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Turns out, Americans may be drinking less coffee, soda and tea, but they’re getting more caffeine than ever. A new study of more than 49,000 U.S. adults found that while fewer are sipping caffeinated drinks, those who do are choosing much stronger doses, with coffee taking the lead. The result? Caffeine intake is rising, even though the average consumption is still below 400 milligrams of caffeine per day. That’s the amount health experts consider safe. “We are all aware that the caffeinated beverage market has changed dramatically over the past 10 years, yet no comparable, comprehensive caffeine intake data have been published in recent years,” study author Diane Mitchell of the Institute for Advancing Health through Agriculture, Texas A&M AgriLife, said in a news release. Coffee now accounts for 70% of total caffeine consumption, up 15% from the previous 2010-2011 survey, Mitchell’s team reported. What’s more, carbonated soft drinks now contribute only 15% of caffeine intake, a 27% decrease from a decade ago. Tea consumption has also dropped significantly, with 50% fewer tea drinkers overall. However, the remaining tea drinkers nearly doubled their caffeine intake from tea, suggesting those who stuck with the beverage are, in fact, drinking more. Energy drinks, which were less common a decade ago, now account for 6% of total caffeine intake, as the number of available brands has jumped from… read on > read on >

Got milk? It turns out, plain cow’s milk, water and a bit of veggie juice are still the best drink choices for kids and teens. That’s the consensus of experts who recently issued healthy beverage recommendations for kids and teens aged 5 to 18. The expert panel — convened by Healthy Eating Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation — included members from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Association. Its recommendations follow a five-month review of scientific literature, according to The Washington Post. Unsurprisingly, the panel said water should be “primary beverage for meeting hydration needs,” with the recommended daily intake ranging from 16 to 88 ounces, depending on a child’s age and sex. Tap water, the panel wrote, is preferred because it’s affordable, eco-friendly and often has fluoride added to prevent tooth decay. Plain pasteurized milk — preferably low-fat or fat-free — was also recommended for its essential nutrients. The panel said 100% fruit or vegetable juice is acceptable but should be limited due to its high calorie content. The panel also said plant-based milks, like almond or oat, lack key nutrients and should only replace dairy if medically necessary. It said flavored and sweetened milk should be avoided or limited. Sugar-sweetened beverages, like sodas… read on > read on >

One of the NBA’s most exciting rising stars will spend the rest of the 2024-2025 season on the bench. Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs’ 7-foot 3-inch phenom, was sidelined after doctors discovered a dangerous blood clot in his right shoulder, the league announced Thursday. The 21-year-old French standout, who earned Rookie of the Year honors last season, was diagnosed after his return from Sunday’s 2025 All-Star Game with deep vein thrombosis (DVT). DVT is a dangerous condition in which a blood clot forms in a vein deep inside the body, usually in the legs but sometimes in arms or shoulders, as in Wembanyama’s case. “The medical experts and the people that are smarter than everybody in the room … confirm that he’ll be done this year, and that there is no concern for Victor’s long-term health personally, or anything related to his basketball activities,” acting Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said, according to the Associated Press. DVT can develop after after injuries, surgery or long periods of inactivity such as a long car or plane trip, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If left untreated, the clot can break loose and travel to the lungs, causing a life-threatening pulmonary embolism. Clots can also block blood flow to the brain or heart, increasing the risk of stroke or heart attack, experts… read on > read on >

The health benefits of aggressive blood pressure control outweigh the potential risks for seniors, according to the latest results from a major clinical trial. About 85% of seniors treated to a target blood pressure of 120 systolic (the top number in a blood pressure reading) had a positive net benefit from such tight control, researchers reported. The reduced risk of heart disease and early death outweighed the negatives that can accompany such aggressive treatment, which include potential kidney damage or dangerously low blood pressure, results show. “Almost all … participants aged 65 years or greater had a predicted net benefit that favored an systolic blood pressure target of less than 120 mm Hg over a systolic blood pressure target of less than 140 mm Hg,” concluded the research team led by senior investigator Dr. Simon Ascher, an assistant clinical professor with the University of California-Davis. Systolic blood pressure refers to pressure within blood vessels during a heartbeat. Elderly patients, frail seniors and those taking many different medications derived “greater absolute harms from intensive blood pressure lowering,” along with greater heart disease, cognitive and death rate benefits, the study found. These results come from the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT), which in 2017 led major U.S. cardiology groups to revise their definition of high blood pressure. As a result, blood pressure of 130 systolic has… read on > read on >

