I’m going to kick off this Doc Gumshoe missive with a little bit of positively excellent news, albeit information that isn’t prone to have an effect on many voters of Gumshoe Nation. In a nutshell, it’s this: on September twenty sixth, the FDA authorized the primary new drug to deal with schizophrenia in additional than 30 years. The drug is Cobenfy (xanomeline/trospium chloride, a fixed-dose mixture treatment. It was initially developed by Lilly (LLY), which offered the license to Karuna Therapeutics. Karuna has since been acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY).
Dr Tiffany Farchione, director of the FDA’s Division of Psychiatry, stated “This drug takes the primary new strategy to schizophrenia therapy in many years. This approval provides a brand new different to the antipsychotic medicines folks with schizophrenia have beforehand been prescribed. Schizophrenia is a number one explanation for incapacity worldwide. It’s a extreme, power psychological sickness that’s usually damaging to an individual’s high quality of life.”
For a lot of many years, therapy of schizophrenia relied on blocking dopamine receptors. Frequent dopamine receptor blockers embody Thorazine (chlorpromazine), Prolixin (fluphenazine), and Haldol (haloperidol). These have been round a very long time. For instance, Thorazine received its FDA approval in 1954.
Blocking dopamine receptors has advantages in addition to drawbacks. It reduces signs like hallucinations and paranoia to a degree that sufferers discover livable. However dopamine receptor blockers steadily end in vital weight achieve, such that sufferers taking these medicine are likely to have larger charges of cardiac ailments, leading to lowered life expectancy. And plenty of sufferers have discontinued taking these just because these medicine made them really feel sluggish and unmotivated.
Cobenfy has an impact on dopamine ranges, however its principal goal is one other neurotransmitter, acetylcholine.
About 25 years in the past, the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor agonist xanomeline (which is without doubt one of the two compounds in Cobenfy) was reported to cut back psychotic signs and enhance cognition in sufferers with Alzheimer’s illness. The antipsychotic and procognitive properties of xanomeline had been subsequently confirmed in a small examine of acutely psychotic sufferers with power schizophrenia.
The origins of the phrase “schizophrenia” counsel that the important dysfunction is a mind whose completely different capabilities are primarily disjointed – primarily a “break up thoughts.”
Based on the Nationwide Institute of Psychological Well being, schizophrenia is a psychological dysfunction characterised by disruptions in thought processes, perceptions, emotional responsiveness, and social interactions. Though the course of schizophrenia varies amongst people, schizophrenia is usually persistent and will be each extreme and disabling.
Schizophrenia is comparatively unusual. Within the US, it impacts between 0.25 and 0.75% of the inhabitants. Nonetheless, it’s a disproportionately costly situation. The monetary burden of schizophrenia contains the direct value of healthcare, which frequently entails life-long institutionalization, but additionally prices similar to misplaced productiveness, involvement with the felony justice system, and social providers.
Signs of schizophrenia embody psychotic signs similar to hallucinations, delusions, and thought dysfunction (uncommon methods of pondering), in addition to lowered expression of feelings, lowered motivation to perform objectives, problem in social relationships, motor impairment, and cognitive impairment.
The proof supporting Cobenfy as a therapy for schizophrenia is, to this point, moderately sparse. There have been solely three managed trials of the drug, and every trial lasted solely 5 weeks. In these trials, Cobenfy lowered the signs of schizophrenia to a manageable degree, with out producing the unwanted effects linked with dopamine receptor blockers similar to cardiac illness or weight achieve. BMY launched outcomes of long-term observational research of Cobenfy, during which sufferers didn’t expertise metabolic adjustments or motion issues similar to affected sufferers taking different medicine to regulate schizophrenia.
Pharmaceutical corporations are enthusiastic in regards to the Cobenfy outcomes, and are engaged on related medicines which may very well be efficient in treating such situations as bipolar dysfunction, autism, and Alzheimer’s illness.
BMY has set the wholesale value of Cobenfy at about $22,500 per yr. It’s anticipated to generate revenues between $3 billion and $5 billion per yr.
Eisai and Eli Lilly conceal instances of mind accidents linked to their Alzheimer’s medicine
Clearly, these are genuinely dreadful information objects. The medicine in query are Eisai’s Leqembi (lecanemab) and Eli Lilly’s Kisunia (donanemab). The NY Occasions not too long ago devoted greater than a full web page to this example, describing a number of instances during which sufferers taking these medicine skilled mind accidents, which may have been anticipated based mostly on their genetic profiles.
