Researchers have developed a "nicotine vaccine," which assaults nicotine as soon as it enters the body and can reduce the chemical's presence in the brain by up to 85 percent. (Bruce/Flickr Creative Commons)
Here are the latest health headlines folks in South Los Angeles ought to know about. First, the big one:
Supreme Court upholds Affordable Care Act: In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court said the Affordable Care Act is constitutional and allowed the individual mandate to survive as a tax. The justices also ruled that the Medicaid expansion can proceed for the states that want to participate. States that do not want to participate, the court said, may not be completely cut off from all Medicaid funding by the federal government – just new expansion funds. The news prompted celebration among health providers and advocates on the southside, and mixed reactions among community members. | OnCentral
FDA approves lorcaserin, first weight-loss drug since 1999: The first prescription anti-obesity medication since Orlistat in 1999 has been signed off by the Food and Drug Administration, winning approval as a drug designed to treat "chronic weight management in adult patients." The FDA is still unsure how safe the drug is when used alongside other diet medications. The generic name for the drug is lorcaserin, and its commercial name will be Belviq. Its release is pending approval by the Drug Enforcement Administration. | Los Angeles Times
'Smoking vaccine' blocks nicotine in mice brains: Researchers have created a vaccine that floods the body with a compound that assaults nicotine as it enters the body, which experiments on mice showed can reduce nicotine levels in the brain by up to 85 percent. The vaccine requires years of research before it can be tested on humans. | BBC
Job worries for parents may mean poorer nutrition for kids: The more work-related stress parents experience, the unhealthier their kids' meals are likely to get, says a new study. Parents who didn't have enough time to prepare healthy meals or go grocery shopping resorted to unhealthy alternatives, like fast food. | MSN/HealthDay
Standing at work all day while pregnant linked to smaller babies: A pregnant woman's unborn baby's development may be affected by her standing for long periods of time or working more than 40 hours a week, says a new study. Researchers found that women who did those things had babies with heads that were about 3 percent smaller than the babies of women who weren't in jobs that required that kind of standing or overtime. | MSN/HealthDay
Photo by Bruce via Flickr Creative Commons.
