Healthcare PSAs and BSAs

Ironically, shortly after posting this, i had one of my older patients who has struggled with severe depression come in saying that they had started her on ketamine and it actually worked. She had been on uncountable meds, and this worked for her. n=1, but for that one, it was a game changer.

13 Likes

Cat Hug GIF

Our first pediatrician and the second when we moved both seemed a bit tense when it was time to discuss vaccine schedules. I told them both straight up that kii-kitten will get every shot according to the CDC schedule and flu shots as well.
Vaccines are non-negotiable in our home. I will bargain, beg, and do whatever it takes to get them to hold still. They are getting the shots. I also try to take them to see me get my yearly flu and COVID.

16 Likes

This is another interesting but definitely not-ready-for-primetime finding. It’s worth knowing that decreasing inflammatory processes seem to improve health and wellness in most situations. This is an immune suppressant, and as such is not something I would play with lightly. And, as cannot be restated enough, anecdotes do not data make. But this will be worth watching as the data starts to come in. Maybe?

12 Likes

The delay [in cognitive decline] seen with both drugs amounts to a matter of months — about seven months, in the case of Lilly’s drug. Patients and their families will have to weigh that benefit against the downsides, including regular IV infusions and potentially dangerous side effects like brain swelling.

Costs will vary by patient, based on how long they take the drug, Lilly said. The company also said a year’s worth of therapy would cost $32,000 — higher than the $26,500 price of a year’s worth of Leqembi.

I am hoping that these drugs are just waypoints along the path to actually treating rather than just slowing this disease. Stay tuned.

8 Likes
6 Likes

Ah, I clicked the link, and the advisory has been lifted. That’s gotta be a relief for all those people.

(I think that’s the same link as yours, but now the One-box is different—interesting!)

6 Likes

This is very good news

11 Likes
11 Likes

“Interestingly, several antihistamine drugs, including clemastine, astemizole, azelastine, brompheniramine, and ebastine, which have been approved for treating allergy symptoms without side effects for decades, have been found to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection or replication via protein-protein interaction analysis or drug library profiling (30–35). Another study revealed that the use of azelastine was associated with a reduced incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection based on an analysis of over 219,000 electronic health records”

Source:

https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.01088-24?s=09

ABSTRACT

Numerous host factors, in addition to human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2), have been identified as coreceptors of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), demonstrating broad viral tropism and diversified druggable potential. We and others have found that antihistamine drugs, particularly histamine receptor H1 (HRH1) antagonists, potently inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this study, we provided compelling evidence that HRH1 acts as an alternative receptor for SARS-CoV-2 by directly binding to the viral spike protein. HRH1 also synergistically enhanced hACE2-dependent viral entry by interacting with hACE2. Antihistamine drugs effectively prevent viral infection by competitively binding to HRH1, thereby disrupting the interaction between the spike protein and its receptor. Multiple inhibition assays revealed that antihistamine drugs broadly inhibited the infection of various SARS-CoV-2 mutants with an average IC50 of 2.4 µM. The prophylactic function of these drugs was further confirmed by authentic SARS-CoV-2 infection assays and humanized mouse challenge experiments, demonstrating the therapeutic potential of antihistamine drugs for combating coronavirus disease 19.

:thinking:

13 Likes

Wow, crazy if true! :exploding_head:

12 Likes

Yeah with the uptick in the latest round of COVID infections now underway, I’ve been chewing on countermeasures since I am health-insurance-less at the moment.

12 Likes

It seems to be true. Mostly small studies, and not huge, dramatic results, but antihistamines seem to help both with acute symptoms and with long covid issues.

Would love to see some larger, more detailed studies, but honestly, given the side effect profile, it is almost too good to be true. Also, they are cheap and generic available, so probably will.not see a larger, and more expensive, study.

12 Likes

Makes sense really. The wow factor for me was the claim that they “have been found to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

8 Likes

Well, “prevent” in meaning “statistically significant decrease.” Vaccination is still far more effective.

10 Likes

Ah. As in, lowering general infection rates, because those with Covid who are taking an antihistamine are coughing and sneezing less, thereby infecting others less? Instead of individuals not getting Covid because they’re on antihistamines?

3 Likes

Not exactly. Folks taking antihistamines to treat their covid are less symptomatic, less likely to require hospitaluzation, etc. But folks taking antihistamines (for allergies, for example) are statistically less likely to contract covid. My concern is “prevents” sounds like “i can’t get it.” Statistically less likely is more accurate. Why it seems to help with long covid i cannot answer. We need to know more about the mechanism of that beast.

10 Likes

I see, thanks.

Clearly too early to tout it as a vaccine substitute! (If that EVER even becomes a good idea. Probably not. :grimacing:)

6 Likes

I think that moving (especially if it’s aligned with a change in work situation) can be a special circumstance to apply for immediate ACA-Marketplace coverage.

6 Likes

I appreciate your point and you are correct.
Yeah, things are in process.

Getting all the official documentation changed over like driver’s license [photo ID], voter reg, car titles, etc. is not efficiency at its finest. It’s one thing to bring in the most recent pay stubs, tax returns, etc. and it’s another to have all our IDs say we live in our current state, not our previous one. I have an email and a voicemail placed with the good folks at our state’s health insurance marketplace. I will eat this elephant a forkful at a time. And try really hard not to have any medical-interventions-necessary events before I get covered. C’est la vie in U.S.

Btw, our new state is better than Texas, as this one actually has its own health insurance program. Amazing: the very idea!

11 Likes

Yeah, I could tell stories about what passes for the Indiana version of the Marketplace! I’m not actually sure their website is totally legal. As an example, nowhere did it say “Affordable Care Act” but rather “Obamacare”, repeatedly. No, I’m not kidding. And the insurance companies (both of them) stated on the site that it would better to just contact them directly because there was “no advantage” to using the Marketplace and in fact consumers would have more plans to choose from for lower cost if they would just go directly to the insurance company instead. As someone with preexisting conditions:

Sad Kristen Bell GIF

10 Likes