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(HealthDay news) — More than 1 billion adults and children around the world are now obese, a new global analysis estimates. Nearly 880 million adults now are living with obesity, as well as 159 million children, according to the report published Feb. 29 in The Lancet journal. Obesity rates for kids and teenagers quadrupled worldwide between 1990 and 2022, rising from 1.7% to 6.9% for girls and 2.1% to 9.3% for boys. Meanwhile, adult obesity rates more than doubled during the same period, researchers found. Obesity increased more than twofold in women (8.8% to 18.5%) and nearly tripled in men (4.8% to 14%). “It is very concerning that the epidemic of obesity that was evident among adults in much of the world in 1990 is now mirrored in school-aged children and adolescents,” said senior study author Majid Ezzatti, chair of global environmental health at Imperial College London. These figures outstrip predictions made by the World Obesity Federation, which had predicted that 1 billion people globally would be living with obesity by 2030 in its World Obesity Atlas 2022. Essentially, the globe had already surpassed that mark by the time of the atlas’ publication, according to the new study. Obesity is now the most common form of malnutrition in most countries, researchers said. That’s because the proportion of adults who are underweight declined by more than… read on > read on >

Vaping and skipped meals appear to be the main causes of frequent headaches among teens, a new study says. Teens who ate breakfast and dinner with their family had a lower risk of frequent headaches than those who regularly missed meals, researchers report Feb. 28 in the journal Neurology. Meanwhile, vaping also was associated with frequent headaches for those 12 to 17, researchers said. Frequent headaches are defined as those occurring more than once a week. “It is not uncommon for children and teens to have headaches, and while medications are used to stop and sometimes prevent headaches, lifestyle changes may also offer an effective route to relief by preventing headaches from happening and improving quality of life,” said researcher Dr. Serena Orr, an assistant professor of pediatrics with the University of Calgary in Canada. For the study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 5 million children and teens enrolled in a large Canadian health survey. About 6% of participants had headaches more than once a week, researchers found. The children were asked about lifestyle factors that could affect their risk of headache, including screen time, sleep hours, meals and substance use. For meals, the kids were asked how often they ate breakfast and dinner with their family, for a total of 14 possible meals. Kids who experienced frequent headaches averaged nine such meals a week… read on > read on >

A bicycle built for two could be a positive prescription for Parkinson’s patients and their caregivers, a small, preliminary study says. Parkinson’s patients had better overall quality of life, improved mobility, and faster walking speed after sharing regular rides on a stationary tandem bike with a care partner, researchers plan to report at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in April. Care partners also got something out of the rides, reporting improvements in their perceived ability to bounce back or recover from stress, results show. “A unique cycling program that pairs people with Parkinson’s disease with their care partners can improve the physical, emotional and mental well-being of both cyclists to improve their quality of life,” said researcher Jennifer Trilk, a professor of biomedical sciences with the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Greenville. Parkinson’s is a progressive degenerative disease of the nervous system. Patients become less and less able to control their body, suffering from tremors, leg stiffness, and gait and balance problems. For the study, patients and caregivers shared a virtual reality ride on a tandem stationary bicycle twice a week for eight weeks. The study included nine Parkinson’s patients and their care partners. “It is just as important that care partners also receive care, so that is why we included them as the cycling partner,” Trilk said… read on > read on >

Once considered harmless by doctors, calcium crystal deposits in the knee joint actually can contribute to worsening arthritis, a new study warns. CT scans have revealed that calcium crystals in the knee can promote joint damage, wearing away the cartilage that keeps bones from rubbing together, researchers reported recently in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatology. “The cartilage damage is most likely to occur in the same locations where the crystals are deposited, suggesting a localized effect,” said researcher Dr. Tuhina Neogi, a professor at the Boston University School of Medicine. “We have also showed that these crystals can contribute to knee pain in another recently published paper,” Neogi added in a university news release. “Taken together, these findings highlight the important role of calcium crystals to structural damage and symptoms in knee osteoarthritis.” Knee osteoarthritis affects about 34 million people in the United States and 600 million worldwide. It happens when the cartilage in the knee joint breaks down. There are no treatments available that prevent its progression, researchers said in background notes. Up to now, calcium crystal deposits in the knee were thought to be of no clinical consequence, and just something that happens with old age, the researchers said. But using CT scans of nearly 1,700 patients, the team was able to detect a higher amount of deposits than previously revealed by regular… read on > read on >

