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Middle-aged Americans are lonelier than ever, with new research showing they are even more isolated than some of their peers in Europe. That does not bode well for their health. “Loneliness is gaining attention globally as a public health issue because elevated loneliness increases one’s risk for depression, compromised immunity, chronic illness and [premature death],” said study author Frank Infurna, an associate professor of psychology at Arizona State University in Tempe. For the new research, Infurna’s team used representative surveys from the United States and 13 European nations to look at how loneliness has changed over time and how it differs from one country to the next. All told, the surveys included more than 53,000 people from the Silent Generation (1928-45), Baby Boomer (1946-64) and Generation X (1965-80). When they took the surveys, between 2002 and 2020, participants were between 45 and 65 years of age. “We focused on middle-aged adults because they form the backbone of society and empirical evidence demonstrates that U.S. midlife health is lagging other industrialized nations,” Infurna noted in an American Psychological Association news release. “Middle-aged adults carry much of society’s load by constituting most of the workforce, while simultaneously supporting the needs of younger and older generations in the family.” Still, middle-aged Americans reported higher levels of loneliness than many folks in Europe. And the younger folks were lonelier… read on > read on >

As millions of Americans prepare to travel abroad this summer and measles outbreaks increase worldwide, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tightened its guidance on how travelers should handle the potential health threat. Americans planning to fly to other countries should consult their doctors at least six weeks before they leave, if they are unsure about whether they are up to date on their measles vaccines, the guidance now says. That’s two weeks earlier than the one month advance notice the CDC said in November would be needed in order to have enough time to get vaccinated. Russia and Malaysia have also been added to the CDC’s map of 46 countries now facing large measles outbreaks. However, the agency warns that the global rise in measles cases remains a threat in other parts of the world. “Measles spreads rapidly and may become a risk to travelers in places not included on the list above. CDC recommends all travelers are fully vaccinated against measles when traveling to any international destination,” the agency stressed in its guidance. In recent weeks, health authorities have ramped up their plea for Americans to get vaccinated before traveling this year. Officials have cited recent outbreaks linked to travelers who were infected abroad and had been eligible to be vaccinated, CBS News reported. Those include a cluster of cases reported over the winter in Philadelphia linked… read on > read on >

In people with type 1 diabetes, fluctuations in blood sugar levels can affect thinking skills in various ways, new research shows. Researchers looked specifically at what’s known as cognitive processing speed (how fast people process incoming information) and attention. “Our results demonstrate that people can differ a lot from one another in how their brains are impacted by glucose,” said study co-senior author Laura Germine. “We found that minimizing glucose fluctuations in daily life is important for optimizing processing speed, and this is especially true for people who are older or have other diabetes-related health conditions,” Germine said. She directs McLean Hospital’s Laboratory for Brain and Cognitive Health Technology, in Boston. According to the researchers, it’s long been known that big dips or spikes in blood sugar levels can impair thinking in people with type 1 diabetes. But to what extent does this happen, and does it differ between people? To find out, they used wearable digital glucose sensors and smartphone-based cognitive tests to collect data on 200 people with type 1 diabetes as they went through their day. Over the course of 15 days, data on each person’s blood sugar levels was collected via the sensors every five minutes. Participants completed the cognitive tests three times per day. As expected, cognitive skills declined when blood sugar levels were either very low or very high,… read on > read on >

High school students who use tobacco and cannabis products miss more school and have lower grades than classmates who use them individually or not at all. That’s the conclusion of a study by researchers at UC Davis Health. “Substance use is a main predictor of educational outcomes, including absenteeism,” said first study author Melanie Dove, an assistant adjunct professor of public health sciences at UC Davis. “These results highlight the need for comprehensive efforts to prevent and reduce substance use from both cannabis and tobacco products among youth.” For the study, her team analyzed 2021-22 data from the California Healthy Kids Survey. It included more than 287,600 ninth- and 11th-graders. Of that group: 3.7% used tobacco and cannabis 3.7% used cannabis only 1.7% used tobacco only Those who used both products missed an average three days of school in the preceding month — twice as many as teens who didn’t use both. Their grades suffered, too. On an 8-point scale with an 8 representing A’s and a 1 representing F’s, nonusers averaged about 6.2, mostly Bs. In comparison, double users averaged about 5.1 (mostly Bs and Cs), the survey showed. Classmates who used one substance also had poorer grades than abstainers. Tobacco users averaged 5.6; cannabis users averaged about 5.5 — or mostly B’s for both groups. The findings were recently published online in The Journal… read on > read on >

After a car crash, women are more likely to go into shock than men, even when their injuries are less severe, new research shows. “Women are arriving to the trauma bay with signs of shock more often than men, regardless of injury severity,” said study leader Susan Cronn, a researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. “We need to look further into how and why this is happening.” For the study, her team looked at clinical injury data from more than 56,000 car crash victims — half men, half women. Even though men had more injuries overall, women suffered more injuries to the pelvis and liver, they found. More importantly, women surpassed a shock index greater than 1.0 more often than men. This was true even for those with fewer, less severe injuries. Healthy adults have a normal shock index between 0.5 and 0.7. Higher numbers may be a warning sign of a life-threatening condition called hemorrhagic shock, in which blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature plummet. Often caused by heavy blood loss, it can be a predictor of premature death. “Our findings might mean that women’s bodies have less capacity to function when physiological changes occur, that some injuries might have more impact on female bodies, or that female bodies handle blood loss differently than male bodies,” Cronn said. “It might… read on > read on >

