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.

In a brand new GQ profile Comedian John Mulaney's wife Olivia Munn opens up about how they first “connected” in early 2021 when he was getting out of rehab for drug addiction.

But that “brief” connection led to an unusual relationship trajectory: The Predator actress became pregnant before they even considered dating, let alone becoming a pair, GQ reported. At the time, Mulaney said only that he was “involved” in the infant's life “in some way.”

In the GQ story, Munn explained that they really aren't like other single couples who, when faced with an unwanted pregnancy, are a minimum of serious about it and have to come to a decision what to do about it.

Their relationship is more harking back to the 2007 romantic comedy “Knocked Up.” Sure, a few of the film's storylines and the real-life romance between Munn and Mulaney don't match. But there are some notable similarities that Mulaney could probably expand on for his next standup comedy gig.

In Knocked Up, an ambitious TV host named Alison, played by Katherine Heigl, has a one-night stand with a slacker named Ben, played by Seth Rogan. The next morning, they go their separate ways after believing they don't have much in common.

But then Alison finds out she's pregnant, and Ben desires to take responsibility and be involved in the infant's life – identical to Mulaney. As her pregnancy progresses, romantic feelings between Alison and Ben grow, and the film ends with Alison giving birth and the couple hoping to begin a life together.

Unlike Alison and Ben, Munn and Mulaney knew one another before they “confided” and had a baby, in keeping with GQ. However, they’d only met once – at the marriage of Seth Meyers, Mulaney's friend and former “Saturday Night Live” co-star, in 2013.

In 2020, Mulaney's life fell apart as he fell into drug and alcohol addiction. He separated from his wife, multimedia artist Anna Marie Tender, and entered rehab in September 2020. But he left her and suffered a relapse. He returned to rehab in December 2020 after a few of his famous friends, including Meyers, Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Nick Kroll and Natasha Lyonne, staged a “rigid procedure that has since become legendary,” GQ reported.

Shortly after leaving rehab, the comedian “connected” with Munn in what GQ described as a “brief” relationship. Soon after, they came upon she was pregnant, but they didn't start dating.

If the tabloids thought they knew they were a pair, “the joke was on them because it was never true: They just had a baby,” GQ reported.

“It wasn't anything like 'dating,'” Munn told GQ. “I barely knew him.” However, when she told Mulaney she was pregnant, she said he really wanted her to have the infant.

“It wasn't necessarily 'We're going to get married and live together' or anything like that, but 'I'm going to be involved in some way.' Munn explained. She assumed they would find a way to co-parent. But for most of the pregnancy, Munn lived in Los Angeles while Mulaney stayed in New York. They talked every few weeks or he came to visit.

Munn also recognized that Mulaney was a newbie to sobriety and said she didn't know him well enough to help him. When he opened up to her, he said he was afraid of relapsing, although becoming a father didn't cause him too much stress, she said.

“That’s the one thing that made him seem light and happy,” Munn said. “I remember him being very excited to tell his parents.”

During this time, Munn and Mulaney became closer, like the couple in “Knocked Up.” But unlike the “Knocked Up” duo, Munn and Mulaney were still dealing with his recovery. Together, they agreed that she would give him random drug tests to give them both “confidence,” GQ reported. It's a ritual they still practice.

Finally, about two months before their son Malcom was born in November 2021, Munn and Mulaney decided to live together and raise him as a couple. They now live in Orange County, GQ reported.

“She and John are both very much in love with their baby boy,” a source said Weekly told us in January 2022. “Everything seems to be going well with John. … It’s an exciting time.”

Less than three years after welcoming Malcolm, Munn and Mulaney married in July in a small, private ceremony at the New York home of her boyfriend, “Law and Order” star Sam Waterston.

The comedian confirmed the news during an appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers and gushed, “I got married. Thank you. It's the best.” Mulaney called this moment the “single greatest experience of my life.”

In September, Munn and Mulaney welcomed their second child, daughter Méi, via surrogate, Us Weekly reported. The birth of her daughter got here after Munn battled cancer and needed to undergo a hysterectomy. She said she was grateful to find a way to have a second child through a surrogate.

What's in a reputation? People use unique names to handle one another, but we're one among only a handful of animal species known to do that, including bottlenose dolphins. By finding more animals with names and studying how they use them, we may help scientists higher understand other animals and ourselves.

As an elephant researcher I even have spent years observing wild elephants, and my colleagues and I study wild elephants as individuals and provide you with names for them to assist us remember who’s who. The elephants in query live entirely within the wild and are in fact unaware of the nicknames we give them.

But in a single latest study published in Nature Ecology and Evolutionwe found evidence that elephants have their very own names with which they address one another. This research places elephants under the very small variety of species Many individuals are known to handle one another in this fashion, and it has implications for scientists' understanding of animal intelligence and the evolutionary origins of language.

