Influencers Push Cognitive, Health Benefits Of Nicotine In Image Makeover
Companies are now marketing “clean,” “modern” nicotine pouches with minimalist packaging, aimed at helping people “lock in” and achieve their goals. The catch is that most of these products have not been cleared by the FDA for sale in the U.S.
Stat:
Nicotine Makes Surprise Comeback As A Wellness, Productivity Tool
Biohackers like it. Athletes and Joe Rogan do, too. Stanford neuroscientist and podcaster Andrew Huberman says it “sharpens the mind.” On social media, health and wellness influencers explain how they use it for a pre-workout boost or as part of their “stacks.” (Todd, 2/20)
Axios:
The Overdose Crisis Is Shrinking — And Mutating
Overdose deaths are falling, but America's illicit drug supply is re-engineering itself into lethal cocktails: fentanyl plus stimulants, sedatives, and novel synthetics that hide in party powders and pressed pills. (Contreras, 2/20)
More health and wellness news —
CNN:
Some Parents Feed Their Babies Lots Of Butter For Health. Why Experts Say They’re Partially Right
A woman hands her 9-month-old baby girl a pepper-dusted stick of golden grass-fed butter on a silver platter in one TikTok post. Another gives her toddler pats of butter out of “pure desperation” to keep her “always-hungry” toddler fuller longer after meals. (Rogers, 2/19)
Bloomberg:
Pfizer Ponders Viagra Lessons To Chart First Obesity Drug Launch
Pfizer Inc. is drawing on lessons learned years ago from rolling out Viagra as it maps out the launch of its first obesity medicine. The parallels between weight loss and erectile dysfunction — two sensitive health topics influenced by social perceptions — are among the factors helping to inform the US drugmaker as it considers how best to introduce the monthly injection just gained from its acquisition of Metsera Inc., according to Alexandre de Germay, Pfizer’s chief international commercial officer. (Furlong, 2/19)
KFF Health News:
Should Drug Companies Be Advertising To Consumers?
Tamar Abrams had a lousy couple of years in 2022 and ’23. Both her parents died; a relationship ended; she retired from communications consulting. She moved from Arlington, Virginia, to Warren, Rhode Island, where she knew all of two people. “I was kind of a mess,” recalled Abrams, 69. Trying to cope, “I was eating myself into oblivion.” As her weight hit 270 pounds and her blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose levels climbed, “I knew I was in trouble health-wise.” (Span, 2/20)
In obituaries —
CIDRAP:
Renowned Prion-Disease Expert Byron Caughey Dies At 68
Byron Caughey, PhD, hailed as a “titan” in the field of prion diseases, has died. He was 68 years old. Caughey, who died February 15, was chief of the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy/Prion Biochemistry Section of the Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases at the National Institute of Health’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana. His major research areas included Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and prion structural biology, biochemistry, cell biology, diagnostic tests, and therapeutics. (Van Beusekom, 2/19)
The New York Times:
Eric Dane, McSteamy On ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ Dies At 53 After Battling ALS
Eric Dane, the actor best known as the charming plastic surgeon nicknamed McSteamy on the wildly successful ABC medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” has died. He was 53. His death was confirmed by his publicist Melissa Bank. He had been treated for A.L.S., a neurological disorder also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which breaks down a patient’s ability to control muscles, speak and eventually breathe without assistance. (Diaz, 2/19)
