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A class of drugs called beta-blockers — used for decades as a first-line treatment after a heart attack— doesn’t benefit the vast majority of patients and may contribute to a higher risk of hospitalization and death in some women but not in men, according to groundbreaking new research. (LaMotte, 8/30)

A silent heart disease risk factor may explain why some women end up having heart attacks and strokes despite seeming like they are healthy, a new study suggests. The analysis of 30 years of data from more than 12,000 women revealed that inflammation was comparable to high LDL cholesterol as a heart disease risk factor, researchers reported Friday at the European Society of Cardiology Congress meeting in Madrid. The results were simultaneously published in the European Heart Journal. (Carroll, 8/30)

A new global systematic literature review and meta-analysis shows that shingles vaccination is associated with a statistically significant lower risk of heart attack and stroke, according to a study presented today at the 2025 European Society of Cardiology Congress. The study is based on 19 studies, and the final analysis included eight observational studies and one randomized controlled trial. Across all nine studies, 53.3% of participants were male. (Soucheray, 8/28)

Beetroot juice, which is rich in nitrates, has been linked to changing the community of bacteria living in the mouth. Now, a new study has found that drinking this juice could reduce older adults’ blood pressure. Researchers at the University of Exeter compared the response of both younger and older participants to the juice and published the study in Free Radical Biology and Medicine. (DiMella, 9/1)

It’s one of the most insidious diseases you’ve never heard of, but Chagas is here in California and 29 other states across the U.S. It kills more people in Latin America than malaria each year, and researchers think roughly 300,000 people in the U.S. currently have it but are unaware. That’s because the illness tends to lie dormant for years, making itself known only when its victim keels over via heart attack, stroke or death. (Rust, 9/1)

Novo Nordisk said its blockbuster Wegovy weight-loss drug cuts the risk of heart attack, stroke or death by 57% compared with Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound. The Danish pharmaceutical giant said Sunday that the study suggests the heart-protective benefits of semaglutide—the active ingredient in Wegovy—may not be the same for all GLP-1 drugs such as tirzepatide, which is the active ingredient in Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound. (Chopping, 9/1)

Eli Lilly & Co is partnering with Chinese online healthcare platform JD Health International Inc. to sell its blockbuster drugs for obesity and diabetes online, following in competitors’ footsteps to drive sales through direct-to-consumer channels. The tie-up will ease access to Lilly’s drugs treating obesity, diabetes and alopecia through a one-stop service via JD Health’s platform that combines consultations, prescriptions all the way to the drug delivery and subsequent follow-ups, according to an official statement from Lilly’s official WeChat account on Friday. (Tong, 8/29)

Roughly 40 percent of adult Americans are considered obese, and weight-loss drugs have come to play a central role in medical treatment over the past few years. As of the spring of 2024, one in eight U.S. adults had taken drugs including Wegovy, Zepbound, or Ozempic, among others, for weight loss. These products belong to a class of drugs known as glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists, or GLP-1s, which can be remarkably effective, but when patients go off GLP-1s, weight rebound occurs. And as it turns out, a relatively large portion of patients discontinue these medications within one year. (Cohen, 9/1)