Just a few years ago, a little-known drug called Ozempic – previously used only to treat diabetes – emerged as a promising recent drug for weight management.

The Food and Drug Administration of the Administrative Agency Approval of Ozempic in 2021 for weight reduction treatment ushered in a brand new era for the category of medication that was called Glucagon-like peptide-1 agonistsor GLP-1.

Today, GLP-1 drugs, including Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound, have turn into household names and key tools within the fight against obesity: 1 in 8 American adults Say they used a GLP-1 drug, and projections show that by 2030, 1 in 10 Americans are more likely to with these medications.

Research from my lab and others now suggests that GLP-1 drugs could also treat dozens of other ailments, including cognitive problems and addiction problems. However, my colleagues and I also found previously unidentified risks.

I’m a Physician Scientist And I lead a clinical epidemiology center that addresses essentially the most pressing public health issues. My team is working to handle critical knowledge gaps about Covid-19, Long Covid, influenza, vaccines, effectiveness and risks of common medicines, and way more.

On January 20, 2025, my team published a study of greater than 2.4 million individuals who evaluated the risks and advantages of GLP-1 drugs over 175 possible health outcomes. We found that these drugs reduced the danger of 42 health outcomes, nearly 1 / 4 of the entire we analyzed. These include neurocognitive disorders similar to Alzheimer's disease and dementia, substance use and addiction disorders, coagulation disorders, and a number of other other medical conditions.

Unfortunately, we also found that GLP-1 drugs carry significant unwanted side effects and increase the danger of 19 health conditions we studied, similar to: B. Gastrointestinal problems, kidney stones and Acute pancreatitisthrough which the pancreas becomes inflamed and dysfunctional.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npyvr_2_rj4

Cognitive advantages

One of the important thing health advantages was that the GLP-1 drugs reduced the danger of neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and dementia. These results are consistent with other research, including evidence from preclinical studies, showing that these drugs may reduce inflammation within the brain and improve the brain's ability to form and strengthen connections between its cells, thereby improving the way in which how they convey with one another. These effects help reduce cognitive decline.

Two other key studies have shown Patients treated with a GLP-1 drug for diabetes had a lower risk of dementia.

All of those studies strongly suggest a possible therapeutic use of GLP-1 drugs within the treatment of cognitive decline. Ongoing randomized trials—the gold standard for evaluating recent drug uses—are examining the results of GLP-1 drugs in early Alzheimer's disease, with results expected later in 2025.

Curb addiction and suicidal thoughts

GLP-1 medications have also shown potential for reducing the risks of several substance use disorders similar to alcoholPresent tobaccoCannabis, opioids and stimulants. This could also be attributable to the flexibility of those medications to modulate reward pathways, impulse control, and inflammatory processes within the brain.

The effectiveness of GLP-1 drugs in curbing addictive behavior may explain their spectacular success in treating obesity, a chronic disease state that many have suggested is actually a food addiction disorder.

Our study showed a reduced risk of suicidal ideation and self-harm in people using GLP-1 medication. This finding is especially significant Previous reports of suicidal thoughts and self-harm In people using GLP-1 drugs. In response to those reports, the European Medicines Agency conducted a review of all available data and concluded that it existed No evidence of an increased risk of suicide In people using GLP-1 drugs.

Now at the least two studies, including our own, show that GLP-1 drugs actually do Reduce the danger of suicide.

Other advantages

In addition to the well-documented effects of GLP-1 drugs in reducing the risks of undesirable cardiovascular And Kidney resultsOur study shows a major effect on reducing the danger of blood clotting, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.

A puzzling finding in our study is the reduced risk of infectious diseases similar to pneumonia and sepsis. Our data complement one other recent study that reached an analogous conclusion cardiovascular death and death from infectious causesespecially Covid-19.

This is especially vital as Covid-19 is taken into account to be significant cardiovascular risk factor. Whether GLP-1 drugs fully offset the increased risk of heart problems related to CoVID-19 must be thoroughly evaluated.

GLP-1 drugs might also be useful in Fatty liver disease treatment and conditions from asthma to chronic obstructive pulmonary diseasesleep apnea, OsteoarthritisDepression and eye disorders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sygijtbx2xs

Risks and challenges

Despite their broad therapeutic potential, GLP-1 drugs will not be without risks.

Gastrointestinal problems similar to nausea, vomiting, constipation and constipation and gastroesophageal reflux disease are amongst essentially the most common opposed effects related to GLP-1 drugs.

