Weight-loss drugs are popular among national stories of 2024
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IDAHO FALLS – What a year! What do you think was the most important news in the United States in 2024?
This list probably doesn’t reflect that.
Rather, it shows what you, the readers, were looking at on EastIdahoNews.com, based on our analytics.
There’s not a lot of politics here, but you will see a few stories about weight-loss drugs. We wish you all the best on your New Year’s resolutions.
Click the headlines to read the articles.
10. Richard Simmons shares he has been diagnosed with cancer
In March, fitness guru Richard Simmons told the world he had noticed a “strange looking bump” under his eye and had been diagnosed with skin cancer.
A few months after we posted the cancer story, tragedy struck. In July, Simmons died at 76, though his cancer appeared to have nothing to do with it.
His representative called Simmons’ death “accidental due to complications from recent falls and heart disease as a contributing factor.” Click here for more details on his passing.
9. The end of a shortage of popular weight-loss drugs may mean many people lose access to them
A woman lamented the fact she would no longer have access to Mounjaro, a diabetes drug. A price hike was on the horizon, triggered by FDA rules on supply.
8. Does Medicare cover cataract surgery?
Savvy Senior columnist Jim Miller presented a clear picture of paying for cataract surgeries.
7. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issues statement on political neutrality, civil discourse, abortion
You may not have noticed, but 2024 was a big election year. About a month before Election Day, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement reaffirming its political neutrality and stance on abortion.
6. Kathie Lee Gifford hospitalized
Kathie Lee Gifford, 70, fell and fractured her pelvis in two places.
“You think you know your body and the next thing you know, your body changes when you get older,” the former daytime TV talk host said. “And as much as I don’t wanna think about it, I am.”
As we finish another year, all of us should remember that we’ve never been older than we are now …
5. Country singer says she’s checking into rehab after viral national anthem performance
Many of us dream of going viral … but not like this!
Country music artist Ingrid Andress’ performance at the 2024 MLB Home Run Derby was heavily criticized, and it prompted Andress to announce that she was going into rehab.
“That was not me last night. I apologize to MLB, all the fans and this country I love so much for that rendition,” she wrote on Instagram.
4. Lilly launches lower-price weight loss drug without injector pen
Starter doses of the weight-loss drug Zepbound were to be available in single-dose vials, manufacturer Eli Lilly announced. Instead of a preloaded injector pen, patients would use a syringe to draw out the medicine.
“These new vials not only help us meet the high demand for our obesity medicine, but also broaden access for patients seeking a safe and effective treatment option,” the president of Lilly Cardiometabolic Health and Lilly USA said in a statement.
3. After 155 years, the Campbell Soup Company is changing its name
Campbell Soup Company became The Campbell’s Company since it doesn’t make just soup — it owns snack brands like Goldfish, Snyder’s of Hanover, Cape Cod, Pepperidge Farm, Sovos Brands and others. Yep, no soup for Campbell’s, at least in the name.
In case you didn’t get the Seinfeld joke …
2. Popular weight loss and diabetes drugs linked to increased risk of rare form of blindness
Yet another story about weight-loss drugs.
A study suggested that people taking weight-loss drugs Ozempic or Wegovy could have a higher risk of developing a rare form of blindness. The condition is called NAION — non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy — and is a type of eye stroke that causes sudden, painless vision loss in one eye.
However, the condition is still rare, and doctors said it shouldn’t deter patients from using the medicines to treat diabetes or obesity, and one drug manufacturer said the new study was not sufficient to establish a causal association between the use of these medications and NAION.
1. A mom found a jawbone in her son’s rock collection. 22 years later, genealogy researchers ID’d the remains of a US Marine
More than two decades after a mother found a human jawbone hidden in her son’s rock collection, genetic genealogy experts identified it as the partial remains of a US Marine Corps captain. Despite the fact that Capt. Everett Leland Yager died in a military training exercise in California, his jawbone somehow ended up in Arizona.