It’s Thursday! Postcall here, bringing you enough tasty, nutritious stories to make a quokka smile!

We’ve got an action-packed issue for you — no time to waste!

Table of Contents

• The Skyfall of Bonds

• Things your attending might pimp you on

  • Which GLP-1 agonist is best?

  • An update on measles

  • E-cigs for smoking cessation?

• Samsung Is Watching You Sleep

• Quick Bites

• Postcall Picks

• 🕹️ Game ⛳️

What happened in the markets this week:

The 2024 rally hit a pause last week, ending relatively flat amidst a mix of emotions. On one hand, robust corporate earnings reports from heavy hitters like Coke, Cisco, and Manulife brought a wave of optimism about the economy's strength. BUT inflation in the US still high, and that might mean that anticipated rate cut might need to wait.

If you like buying individual stocks: Nvidia’s earning come out today after markets close, which will give us a measure of how the AI hype is going.

The Skyfall of Bonds🤵

What happened: A 2023 study simulating a US household's 40-year earnings and investing habits (across several asset classes) challenged the status quo: an all-stock portfolio outperformed a traditional mix of stock/bonds.

Why it’s interesting: Bonds are supposed to stabilize a portfolio, cushioning losses in stock market downturns by virtue of low correlation with stocks. But Benjamin Felix, Head of Research at PWL Capital, says bonds might be riskier than we thought.

The study reveals that the stock-bond correlation increases dramatically over time (one-month: 0.18 to 30-year: 0.46), offering less diversification benefit for long-horizon investors. In 2022, we saw this in practice — interest rates spiked, triggering one of the worst bond market crashes that coincided with a stock market pullback. The simultaneous drop of bonds and stocks in 2022 made many rethink their bond allocations.

But before you reshuffle your portfolio…

• Wall Street is divided: BlackRock suggests a fresh approach. Vanguard believes the traditional mix will remain strong for the next decade. And Redditors point out this study’s lack of peer review, aligning with the 2023 trend of 10k+ research paper retractions. 

• Many investors also don’t want to live with the psychological cost of an all-equity portfolio.

• The historical data in the study doesn’t predict future returns.

Things your attending might pimp you on 🙋🏽‍♀️👨‍⚕️ 

1. Which GLP-1 agonist is best?

A network meta-analysis including 39,000 adults with type 2 diabetes has shown that Tirzepatide, a GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist, was the most effective for weight loss and glycemic control with mean differences of −2.1% in HbA1c, −56 mg/dL in FBG, and −8.5 kg in body weight compared with placebo. Semaglutide followed closely behind in effectiveness for both indications. For context, Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, which contains tirzepatide, was approved in the US in 2022 and has been prescribed off-label for obesity at the hefty price of over $1000 for a month’s supply.

2. An update on measles

Remember our story on measles back in February? Florida has confirmed six cases measles at a school just north of Miami. As a refresher, symptoms include maculopapular rash, fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes, and fatigue. Meanwhile, the CDC has updated their immunization schedule in the US. A key change is the inclusion of RSV vaccines for infants and young children as well as pregnant people. 

3. E-cigs for smoking cessation?

In an RCT from Switzerland, 1,246 adult smokers received free e-cigarettes plus smoking-cessation counselling vs. counselling alone. The bottom line is that e-cigarette use facilitated smoking cessation (NNT ≈8), with the caveat that the provision of e-cigarettes and supplies for free may have contributed to the intervention's success. Nevertheless, experts are wondering: is it time to include e-cigs in the smoking cessation toolkit?

Samsung Is Watching You Sleep

What happened? The FDA approved Samsung Galaxy Watch’s new feature that helps detect warning signs of sleep apnea (in the US — it’s not approved anywhere else… yet).

Why it’s interesting: According to the National Sleep Foundation, 25% of men and 10% of women in the US experience sleep apnea. Samsung’s new technology aims to understand sleep patterns and build healthier sleeping behaviours. 

The watch works by monitoring blood oxygen levels throughout the night to see if they drop — a common sign of sleep apnea. The device must be worn twice for at least 4 hours of sleep within a 10-day period to produce results. Designed for users over the age of 22 with a compatible Samsung phone and watch, this update to the Health Monitor app will be available this Sept.

Samsung is the first US company to get FDA approval for this tech, but they won’t be the last — it’s rumoured that Apple and FitBit are designing a sleep tracking feature as well. 

Bottom line: Despite FDA approval, some doctors don’t believe the device is a reliable tool for sleep apnea detection. Samsung has said that the new feature is a “pre-diagnosis tool” and shouldn’t be used to replace qualified healthcare professionals. 

Speed Reads 🚤 

1: 😷  Nearly one in four adults who have contracted COVID-19 have developed long COVID. Adults in the US aged 25-39 had the highest rates of long COVID symptoms followed by adults aged 40-59. Symptoms of the condition include fatigue, gastrointestinal symptoms, and heart palpitations. 

2:👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏾 First Lady Jill Biden announced $100 million in federal funding for research and development into women’s health. This is the first major deliverable of the White House Initiative on Women's Health Research. Biden said that women don’t know enough about their health due to underfunding and hopes that with this money, that will change.

3:🥣 A pesticide linked to infertility in animals has shown up in cereals like Quaker Oats and Cheerios.  Chlormequat was detected in 92% of oat-based foods, and some studies have shown that it can damage the reproductive system and disrupt fetal growth in animals. Quaker Oats and General Mills say they stand by the quality and safety of their products. 

4:😪 Despite burnout not being an official medical condition, scientists have created a tool to help identify signs to help companies make sure their teams are functioning properly. The tech is not yet available in the US but trials are underway.

Postcall Picks ✅ 

🥧 File: your taxes. CBS News has compiled a list of tax credits Americans should be aware of when filing their taxes in the coming weeks. These include tax credits for parents, energy efficient upgrades, education tax credits, and other credits like earned income and retirement savings. 

Take a look and send it to your accountant. Or if you’re filing your taxes on your own, check out these free solutions here.

💳️ Buy: FIFA World Cup 2026 tickets (once they’re out). For now, the “interest list” is open and we’re hoping they’ll be just slightly cheaper than Taylor Swift tickets.

🧠 Learn: how cardiology and urology can work together 😉 

@norton_fam

Urology 🤝 Cardiology (don’t do this) #medstudent #medschool #medicalhumor #medicaltiktok #doctorsoftiktok #nursesoftiktok #fyp

🕹️ Game ⛳️

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