Our study also identified other risks, including low blood pressure, sleep problems, headaches, kidney stone formation, and Gallbladder disease and diseases related to the bile ducts. We also saw an increased risk of drug-induced inflammation of the kidneys and pancreas – each serious conditions that may result in long-term health problems. These results highlight the importance of careful monitoring in people taking GLP-1 drugs.

A big challenge in the usage of GLP-1 drugs is the high rates at which patients stop usingoften driven by their exorbitant costs or the occurrence of opposed effects. Stopping can result in rapid weight gain.

This is an issue because obesity is a chronic disease. GLP-1 drugs provide effective treatment but don’t address the underlying causes of obesity and metabolic dysfunction. As a result, GLP-1 drugs should be taken long-term to take care of their effectiveness and stop rebound weight gain.

In addition, many questions remain concerning the long-term effectiveness and risks of those drugs, in addition to whether there are differences between GLP-1 formulations. Answering these questions is critical to guiding clinical practice.

What happens to a body in a particularly cold environment? Does it decompose? How do these conditions affect how forensic scientists determine the person's time of death?

Estimation of the time of death, also postmortem intervalis a fancy task. It plays a vital role in forensic investigations as it will possibly provide vital insights into the timeline of events that led to an individual's death. This information can narrow down potential scenarios and suspects, helping to resolve crimes.

Quite a lot of aspects come into play on the scene of a death, from environmental conditions to the state of health of the person before death. In the past, scientists have estimated the time of death by observing postmortem physical and biological changes within the body, equivalent to stiffening, fluid retention, and cooling.

However, these methods are limited by their variability and dependence on external aspects. Calculating the postmortem interval became more precise with the arrival of molecular biology. But it remains to be a difficult task, especially in extremely cold weather conditions. In the primary few months after death, a frozen body often lacks obvious signs of decomposition.

We are forensic scientists and lead the forensic programs at University of North Dakota and the University of Central Lancashire. We are using molecular biology and bioinformatics to develop tools to assist researchers and investigators estimate the postmortem interval more accurately. Our research, recently published in Frontiers in Microbiology, found that Investigation of the microbes involved in decomposition was in a position to predict the time elapsed since death under extreme cold conditions with high accuracy.

Decomposition in cold environments

Our study took place in Grand Forks, North Dakota, certainly one of the coldest cities within the United Stateswhere winters are characterised by temperatures reaching -40 degrees Fahrenheit (-40 degrees Celsius) and powerful winds that may reach as much as 31 miles per hour (50 kilometers per hour).

In a particularly cold environment equivalent to North Dakota winters, traditional methods will not be sufficient to grasp decomposition and estimate time of death. For example, the body cools far more quickly in cold temperatures, which might distort estimates based on body temperature.

Likewise, cold environments can delay the onset and duration of rigor mortis, or stiffening of the body. The decomposition process, including the activity of insects and other scavengers that contribute to the decay of the body, can be slowed or stopped by freezing temperatures.

Snow is one other vital consider the study of decomposition. It can isolate a body by Store residual heat and its temperature becomes barely higher than that of the environment. Due to this insulating effect, the body decomposes more slowly than bodies exposed to the open air.

Microbes and the time since death

In extreme cold, using additional tools is essential to grasp the decomposition process and estimate the time of death. Advanced molecular techniquesequivalent to evaluation of the microbiome, gene expression and protein degradation, will help provide useful information in regards to the crime scene.

Each organism has different microbial properties that act like a fingerprintThe necrobiome, a community of microbes related to decaying stays, plays an important role in decay. Certain microbes are present during different stages of decompositionwhich helps break down tissue and recycle nutrients. Forensic investigators can take samples of what microbes live in a dead body to make use of the composition of the microbial population to find out how way back an individual died.

Our study focused on identifying Common patterns of microbial changes that occur during decomposition in extremely cold environments. Over a period of 23 weeks, we collected and analyzed 393 microbial samples from the within and outdoors of the noses of dead pigs that were covered in snow. Pigs decompose in an analogous option to humans and are often utilized in forensic researchWe developed models to estimate the postmortem interval by pairing microbial genetic data with environmental data equivalent to snow depth and outdoor temperature.

Overall, we found that the bacterial species And can best predict the time after death under extreme winter conditions, namely as much as six months after death, with an error margin of just over nine days.

We found that several types of bacteria are most abundant at different times. For example, levels increase from five weeks after death and are most abundant at ten weeks, while they increase between five and nine weeks and peak at 18 weeks.

