Latest news with #STATNews
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Children Under 6 Being Poisoned by Nicotine Pouches, New Study Finds
At least 134,663 cases of kids under age 6 inadvertently ingesting nicotine were reported between 2010 and 2023, according to a study published in Pediatrics on Monday, July 14 The most significant rise in accidental poisoning was caused by nicotine pouches "It's easy to access, it tastes good, kids don't really know the difference — that could lead to more serious outcomes because they're getting a large dose very quickly," Natalie Rine, a study co-author, said of the pouches, per STAT NewsAs the range of nicotine products on the market continues to expand, a new study has found they are increasingly making their way into the hands of young children. On Monday, July 14, a study based on calls to America's Poison Centers was published in Pediatrics that revealed 134,663 cases of kids under age 6 inadvertently ingested nicotine between 2010 and 2023, NBC News reported, citing the American Academy of Pediatrics. While the form of the substance varied between products such as pouches, gum, tablets and e-cigarettes, almost all of the cases involved exposure to nicotine at home. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Many of the children experienced nausea or vomiting, but two fatal instances involved children under the age of 2 dying after consuming liquid nicotine, STAT News reported. 'We don't want parents and caregivers to be led to a false sense of security that they aren't that harmful if most don't have a bad outcome,' said Natalie Rine, a study co-author and managing director of Central Ohio Poison Center, per the outlet. The most significant rise in accidental poisoning in kids was caused by nicotine pouches, similar to the hugely popular Zyn, the study found. The number of instances soared by 763% between 2020 and 2023, STAT News reported, citing the American Academy of Pediatrics. Ingesting nicotine in the form of a pouch was 1.5 times more likely to cause a serious health issue than other nicotine products. 'The pouches are highly concentrated products,' said Rine, per STAT News. 'The flavors are attractive too. So when you have something like that — it's easy to access, it tastes good, kids don't really know the difference — that could lead to more serious outcomes because they're getting a large dose very quickly.' Zyn contains up to 6 milligrams of nicotine, while competitor varieties can be double the amount, according to STAT News. The risk of being poisoned is increased if children consume multiple pouches. The outlet notes that a full tin of Zyn totals 90 milligrams of nicotine in comparison to a pack of cigarettes, averaging no more than 36 milligrams. is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more! Following the study, parents are advised to lock away their nicotine products rather than storing them in bags or cabinets where curious children may explore. 'For younger kids, when they see fun, brightly-colored packaging, they want to take a look and see what that is,' Rine said, per STAT News. 'Storage can help keep kids safe.' Read the original article on People
New York Post
10-07-2025
- Health
- New York Post
8-year-old whose rare condition put him in a wheelchair can walk again — thanks to an experimental drug made just for him
An eight-year-old boy has regained his ability to walk with the aid of a compound found in a common over-the-counter supplement. The boy's case was detailed in the journal Nature. The unnamed child was an active athlete until the summer of 2023, when he began to struggle with mobility. Within months, his symptoms progressed to the point that he required a wheelchair. 'Our son's condition dramatically changed in a short period. He went from being the fastest runner in his class and an avid soccer player to struggling just to walk, often limping and experiencing frequent falls,' the boy's parents, who wish to remain anonymous, said to STAT News. 3 Their son was eventually diagnosed with HPDL deficiency, a rare genetic condition that inhibits the body's ability to produce sufficient levels of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), a compound critical to cell function. Prostock-studio – Their son was eventually diagnosed with HPDL deficiency, a rare genetic condition that inhibits the body's ability to produce sufficient levels of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), a compound critical to cell function. HPDL deficiency occurs when an individual inherits two mutated versions of the human HPDL gene, which is used in the production of the CoQ10 enzyme. Without adequate CoQ10, patients struggle with muscle control, walking, and are at a higher risk of seizures. When HPDL deficiency surfaces later in adolescence, it manifests as muscle weakness and stiffness in otherwise healthy children. The boy in question was placed on a protocol of CoQ10 supplements — but the pills could only help to a certain extent, as the enzyme is too large to cross the blood-brain barrier. '[CoQ10] is safe. It's reasonably effective at treating symptoms outside of the brain, but almost completely ineffective at treating symptoms within the brain, because it doesn't get through the blood-brain barrier,' Michael Pacold, an associate professor of radiation oncology at NYU Langone and one of the study authors, told STAT. But 4-HB is a building block of CoQ10 — and, helpfully, it's thin enough to cross the blood-brain barrier and can be condensed into a powder that is dissolved in a water solution. 