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UPI
9 hours ago
- Health
- UPI
CPAP or Zepbound? Patients, doctors debate sleep apnea treatment
Doctors favor treatment with continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machines, researchers are slated to report this week at a meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Adobe stock June 9 (UPI) A clash is brewing between doctors and patients when it comes to treatment for sleep apnea in those with obesity, a new study reports. Doctors favor treatment with continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machines, researchers are slated to report this week at a meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. The machines keep airways open using mild air pressure provided through a mask patients wear while sleeping. But patients would rather treat their sleep apnea with tirzepatide (Zepbound), a GLP-1 weight-loss drug, researchers found. "The results highlight a need for real-world comparative effectiveness data of CPAP versus tirzepatide, and a potential mismatch between patient and provider preferences when managing comorbid obesity and obstructive sleep apnea," lead researcher Ahmed Khalaf said in a news release. He's a sleep technician in the pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine division at University of California-San Diego. Nearly 30 million adults in the United States have sleep apnea, a disease in which the upper airway collapses during sleep, causing people to wake repeatedly. CPAP has been considered the gold standard for treating sleep apnea, but some patients find the machines too bulky and noisy. About 50% of people prescribed CPAP either can't use it often enough to matter or find it too bothersome, according to Harvard Medical School. Common problems include mask discomfort, dry mouth, breathing that feels out of sync and noise from the machine. Late last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Zepbound as the first drug to treat people with obesity and sleep apnea. At the time, the sleep medicine society hailed the approval as "a positive development for patients and clinicians, who now have another treatment option for this sleep disorder," according to a statement from the academy. But Zepbound is only for people with obesity and sleep apnea, the society noted. Also, Zepbound can reduce the severity of sleep apnea through weight loss, but might not cure the problem. For the new study, researchers analyzed nationwide online survey data from 365 patients, and also spoke to 17 sleep medicine professionals at UCSD. Doctors favored CPAP over Zepbound 53% to 26%, while patients favored Zepbound over CPAP 48% to 35%. Both doctors and patients supported treatment that combined CPAP and Zepbound, but doctors were more enthusiastic about combination therapy, 88% versus 61%. The patients' preferences are likely driven by their own experiences -- 78% said they were either current or former users of CPAP, results show. By comparison, only 23% of patients said they'd ever used Zepbound or Ozempic (semaglutide), the other prominent GLP-1 drug. Principal investigator Dr. Chris Schmickl, an assistant professor of medicine at University of California-San Diego, expressed surprise at the level of disagreement between patients and providers. "Recognizing differing attitudes toward treatment is crucial for developing a realistic and achievable action plan," he said in a news release. "Additional research to understand the underlying reasons behind these preferences will offer valuable insights for providers to guide treatment decisions." Researchers are scheduled to present these findings Wednesday at the society meeting in Seattle. Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. More information Harvard Medical School has more on managing CPAP problems. Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Chicago Tribune
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
‘Lilo & Stitch' review: Disney puts another one through the de-animation machine
The roughhouse charmer 'Lilo & Stitch' from 2002, one of Disney's more freewheeling animated 21st century mashups of slapstick and heartstring-plucking, has already spun off TV and sequel iterations and a lot of merchandise. The film presented a rollicking friendship between a six-legged (six-armed? never could tell) koala-like alien being, new to our planet, and an exuberant Hawaiian Island preteen who has wished, ardently, for a true friend and a fellow chaos agent. Stitch and Lilo are now in a live-action movie. The new 'Lilo & Stitch' constitutes adequate if wearying fan service at best, and at worst, a new reason to check in with your dentist about a mouth guard for apparent teeth-grinding. The movie makes me wonder: If you don't grow up with the animated versions of whatever Disney has sent through the de-animator this time, is it a matter of coming to it with the wrong expectations, or just expecting too much? There's charm here, and a periodic human pulse, even as the remake fights with its own frenetic shrillness to the bitter end, in an adaptation by screenwriters Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes sticking closely to the animated version, while adding 23 more minutes. For newbies: Orphaned after the death of their parents, 6-year-old Lilo (Maia Kealoha), ostracized at school, is being raised by her devoted but harried teenage sister Nani (Sydney Agudong), nearing the age of adult guardianship. Nani has shelved her college dreams (already she has been accepted by the University of California-San Diego, a long way from Lilo and Hawaii) to become a marine biologist. It's a somewhat wrenching family scenario, as was the animated feature a generation ago, with conflict introduced by the sisters' wary interactions with a skeptical social worker (Tia Carrere, who voiced Nani in the earlier version). The larger conflict is interstellar. Later nicknamed Stitch by Lilo, once he crash-lands his getaway spaceship near the sisters' house, the small blue maniac from somewhere Out There is an 'illegal genetic experiment' gone