Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
Dave Ricks is pushing his scientists to find an even more potent anti-obesity treatment. "Lilly鈥檚 got a lead, and we plan to exploit that lead." (Mendoza, Kwong and Loftus, 6/13)
Olympians including Dutch marathon runner Abdi Nageeye are using a new tool they hope will boost their medal chances this summer: tiny monitors that attach to the skin to track blood glucose levels. Continuous glucose monitors or CGMs were developed for use by diabetes patients but their makers, led by Abbott and Dexcom, also spy opportunities in sports and wellness. (Burger, 6/10)
On Jan. 1, 2014, Iraq War veteran Sean Azzariti made headlines worldwide as the first person in the U.S. to buy legal weed. More than 10 years later, 3D Cannabis, the dispensary in Denver鈥檚 Elyria-Swansea neighborhood where the historic purchase was made, displays a makeshift sign announcing it is 鈥渢emporarily closed.鈥 ... Regulatory burdens, an oversaturated market and increasing competition from nearby states have all landed major blows, leaving other states with newer marijuana markets scrambling to avoid the same mistakes. (Zhang, 6/9)
When Ina Chung, a Colorado mother, first fed packaged foods to her infant, she was careful to read the labels. Her daughter was allergic to peanuts, dairy, and eggs, so products containing those ingredients were out. So were foods with labels that said they may contain the allergens. Chung felt like this last category suggested a clear risk that wasn鈥檛 worth taking. 鈥淚 had heard that the ingredient labels were regulated. And so I thought that that included those statements,鈥 said Chung. 鈥淲hich was not true.鈥 (Beans, 6/10)
Morrie Markoff, who died June 3, lived to the age of 110. His brain will be studied by scientists seeking to learn more about the aging process 鈥 and why some people slide into dementia and cognitive decline but others, like Markoff, remain sharp to the end. (Trethan, 6/13)
Space changes you, even during short trips off the planet. Four people who spent three days off Earth in September 2021 experienced physical and mental changes that included modest declines in cognitive tests, stressed immune systems and genetic changes within their cells, scientists report in a package of papers published on Tuesday in the journal Nature and several other related journals. (Chang, 6/12)
Thousand-year-old DNA from Chich茅n Itz谩 offers eye-opening details of the religious rituals of ancient Maya. The search did not start as an exercise in ancient Maya rituals. In the mid-2000s, Rodrigo Barquera 鈥 now an immunogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute 鈥 was hoping to discover the genetic legacy of Mesoamerica鈥檚 deadliest pandemic. (Kreier, 6/12)