WEDNESDAY, Sept. 27, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Ozempic, a type 2 diabetes drug that has increasingly been used to help with weight loss, will now be labeled as having the potential to block intestines.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently made the label update for the drug made by Novo Nordisk, without directly citing Ozempic as the cause for this condition. "Because these reactions are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not always possible to reliably estimate their frequency or establish a causal relationship to drug exposure," the label reads.The side effect, known by the medical term “ileus,” is also listed on labels for the weight-loss drug Wegovy, also made by Novo Nordisk, and in the diabetes medication Mounjaro, made by Eli Lilly, CBS...

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 27, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- A new study is strengthening the evidence that stem cell transplants can be highly effective for some people with multiple sclerosis -- sending the disease into remission for years, and sometimes reversing disability.Researchers found that of 174 MS patients who underwent stem cell transplants -- with cells from their own blood -- two-thirds had no evidence of "disease activity" over 10 years.That meant no symptom relapses, no worsening disability and no signs of new damage in their brain tissue.In fact, of patients who'd already developed disabilities before the procedure, more than half saw improvements afterward.The findings were published Sept. 25 in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.Experts said the study bolsters...

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 27, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- A newer understanding of multiple sclerosis (MS) suggests that psychiatric conditions like anxiety and depression may emerge long before classic MS symptoms.“For a long time, it was thought that MS only really began clinically when a person experienced their first demyelinating event, such as in the form of vision problems,” said senior author Helen Tremlett. She is a professor of neurology at the University of British Columbia's Djavad Mowafaghian Center for Brain Health, in Vancouver. “But we’ve come to understand there is a whole period preceding those events where the disease presents itself in more indirect ways,” Tremlett said in a university news release.The findings were welcomed by Sharon Roman, an MS patient for 25...

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 27, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Gene therapy has restored mobility in mice with completely severed spinal cords, researchers report.The mice regained the ability to walk, with gait patterns resembling those of mice that resumed walking naturally after only partial cord injuries, the investigators found.This happened because the new gene therapy used techniques to not only repair spinal cord tissue, but also to direct the repairs in a way that would restore mobility, the study authors said.“Five years ago, we demonstrated that nerve fibers can be regenerated across anatomically complete spinal cord injuries [when the spinal cord is completely severed],” said senior researcher Mark Anderson. He is director of Central Nervous System Regeneration at the Swiss research and...