3 CoQ10 is available as an over-the-counter supplement to help boost energy and combat fatigue. luchschenF – The FDA has not approved CoQ10 or 4-HB as a treatment for any specific disease or condition. However, CoQ10 is available as an over-the-counter supplement to help boost energy and combat fatigue. While 4-HB is not approved by the FDA, with the consent of the boy's parents and the insistence of his doctors, the FDA approved its use as a single-patient investigational drug — in other words, doctors were permitted to use an unapproved drug for a specific patient to treat a specific condition. 'It was one of the hardest decisions we've ever made [to try the experimental treatment], but doing nothing felt riskier,' said the boy's parents. 'We saw how quickly our son was declining and knew we had to act. After speaking with doctors and doing our research, we got hope and confidence to step into the unknown.' 3 Within a month of receiving treatment, the boy was walking again and even completed a nearly mile-long trek across Central Park. maxximmm – A 2021 study tested 4-HB on mice with HPDL deficiency and found that the supplement restored mobility in rodents. Its use in the case of the eight-year-old body is the first time it's been used to treat the condition in humans. After stopping his CoQ10 supplements, the boy began taking a 4-HB supplement in a 600ml solution. Equivalent to nearly three glasses of water, the liquid cure often caused him to vomit. This was eventually reduced to a 300ml solution, or just over one glass of water. However, the upchuck was worth the upturn, as within a month of receiving treatment, the boy was walking again, and even completed a nearly mile-long trek across Central Park. Researchers are hopeful the success story will serve as a beacon to others. The research team is calling it a medical breakthrough. 'We all dream of this as scientists. And every morning I pinch myself … is this really a dream?' said Pacold. Now, Pacold and his team are working on a larger study to test the approach on a larger group of children.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Contributor: Slashing NIH research guarantees a less healthy, less wealthy America
In recent months, funding for biomedical research from the National Institutes of Health has been canceled, delayed and plunged into uncertainty. According to an April STAT News analysis, NIH funding has decreased by at least $2.3 billion since the beginning of the year. KFF Health News reports the full or partial termination of approximately 780 NIH grants between Feb. 28 and March 28 alone. Additional NIH funding cuts loom on the horizon, including proposed cuts to indirect costs. Amid this volatility, one thing remains clear: NIH grant funding is a valuable, proven investment, economically and in terms of improving human health. A recent United for Medical Research report shows that in fiscal year 2024, research funded by the NIH generated $94.58 billion in economic activity nationwide, a 156% return on investment. Further, the report shows that NIH funding supported 407,782 jobs nationwide. According to the NIH's own figures, patents derived from work it has funded produce 20% more economic value than other U.S. patents. These economic returns — including a return on investment that would thrill any startup or stock investor — cannot begin to capture the impact on individuals, families and communities in terms of increased longevity and higher quality of life. While it is hard to precisely quantify human health improvements resulting from NIH-funded research, there are proxy measures. As one example, a study published in JAMA Health Forum found that NIH funding supported the development of 386 of 387 drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration from 2010-19. Many of the approved drugs address the most pressing human health concerns of our time, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases and neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Many other NIH-funded advancements represent what is now considered common knowledge, such as the relationship between cholesterol and cardiovascular health, or standard practice, such as screening newborns for serious diseases that may be treatable with early medical intervention. But each of these fundamental aspects of contemporary medicine had to first be discovered, tested and proved. They represent what NIH funding can do — and the type of paradigm-shifting advancements in medicine that are now very much at risk. Consider the biotechnology industry as one such paradigm shift. In the 1970s, Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer were the first scientists to clone DNA and to transplant genes from one living organism to another. This work launched the biotechnology industry. Two decades later, the NIH and the Department of Energy began a 13-year effort to sequence the human genome, including through university-based research grants. In 2003, the consortium of researchers produced a sequence accounting for 92% of the human genome. In 2022, a group of researchers primarily funded by the NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute