Mid Rivers Newsmagazine 1-10-24

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MIDRIVERSNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
January 10, 2024
MID RIVERS NEWSMAGAZINE
I MATURE FOCUS I 17
News & Notes
By LISA RUSSELL
Asking for coverage
It’s once again that time of year when
many Americans are looking for ways to
shed holiday pounds. For older adults in
particular, though, losing weight may be
an especially important goal – according to
Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention
statistics, 40% or more of people
over 50 have obesity, which poses a significant
threat to their health and longevity.
A new Michigan Medicine poll of U.S.
adults aged 50 to 80 recently found that
63% of those who consider themselves
to be overweight are interested in taking
a prescription medicine to help them
manage their weight. What’s more, over
three-quarters of those in the over-50 age
group believe Medicare should cover these
medicines, which is currently not allowed
under U.S. law.
A new category of weight-loss drugs
which includes the name brands Ozempic,
Wegovy and Mounjaro have skyrocketed in
popularity since they were first approved
for use in treating type 2 diabetes. They are
so popular, in fact, that nationwide shortages
have occurred, and many people are
stretching their finances to pay the high
costs of treatment, which can exceed
$12,000 per year, out of their own pockets.
“Our data show the strong awareness
and interest in these medications, and in
access to them through insurance, alongside
coverage for other weight-focused
care including nutrition counseling, exercise
programs and bariatric surgery,” said
Lauren Oshman, M.D., M.P.H., an obesity
medicine specialist who worked on the poll.
“We hope these findings will help inform
policymakers and benefit plan designers
who are grappling with the tradeoffs of
cost and long-term benefit when it comes
to these medications.”
Oshman also noted that nearly all the
older adults polled said they had tried to
lose weight in the past with only limited
success, including large percentages who
said they had exercised or changed their
diets.
A law passed in 2003 prohibits Medicare
from covering weight loss medications,
although it is allowed to cover drugs to
help people with type 2 diabetes manage
their weight. Most private insurance plans
and the Veterans Health Administration do
cover them, but with restrictions due to
high monthly costs for this new generation
of medications.
More than three-quarters of Americans
over 50 believe Medicare should cover the
most popular new drugs for weight loss,
according to a new survey.
(Adobe Stock photo)
Local pioneers in heart
failure treatment
Physicians at Washington University
School of Medicine in St. Louis are once
again at the forefront of discovering new
medical treatments for serious disease.
They are now pioneering the use of radiation
therapy – a treatment typically used to
treat cancer – to potentially help patients
whose hearts are failing due to a lifethreatening
abnormal heart rhythm called
ventricular tachycardia.
Their recent study, published in late 2023
in the journal Med, suggests that low-dose
radiation therapy may improve the heart’s
function by reducing the number of inflammatory
cells present in the heart muscle
and improving its pumping capacity.
After studying the cardiac effects of
radiation in a small group of patients with
ventricular tachycardia as well as in mice
with heart failure, the Wash U team found
that low-dose radiation therapy appears to
improve heart function in several forms
of the condition, which happens when
the heart cannot pump enough blood and
oxygen to support the body’s needs.
“The radiation therapy used to treat ventricular
tachycardia is targeted to a specific
location in the heart; however, a large portion
of the rest of the heart gets a low-dose
exposure,” explained co-senior author
and cardiologist Ali Javaheri, M.D., Ph.D.
“There was concern that it could be harmful
to overall heart function, even though it
treats dangerous arrhythmia. We were surprised
to find the opposite: Heart function
appeared to be improved after radiation
therapy, at least in the short term.”
To understand more about radiation’s
effects on the heart, the researchers plan
to continue their investigations of the nine
patients already receiving radiation therapy
for their ventricular tachycardia. They’ll
See MATURE FOCUS, page 18
Mature Focus
Our special section featuring issues,
events, products and services of
interest to our 50-plus readers.
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