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Put down that donut and lay off the pasta: New research finds you’re less sexy after gorging on refined carbs. French researchers presented heterosexual adults with photos of an opposite-sex person who two hours earlier had eaten a breakfast rich in refined carbohydrates. Participants rated the folks in the photos as less attractive compared to people who’d eaten a healthier breakfast. “Facial attractiveness, an important factor of social interactions, seems to be impacted by immediate and chronic refined carbohydrate consumption in men and women,” concluded a team led by Amandine Visine of the University of Montpelier. Her team published its findings March 6 in the journal PLOS One. According to the researchers, “refined” carbohydrate foods are ubiquitous in the Western diet, and include highly processed fare stripped of much of its nutritional value. White flour plus refined sugar are often ingredients, and many snacks are high in refined carbohydrates. According to a news release from the journal’s publisher, “preliminary evidence has suggested that consuming high levels of refined carbohydrates might also affect non-medical traits, such as a person’s attractiveness.” To investigate further, the French team recruited 104 white male and female adults. Some were told to eat a high-glycemic breakfast loaded with refined carbs that are known to boost blood sugar levels. Others ate a low-glycemic breakfast that avoided refined carbs. All of the participants… read on > read on >

Nearly a quarter of Labrador retrievers are more likely to be obese due to a genetic “double-whammy,” a new study finds. This gene mutation causes Labradors to both feel hungry all the time and also burn fewer calories, British researchers report. The mutation involves a gene called POMC, which plays a critical role in hunger and energy use among Labs. About 25% of Labradors and 66% of flat-coated retriever dogs have this POMC mutation, which causes increased interest in food, researchers said. Specifically, it makes them hungrier in between meals, even though they don’t need to eat more to feel full at mealtime. “We found that a mutation in the POMC gene seems to make dogs hungrier. Affected dogs tend to overeat because they get hungry between meals more quickly than dogs without the mutation,” said study author Eleanor Raffan, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience. Dogs with the POMC mutation also tend to burn about 25% less energy at rest than dogs without it, the researchers added. That means they should consume fewer calories to maintain a healthy body weight. “Dogs with this genetic mutation face a double whammy: They not only want to eat more, but also need fewer calories because they’re not burning them off as fast,” Raffan said in a university news release. The… read on > read on >

Food allergies are difficult to manage at any age, but college students face complex challenges when it comes to navigating the dangers posed by the possibility of life-threatening anaphylaxis. A recent review published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, examines recent evidence and addresses hurdles facing college students with food allergies, along with possible strategies to overcome those challenges. Senior study author Dr. Edward Iglesia, an instructor of medicine in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., said the first priority is to confirm that your college student still suffers from a food allergy. “Sometimes we miss the opportunity to reassess if someone’s food allergies have resolved,” he explained. “The transition to adulthood is a great time to do this, and the high school years can be a ‘signpost’ to take the time to re-confirm a food allergy.” If your prospective college student hasn’t been evaluated for his or her food allergy in the past few years, it’s worth talking to your allergist about getting re-evaluated. Meeting with your child’s allergy team provides an opportunity to review practical strategies to safely navigate their condition, as well as helping cultivate the confidence and resilience to do so. Advance planning can help with unsettled… read on > read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a health advisory Wednesday warning consumers that six brands of ground cinnamon are tainted with lead. The FDA urged folks to throw away and not buy the following brands of ground cinnamon: La Fiesta, sold at La Superior SuperMercados Marcum, sold at Save A Lot MK, sold at SF Supermarket Swad, sold at Patel Brothers Supreme Tradition, sold at Dollar Tree and Family Dollar El Chilar, sold at La Joya Morelense in Baltimore The new list of tainted ground cinnamon products resulted from an October 2023 recall of cinnamon applesauce and apple puree products due to elevated lead levels, the FDA said. That recall prompted FDA to test ground cinnamon sold in discount retail stores for the presence of lead or chromium. The FDA has recommended that the companies behind these ground cinnamon brands recall their products, the agency said. Lead is toxic to humans, particularly children, and there is no safe level of exposure, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Initial symptoms of lead poisoning may include headaches, stomach and muscle aches, vomiting, anemia, irritability, fatigue and weight loss. Children are especially vulnerable to lead exposure because of their smaller body sizes and rapid metabolism and growth, the FDA noted. Exposure can cause developmental delays in children such as learning disabilities, behavioral problems and… read on > read on >

Barry Cadden, co-founder of a specialty compounding pharmacy behind a deadly meningitis outbreak in 2012, has been handed a prison sentence of 10 to 15 years in Michigan for involuntary manslaughter. On Tuesday, Cadden pleaded no contest to the charges against him, the Associated Press reported. His sentence will be served concurrently with the 14 1/2-year sentence he is already serving under a federal conviction for fraud and other crimes. Cadden co-founded the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts. Twelve years ago, about 100 people died and 800 in total were made ill across 20 states after receiving injections of mold-contaminated steroids sourced from the company. Most had needed the injections for back pain. Speaking in a federal court in Boston in 2017, Cadden said: “I am sorry for the whole range of suffering that resulted from my company’s drugs,” the AP reported. At the time, prosecutors said Cadden’s company failed consumers in multiple ways — cutting back on lab disinfecting, shipping products before testing they were safe and ignoring repeated warnings about the safety of methods used in the lab. All of this was done to save the company costs, prosecutors said. Cadden appeared Monday in Livingston County court, northwest of Detroit. He pleaded no contest to each of the 11 counts of involuntary manslaughter leveled against him — one for each Michigan resident… read on > read on >

Weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic can increase a person’s risk of throwing up during surgery while under anesthesia, a new study reports. People are typically asked to fast prior to surgery because general anesthesia can cause nausea, and they might inhale and choke on their own vomit. Unfortunately, part of the way that these drugs, called GLP-1 receptor agonists, help prompt weight loss is by slowing the digestion process, researchers explained. That means it takes longer for food to pass through the stomach. About 56% of people on a weight-loss drug still had significant amounts of food in their stomach at the time of their surgery, as revealed by ultrasound, researchers reported March 6 in the journal JAMA Surgery. Comparatively, only 19% of people not taking a GLP-1 receptor agonist had food left over in their stomach following preoperative fasting, results showed. “More than half of the patients on a GLP-1 receptor agonist had significant gastric contents on gastric ultrasound before an elective procedure, despite adhering to preoperative fasting,” said lead researcher Dr. Sudipta Sen, an associate professor of anesthesiology with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. These results jibe with guidance issued last year by the American Society of Anesthesiologists that calls for screening for weight-loss drug use before surgery, and informing patients of the risks involved, researchers said. Doctors… read on > read on >

The more steps a person can fit into their day, the lower their risk of early death and heart disease, regardless of how much a couch potato they are otherwise, a new study shows. People who are sedentary for more than 11 hours a day gain the same health benefits from walking more as more active folks do, researchers found. The optimal number of daily steps to improve health was between 9,000 and 10,000, researchers said. That amount of walking lowered risk of death by 39% and heart disease risk by 21%. However, half of that benefit was achieved with half the effort, at around 4,000 to 4,500 steps a day, researchers found. Essentially, any steps above 2,200 daily were associated with lower risk of death and reduced heart disease risk. “Our results indicate sedentary time did not significantly modify the dose-response association of daily steps,” concluded the research team led by Matthew Ahmadi, a postdoctoral research fellow with the University of Sydney in Australia. “We also found the amount of physical activity [eg, steps/day] needed to lower the risk of mortality and incident [heart disease] may be lower than previously suggested,” the researchers added in a journal news release. For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 72,000 participants in UK Biobank, a major biomedical database created as part of a long-term research… read on > read on >

When it comes to giving at-risk Americans access to the mental health services they need, prevention is far better than detention, new research confirms. However, a majority of the 950 U.S. counties surveyed in the report do not offer access to the types of mental health and substance use disorder services that can save communities money and prevent incarceration. “Most counties offer only a tiny fraction of the community services that are necessary to keep people out of jail,” said study author Jennifer Johnson, a professor of public health at Michigan State University. “We’re hoping that by publishing this article, county administrators will look at the list of services that they don’t yet offer and try to make them happen,” Johnson added in a university news release. Her team surveyed the availability of 59 mental health practices that are known to help at-risk folks stay healthy. The survey asked people representing the counties studied if such programs might be accessible “to people interacting with police, 911, courts, jails, probation or parole.” The results were disappointing. For example, only about 29% of counties offered permanent supportive housing to people with mental health conditions, while even fewer (about 27%) offered what’s know as assertive community treatment. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, assertive community treatment is “treatment, rehabilitation and support services using a person-centered,… read on > read on >

Folks who’ve suffered a concussion and then develop headaches show iron accumulation in their brains, new research discovers. Excess brain iron stores are a hallmark of damage, noted a team led by Simona Nikolova, of the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. The team is slated to present the results in April at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). “Previous studies have shown that iron accumulation can affect how areas of the brain interact with each other,” Nikolova said in an AAN news release. “This research may help us better understand how the brain responds and recovers from concussion.” The new research involved 60 people who all developed headaches after a concussion. The concussions were caused by falling (45%), car accidents (30%) or fighting (12%). For just under half of the people, this was their first concussion. Brain scans from the 60 concussion patients were compared to those taken from 60 people with no history of concussions or post-traumatic headache. The scans showed that, compared to folks who’d never been concussed, those with a history of concussion had higher levels of iron in various brain areas. Iron levels seemed to mount as time after the concussion went on. “These results suggest that iron accumulation in the brain can be used as a biomarker for concussion and post-traumatic headache, which could potentially help us… read on > read on >

Air pollution harms the health of everyone exposed to it, but a new study says communities of color are disproportionately harmed by dirty air. Smog causes nearly 8 times higher childhood asthma rates and 1.3 times higher risk of premature death among minority communities compared to white communities, researchers found. These elevated risks are a matter of geography, said study co-author Gaige Kerr, a senior research scientist with the George Washington University School of Public Health. “Redlining and systemic racism have resulted in the least white areas of the U.S. being located near factories, congested roadways or shipping routes with heavily polluted air,” Kerr said in a university news release. For this study, the researchers tracked health problems linked to two forms of air pollution –- the nitrogen dioxide typically spewed by traffic and the fine particulate soot produced by vehicles and industry. To do this, they combined U.S. Census Bureau data with NASA satellite scans to estimate pollution concentrations and their affect on human health. Nitrogen dioxide can irritate the lungs and trigger asthma attacks, researchers said in background notes. Fine particulate matter can lodge deep in the lungs and enter the bloodstream, raising the risk of a number of different diseases that include heart disease, lung cancer and stroke. Overall, an estimated 49,400 premature deaths and nearly 115,000 new cases of childhood asthma… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Could a Meal With Refined Carbs Make You Less Attractive?

Many Labradors Become Obese and Research Shows Why

Food Allergies in College 101: Tips to Cope

FDA Warns of Toxic Lead in Cinnamon Products

Co-founder of Company Behind Deadly 2012 Meningitis Outbreak Gets Up to 15 Years in Prison

Wegovy, Ozempic Use Could Complicate Your Surgery

Even Couch Potatoes Reap Health Reward From 10,000 Steps Per Day

Many Can’t Access Mental Health Services that Save Money, Keep People Out of Jail

Iron Gathers in Brain After Concussions

Dirty Air Increasingly Affects Minority Communities