Improving forensics

Death is commonly an uncomfortable topic to discuss. However, from a forensic perspective, techniques and methods to find out an individual's death will help bring justice and peace to family members.

Our study found that decomposition doesn’t stop completely even in cold environments. Studying the microenvironment – ​​the local conditions across the body, including temperature, humidity and microbial activity – can provide vital information in regards to the decomposition process. The major microbial species we identified served as Biomarkers of deathallowing us to develop time-of-death models that help researchers overcome the constraints of purely visual examination of stays.

Microbes can grow to be an important piece of the puzzle in solving a death, helping to ascertain more precise timelines even under extreme conditions.

SAN JOSE – A heated legal battle over a residential tower in San Jose has dropped at light allegations of unsafe living conditions, including a scarcity of hot water, heating and air con, in addition to thefts and inadequate security measures.

The disturbing allegations are contained in legal documents filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court in reference to a dispute over past-due maintenance fees for a high-rise apartment constructing at 188 West St. James Street in downtown San Jose.

Litigation and real estate market woes have engulfed the west tower of the two-tower condominium complex at 188 West St. James. In April, nine condominiums were auctioned off for a staggering average price of $31,900 to assist the homeowners association recoup unpaid maintenance fees owed by the location's developer.

When a developer sells a condo, the brand new owner will likely be chargeable for paying ongoing monthly HOA fees. In this case, the developer is chargeable for paying maintenance fees on units that were built but not sold to a brand new owner.

FPP MB, a subsidiary of China-based Z&L Properties, has sued some HOA members living within the tower to stop the ultimate sale of the condos which are the topic of the foreclosure. On August 6, Santa Clara County Judge Amber Rosen issued a short lived restraining order to dam the sale for now.

On August 9, some members of the condominium association who lived within the tower filed documents claiming that there have been several problems within the west tower, where the condominium owners live and the apartments haven’t been sold. The east tower has never been occupied.

“The developer and the construction managers are threatening the health, safety and property of the homeowners,” three HOA members claim within the Aug. 9 grievance. The “construction managers” are several directors of the HOA board appointed by the developer. These directors, the lawsuit says, “have brought the building into a dangerous condition.”

The lobby was unsafe and never staffed in any respect times, homeowners association members claimed. The homeowners also claimed the developer did not secure the constructing's entry doors and garage doors, stopping them from closing properly.

“There were numerous thefts, including thefts of bicycles from the bicycle room, packages from the parcel room and personal items from residents’ storage rooms,” the lawsuit states.

Many doors were installed incorrectly in order that they may easily be opened from the surface, court documents say.

“The building's heating system, which provides hot water to the units, was not properly installed, maintained or serviced by the developer,” the HOA members alleged. “Sometimes there was no hot water and other times there was only boiling hot water.”

FPP MB, the corporate affiliated with the developer and owner of the 2 towers, responded that it was aware of the allegations regarding the deficiencies, defects and dangers within the constructing, in response to an announcement filed with the court on August 16 by the actual estate company.

“The applicants (the HOA members) allege that until recently, one of the three elevators was frequently out of service, that the building's heating system was not properly installed and maintained, that flooding occurs frequently in the underground parking garages, and that the heating and HVAC systems were not properly installed, tested or maintained,” FPP stated within the court filing. “All of these issues are being addressed.”

The exact timetable or procedure for correcting the deficiencies and problems was not immediately determined.

The homeowners also complained that some non-residents had occupied empty condominiums occasionally.

“The police were called to the building several times for security reasons, including thefts, outsiders sleeping in the hallways or occupying unoccupied apartments,” the constructing owners stated within the court filing.

The homeowners complained of their lawsuit that a number of the problems had been present for a while.

“Approximately 20 to 30 homeowners have complained that they have not had heat, air conditioning, or both for more than two years,” the homeowners said within the court filing, and residents explained in court documents that they’ve had no heat, no air con, or each.

The homeowners have currently filed a separate lawsuit against the tower's developer alleging construction defects, issues of safety and other deficiencies within the tower.

“These claims will be resolved in the construction process,” developer FPP said in court documents. “If the homeowners prevail, the developer will pay for any damages for which it is responsible.”

The grievance also alleges that the developer was experiencing financial difficulties in repaying the actual estate loan for the property. The developer states that the issue of delinquent loans has been resolved.

The litigation surrounding 188 West St. James could drag on into next 12 months, with a minimum of 12 hearings scheduled to handle a variety of issues within the Santa Clara County court case.