In 2021, Eisai put out a name for volunteers to take part in a medical trial of their experimental drug lecanemab (then referred to as BAN2401) for the therapy of Alzheimer’s illness. Practically 2,000 individuals answered the decision. Eisai sought particularly to incorporate people whose genetic profiles made them particularly inclined to develop Alzheimer’s. However these identical people had been extra inclined to mind bleeding or swelling in the event that they obtained the drug.
Eisai made a public assertion that every one volunteers can be given a genetic take a look at to establish the precise people who had been at specific danger for mind accidents. Nonetheless, Eisai didn’t inform these trial volunteers that they had been at particularly excessive danger of experiencing these mind accidents. It has been revealed {that a} whole of 274 volunteers joined the trial unaware that they had been at elevated danger. Two of those volunteers died of their mind accidents, and greater than 100 others skilled mind bleeding or swelling.
On July 6, 2023, the FDA granted accelerated approval to Leqembi/lecanemab for the therapy of Alzheimer’s, noting that its modest profit outweighed its dangers. The advantages of Leqembi/lecanemab for the therapy of Alzheimer’s are certainly modest. Remedy with the drug slows cognitive decline for a couple of months solely.
The same scenario has emerged with regard to Eli Lilly’s anti-Alzheimer’s drug Kisunia (donanemab). Lilly selected to not inform 289 volunteers in a medical trial of donanemab that their genetic profiles made them particularly susceptible to mind accidents. A few quarter of volunteers within the Kisunia trials skilled mind swelling or bleeding.
The FDA granted approval to Kisunia virtually precisely a yr after Leqembi’s FDA blessing – July 2, 2024.
In each the Leqembi and Kisunia trials, volunteers first needed to signal consent varieties that stated that folks with sure genetic traits confronted larger dangers of mind accidents from receiving the medicine, and that members within the trial can be given genetic assessments for these traits. However they had been advised that they might not learn as to the outcomes.
Basically, the volunteers in these trials had been anticipated to go forward and take part within the trials with out figuring out whether or not they had been at elevated danger for mind harm. The folks conducting the trial would know, however the trial topics wouldn’t know.
Each Leqembi/lecanemab and Kisunia/donanemab are BACE inhibitors (beta-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme inhibitors), which means that they aim amyloid beta, a type of plaque that clogs mind connections. The unlucky Aduhelm/aducanumab (from Biogen), which was taken off the market attributable to its poor efficiency in addition to the tendency to end in mind bleeds, can be a BACE inhibitor.
Mind bleeding and mind swelling is very prevalent in individuals with the APOE4 gene. About 40% of people with two copies of the gene skilled mind bleeding, and about 35% skilled mind swelling. This gene is extremely correlated with Alzheimer’s illness. Individuals with one copy of APOE4 have double or triple the danger of growing Alzheimer’s illness, whereas folks with two copies have an eight- to twelvefold improve in danger.
It must be identified that the profit these BACE inhibitors ship is minimal. It slows the onset of dementia in sure Alzheimer’s sufferers for lower than a yr earlier than the illness resumes its harmful course.
The annual value of Leqembi/lecanemab is $26,500. For Kisunia/donanemab it’s $32,000. Evidently, neither Eisai nor Lilly wish to allow unlucky particulars, such because the frequency of mind bleeds, to intrude with their gross sales prospects.
A drug-free nasal spray might defend towards respiratory infections
The nasal spray we’re discussing is a gel-like spray formulated with out lively pharmaceutical substances. It has but to be examined in people, however the researchers say it created a protecting coating that lasted for as much as eight hours within the nasal cavities of mice. If the spray’s security and efficacy are confirmed in people, the analysis staff stated the strategy may play an essential position in lowering respiratory ailments and safeguarding public well being towards new threats.
The nostril is a standard passage into the physique for a lot of viruses and micro organism. Most respiratory infections, similar to flu and COVID, are transmitted when an individual inhales tiny droplets of fluid that carry the pathogen. As soon as they get contained in the nostril, the viral or bacterial particles contained in the droplets infect the cells that line the nasal cavity. These pathogens replicate and journey additional down the respiratory tract of the contaminated particular person, generally reaching the lungs, the place they will trigger bronchitis and pneumonia. Pathogens can be launched again into the air when an contaminated particular person sneezes, coughs, laughs, sings, talks, and even simply breathes out and in.