produced a complete human genome sequence. This work paved the way for insights into inherited diseases, pharmacogenomics (how genetics affect the body's response to medications) and precision medicine. NIH funding has also led to major breakthroughs in cancer treatments. In 1948, Sidney Farber demonstrated the first use of a chemotherapy drug, aminopterin, to induce remission in children with acute leukemia. Before Farber's research, which was funded in part by the NIH, children with acute leukemia were unlikely to survive even five years. Over the years that followed, other modes of cancer treatment such as immunotherapy emerged, first as novel areas of inquiry, followed by drug development and clinical trials. NIH funding supported, among others, the development of CAR T cell therapy, which genetically modifies a patients' own T-cells to fight cancer. CAR T cell therapy has improved outcomes for many patients with persistent blood cancers, and clinical trials are ongoing to discover other cancers that might be treatable with CAR T cell therapies. For decades, scientists knew that breast cancer could run in families and hypothesized a genetic role. In the 1990s, teams of scientists — supported at least in part by NIH funding — tracked down the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes responsible for inherited predispositions to breast and other cancers. Today, many people undergo testing for BRCA gene mutations to make informed decisions about prevention, screening and treatment. These kinds of advancements, along with improvements in detection and screening, have meaningfully reduced cancer mortality rates. After hitting a smoking-related peak in 1991, U.S. mortality rates from all cancers dropped by 34% as of 2022, according to the American Cancer Society. For children with acute leukemias, who had effectively no long-term chance of survival just 75 years ago, the numbers are even more dramatic. The five-year survival rate is now approximately 90% for children with acute lymphocytic leukemia and between 65% and 70% for those with acute myelogenous leukemia. These examples represent a fraction of the tremendous progress that has occurred through decades of compounding knowledge and research. Reductions in NIH funding now threaten similar breakthroughs that are the prerequisites to better care, better technology and better outcomes in the most common health concerns and diseases of our time. It is not research alone that is threatened by NIH funding cuts. Researchers, too, face new uncertainties. We have heard firsthand the anxiety around building a research career in the current environment. Many young physician-scientists wonder whether it will be financially viable to build their own lab in the U.S., or to find jobs at research institutions that must tighten their belts. Many medical residents, fellows and junior faculty are considering leaving the U.S. to train and build careers elsewhere. Losing early-career researchers to other fields or countries would be a blow to talent for biomedical research institutions nationwide and weaken the country's ability to compete globally in the biomedical sector. The effects of decreased NIH funding might not be immediately visible to most Americans, but as grant cancellations and delays mount, there will be a price. NIH funding produces incredible results. Cuts will set scientific research back and result in losses in quality of life and longevity for generations of Americans in years to come. Euan Ashley is the chair of the Stanford University department of medicine and a professor of medicine and of genetics. He is the author of 'The Genome Odyssey: Medical Mysteries and the Incredible Quest to Solve Them.' Rachel Keranen is a writer in the Stanford department of medicine. If it's in the news right now, the L.A. Times' Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
28-05-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Slashing NIH research guarantees a less healthy, less wealthy America
In recent months, funding for biomedical research from the National Institutes of Health has been canceled, delayed and plunged into uncertainty. According to an April STAT News analysis, NIH funding has decreased by at least $2.3 billion since the beginning of the year. KFF Health News reports the full or partial termination of approximately 780 NIH grants between Feb. 28 and March 28 alone. Additional NIH funding cuts loom on the horizon, including proposed cuts to indirect costs. Amid this volatility, one thing remains clear: NIH grant funding is a valuable, proven investment, economically and in terms of improving human health. A recent United for Medical Research report shows that in fiscal year 2024, research funded by the NIH generated $94.58 billion in economic activity nationwide, a 156% return on investment. Further, the report shows that NIH funding supported 407,782 jobs nationwide. According to the NIH's own figures, patents derived from work it has funded produce 20% more economic value than other U.S. patents. These economic returns — including a return on investment that would thrill any startup or stock investor — cannot begin to capture the impact on individuals, families and communities in terms of increased longevity and higher quality of life. While it is hard to precisely quantify human health improvements resulting from NIH-funded