Tuesday's health headlines: weight loss drugs to so-called good mosquitoes

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Welcome back and today's stories impacting your health. Could weight-loss drugs also lower your cancer risk? A new study from Penn Medicine finds women taking GLP-1 drugs are about 30% less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than those who did not. But health experts say while that sounds like a big difference, it's actually not when you look at the percentages. About 2.3% of women not on the drug were diagnosed with breast cancer. That's compared to 1.6 of women who were.

[00:00:26]>> I don't want people running home and thinking, oh I need to be on a GLP-1 to prevent breast cancer. That is not the message at all. The women were not randomly assigned to the drug. They did not take into account many other factors that we know are predictive of whether somebody develops breast cancer or not.

[00:00:42]>> Well, some of those factors include socioeconomic status, exercise, drinking, family history, and what other drugs that the study participants were taking. Health experts say any of those other factors could explain why the group on the GLP-1s had a little bit lower rate of cancer.

[00:00:57]Well, dermatologists say they are seeing a concerning comeback of a dangerous summer trend, tanning. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the US, but you can lower the risk of developing that disease by protecting your skin from the sun. And indoor tanning with a bed or sun lamp, it can be even more dangerous. In some cases, emitting UV radiation up to 15 times the strength of the midday sun. Last month, the FDA withdrew a proposed rule which it would have banned anyone under 18 from using tanning beds, instead leaving regulations up to individual states.

[00:01:28]A global wants to fight mosquitoes with more mosquitoes. The company's Debug program is seeking federal approval to release up to 32 million non-biting male mosquitoes in Florida and California.

[00:01:40]Don't think about it here in Louisiana, please. The insects carry a naturally occurring bacterium that prevents them from producing offspring with wild female mosquitoes, but only males are released. They say they don't bite or spread disease. That means the population of disease-carrying mosquitoes could shrink shrink over the time. The EPA is reviewing the permit request. I did not know that only males could females could bite, really.