Present nasal sprays provide restricted safety towards respiratory pathogens as a result of they’ve a single mechanism of safety. They both neutralize pathogens or block their entry into the cells lining the nostril, they usually carry out each duties with restricted efficacy.
The projected new drug-free nasal spray was developed to dam germs in 3 ways — the spray varieties a gel-like matrix that enhances the seize of respiratory droplets, immobilizes the germs, blocking their transport into the nasal lining, and successfully neutralizes the germs, stopping an infection. The nasal spray, referred to as Pathogen Seize and Neutralizing Spray (PCANS), was developed with nonpharmaceutical substances already utilized in authorized nasal sprays or listed within the FDA’s Usually Acknowledged as Protected (GRAS) checklist.
The researchers designed the formulation and studied its means to seize respiratory droplets in a 3D-printed duplicate of the human nasal passages. The experiments confirmed that when administered into the nasal cavity mannequin, the spray captured twice as many droplets as naturally occurring mucus produced as a part of the physique’s innate protection system.
The researchers examined the spray’s protecting results towards a pressure of influenza in mice. The spray was quickly activated following administration into the nostril and lasted as much as eight hours. A single dose may successfully block an infection from an influenza virus at 25 occasions the deadly dose of the virus. Which means that the spray was able to avoiding an infection even when animals had been uncovered to a heavy load of the virus. Based on the investigators, virus ranges within the lungs of pretreated animals had been lowered by practically 100% p.c, in contrast with virus ranges within the lungs of nontreated animals.
The nasal spray was developed by Harvard Medical College researchers working with Brigham and Girls’s Hospital. The data above got here from a Harvard Medical College launch.
It could be anticipated that the builders of the nasal spray can be extremely smitten by its advantages. Doc Gumshoe’s skeptical flip of thoughts poses a query: even when this wonderful drug-free nasal spray completed in human topics outcomes akin to these in mice, would extraordinary people be prone to routinely spray a gel coating into their nasal passages to guard themselves towards pathogens? People who had steadily skilled higher respiratory ailments, or who had been warned that they had been at elevated danger for higher respiratory ailments may use this gadget. Such individuals may take up the behavior of a every day dose of this nostril spray, roughly as a routine follow, like brushing their enamel. I emphasize the phrase “may” in that sentence. It could rely, to a substantial diploma, on what the nostril spray felt like whenever you press the button or squeeze the tube. Extra considerably, it might rely on whether or not these people perceived precise enchancment: did spraying gel of their noses really end in fewer instances of colds or the flu?
At this second, the protecting nasal spray is a good distance from the medical trials that may be essential to fulfill the FDA and get the nasal spray authorized as a medical gadget. Designing medical trials themselves can be a problem. The trial would wish to enlist voluntary topics, a few of whom can be spraying a placebo of their noses. Then, with a purpose to confirm the efficacy of the nasal spray in stopping an infection, the topics – together with these within the placebo arm – must be uncovered to pathogens, with a purpose to confirm that the nasal spray lowered an infection. Subsequently, some trial topics would positively expertise precise infections. Primarily based on the experimental proof that the gel captured twice as many respiratory droplets as naturally occurring mucus, those that received the true nasal spray would presumably expertise infections at half the speed, however they might be uncovered to infectious viruses and micro organism, and if the an infection price matched that within the mice, maybe half of the topics would really get sick. And the an infection price within the placebo group can be twice as excessive.
There could also be methods round this, nevertheless it strikes this observer as a protracted, lengthy shot.
Making an attempt to make sense of lengthy COVID
Sure, COVID 19 continues to be with us, though a lot much less of a risk. The latest figures for deaths, hospitalizations, emergency division visits, and constructive assessments are manner, manner down. There have been 444 deaths within the US attributable to COVID through the week ending November 3. This was about 1.0% of all of the deaths within the US at that time. And solely 0.5% of the emergency division visits had been attributable to COVID. Listed below are some mortality figures going again to the beginning of the epidemic to supply some perspective in regards to the present state.