research, there are proxy measures. As one example, a study published in JAMA Health Forum found that NIH funding supported the development of 386 of 387 drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration from 2010-19. Many of the approved drugs address the most pressing human health concerns of our time, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases and neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Many other NIH-funded advancements represent what is now considered common knowledge, such as the relationship between cholesterol and cardiovascular health, or standard practice, such as screening newborns for serious diseases that may be treatable with early medical intervention. But each of these fundamental aspects of contemporary medicine had to first be discovered, tested and proved. They represent what NIH funding can do — and the type of paradigm-shifting advancements in medicine that are now very much at risk. Consider the biotechnology industry as one such paradigm shift. In the 1970s, Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer were the first scientists to clone DNA and to transplant genes from one living organism to another. This work launched the biotechnology industry. Two decades later, the NIH and the Department of Energy began a 13-year effort to sequence the human genome, including through university-based research grants. In 2003, the consortium of researchers produced a sequence accounting for 92% of the human genome. In 2022, a group of researchers primarily funded by the NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute produced a complete human genome sequence. This work paved the way for insights into inherited diseases, pharmacogenomics (how genetics affect the body's response to medications) and precision medicine. NIH funding has also led to major breakthroughs in cancer treatments. In 1948, Sidney Farber demonstrated the first use of a chemotherapy drug, aminopterin, to induce remission in children with acute leukemia. Before Farber's research, which was funded in part by the NIH, children with acute leukemia were unlikely to survive even five years. Over the years that followed, other modes of cancer treatment such as immunotherapy emerged, first as novel areas of inquiry, followed by drug development and clinical trials. NIH funding supported, among others, the development of CAR T cell therapy, which genetically modifies a patients' own T-cells to fight cancer. CAR T cell therapy has improved outcomes for many patients with persistent blood cancers, and clinical trials are ongoing to discover other cancers that might be treatable with CAR T cell therapies. For decades, scientists knew that breast cancer could run in families and hypothesized a genetic role. In the 1990s, teams of scientists — supported at least in part by NIH funding — tracked down the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes responsible for inherited predispositions to breast and other cancers. Today, many people undergo testing for BRCA gene mutations to make informed decisions about prevention, screening and treatment. These kinds of advancements, along with improvements in detection and screening, have meaningfully reduced cancer mortality rates. After hitting a smoking-related peak in 1991, U.S. mortality rates from all cancers dropped by 34% as of 2022, according to the American Cancer Society. For children with acute leukemias, who had effectively no long-term chance of survival just 75 years ago, the numbers are even more dramatic. The five-year survival rate is now approximately 90% for children with acute lymphocytic leukemia and between 65% and 70% for those with acute myelogenous leukemia. These examples represent a fraction of the tremendous progress that has occurred through decades of compounding knowledge and research. Reductions in NIH funding now threaten similar breakthroughs that are the prerequisites to better care, better technology and better outcomes in the most common health concerns and diseases of our time. It is not research alone that is threatened by NIH funding cuts. Researchers, too, face new uncertainties. We have heard firsthand the anxiety around building a research career in the current environment. Many young physician-scientists wonder whether it will be financially viable to build their own lab in the U.S., or to find jobs at research institutions that must tighten their belts. Many medical residents, fellows and junior faculty are considering leaving the U.S. to train and build careers elsewhere. Losing early-career researchers to other fields or countries would be a blow to talent for biomedical research institutions nationwide and weaken the country's ability to compete globally in the biomedical sector. The effects of decreased NIH funding might not be immediately visible to most Americans, but as grant cancellations and delays mount, there will be a price. NIH funding produces incredible results. Cuts will set scientific research back and result in losses in quality of life and longevity for generations of Americans in years to come. Euan Ashley is the chair of the Stanford University department of medicine and a professor of medicine and of genetics. He is the author of 'The Genome Odyssey: Medical Mysteries and the Incredible Quest to Solve Them.' Rachel Keranen is a writer in the Stanford department of medicine.
