Staying #Up2Date 🚨

1: Pressure Tested: Amiloride for Resistant Hypertension

This RCT explored amiloride as a potential alternative to spironolactone for treating resistant hypertension in 118 patients. After 12 weeks, amiloride lowered SBP by 13.6 mmHg (SD, 8.5) and showed equal efficacy to spironolactone, supporting its use as a viable treatment option. 

2: Dream Drug for Narcolepsy?

This phase-2 study evaluated daily oveporexton for 90 patients with narcolepsy type 1. After 8 weeks, oveporexton significantly improved wakefulness, reduced sleepiness, and reduced cataplexy compared to placebo. However, side effects were notable: 48% reported insomnia and 33% reported urinary urgency. 

3: A Dose of Sunshine! 

This Danish population study of over 80K individuals examined links between vitamin D status and mental health outcomes. Higher 25 hydroxyvitamin D levels were associated with lower risks of schizophrenia (HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.78–0.86), ADHD (HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.86–0.92), and ASD (HR 0.93, 95% CI 0.90–0.96). These findings suggest that optimization of neonatal vitamin D could help lower the incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders.

A Rare Win 🧬

Scientists' latest breakthrough could change how we think about genetic diseases

What happened: A baby born with a rare and deadly genetic disease is given another chance thanks to an experimental gene editing treatment made just for him.

Why it matters: The patient had a CPS1 deficiency, a tiny error in his genetic code that affects the body’s ability to break down protein and remove nitrogen waste. It can cause dangerously high ammonia levels and is fatal in about half of all diagnosed infants.

Doctors at the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital spent 6 months designing a treatment to correct the faulty gene. Using CRISPR, they flipped the mutated DNA base back to its correct form, reducing the risk of unwanted genetic changes. The therapy was delivered via IV using lipid nanoparticles — tiny fatty droplets absorbed by liver cells. After 2 follow-up doses, the patient began eating normally, recovering from illnesses more quickly and needing less medication. 

But: It’s still early — doctors say it could take years of follow-up to know if the results hold.

Researchers hope to learn from this case and eventually apply the knowledge to other rare diseases. While gene therapy can be expensive, they noted the cost wasn’t far off from an average liver transplant — and future therapies could become cheaper as methods become more efficient. 

Bottom line: Personalized medicine just might be the future — and breakthroughs like this remind us how powerful science can be. 

Hot Off The Press

1: 🤖 OpenAI’s new tool, HealthBench, puts medical AI to the test — literally. It uses 5,000 synthetic doctor-patient conversations, each graded by physicians using custom rubrics, to see how well models like GPT can handle real clinical questions. The goal: figure out not just what AI gets right, but where it might quietly fail.

2: 🥗 New research links diet quality to the timing of first periods. In a long-term US study, girls who ate healthier diets hit menarche a bit later — while those with more inflammatory diets hit it earlier. The link held even after adjusting for BMI and height, hinting that what kids eat might play a bigger role in puberty than we thought.

3: 👃 A new study in mice shows that a nasal COVID booster — with no added immune stimulants — can still trigger a strong local immune response. The secret? Prior vaccination seems to "prep" the immune system, letting the nasal dose recruit memory cells to the lungs. It’s early, but researchers say it could pave the way for safer, most effective intranasal vaccines.

4: 📬 Canada Post workers are planning to strike — again. 55,000 postal workers are set to walk off the job as early as 12:01 a.m. on Friday. It's their second walkout in 6 months, with the union citing overwork, job insecurity, and wage gaps. Expect delivery delays if talks stall.

Notable Numbers 🔢

$80 million: how much a man from Surrey, BC, recently claimed in the largest single payout in Canadian lottery history. Justin Simporios says he plans to help his sister pay off her medical school debt and give back to his community.

3 weeks: how long siblings Lilly (6) and Jack (4) Sullivan have been missing from their rural Nova Scotia home. Despite hundreds of tips and renewed search efforts, no trace has been found. Experts call the case “unprecedented,” pointing to the total lack of evidence and deviation from typical missing children investigations.

27%: how many migraine patients avoided fatigue by taking ubrogepant before the headache hit, compared to 17% on placebo. Researchers say it’s the first drug shown to ease non-pain symptoms in the early phase of a migraine, including dizziness, neck pain, and light sensitivity.

Picks

😂Laugh: at this meme about a hard day's work:

🎧 Listen: to this timely episode of White Coat, Black Art on seasonal allergies, exploring how climate change is making symptoms worse, and what new sublingual immunotherapies could do to help.

🤑Save - Samsung Canada is currently offering up to 30% off for verified medical professionals through their Education & Employee Purchase Program (EPP). It includes phones, tablets, and monitors — perfect for clinic or call-room upgrades.

✍️Register: for a virtual evening with Dr. Paul Newhouse. Learn about the clinical use of nicotine and how you might be underprescribing it.

Relax

First Question: Specialty with a Mohs micrographic surgery fellowship

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