Week ending 09/14/2024 – 563 deaths attributable to COVIDWeek ending 08/31/2024 – 663 deaths attributable to COVIDWeek ending 05/18/2024 – 336 deaths attributable to COVIDWeek ending 01/27/2024 – 2,131 deaths attributable to COVIDWeek ending 01/17/2023 – 3,870 deaths attributable to COVIDWeek ending 01/15/2022 – 19,078 deaths attributable to COVIDWeek ending 01/19/2021 – 25,974 deaths attributable to COVID
The parade of variants continues. Presently, the dominant variant nationwide is KP.3.1.1, which accounts for 52% of instances, adopted by XEC, with 28% of instances, and MC.1, with 6% of instances. The unique Omicron variant has been changed by subvariants, together with LB.1, KP.2, and KP.3. As I’ve tediously famous, because the virus mutates, probably the most “profitable” variants – profitable when it comes to their very own survival as a viral species – are the variants that let the human illness sufferer to outlive and move the virus on to different. A virus that kills its victims shortly is doomed to extinction.
All in all, COVID as an acute an infection is receding. However what continues to have an effect on numerous folks, and trigger a substantial amount of concern to the healthcare neighborhood, is lengthy COVID, which continues to be a puzzle. Lengthy COVID signs are much like the signs of an acute COVID an infection. Generally reported lengthy COVID signs included fatigue, mind fog, muscle ache, joint ache, again ache, headache, sleep disturbance, lack of odor or style, and gastrointestinal signs.
The CDC’s criterion for lengthy COVID is that the virus that causes COVID-19 is “current for at the least three months as a steady, relapsing and remitting, or progressive illness state that impacts a number of organ programs.”
Based on the CDC, estimates of the prevalence of lengthy COVID differ attributable to completely different examine standards, signs investigated, affected person populations, and timing of when signs are assessed. In 2022, 6.9% of adults and 1.3% of kids (roughly 17 million and 1 million, respectively) in the USA reported ever experiencing lengthy COVID. The latest figures I may discover, dated February fifteenth of this yr, ranged from 1.9% within the US Virgin Islands to 10.6% in West Virginia. These are clearly outliers; total, the prevalence remained on the identical degree because it had been in 2022.
I ought to add right here that an AI-enabled strategy, developed by Mass Normal Brigham, means that lengthy COVID prevalence is far larger – about 22%. The algorithm used was developed by drawing nameless affected person knowledge from the medical information of practically 300,000 sufferers throughout 14 hospitals and 20 neighborhood well being facilities within the Mass Normal Brigham system. That algorithm may establish extra individuals who must be receiving look after this debilitating situation.
Whereas lengthy COVID can happen in anybody who will get the coronavirus an infection, some folks or teams of persons are at larger danger of growing lengthy COVID. These embody girls, folks with underlying situations, individuals who skilled extra extreme outcomes of COVID-19, and other people of Hispanic ethnicity. Roughly 1 in 4 adults with lengthy COVID reported experiencing vital limitations of their every day exercise.
A examine carried out by a staff of researchers at Brigham and Girls’s Hospital centered particularly on lengthy COVID. Researchers discovered folks with wide-ranging lengthy COVID signs had been twice as prone to have SARS-CoV-2 proteins of their blood, in comparison with these with out lengthy COVID signs.
The staff discovered that 43% of these with lengthy COVID signs affecting three main programs within the physique – the cardiovascular, digestive, and respiratory programs – examined constructive for COVID viral proteins inside 1 to 14 months of their preliminary constructive COVID take a look at. However solely 21% of those that didn’t report any lengthy COVID signs examined constructive for the COVID virus on this identical interval.The hope expressed by the researchers is that by figuring out a subset of people that have a reservoir of the coronavirus of their our bodies, it might be attainable to deal with these individuals with efficient antivirals to alleviate their signs.
The examine analyzed 1,569 blood samples collected from 706 people, together with 392 members from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being-supported Researching COVID to Improve Restoration (RECOVER) Initiative, who had beforehand examined constructive for a COVID an infection. Utilizing SIMOA, an ultrasensitive take a look at for detecting single molecules, researchers regarded for complete and partial proteins from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Additionally they analyzed knowledge from the members’ lengthy COVID signs, utilizing digital medical chart data or surveys that had been gathered concurrently the blood samples had been taken.
Researchers identified that it’s attainable {that a} persistent an infection explains some however not the entire lengthy COVID signs. If that is so, testing and therapy may help in figuring out sufferers who might profit from different remedies.