Rodeo riders might make it all look easy, but they’re actually participating in one of the most strenuous sports around, experts say. As such, folks participating in rodeo need to take steps to protect themselves, just as other athletes do, said Dr. Omar Atassi, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “You can get sprains or ligament tears, tendon injuries, breaks or fractures in bones in any sport,” Atassi said in a Baylor news release. “Just because you don’t hear about injuries in rodeo sport since it’s not as common as something like pickleball doesn’t mean it can’t be dangerous. When an injury does occur in rodeo sport, it can be fairly significant.” Atassi spoke out as locals prepare for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which draws in cowboys and cowgirls for days of rodeo events. The most common rodeo injuries are the sort of horse-related incidents that frequently occur among even weekend riders, Atassi said. A bucking horse might hit a rider’s hand with its head, potentially causing a broken hand or a strained wrist. Someone thrown from their horse might suffer an ankle sprain, torn ligaments or broken bones if their foot gets caught in the stirrup. In a worst-case scenario, a horse could fall on the rider, resulting in a pelvis fracture, Atassi added. Low-grade… read on > read on >

Deaths where alcohol played a key role climbed sharply in recent years, hitting women even harder than men, new government data shows. Between 2016 and 2021 (the latest numbers available), “the average number of U.S. deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by more than 40,000 [29%], to 178,000 per year,” reported a team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Put another way, during 2020 and 2021, an average of 488 Americans died each day from excessive drinking, the report’s authors concluded. The rate of increase appears to be accelerating: Between 2016 and 2019, deaths where alcohol was a factor rose by 5%, but between 2018 and 2021 they climbed by 23%. Men continue to lose their lives to alcohol in greater numbers than women, the report found. However, the rate at which women are dying from excessive drinking is rising faster than that of men, the researchers found. Over the study period, deaths from excessive alcohol use among women rose by about 35%, compared to about a 27% rise among men. The new data looked at deaths directly linked to drinking — things like alcoholic liver disease or excessive intoxication — as well as more indirect causes, such as heavy drinking’s role in heart disease and stroke. Over the study period, death rates rose for most forms of alcohol-related deaths, but “death… read on > read on >

Air travel can be miserable for people with disabilities, particularly if an airline mishandles, damages or loses their wheelchair in transit. Now, the Biden Administration has proposed tough new standards for how airlines treat and accommodate people in wheelchairs. The proposed rules would make mishandling wheelchairs an automatic violation of the Air Carrier Access Act, allowing federal regulators to more easily hold airlines accountable when a person’s wheelchair is damaged. The rules would also mandate better training and improved practices to ensure that disabled passengers receive safe, dignified and prompt assistance at airports. “There are millions of Americans with disabilities who do not travel by plane because of inadequate airline practices and inadequate government regulation, but now we are setting out to change that,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an announcement outlining the proposed rule. “This new rule would change the way airlines operate to ensure that travelers using wheelchairs can travel safely and with dignity,” Buttigieg added. An estimated 5.5 million Americans use a wheelchair, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) said. In 2023, 11,527 wheelchairs and scooters were lost, delayed, damaged or stolen by airlines. Among its provisions, the new rule would require airlines to: Immediately notify passengers of their options if their wheelchair has been mishandled Repair or replace damaged wheelchairs Return a lost wheelchair to the passenger’s final destination… read on > read on >

