Author: SupremeCmdr

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Recall (check your prescription bottles)

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

In February, the FDA found problems with cleaning and testing at the plant in Madhya Pradesh, India, which was the subject of a ProPublica investigation last year. The current recalls, listed in an FDA enforcement report last week, cover a wide range of commonly prescribed medicines, including ones that treat epilepsy, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and high blood pressure, among other ailments. ​​A full list of the recalled medications is available here. An Indian Drugmaker, Investigated by ProPublica Last Year, Has Recalled Two Dozen Medications Sold to U.S. Patients https://www.propublica.org/article/glenmark-recalls-two-dozen-drugs

Time to bring the pharma supply chain back onshore.

Controlled Substance Prescribing Patterns – Pennsylvania

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

Rates of psychostimulant (stimulant)-related overdose deaths in the United States have increased substantially since 2010; in 2022, 32% of all overdose deaths involved stimulants. Citation: Hayden S, Murzynski SM, Bolton A, Goetz CT. Controlled Substance Prescribing Patterns Among Fatal Overdose Decedents with an Opioid, Stimulant, or Both Contributing to Death — Pennsylvania, 2017–2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2025;74:205–209. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7412a2

Prescribed stimulants. Read more here – https://www.dea.gov/factsheets/stimulants

Happy Friday!

(Not) Random Thoughts on Retirement and THE SCARY CHART of the Year So Far

/ SupremeCmdr / 12 Comments

How Bad Could This Get? https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2025/04/how-bad-could-this-get/. I’ve lived through several stock market crashes. And to think I started the day reading up on the latest U of Michigan healthy aging poll.

National Poll on Healthy Aging home

Working adults age 50 and older commonly reported these reasons for working as being very important:

  • Have financial stability (78%)
  • Save for retirement (65%)
  • Get access to health insurance (59%)
  • Support family members financially (52%)
  • Maximize Social Security benefits (46%)

Link: https://www.healthyagingpoll.org/

How about adding these bullet points to the list:

  • Working past age 50 enables you to weather stock market volatility better
  • Working past age 60 enables you to have financial stability when the stock portion of your retirement portfolio loses value
  • Working past age 70 enables you to say I’m glad to be still working when the stock portion of my retirement portfolio loses value.

Disclaimer: the additional bullet points are fictional and not related to the real poll questions or answers.

Monday should be a very interesting day in the stock market. Stocks appear to be headed towards a fire sale. Time to buy!

ASCOT-Legacy 20-year follow-up – Long-term Benefits of Atorvastatin

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

Patients allocated to atorvastatin had a significant reduction in non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) and fatal coronary heart disease (CHD) events (HR (95% CI) 0.81 (0.69 to 0.94, p=0.006)), total coronary events (0.88 (0.80 to 0.98, p=0.017)) and CV deaths (0.86 (0.74 to 0.99, p=0.048)). No significant reduction in heart failure (HF), strokes, total CV events and all-cause mortality was observed. Long-term benefits of atorvastatin on the incidence of cardiovascular events: the ASCOT-Legacy 20-year follow-up – https://heart.bmj.com/content/early/2025/03/25/heartjnl-2024-325104

Dr. M. Zann McMahan, thank you.

Diet and Healthy Aging

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

In the journal Nature Medicine this week there was an important open-access publication about a large combined cohort of over 105,000 health professionals prospectively followed for 30 years. Only 9.3% reached the age of 70 years with “healthy aging” —without 11 major chronic diseases and no impairment of cognitive or physical function or mental health. Our Diet and Healthy Aging Eric Topol, MD – https://erictopol.substack.com/p/our-diet-and-healthy-aging

Dr. Eric Topol’s assessment of this study is well balanced and thoughtfully written. His bio is here: https://www.scripps.edu/faculty/topol/

Healthy aging in this study is described as reaching age 70 without developing any of 11 major diseases: cancer (except for non-melanoma skin cancers), diabetes, heart attack, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

My Half-Birthday is coming up soon. I’ll be 70.5 years young. The biggest take home lesson for me is this:

Beer is better for you than pizza.

OK, I’ll Stop Complaining About the Price of Eggs (more Scary Charts)

/ SupremeCmdr / 3 Comments
Horror stories of inflation in Argentina

These problems have existed for decades. Rampant government spending and massive government borrowing are two important factors. The government has defaulted on its debt nine times. Argentina’s currency was devalued by 30% in 2015, and then again in 2016. Soon after taking office in December 2023, Milei devalued the peso by more than 50%. https://tipswatch.com/2025/03/23/horror-stories-of-inflation-in-argentina/

Who Holds the Ballooning US Government Debt, even as the Fed and Foreign Holders Unloaded Treasury Securities in Q4? — https://wolfstreet.com/2025/03/18/who-holds-the-ballooning-us-government-debt-even-as-the-fed-and-foreign-holders-unloaded-treasury-securities-in-q4/

Maybe one day I’ll add my personal thoughts when I post stuff but for now I’ll let Scary Charts speak for themselves.

Ah, Houston, we’ve had a problem (Scary Charts 03.10.25)

/ SupremeCmdr / 6 Comments

Source – https://www.apolloacademy.com/there-is-a-significant-need-for-retirement-savings-in-the-us/

Short of forcing people to save for retirement, Social Security remains the safety net for those who lack access to retirement vehicles or don’t have the means to save. – How Many Americans Don’t Save For Retirement? https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2025/03/how-many-americans-dont-save-for-retirement/

TBH, Social Security is a much higher portion of our retirement income than I had planned for.

Baby Boomers Are Aging Into the Group Most Affected by Hoarding Disorder

/ SupremeCmdr / 4 Comments

Studies have estimated that hoarding disorder affects around 2.5% of the general population — a higher rate than schizophrenia. The mental illness was previously considered a sub-type of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but in 2013 it was given its own diagnostic criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-5.

For Seniors With Hoarding Disorder, a Support Group Helps Confront Stigma and Isolation – https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/hoarding-disorder-support-groups-pennsylvania-baby-boomers/

Yikes.

We Underfunded the Reserves

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

“And I love this location, which is why I stayed here all this time, through the ups and downs,” Winter Park Woods condo owner Lorraine Roy said.

For Roy to keep living in her three-bedroom condo of more than three decades, her new monthly HOA fee has tripled to $3,371.79.

“This is way too high,” she said.

Florida condo owners struggling to afford skyrocketing HOA fees – https://www.wesh.com/article/florida-condo-hoa-fees/63790370

Yikes. I guess I shouldn’t complain about my HOA dues increasing to $550.00…annually.