Over the first few years of a child’s life, foods found in a family’s fridge and cupboards tends to get less healthy, new research shows. “We found significant changes in several food categories over time,” said study lead author Jennifer Barton. “Food items such as non-whole grains, processed meats, savory snacks, candy and microwavable or quick-cook foods were more commonly available in the home at 48 months [of age] compared to 24 and 36 months.” The study, which tracked foods in the homes of 468 mother-child pairs in Illinois, was published recently in the journal Public Health Nutrition. Barton is an assistant research professor at Pennsylvania State University, but she conducted the research while at the University of Illinois’ College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, in Urbana. According to Barton, “it’s important to understand how the environments that children are in can influence their diet and nutrition. What types of foods and beverages are available in the home, and how accessible are those items for the young child? “ Tracking the availability of various foods in the homes of the study participants, Barton’s group used a standard checklist called the Home Food Inventory to see what kids could access at 2, 3 and 4 years of age. All of the participants were taking part in an ongoing UI research project tracking the nutrition of children… read on > read on >

Breathing and relaxation techniques may offer relief to some patients battling Long COVID. In a new, small study of 20 patients, biofeedback therapy relieved both the physical and psychological symptoms of Long COVID, researchers said. Many participants had been dealing with symptoms for more than a year. “Our biggest hope is that we’ve identified a way to alleviate chronic physical symptoms that are not successfully treated by standard biomedical approaches, and that we did so with a short-term, non-pharmacological model that is easily scalable,” said lead author Natacha Emerson, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Biofeedback therapy pairs breathing and relaxation techniques with visual feedback to teach people how to regulate their body temperature, heart rate and other body processes. After six weeks of treatment, patients in this study reported they were sleeping better and had significant improvements in physical, depression and anxiety symptoms. Three months later, they were still seeing the benefit, using fewer prescription medicines and having fewer doctor visits, researchers said. Worldwide, an estimated 65 million people have Long COVID — persistent symptoms that linger long past the actual infection. This constellation of symptoms include depression, anxiety, sleep issues, brain fog, dizziness and heart palpitations. “It is important to underscore that while this behavioral intervention may help symptoms, patients with Long… read on > read on >

Millions of Americans whose livers develop scar tissue due to a common disease now have the first approved drug, Rezdiffra, to treat the condition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday. The condition is called non-cirrhotic non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). NASH with liver scarring is thought to affect up to 8 million Americans. It’s often tied to high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, the FDA explained in a statement. “Previously, patients with NASH who also have notable liver scarring did not have a medication that could directly address their liver damage,” said Dr. Nikolay Nikolov, acting director of the Office of Immunology and Inflammation in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Today’s approval of Rezdiffra will, for the first time, provide a treatment option for these patients, in addition to diet and exercise,” Nokolov said in the FDA statement. The liver is a vital organ that cleanses the blood and helps with digestion by secreting bile. However, over time, inflammation caused by obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure can cause nonalcoholic liver disease, which triggers fat accumulation in the liver, liver scarring and dysfunction. As the FDA explained, “Rezdiffra is a partial activator of a thyroid hormone receptor; activation of this receptor by Rezdiffra in the liver reduces liver fat accumulation.” The agency said that the drug was approved under an “accelerated”… read on > read on >

Scientists have long noticed that folks who eat healthy have healthier brains as they age, including lowered odds for dementia. Now, researchers believe they know why: Regimens like the heart-healthy Mediterranean or DASH diets appear to slow biological aging, helping to protect the brain. “Our findings suggest that slower pace of aging mediates part of the relationship of healthy diet with reduced dementia risk,” said study first author Aline Thomas. She’s a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University’s Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, in New York City. The findings were published recently in the Annals of Neurology. In the study, Thomas and her colleagues examined decades of data from the ongoing Framingham Heart Study, which began in 1971. The researchers honed in on over 1,600 people in the second generation of the study, which had people check in every four to seven years with data on (among other things) their diets and the results of neuro-cognitive tests. A total of 160 of the participants went on to develop dementia. “Much attention to nutrition in dementia research focuses on the way specific nutrients affect the brain,” said study senior author Daniel Belsky, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Columbia School of Public Health and the Columbia Aging Center. “We tested the hypothesis that healthy diet protects against dementia by slowing… read on > read on >

Astronauts who have never had headaches may develop migraines and other tension-type headaches for the first time when they go into space. A side effect of zero gravity, these headaches start with motion sickness as astronauts adapt to long-haul space flight, according to new research published March 13 in the journal Neurology. “Changes in gravity caused by space flight affect the function of many parts of the body, including the brain,” said researcher Willebrordus P.J. van Oosterhout, of Leiden University Medical Center in The Netherlands. “The vestibular system, which affects balance and posture, has to adapt to the conflict between the signals it is expecting to receive and the actual signals it receives in the absence of normal gravity.” His team studied 24 astronauts from the United States, Japan and Europe who were deployed to the International Space Station between 2011 and 2018. The astronauts spent a combined total of of 3,596 days in space. Before the study, none reported a history of recurrent headaches or had ever had a migraine, though three said they had had a headache in the previous year that interfered with their daily activities. Nine astronauts said they had never had an headache. Each completed a headache history questionnaire before their space deployment, a daily questionnaire for the first week of their mission and weekly questionnaires after that. In all,… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Average Middle-Aged American Is Lonelier Than European Peers

Measles Outbreaks Have CDC Tweaking Travel Guidelines

How Blood Sugar Changes Affect Thinking in Folks With Type 1 Diabetes

Weed Plus Cigarettes Takes Toll on High Schoolers’ Grades

Women More Prone to Go Into Shock After Car Crashes Than Men

Household Foods Get Less Healthy as Babies Age Into Toddlers

Could Biofeedback Help Ease Long COVID?

FDA Approves First Drug for Common, Serious Liver Disease

Eating Healthy Slows ‘Aging Clock,’ Helping to Shield Your Brain From Dementia

‘Space Headaches’ Can Hit Astronauts, Study Finds