that precisely accounted for trans individuals, who are at higher-than-average danger of contracting the an infection. However when she got down to construct a greater mathematical mannequin, she discovered that the info didn’t exist to take action. 

Mathematical fashions — like laptop simulations of how a illness spreads in the actual world — are a key a part of contemplating prevention insurance policies. There are a whole lot centered on HIV, dozens of that are used frequently world wide, however solely seven that even contemplate the existence of trans individuals — and even these are flawed.  

Traditionally, there’s been extra of a concentrate on trans individuals in HIV analysis than in every other space of well being care. However an absence of information on gender and sexual identification remains to be posing obstacles for public well being efforts. Learn extra from me on why the lacking information is an issue for future prevention and therapy insurance policies.

Grindr desires to foyer Washington on HIV prevention and IVF

The queer relationship app Grindr is … moving into lobbying? The corporate employed The Daschle Group, based by former Senate Democratic chief Tom Daschle, to foyer on “HIV prevention; LGBTQ household formation challenges together with surrogacy and IVF,” STAT’s Nicholas Florko and Sarah Owermohle reported yesterday after studying federal disclosures filed final week.

The transfer comes as competing payments designed to guard IVF, or in vitro fertilization, sit within the Senate. Washington has additionally seen elevated lobbying round entry to PrEP, the HIV prevention drugs. It’s unclear how a lot Grindr is paying Daschle’s agency to foyer on its behalf.

Learn extra on what the transfer means for Grindr and what we all know in regards to the lobbyists the corporate employed.

Have you learnt how sizzling your meals is meant to be?

To be clear, there isn’t any proof you can get the H5N1 fowl flu virus by cooking and consuming the meat that lands in your fridge. When you’re apprehensive about fowl flu, simply be sure you’re not a part of the small share of U.S. adults consuming uncooked milk.

However because the approach our meals impacts our well being is on the thoughts nowadays, the Annenberg Public Coverage Heart surveyed practically 1,500 Individuals earlier this month about meals security. When offered with varied temperatures for heating poultry, beef, and steak, then requested about which of them would kill any H5N1 virus, over half of respondents mentioned they weren’t positive. On high of that, solely about one in 4 U.S. adults use a meals thermometer both “typically” or “on a regular basis.”

In order a refresher: Cooking poultry and eggs to an inner temperature of 165 levels Fahrenheit kills micro organism and viruses. Floor beef must get to not less than 160, whereas steak must get to not less than 145.

How a parasite may assist get meds into the mind

There’s a really unique listing and a really highly effective bouncer on the entrance door of our brains, because the physique works laborious to maintain it secure from exterior substances. However what if any person on the listing may carry a plus one? A mouse research revealed yesterday exhibits how a parasite that’s already in a position to cross the blood-brain barrier was engineered to deal with a mind improvement dysfunction in mice.

Scientists at MIT engineered the parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, to make and secrete therapeutic proteins as soon as it was contained in the mouse brains. This “good microbe” might be a gamechanger, however first, scientists want to consider the therapy’s security. Learn extra on the science from STAT’s Alia Sajani.

What we’re studying

• Combining ayahuasca compound with medicine like Ozempic may assist deal with diabetes, mouse mannequin suggests, Scientific American

• What America can study from Rwanda to unravel its psychological well being disaster, National Geographic

• The best way to inform if Biden drove a tough discount on drug costs, STAT
• Iowa’s six-week abortion ban is now in impact, The 19th
• Well being care’s ‘Pepsi problem’: Docs’ workplaces are testing AI instruments in head-to-head pilots, STAT