haywire, lab-created by scientist Jumba on a distant planet. The scientist, more hapless than mad, must retrieve Stitch in the name of the United Galactic Federation (Hannah Waddingham voices the imperious leader). The live-action redo imagines Jumba and his cohort, the dippy Earth expert Pleakley, as aliens far more frequently depicted in human form, as played by Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen. The former appears somewhat flummoxed by his material, guessing as to what kind of comic energy or tone would work. Meanwhile, Magnussen mugs hard enough to turn the audience into mugging victims, though as staged and edited, the ramshackle physical comedy dominating 'Lilo & Stitch' is more obstacle than answer. Even with director Dean Fleischer Camp coming off the terrific and hilarious and moving 'Marcel the Shell With Shoes On' feature, based on the lovely Marcel short films, his handling of this material feels thwarted. It's a prefabricated commodity, and those are not easy to activate. The main problem? Violent physical comedy can succeed or fail a million different ways in the realms of animation, least well, probably, in photorealistic animation. Tellingly, the 2002 Disney movie was not photorealistic; its animated watercolor palette and more traditional, storybook visual approach let Lilo and Stitch be themselves, in a frenzy or in heartfelt reflection, and that approach worked. But in live-action? Well, it's different, even if the story is the same. Watching people getting clobbered with mops, or Stitch making messes and starting fires at the open-air beach resort where Nani works — the funny's diminished in live-action. It's more bombastic, and more realistic. And those two qualities don't improve anything. Every action beat, and even the simplest dialogue exchanges, feel aggressively rushed and pushy here. The saving graces are Agudong and Kealoha. Their characters' sibling relationship, fractious but loving, keeps at least five toes in the real world and in real feelings, thanks to the actors. 'Lilo & Stitch' always was a nutty collision of any number of films and stories, from 'Frankenstein' to 'E.T.' to any prior Disney project featuring two characters who might plausibly sing 'You've Got a Friend in Me' to each other. That song, of course, belongs to 'Toy Story,' but you get the idea. While Disney has no financial imperative to modify a business plan centered on what they've already made — and for the record, the recent 'Snow White' was far from the worst of its recent remakes — they do have a creative imperative. They have an obligation to their own future, and to the film medium's. It can't be lost on the creative artists involved with each new Disney drag-and-drop, including 'Lilo & Stitch': Live-action recycling makes characters you know and love more 'real.' And too often, that realism comes with only trace elements of real charm, or magic. 'Lilo & Stitch' — 2 stars (out of 4) MPA rating: PG (for action, peril, and thematic elements) Running time: 1:48 How to watch: Premieres in theaters May 22
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bacterial toxin implicated In young adult colon cancers
Colon cancer cases have been increasing among younger adults, and now researchers think they've identified a potential culprit. A bacterial toxin called colibactin, produced by certain strains of E. coli, appears to alter gut DNA in a way that prompts colon cancer, researchers report in the journal Nature. Colibactin leaves behind specific patterns of DNA mutations that are more than three times as common in early-onset colon cancers, specifically in adults younger than 40 compared to those 70 or older, results show. Researchers suspect colibactin-producing bacteria may be silently colonizing children's colons, setting the stage for cancer in midlife and beyond. "These mutation patterns are a kind of historical record in the genome, and they point to early-life exposure to colibactin as a driving force behind early-onset disease," senior researcher Ludmil Alexandrov said in a news release. He is a professor of bioengineering and cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California-San Diego. Colon cancers have been steadily increasing among people under 50, so much so that guidelines have been updated to lower the age of screening to 45. Colon cancer rates increased by 2.4% a year among people younger than 50 between 2012 and 2021, according to the American Cancer Society. Likewise, death rates in people under 55 have been increasing about 1% a year since the mid-2000s. At the same time, colon cancers have been declining among older adults, thanks to screening methods like colonoscopy, the ACS says. For the new study, researchers analyzed 981 colon cancer samples collected from patients in 11 countries. The analysis revealed that colibactin is a common toxin among these cases, particularly in early-onset colon cancers. The results show that colibactin's damaging effects begin early in tumor development, and account for about 15% of the earliest genetic alterations that directly promote cancer development. "If someone acquires one of these driver mutations by the time they're 10 years old," Alexandrov explained, "they could be decades ahead of schedule for developing colorectal cancer, getting it at age 40 instead of 60." More research now is needed to figure out how children are being exposed to colibactin-producing bacteria, and what can be done about it, researchers said. The team also is working on an early detection test that could analyze stool samples for colobactin-related mutations. "This reshapes how we think about cancer," Alexandrov said. "It might not be just about what happens in adulthood -- cancer could potentially be influenced by events in early life, perhaps even the first few years. "Sustained investment in this type of research will be critical in the global effort to prevent and treat cancer before it's too late." More information The American Cancer Society has more on colon cancer rates. Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