Originally published: August 20, 2024 at 12:10

Mold. Cockroaches. Broken windows. Faulty plumbing.

These are only among the problems that residents of three apartment buildings on a residential street in East Palo Alto have lived with for years. Complaints, they are saying, have gone unheard for too long.

On Thursday afternoon, about 10 residents gathered on the office of the property's owner, Sand Hill Property Company, to deliver a listing of demands. The dozens of requests included repairs, pest control and improved security.

“Now they've heard it,” said Maggie Bande, considered one of the residents who read the letter on Thursday. “It kind of gives us a little peace.”

The organizing movement began when residents received notice that the buildings they lived in, three buildings along East Okeefe Street, on the marketUnsure of what this notice meant for the long run of their buildings, tenants contacted local social group Youth United for Community Action, which in turn contacted the Bay Area Regional Tenant Organizing Network (TRO).

As the TRO continued to ask questions, it became clear that tenants were living in poor conditions, TRO Director James Huynh said. Last month, about 50 tenants – out of about 60 total units – signed a petition to form a union, Huynh said. The tenants sent a listing of demands to Sand Hill last Tuesday but didn’t receive what they considered to be an adequate response, resulting in an in-person demonstration outside the corporate's swanky Palo Alto office on Thursday.

“We are committed to ensuring that all Woodland Park Apartments are safe and livable at all times,” a spokesperson for Sand Hill Property Company wrote to this news organization. “These buildings are managed by Greystar Property Management, who works hard to track and complete all work orders in a timely manner and has either already completed or is in the process of completing all outstanding maintenance requests.”

Greystar Property Management didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Tenants and organizers crowded into the office lobby as two tenants began reading their demands in English and Spanish. A dozen members of Youth United for Community Action held up a banner that read “E. OKEEFE TENANT ASSOCIATION.” A handful of employees filed into the lobby, where silence fell as residents read a protracted list of their grievances.

“It was a challenge for me to go there,” said considered one of the tenants, Jesús Villalón, in Spanish. “I just wanted to make sure my voice was heard.”

On considered one of the office partitions, a flat-screen TV played a slideshow of Sand Hill Property Company's other properties. Their portfolio includes dozens of Silicon Valley properties that conjure up images of tech utopias. The Innovation Curve, a fancy of futuristic buildings on the sting of Stanford Research Park. A Whole Foods in Cupertino, in addition to the quaint mixed-use mall at the top of the block. Two movie theaters. One property stands out of their portfolio – the 1,800-unit, rent-controlled Woodland Park Apartments, which incorporates the buildings on East Okeefe Street in-built the early Nineteen Sixties.

Freddy Roman, a 38-year-old landscaper, has lived on East Okeefe Street for 13 years. He says there have been unresolved maintenance issues throughout his time living at his apartment.

“The situation is uninhabitable,” Roman said in Spanish. “They don't care about us.”

When he reports a maintenance issue, someone comes over to repair it, Roman says, but the issue isn't permanently solved. And now the stakes are even higher – Roman and his wife predict their first child, a baby girl, in only over every week.

“She must be in good shape,” Roman said.

Despite the issues, the Roman family is reluctant to think about moving. The old constructing is under town's rent stabilization law – the couple pays $1,500 a month in rent for a one-bedroom apartment.

Villalón, who works as a valet, hasn't considered moving either. He has lived on East Okeefe Street since moving to the U.S. from Mexico in fifth grade. He lives together with his aunt in a two-bedroom apartment that costs $2,200 a month and has other members of the family on the road. Villalón says there's no point in moving, regardless that his windows don't close all the way in which, making for cold winters.

“It's a place where I feel at home,” he said. “I don't want to leave.”

Jason Villarreal, COO of Sand Hill Property Company, and Igor Aleksandrov, CFO, were present on the reading on Thursday. They introduced themselves and said they were open to working with the association and resolving residents' concerns.

Huynh said the response from Villarreal and Aleksandrov on Thursday was a superb sign.

“I think everything went as well as it could. I hope they keep their word,” Huynh said.

Previous peace efforts

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Why do astronomers search for signs of life on other planets when they appear at what’s like on Earth? Couldn't there be entirely different sorts of life on other planets? – Henry, age 13, Somerville, Massachusetts

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Have you ever played hide and seek in a brand new place? It's much harder than at home. You only know the apparent hiding places: under the bed, within the closet, behind the couch. The trick is to consider hiding places which you could't even imagine. How do you search in places you never thought could possibly be hiding places?