One of many questions raised by the examine is why greater than half of sufferers with wide-ranging lengthy COVID signs examined destructive for persistent viral proteins.
Dr David Walt, principal investigator on the examine noticed that the discovering famous above suggests there may be probably a couple of explanation for lengthy COVID. For instance, one other attainable explanation for lengthy COVID signs may very well be that the virus harms the immune system, such that immune dysfunction continues after the virus is cleared.
Dr Walt and his staff are at present conducting follow-up research to raised perceive whether or not an ongoing an infection is behind some folks’s lengthy COVID signs. They’re analyzing blood samples and symptom knowledge in bigger teams of sufferers, together with folks of broad age ranges and people with compromised immune signs. It could be essential to establish people who usually tend to have persistent virus of their our bodies, resulting in lengthy COVID.
The coronavirus inflicting COVID is just not distinctive in staying within the physique and inflicting ongoing signs months after the preliminary acute an infection. Animal research have discovered Ebola and Zika proteins in tissues post-infection and these viruses have additionally been related to post-infection sickness.
My tackle this matter is that, whereas acute COVID infections are a lot much less frequent and rarely trigger critical sickness or demise, they will and do result in lengthy COVID, which is an final result to be assiduously averted. Subsequently, cautious people (my spouse and myself) proceed to put on masks in some public locations, together with the road on the pharmacy to choose up our medicines and medical amenities.
Who is aware of when – if ever! – it is going to actually and actually be over.
A Division of Power regulation may drastically change our mild bulbs
That regulation may have a major adversarial impact on the well being of many individuals within the US, particularly epileptics and migraineurs.
The regulation is scheduled to take impact in July 2028, and it’s centered solely on power effectivity, as one would anticipate of a regulation coming from the Division of Power. The related assertion is as follows:
“The adopted requirements, that are expressed in minimal lumens (“lm”) output per watt (“W”) of a lamp or lamp efficacy (“lm/W”). These requirements apply to all merchandise manufactured in, or imported into, the USA beginning on July 25, 2028.”
At current, the one mild bulbs (“lamps,” within the official DOE parlance) that may meet these requirements are the LEDs that emit mild within the 460 – 495 nm (nanometer) vary. A nanometer, by the way in which, is a billionth of a meter. Mild in that vary is emphatically on the blue finish of the spectrum, ranging into the ultraviolet.
However mild at that frequency has clear and distinct points. Within the night, it messes up our circadian rhythms. Our mind thinks it’s nonetheless broad daylight, positively not time to fall asleep. Blue mild suppresses the manufacturing of melatonin, which helps us fall asleep and keep asleep. We’ve got all been advised that staring into our pc screens or watching tv within the half-hour or so earlier than bedtime is a really unhealthy thought, as a result of the blue mild will make it tougher to get a superb evening’s sleep.
Past the circadian rhythm difficulty that impacts us all, blue LED mild is a significant public well being difficulty for epileptics and migraineurs, lots of whom are extraordinarily delicate to the standard of sunshine and easily can not tolerate blue LED mild. Yellow and white LEDs, though problematic, are extra acceptable, however the LEDs on the blue finish of the spectrum are past what these individuals can tolerate.
For these people, even temporary publicity to unnatural mild, significantly on the blue finish of the spectrum, can set off epileptic seizures and migraine complications. And a migraine is rather more and far worse than a foul headache. Along with the pounding ache, a migraine can carry on different signs, similar to extreme nausea and vomiting, in addition to excessive sensitivity to any mild, such that the migraineur must shelter in a darkish room.
The prevalence of migraines within the US inhabitants is surprisingly excessive – virtually 10% of males and about 21% of girls report migraines or exceptionally extreme complications throughout a three-month interval.
What we’d like is mild whose frequencies are extra evenly distributed over the seen spectrum, not concentrated on the blue finish. Sure, broader spectrum mild bulbs are much less power environment friendly, however they’re more healthy and far, rather more nice.
It’s value mentioning that we people, together with all different creatures whether or not animal or vegetable, advanced with incandescent mild, and I don’t imply Edison mild bulbs. The solar and all the celebs in our cosmos emit incandescent mild, as do candles and torches and cooking fires. Incandescence is mild produced by any sizzling or burning matter.
