OK, Now on to the Health Watch,
where we like to discuss all sorts of topics
that are trending in the medical world.
And as always, we're joined by Doctor Syed
Hussain from Trinity Health of w
England, who's been here the pat
two Wednesdays when I have not.
So it's been a while since
I've seen you, Doctor. Yeah,
that's right. Good to see you. Missed you.
Yeah, glad to have you here.
Missed you too. All right.
We're starting by talking about melatonin,
obviously a very popular sleep .
But there is some danger,
specifically with melatonin gums
because a team of researchers
studied 25 different brands.
And found that about two out of every nine
of them contained a different amount of
melatonin than what was put on the label.
How much of a difference does that make?
Yeah, it makes a large differen.
Especially because, Tim,
when you consider who
takes these gummies, right?
And usually it's the pediatric
population that means kids and
parents may give them to kids.
Kids like gummies we've seen.
Really a high percentage increaf
over 500% actually in terms of calls from
melatonin overdose from 2012 to 2021.
That's huge.
And this is data from the poison control.
So not only was a large amount
of melatonin more than should be
prescribed found in these gummi,
but also more concerning is CBD
cannabinoids that were also detd
by this independent lab that the
study that was conducted lookin,
as you mentioned.
25 or so they different brands of gummies.
Does CBD have any proven
benefits to help people sleep?
It's only indicated in the
pediatric population in patients
who have intractable seizures.
So yes, basically,
for all intents and purposes, n.
Is there a general idea of not only how
much melatonin a person should ,
but when does the time of day matter?
Considering it's a sleep regulating hormone,
you want to do it at like sunser
absolutely it's a very small
dose that's that's necessary and
it's usually around bedtime.
But parents need to be aware of
what symptoms to look for if thr
patient if their child is getting very
irritable agitated bed wetting e
are all symptoms of possible overdose.
So a first and foremost you know stay
away from these gummies until there's
further investigation by the FDA looking
at these over the counter medications.
Speaking of the FDA and actually just
cleared an injection for patients with
a rare form of Lou Gehrig's disease ALS.
What do we know about that
This is very exciting toe person has been.
And conditionally approved by
the FDA for use in a very small
subset Tim of a LS patients.
This is a very sad disease in ts
of what it does there about 30,000 or
so patients nationwide and thisg
will be catered to around 500 of them,
those that have a very specific
mutation that can cause very
severe disease rapidly progress.
So symptoms just so viewers are aware
can start off with muscle twitc,
but then ultimately involves all muscle.
Parts. So it's difficulty swallowing,
difficulty breathing,
ultimately leading to death.
OK, well, it's great news, unfortunately,
for a small percentage of the population,
but boy, it's a cohort that reay
needs some good news. That's ri.
It's good to see that they got it all right.
Let's talk about the latest
COVID variant of interest.
And I'm just curious how
interested we should be in it.
I guess it's nicknamed Arturus.
I guess we're naming them after stars now.
What do we know?
This is XBB 116.
I feel like we discussed these
variants every few weeks.
The good news here is that it da
from India and other countries
doesn't show us that it causes y
severe disease than existing variants.
It does tend to cause more milder illness.
It is gaining ground in countries where
there may not be preexisting immunity
to this particular variant sublineage.
So India seeing an uptick in ca.
We actually have 10% of cases n.
That are caused by XBB 116.
So just to keep an eye on it,
what I will reiterate which I've
mentioned previously is those individuals
that are 65 and above and thoset
have an immunocompromised condin
should now roll up their sleeves
if it's been more than four mons
to get the bivalent COVID-19 doe
right. Well, it's good to see t.
Of course, nothing's guaranteed.
We don't know what's coming down the road.
It looks like that trend of
maybe more contagious but less
severe has been continuing now
for probably a number of years.
I guess that's right. Absolutel.
So. That is good news.
Let's just hope to leave well
enough alone with that. Doctor,
thank you so much for the time to see you.
Yeah, Likewise.
We will see him again next
Wednesday morning at 8:30. OK.