Most GP practices in England have been disrupted by the

As patients consider drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic, Zepbound and Mounjaro to treat obesity, experts say the choices are not so simple.People with obesity now have a choice between two powerful drugs to help them lose weight. One is semaglutide, sold by Novo Nordisk as Wegovy for obesity treatment and as Ozempic for diabetes. The second, tirzepatide, is sold by Eli Lilly as Zepbound for obesity and as Mounjaro for diabetes. Many with neither obesity or diabetes take the drugs to get thinner.A recent study suggested that people lost more weight taking Mounjaro than they did taking Ozempic, and it may leave you wondering: Which should I take? And if I’m already taking one of them, should I switch?The answers, obesity medicine experts say, are not so simple. Here are some factors that can help sort out hype from realistic hope.Is one weight loss drug really better than the other?For now, it’s hard to say. All of the information available comes from “highly flawed studies,” said Dr. Diana Thiara, medical director of the weight loss clinic at the University of California, San Francisco.That includes the recent study comparing Mounjaro and Ozempic. Using electronic health records, the researchers reported that those taking Mounjaro lost an average of 15.3 percent of their weight after a year. Those taking Ozempic lost an average of 8.3 percent.While that sounds impressive, Dr. Susan Z. Yanovski, co-director of the Office of Obesity Research at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, said, “I wouldn’t make any decisions on my medical care based solely on a study like this.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

The chief executive and a lead scientist stepped down weeks after a federal grand jury filed fraud charges against a research collaborator.Two top officials at Cassava Sciences — a small pharmaceutical company in Austin, Texas, embroiled in years of controversy over a proposed Alzheimer’s drug — have resigned.Remi Barbier, the chairman and chief executive, stepped down on Wednesday but will remain at Cassava “without duties or responsibilities” until September, according to a company statement.Lindsay Burns, Cassava’s chief scientist, who is married to Mr. Barbier, will also leave the company.In June, a neuroscientist at the City College of New York, Hoau-Yan Wang, was charged with fraud by a federal grand jury for allegedly falsifying data to obtain research grants from the National Institutes of Health.In collaboration with Dr. Burns, Dr. Wang published research studies in support of Cassava’s drug candidate for Alzheimer’s, called simufilam. It is currently in advanced trials, although more than five of Dr. Wang’s studies have been retracted or questioned by scientific journals.Mr. Barbier, Dr. Burns and Dr. Wang could not immediately be reached for comment.In a leaked report last fall, a City University of New York committee investigating the research faulted Dr. Burns for some of the errors discovered in the papers. Its members accused Dr. Wang of “longstanding and egregious misconduct in data management and record keeping.”In a regulatory filing earlier this month, Cassava reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating the company and two senior employees, who were not identified.Scientists have long criticized the methodological “oddities” in Cassava’s experiments with simufilam, citing suspicious figures in its published papers and questioning the underlying hypotheses about the drug’s mode of action.Dr. William Hu, an Alzheimer’s disease expert at Rutgers University and early critic of Cassava’s studies, said he hoped this was the first of many steps the company would take to make its research rigorous and transparent.Still, significant work needs to be done to “undo the harms from research misconduct,” he wrote in an email.Richard Barry, who has served on Cassava’s board of directors since 2021, has replaced Mr. Barbier as chairman of the board. The company is in the process of finding a new chief executive.Mr. Barry said in the statement that the board was committed to testing simufilam in Alzheimer’s patients with “transparency, accountability and highest ethical business practices.”A spokeswoman at the Food and Drug Administration said it did not discuss ongoing clinical trials or products in development.

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A Public Health Service employee, he turned whistle-blower after learning of decades-long research involving hundreds of poor, infected Black men who were left untreated.Peter Buxtun, a whistle-blower who in 1972 exposed a 40-year government experiment to track the effects of syphilis in Black men in Alabama — who were neither told that they had the disease nor offered treatment — died on May 18 in Rocklin, Calif., near Sacramento. He was 86.His death, in a memory care center, was from complications of Alzheimer’s disease, said John K. Seidts, a close friend. The death was first reported on Monday by The Associated Press, to which Mr. Buxtun had turned over his files and which in 1972 published the first news articles about his disclosures.Exposure of the Tuskegee Study, as the federal research was known, created a political furor that shut it down, but the study cast a long, dark shadow as an episode of official racism embedded in government policy. It was one of the worst medical ethics scandals in U.S. history, tarnishing the do-no-harm image of doctors and, especially, sowing mistrust of the medical establishment among many African Americans.Mr. Buxtun, the son of a Jewish father who fled Czechoslovakia before World War II to escape persecution, was working as a venereal disease investigator for the U.S. Public Health Service in San Francisco in 1965 when he overheard a co-worker talking about the Tuskegee Study taking place in rural Alabama.One of his first acts was to visit a library to research the crimes of Nazi doctors in World War II.He contacted the Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta (now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), which had cooperated with the Public Health Service in overseeing the Tuskegee Study. The agency, making no effort to conceal the study from a government employee, sent him a manila envelope stuffed with reports.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