The actual high quality of incandescent mild sources, which can’t be matched by LEDs, is that it emits mild all through the complete steady spectrum. LED producers could make mild bulbs that mimic the complete spectrum, mixing diodes that emit radiation at a spread of factors, from the ultraviolet to the infrared. However regardless of what number of diodes the LED comprises, it won’t be a steady spectrum like incandescent mild. Components of the spectrum will probably be lacking, and what we’re in a position to see illuminated by LEDs won’t cowl the complete seen spectrum.
In Rockland, Maine, there may be an artwork museum, the Farnsworth, which homes a wonderful assortment of the works of Andrew Wyeth. The Wyeth work are illuminated by LEDs – all apart from one portray which is adjoining to a big window that allows the portray to be lit by daylight. The distinction between the LED-lit work and the one portray close to the window is big. The LED-lit work look drab compared.
It is perhaps attainable to make LEDs which are superior to those within the Farnsworth, however absence of the complete seen spectrum will probably be a deficit. I want to suppose that in some unspecified time in the future the Authorities, whether or not the Division of Power or the Division of Well being and Human Companies, will come to comprehend that mild bulbs that span the seen spectrum are, at the least in some instances, a necessity.
Power-efficient mild bulbs that emit a pleasing mild that may be tolerated by epileptics and migraineurs and are sympathetic to the wants of our circadian rhythms ought to, I deeply hope, turn out to be obtainable properly earlier than that dire date in 2028.
Temporary remark: is Lesstranol the reply to elevated ldl cholesterol?
A daily reader and web buddy despatched a bit about this complement with the query “Is there something to this?”
My reply is a cautious “possibly.”
The commercial selling Lesstranol is just not a wild overstatement. Right here is the principal assertion of Lesstranol’s worth:
“After many years of treating 1000’s of sufferers with unhealthy levels of cholesterol, I got here to the conclusion that there needed to be a neater all-natural manner to assist my sufferers assist their levels of cholesterol. After meticulous analysis, I recognized 1 all-natural key nutrient that helps preserve each regular ldl cholesterol and triglyceride ranges whereas selling optimum LDL/HDL stability and cardiovascular well being.
This key nutrient is Purple Yeast Rice. Historical Chinese language healers believed crimson yeast rice may promote good blood circulation. At this time, trendy scientists know that it comprises monacolins, substances recognized to advertise regular levels of cholesterol. These monacolins cease the motion of the HMG-CoA reductase, an enzyme that helps make ldl cholesterol.”
Certainly, crimson yeast rice can have a useful impact on levels of cholesterol. Right here’s what the Mayo Clinic says about it:
“Analysis exhibits that crimson yeast rice containing appreciable quantities of monacolin Ok can decrease your whole blood ldl cholesterol degree, your low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or “unhealthy”) ldl cholesterol degree and your triglyceride degree.
Whereas the complement is mostly thought-about secure, it’d carry the identical potential unwanted effects as statin ldl cholesterol medicine.
Purple yeast rice may cost a little lower than a statin. Nonetheless, with a complement, there’s much less assurance relating to high quality and the way a lot lively ingredient is definitely within the product. Some crimson yeast merchandise may include solely small quantities of monacolin Ok and doubtlessly have little impact on levels of cholesterol.”
And who is aware of how a lot of that monocolin Ok is within the Lesstranol complement. As has been steadily identified in these items, dietary supplements are solely unregulated. There isn’t a manner of figuring out what is definitely within the Lesstranol tablets. Talking for myself, if I had elevated ldl cholesterol (which, fortunately, I don’t!), I might comply with the recommendation of my doctor, which might probably level me to a statin.
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In previous Doc Gumshoe epistles, we now have mentioned elevated ldl cholesterol and methods of managing that situation, and in addition famous the introduction of latest statins. Is it maybe time to muster up an outline of that image? Please let me know!
I used to be solely in a position to cowl a couple of of the current developments on this installment, so within the subsequent one I’ll decide up the place I left off and produce you extra bits and items.
Within the meantime, thanks for all feedback and benefit from the holidays, in addition to the non-holidays. Michael Jorrin (aka Doc Gumshoe).
[ed note: Michael Jorrin, who I dubbed “Doc Gumshoe” many years ago, is a longtime medical writer (not a doctor) and shares his commentary with Gumshoe readers once or twice a month. He does not generally write about the investment prospects of topics he covers, but has agreed to our trading restrictions. Past Doc Gumshoe columns are available here.]