That is roughly Scientists like me we do after we search for extraterrestrial life; we try to consider latest ways to look for all times. In the meantime, we glance for all times by on the lookout for life like us, because that's what we are able to imagine.

To search something near here

The closest place to search for extraterrestrial life is the planets inside our solar system.

NASA Mission Viking 1 began orbiting Earth's neighboring planet Mars in 1976. The search for all times on Mars was considered one of the mission's most significant scientific questions. The space probe had a lander that would reach the planet's surface and search for all times forms within the dust.

Scientists knew that life on Mars could possibly be very different from life on Earth, in order that they didn't search for specific life forms or molecules. Instead, they tried to design experiments to search out out what life does, not what creates it.

Plants and another life forms on Earth, for instance, have photosynthesisa process that uses sunlight and carbon dioxide within the air to generate energy and grow. Viking 1 scientists designed the lander to search for signs of photosynthesis on Mars.

To do that, the lander collected some soil, shone light on it, and took measurements to see if carbon dioxide was passing from the air into the soil. This experiment found no signs of photosynthesis within the Martian soil.

Two other experiments were conducted on the lander to search for evidence of organisms growing in Martian dust. One experiment used carbon dioxide gas, and one other used sugar and amino acid molecules that life forms on Earth wish to eat.

The combination of those three experiments and other measurements led most scientists to agree that there may be probably no life on the surface of Mars, no less than no life that performs photosynthesis or eats sugar. But we still don't know if there may be any evidence of ancient life on Mars, or if there may be any life in any respect deep beneath the surface.

The Viking lander experiments were probably the most direct tests for all times on other planets. Compared to a game of hide-and-seek, these experiments were mainly like looking within the closet: it's a fairly obvious hiding place, but it’s best to look there simply to be certain. Even so, it took a protracted time for scientists to interpret the outcomes.

View into the space

The search for all times outside our solar system is even tougher and requires other techniques.

The next Exoplanet – a planet orbiting a star that isn’t our sun – is Proxima Centauri bornand it’s greater than 2 million, million miles (that's 2 followed by 13 zeros) from Earth. These distant worlds are thus far away that scientists won’t send landers to conduct experiments on them for a very long time.

Searching for all times on exoplanets is a bit like playing hide-and-seek in your neighbor's house, but you may only glance through the windows and never go in. You might get lucky and get the appropriate angle to identify someone hiding, but you may't know all of the places you may't see.

Tools just like the latest James Webb Space Telescope can reveal the dimensions of exoplanets, how close they’re to their stars, and maybe the gases of their atmospheres. But that's all. How could we use it to look for all times?

Astronomers have considered looking for life on exoplanets by in the hunt for oxygen. They began this strategy because on Earth, life forms produced many of the oxygen in our atmosphere. Perhaps on one other planet, oxygen was produced by extraterrestrial life.

However, we now have learned that there are other ways to create oxygen that don't require life. So now astronomers aren't just on the lookout for oxygen – they're on the lookout for a planet that has oxygen together with water and other gases like methane and carbon dioxide. Together, these combos could indicate life, as we don't think planets without life would have such combos. But we're still unsure about that!

Searching for all times by on the lookout for these gases is a bit like playing hide and seek behind the sofa. Do we all know that somebody will likely be there? No. But we are able to just glance through the windows and picture that folks are hiding behind sofas. We can try – where else should we glance?

What game are we playing?

There are two big differences between playing hide and seek and looking for aliens.

First, once you play hide and seek, you often know you're fidgeting with another person. We do not know if there are aliens on the market to be found! It's possible that there isn’t a other life on the market, and it's possible that there are aliens right round the corner. Until we discover examples of life aside from our own, we won't understand how common life is within the universe.

The second difference is that almost all scientists don’t consider that extraterrestrial life is hiding from us; we just haven’t discovered it yet. There are some ideas that more advanced civilizations could avoid being discoveredbut researchers don’t consider this happens in our solar system.

Most astronomers and astrobiologists know that if we only look for all times that resembles life on Earth, we may miss the signs of aliens which might be truly different from them. But truthfully, we've never discovered aliens before, so it's hard to know where to start out. When you don't know what to do, it's often higher to start out somewhere than nowhere.

Searching for all times with experiments just like the Viking lander or for oxygen may not help. But perhaps we'll get lucky. And even when not, we are able to cross a number of obvious possibilities off the list. Then we are able to move on to the harder query of imagining something we've never considered before.

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