Finding evidence for name-like calls

My colleagues and I had long suspected that elephants could address one another using name-like calls, but no researcher had tested this concept. To investigate this query, we followed elephants across the Kenyan savannah, recording their vocalizations and, when possible, noting who made each call and to whom the decision was directed.

When most individuals consider elephant calls, they imagine loud trumpets. But in point of fact, most elephant calls are deep, booming noises referred to as rumbling a few of that are below the range of human hearing. We thought that if elephants have names, they almost definitely say them in growls, so we focused our evaluation on these calls.

We thought that if rumbles contain something like a reputation, then we must always have the ability to inform who a call is for based on the characteristics of the decision alone. To discover if so, we trained a machine learning model to discover the recipient of every call.

We fed the model a series of numbers describing the sound characteristics of every call and told it which elephant each call was directed at. Based on this information, the model attempted to learn patterns within the calls that were related to the identity of the recipient. We then asked the model to predict the recipient for a separate sample of calls. We used a complete of 437 calls from 99 individual callers to coach the model.

One reason we had to make use of machine learning for this evaluation is that rumble Multiple messages directly, including the caller's identity, age and gender, emotional state, and behavioral context. Names are likely only a small component of those calls. A pc algorithm is commonly higher than the human ear at recognizing such complex and subtle patterns.

We didn’t assume that elephants use names in every call, but we had no way of knowing upfront which calls might contain a reputation, so we included on this evaluation all rumbles that we thought might use names at the least sometimes.

The model successful identified the recipient for 27.5% of those calls – significantly higher than what it might have achieved by random guessing. This result suggested that some rumbles contained information that allowed the model to discover the intended recipient of the decision.

However, this result alone was not enough to conclude that the sounds contained names. For example, the model could have recognized the caller's unique voice patterns and guessed the recipient based on who the caller addressed most frequently.

In our next evaluation, we found that calls from the identical caller to the identical recipient significantly more similaron average, than calls from the identical caller to different recipients. This meant that the calls were actually specific to individual recipients, like a reputation.

Next, we wanted to seek out out whether elephants can recognize and reply to their names. To discover, we played 17 elephants a recording of a call originally directed at them, which we assumed contained their name. Then, on a special day, we played them a recording of the identical call directed at a special person.

Elephants were more more likely to vocalize and approach the sound source when the decision was originally directed at them. On average, they approached the speaker 128 seconds earlier, vocalized 87 seconds earlier, and responded 2.3 times more often to a call directed at them. This result showed us that elephants can determine whether a call was directed at them just by hearing the decision without context.

Names without imitation

Elephants usually are not the one animals with name-like calls. porpoise And some parrots Address other individuals by imitating the addressee's distinctive call, a singular “call sign” that dolphins and parrots typically use to announce their very own identity.

This system of Naming by imitation is a bit of different from how names and other words normally work in human language. While we occasionally name things by imitating the sounds they make, like “cuckoo” and “zipper,” most of our words are arbitrary. They don’t have any inherent acoustic connection to what they seek advice from.

Any words are a part of what enables us to discuss such a big selection of topics, including objects and concepts that don't make sounds.

Interestingly, we found that elephant calls directed at a selected receiver were no more much like the receiver's calls than to the calls of other animals. This result suggests that elephants, like humans but unlike other animals, can address one another without simply imitating the receiver's calls.

What's next

We're still unsure exactly where elephant names appear in a call or the best way to distinguish them from all the opposite information a growl conveys.

Next, we would like to determine the best way to isolate the names of specific individuals. If we are able to do this, we are able to answer numerous other questions, comparable to whether different callers use the identical name to handle the identical recipient, how elephants get their names, and whether or not they ever discuss others after they usually are not around.

Name-like calls in elephants could potentially tell researchers something concerning the evolution of human language.

Most mammals, including our closest primate relatives, produce only a set variety of vocalizations, that are essentially pre-programmed into their brains at birth. But language is determined by the power to learning latest words.

Before our ancestors could develop a full language, that they had to develop the power to learn latest sounds. Dolphins, parrots and Elephants have all independently developed this ability and use it to handle one another by name.

Perhaps our ancestors originally developed the power to learn latest sounds to recollect one another's names and later used this ability to learn a wider range of words.

Our results also highlight how incredibly complex elephants are. Using arbitrary sounds to call other individuals requires a capability to think abstractly, because it involves using a sound as an emblem to represent one other elephant.

The indisputable fact that elephants have to provide one another names underlines the importance of their many various social ties.

Learning concerning the elephant spirit and its similarities to ours may increase people’s appreciation for elephants at a time when Conflict with people is one among the best threats to the survival of untamed elephants.

Five of the seven states widely expected to be political battlegrounds within the 2024 presidential election have populations very much like the U.S. as an entire across a variety of demographic and socioeconomic measures.

For many years, presidential election season began with the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire caucuses. But lately the practice has been criticized for giving front-runner status in national elections to 2 of the smallest states with the least racial and ethnic diversity.