In a finding that unearths yet another way Long COVID can harm health, new research finds the condition may trigger thinking declines. Published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study involved cognitive testing on nearly 113,000 people in England. It found that those with Long COVID scored 6 IQ points lower than people who had never been infected with the virus. Even folks who didn’t suffer lingering symptoms after a bout of COVID scored slightly lower than people who had never been infected — in this case, by 3 IQ points. Still, the differences in scores were small and experts stressed the findings don’t mean that COVID causes profound deficits in thinking and memory. However, they do provide proof that the brain fog many folks who get Long COVID experience is likely not imagined. “These emerging and coalescing findings are generally highlighting that, yes, there is cognitive impairment in Long COVID survivors — it’s a real phenomenon,” James Jackson, a neuropsychologist at Vanderbilt Medical Center who wasn’t involved in the study, told the New York Times. Luckily, the latest study suggests that if people’s Long COVID symptoms resolve themselves, the related thinking impairments might also ease. Study volunteers who had Long COVID for months before finally recovering eventually had testing scores similar to those who had experienced a quick recovery. Importantly, the standard… read on > read on >

Middle-aged folks who have difficulties navigating their way through space could be at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease years later, a new study finds. “Very early symptoms of dementia can be subtle and difficult to detect, but problems with navigation are thought to be some of the first changes in Alzheimer’s disease,” noted Dr. Richard Oakley, associate director of research and innovation at the Alzheimer’s Society. He wasn’t involved in the new British research, although the society did help fund the study. “One in three people born today will go on to develop dementia,” Oakley added, “and early and accurate diagnosis of the diseases that cause the condition are vital for people to access the right support, plan for the future and receive appropriate treatment.” The study involved 100 middle-aged people (ages 43 to 66), none of who had any of the standard symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. At the time of the study, they were all about 25 years younger than the expected age of Alzheimer’s onset. However, the participants were all thought to be at heightened odds for the illness due to factors such as genetics, family history or lifestyle. Researchers at University College London (UCL) had the participants strap on a virtual reality (VR) headset and then “navigate” their way through a virtual environment. Folks already known to be at higher Alzheimer’s… read on > read on >

Teens have a higher risk of self-injury — deliberately cutting or burning themselves — if they have a fraught relationship with a struggling parent, a new study shows. Teenagers were nearly five times more likely to self-injure if, when they were 6, their moms and dads reported stress and discomfort in their role as parents, researchers found. Teens also had a nearly doubled risk of self-harm if they perceived parental hostility and negativity at the age of 6, researchers report. “Stress in parents is hypothesized to have widespread negative impacts on child development, including the development of behavioral problems,” said researchers Tove Wichstrom and Lars Wichstrom, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. “It is therefore possible that increased stress contributes to the emergence of risk factors in children,” including a higher risk of self-injury, they added. For the study, the researchers analyzed data from 759 Norwegian adolescents at ages 12, 14 or 16 to determine the teens’ rate of non-suicidal self-injury. About 10% of the teens reported self-injury within the past year, with girls nearly 12 times more likely than boys to cut, burn or otherwise injure themselves. Such self-injury is typically a way to cope with emotional pain, sadness, anger and stress, according to the Mayo Clinic. It’s rarely meant as a suicide attempt, but rather as a means of… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Over 1 Billion People Are Now Obese Worldwide

Vaping, Skipping Breakfast Ups Headache Risk for Teens

Stationary Bike Workouts Could Help Parkinson’s Patients

Calcium Crystals in Knee Could Be Worsening Arthritis

Rodeo Riders Risk Rough Injuries

U.S. Deaths Linked to Alcohol Keep Rising, Especially Among Women

U.S. to Strengthen Protections for Air Travelers With Wheelchairs

Long COVID May Harm Cognition

Impaired Sense of Direction Could Be Early Alzheimer’s Sign

Stressed Parents Could Mean More Self-Harm by Kids