A common antibiotic, doxycycline, greatly reduced cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia when taken every day, a study found.A daily dose of a widely used antibiotic can prevent some infections with syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia, potentially a new solution to the escalating crisis of sexually transmitted infections, scientists reported on Thursday.Their study was small and must be confirmed by more research. Scientists still have to resolve significant questions, including whether S.T.I.s might become resistant to the antibiotic and what effect it could have on healthy gut bacteria in people taking it every day.The approach would be recommended primarily to people at elevated risk of sexually transmitted infections during certain periods, said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, an infectious diseases physician at the University of Southern California who was not involved in the new work.“The number of people who are really going to be offered this and take this is still very small,” he said. “In general, the more choices we have for people, the more prevention options we have, the better.”The results will be presented next week at a conference of the International AIDS Society in Munich.The United States now has the highest rate of new syphilis infections since 1950, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in January. In 2022, the last year for which data are available, there were 1.6 million cases of chlamydia and nearly 650,000 new cases of gonorrhea.Previous studies have shown that the antibiotic doxycycline substantially cuts the risk of new infections if taken within 72 hours after unprotected sex. The C.D.C. now recommends taking doxycycline after “oral, vaginal or anal sex.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Published21 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesYellow heat-health alerts have been issued for parts of England, indicating that the weather conditions could pose a risk to those who are particularly vulnerable.Here are some tips to help you get a good night’s sleep during a period of high temperatures.1. No nappingHot weather can make us feel a bit lethargic during the day. That is because we are using more energy to regulate our internal temperature. But if your sleep is disturbed at night, try to avoid napping during the day. When it is hot, sleepiness can be precious – save it for bedtime. 2. Keep to routinesHot weather can encourage you to change your habits. Don’t. That can disrupt sleep.Try to keep to your usual bedtime and routines. Do the things you normally do before bed.3. Remember the basicsTake steps to make sure your bedroom is as cool as it can be at night.During the day, draw the curtains or blinds to keep out the sun. Make sure you close the windows on the sunny side of your home, to keep out hot air.Open all the windows before you go to bed, to get a through breeze.Six ways to keep your home coolHow does sunscreen work?4. Use thin sheetsReduce your bedding but keep covers handy. Thin cotton sheets will absorb sweat.However hot it is in your bedroom, your body temperature will fall during the night. That is why we sometimes wake up feeling cold. 5. Chill your socksUsing even a small fan can be sensible in hot weather, especially when it is humid.It encourages the evaporation of sweat and makes it easier for your body to regulate your internal temperature. If you do not have a fan, try filling your hot water bottle with ice cold liquid instead. Alternatively, cool socks in the fridge and put those on. Cooling your feet lowers the overall temperature of your skin and body. 6. Stay hydratedDrink enough water throughout the day but avoid drinking very large amounts before bed. Image source, Getty ImagesYou probably do not want to wake up thirsty – but you do not want to take an additional trip to the bathroom in the early hours either. How much water should you drink a day?How does sunscreen work?7. But think about what you drinkBe careful about soft drinks. Many contain large amounts of caffeine, which stimulates the central nervous system and makes us feel more awake.Avoid drinking too much alcohol as well. Many people drink more when the weather is hot. Alcohol might help us fall asleep but it promotes early morning waking and a poorer quality of sleep overall. How do hot temperatures affect the body?Dehydration: Drink enough water to make sure you replace that lost through urination, sweating and breathingOverheating: This can be a particular problem for those with heart or breathing problems. Symptoms include tingling skin, headaches and nauseaExhaustion: This is when you start to lose water or salt from your body. Feeling faint, weak, or having muscle cramps are just some of the symptomsHeatstroke: Once a body temperature reaches 40C or higher, heatstroke can set in. Indicators are similar to heat exhaustion but the person may lose consciousness, have dry skin and stop sweatingWhat do heatwaves do to the body?8. Stay calmIf you are struggling to sleep, get up and do something calming. Try reading, writing, or even folding your socks. Just make sure you do not play on your phone or a video game – the blue light makes us feel less sleepy and the activity is stimulating.Return to bed when you feel sleepy.9. Think of the childrenChildren are usually quite robust sleepers – but they can be very sensitive to changes in family “mood” and routine.Image source, Getty ImagesMake sure usual bedtimes and bath times do not go out of the window just because it is warm. As part of the bedtime routine, lukewarm baths are recommended by the NHS UK website.,

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Significant flaws in the UK’s pandemic planning meant Covid caused more deaths and economic costs than it should have, the first report of the Covid Inquiry says.