These two states have restarted the electoral process in 2024, but through the Democratic Party didn’t officially participate within the New Hampshire primary, which President Joe Biden won as a write-in candidate.

Instead, in response to our evaluation, the primary official Democratic primary took place in South Carolina, a state more much like the United States than New Hampshire US Census Bureau data.

Our research shows that there are states which are much more much like the US overall – and in reality, New Hampshire is one in all the states that least resembles the country overall. Our work provides insight into which states have a big political voice in an election season, which don’t, and which could also be price paying more attention to.

Examining population data

Using data from the American Community Survey 2022A nationwide questionnaire survey conducted by the Census Bureau, we compared each state to the nation as an entire based on five characteristics:

• Racial and ethnic collapse: the proportion of people that reported their race and ethnicity as Latino, non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, White, one other race, or two or more races;
• Age-gender distribution: the proportion of individuals identified as men or women in various age groups from 0 to over 85 years, noting that the Census Bureau only offers two options for gender identity;
• level of education: the proportion of individuals with primary or secondary education, a university degree or a series of educational qualifications;
• Household income: the proportion of households reporting their income in various ranges from lower than $10,000 to $200,000 or more;
• Occupational distribution: the proportion of employees employed in various broad occupational sectors akin to agriculture, fishing and forestry; construction and extraction; or sales and related professions.

For each feature we used a statistical method called Dissimilarity index to find out how similar or dissimilar each state was within the country's demographic and socioeconomic profile. A dissimilarity index value of zero would indicate that the state is similar to your complete country. A price of 100 would mean that it couldn't be more different.

We ranked each state's scores for every characteristic after which averaged those rankings to list the states in an overall order from most much like most dissimilar.

Find common ground

It seems that Illinois was the state most much like your complete country in 2022. Illinois more closely resembled the nation than another state in its breakdown by race, ethnicity, age and gender distribution, and household income distribution. It was the second most much like the country by way of educational distribution and fourth most much like the country by way of occupational distribution.

This was interesting for us personally because in the summertime of 2009 one in all us, Rogelio Sáenz, was driving through Illinois and was reminded by a street sign of the old rhetorical query: “Will it be set in Peoria?“As early as the 1880s, theater producers and others viewed the city of Peoria, Illinois, as a microcosm of the nation. In politics, the phrase has been adopted to evoke “a sweet spot for takeover.”Pulse of the nation“on political campaigns and legislative proposals,” as Peoria Magazine wrote in 2009.

At the time, Sáenz wondered whether the saying had any connection to reality. And it seems that that is the case, not less than once you have a look at the state of Peoria: The population of Illinois may be very much like the population of the US as an entire.

Five swing states are amongst those most much like the United States

Generally, Swing or battleground states are those that have similar shares of Democratic and Republican voters and have enough people to have significant influence within the Electoral College. They will exist in 2024 seven of them.

What is especially noteworthy is that five of the ten states are most much like the USA Swing states for 2024. Illinois will not be a swing state, but the subsequent three are: North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. And their swing counterparts Michigan and Pennsylvania rank seventh and eighth, respectively. The remaining two at the highest of the list are Oregon and Kansas. The two swing states not in the highest 10 are Nevada and Wisconsin.

Combined, the seven swing states just over a 3rd of votes needed to win the presidency. Since these states play a vital role in electing the president, they’re Focus of the campaign promoting and public relations in addition to candidate appearances.

Our evaluation highlights the role of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics in determining which states are swing states. For example, the five swing states most much like the United States are inclined to have greater racial and ethnic diversity than other states. This also includes states which are very much like the United States by way of occupational, educational, age, gender and income data.

States which are less much like the USA

Our evaluation also shows how different New Hampshire is from the USA. It is forty fifth within the list.

South Carolina and Iowa, two other states with early roles within the presidential process, rank twentieth and twenty eighth, respectively. But the opposite two swing states are close: Wisconsin and Nevada are available at twenty third and twenty ninth, respectively.

Even very populous states akin to California, Texas, Florida and New York differ from the country as an entire, but in alternative ways. For example, California is analogous to the United States by way of occupational distribution, but differs greatly by way of race and ethnicity. Texas is sort of much like the United States in socioeconomic terms, but very different demographically. Florida is analogous to the United States by way of race and ethnicity, education, and income, but differs significantly in composition by age, gender, and occupation. New York is analogous to the nation by way of race and ethnicity, but differs significantly by way of occupations.

A brand new perspective

The results may help people take into consideration the different sorts of diversity within the US population 336 million people.

And perhaps it will possibly be used to influence future decisions about which states will host the primary presidential primaries and elections.

Illinois, for instance, could make a compelling case for being the opening act in future presidential primaries since it is a thumbnail of the nation as an entire. Over the course of 51 presidential electionsIllinois voters have voted for Democrats 25 times and Republicans 24 times, with disagreements in two other elections – they usually have selected the winning candidate 42 including 51 times.