Stroke patients leave the hospital with better prospects if they’re forced to hoof it more during recovery, a new study suggests. Adding a half-hour of progressive walking exercises to standard stroke rehab measurably improves patients’ quality of life and mobility by the time they go home, researchers say. “Although guidelines recommend structured, progressive exercise after stroke, the uptake of these approaches that have sufficient intensity for rehab programs is still lagging,” researcher Janice Eng, a stroke rehabilitation specialist and professor of physical therapy at the University of British Columbia in Canada, said in a news release. “Structured and progressively more challenging exercise, aided by wearable devices to provide feedback on intensity, can help people maintain safe intensity levels that are crucial for neuroplasticity — which is the brain’s ability to heal and adapt,” Eng added. For the study, her team recruited more than 300 stroke patients rehabbing at 12 hospitals across Canada. At the start, patients could walk an average of about 500 feet, nearly the distance of two average city blocks, during a standard six-minute walk test. Roughly half were randomly assigned to add a minimum of 30 minutes of weight-bearing and walking activities to their daily rehab, with these activities increasing in intensity over time. The goal was to get up to 2,000 steps of moderately intense exercise for a half-hour five days… read on > read on >

Smoking more than doubles the risk of unexplained strokes among younger adults, a new study warns. And heavy smoking is even worse, with stroke risk more than quadrupled among adults who smoke more than a pack of cigarettes every day for 20 years compared to people who don’t smoke, researchers found. “Our findings suggest that continued public health efforts around preventing smoking, especially heavy smoking, may be an important way to help reduce the number of strokes happening to young people,” lead researcher Phillip Ferdinand with Keele University in the U.K said in a news release. For the study, researchers focused on a type of stroke called cryptogenic stroke. These strokes are caused by a blockage of blood flow, but it’s not clear what caused the clog. “While smoking has long been linked to ischemic stroke, little is known about how smoking affects people under 50, especially in those with unexplained stroke,” Ferdinand said. His team compared the medical records of 546 people aged 18 to 49 who suffered an unexplained stroke, to 546 people of matched age and sex who hadn’t had a stroke. About 33% of smokers had suffered an unexplained stroke, compared to 15% of non-smokers, researchers found. Gender, age and smoking intensity all played a role in stroke risk among younger adults, results show. Male smokers had more than three times… read on > read on >

A radioactive gas could be contributing to asthma among schoolkids, researchers have found. Children exposed to elevated levels of radon gas tended to have more asthma symptoms, results show. “Residential radon has not previously been described as an environmental risk factor for asthma,” a team led by Dr. Wanda Phipatanakul, director of immunology research with Boston Children’s Hospital, concluded. “For the first time, we demonstrate a relationship between residential radon exposure and airway inflammation and asthma symptoms among school‐aged children with asthma,” researchers wrote recently in the journal Pediatric Pulmonology. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that’s odorless and invisible, occurring to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It emanates from the breakdown of trace amounts of uranium found in soil. Homes can fill with radon as it seeps out of soil and up through cracks and crevices, the CDC says. It is the second-leading cause of lung cancer deaths in the U.S. after cigarette smoke. For the study, researchers tracked the health of nearly 300 children with asthma attending inner-city schools. The team compared kids’ radon exposure in their homes — estimated based on ZIP code — to their asthma symptoms. Asthmatic kids exposed to radon tended to have more days with asthma symptom flare-ups, researchers found. They also suffered from increased airway inflammation as warm weather turned cold. “It… read on > read on >

