Health Newsfeed – Johns Hopkins Medicine Podcasts

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How did the current situation with kratom develop? Elizabeth Tracey reports May 04, 2026

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Many substances marketed as ‘supplements’ enjoy a lack of oversight and regulation, among them kratom, a plant based extract from Asia. While some users report pain relief and mood improvement there are no studies to support this, and as Eric …

How did the current situation with kratom develop? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more →

What is the likelihood that you’ll experience a problem with a product labeled as kratom? Elizabeth Tracey reports May 04, 2026

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Over a thousand fold in the last year. That’s the increase in the number of emergency department visits nationally due to use of kratom, a drug sold unregulated in convenience stores and gas stations as well as online. Substance use …

What is the likelihood that you’ll experience a problem with a product labeled as kratom? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more →

If you have a bad experience after taking kratom, can medical professionals help? May 04, 2026

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When someone presents to an emergency department after having taken an unknown drug, screening is typically undertaken. Yet for kratom, which last year accounted for over a thousand fold increase in ED visits, no screen is available. Substance use disorder …

If you have a bad experience after taking kratom, can medical professionals help? Read more →

Consuming kratom products may result in an ED visit, Elizabeth Tracey reports May 04, 2026

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Kratom is a drug that has been unregulated and sold for decades in smoke shops and elsewhere, now associated with over a thousand fold increase in emergency department visits. Why? Substance use disorder expert Eric Strain at Johns Hopkins explains. …

Consuming kratom products may result in an ED visit, Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more →

Kratom is accounting for a dramatic rise in ED visits, Elizabeth Tracey reports May 04, 2026

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You may have noticed among the offerings at gas stations and convenience stores something called kratom. This is a plant based drug with the potential for undesired side effects that is unregulated in the United States. Now over a thousand …

Kratom is accounting for a dramatic rise in ED visits, Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more →

Increasing rates of obesity and severe obesity may presage increased rates of heart failure, Elizabeth Tracey reports Apr 23, 2026

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The good news is heart failure in people with severe obesity may be reversible with common weight loss drugs. The bad news is both obesity, with BMIs of around 30, and severe obesity, with a BMI of 42 or greater, …

Increasing rates of obesity and severe obesity may presage increased rates of heart failure, Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more →

Is there another benefit besides weight loss of GLP-1s in people with severe obesity? Elizabeth Tracey reports Apr 23, 2026

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GLP-1 receptor agonists are effective in helping most people lose weight, and now a new study suggests that in those with severe obesity, a BMI of 42 or greater and who have a type of heart failure, this condition may …

Is there another benefit besides weight loss of GLP-1s in people with severe obesity? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more →

Can GLP-1 agonists help in heart failure and severe obesity? Elizabeth Tracey reports Apr 23, 2026

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There’s a relationship between severe obesity and one type of heart failure, and it looks like it’s mediated by adding more phosphate groups, a process known as phosphorylation, to proteins in heart muscle cells, specifically to units within the muscle …

Can GLP-1 agonists help in heart failure and severe obesity? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more →

What is severe obesity doing to the heart muscle’s ability to contract? Elizabeth Tracey reports Apr 23, 2026

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Severe obesity may impede the ability of units inside heart muscle cells called sarcomeres to contract, and losing weight may reverse that condition. That’s according to research by cardiologist David Kass and colleagues at Johns Hopkins, who looked closely at …

What is severe obesity doing to the heart muscle’s ability to contract? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more →

How is obesity related to a common form of heart failure? Elizabeth Tracey reports Apr 23, 2026

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Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, so-called HFpEF, is happening more frequently, especially in those with severe obesity. David Kass, a cardiologist and researcher at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues, have looked closely at heart muscle cells from this group of …

How is obesity related to a common form of heart failure? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more →