The societal stress and stigma of being LGBTQ+ can increase a person’s risk of mental health problems, a new study suggests. People in sexual and gender minorities are more likely than heterosexuals to suffer from problems like anxiety, depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, ADHD, eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder, researchers reported recently in JAMA Network Open. But they emphasized that these mental health problems are not caused by these folks’ sexual and gender identity, but “reflect the stigma and minority stress experienced by these individuals.” Factors such as “limited legal protections, exposure to violence, lack of access to gender-affirming treatments, and weaker social support systems” affect LGBTQ+ people physically and mentally, “heightening the risk of mental health issues over time,” a team led by senior author Marvin Langston concluded. Langston is an assistant professor of epidemiology and population health at Stanford University. For the study, researchers analyzed responses from nearly 270,000 people participating in the All of Us Research Program, a national project designed to explore mental health disparities. Of those participants, more than 22,000 self-identified as a member of a sexual or gender minority. The study compared people’s risk for 10 mental health conditions: anxiety, attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), autism, bipolar, eating disorder, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and schizophrenia. Results show that people in sexual or gender minorities… read on > read on >

Women who develop a complication like diabetes or high blood pressure during pregnancy are at higher risk of stroke or heart disease in the years after delivery. Unfortunately, their doctors aren’t taking this health risk seriously enough, a new study suggests. Fewer than 1 in 5 women (17%) diagnosed with gestational diabetes or high blood pressure received an adequate health screening in the year after pregnancy, researchers reported Feb. 17 in the journal Circulation. Further, fewer than half (44%) of these at-risk women got such a screening within three years of their pregnancy. “Women should be aware of their risk for cardiovascular disease, so that they can ask their doctors about risk factor screening,” lead researcher Dr. Amy Yu, a neurologist and senior scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute in Ontario, Canada, said in a news release. “Having this knowledge can also support patients’ decision-making about lifestyle changes, which could improve their vascular health,” she added. Guidelines recommend that women who develop high blood pressure or diabetes during pregnancy have their blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels checked out after delivery, to assess their long-term risk of heart disease. “There’s increasing evidence that maternal health during pregnancy is associated with long-term vascular health,” Yu said. To see whether the recommended testing was being done, researchers analyzed the health records of more than a million… read on > read on >

A blood test can help people with irritable bowel syndrome cut out specific trigger foods most likely to worsen their condition, a new study suggests. About 60% of IBS patients who followed a diet guided by the results of the blood test wound up suffering less stomach pain, researchers reported recently in the journal Gastroenterology. By comparison, 42% of IBS patients who didn’t get the blood test experienced a reduction in stomach pain, results show. The test “requires additional validation but could move us one step closer to a ‘precision nutrition’ approach, in which providers can offer personalized dietary recommendations to each patient with IBS,” researcher Dr. William Chey, chief of gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Michigan, said in a news release. The blood test, called inFoods IBS, tests for the potential of 18 foods to worsen IBS symptoms in specific patients. These include wheat, oat, rye, whole egg, yeast, cow’s milk, black tea, cabbage, corn, grapefruit, honey, lemon and pineapple. The test looks for blood levels of an antibody called immunoglobulin G (IgG) that’s produced when the gut has an allergic reaction to a type of food. Higher levels of this antibody mean a person likely would benefit from cutting this food from their diet. About 10% to 15% of Americans have IBS, and it’s well-known that certain foods can worsen symptoms… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Coffee Leads U.S. Caffeine Intake as Tea Declines

Water, Plain Milk Are the Healthiest Drinks for Kids

Dangerous Blood Clot Sidelines NBA Star Victor Wembanyama for the Season

Rewards of Tight Blood Pressure Control Outweigh Risks, Trial Finds

Walking Exercises Improve Stroke Rehab

Unexplained Stroke Risk Doubled Among Young Smokers

Radon Exposure Linked to Increased Asthma Symptoms in Children

LGBTQ+ Stress and Stigma Increase Risk of Mental Health Problems

Docs Don’t Track Pregnancy Complications That Threaten Long-Term Health

Blood Test Could Guide Better Diet For Irritable Bowel Syndrome