Weekly Gravy « Weekly Gravy

All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

People threatened by accidental exposure to foods they’re allergic to may have a new weapon of defense: On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the use of the asthma drug Xolair to help prevent anaphylactic reactions. Xolair (omalizumab) is an injected drug and is not meant as a substitute for EpiPens or other anaphylaxis rescue remedies, the agency stressed. Instead, “Xolair is intended for repeated use to reduce the risk of allergic reactions” if and when they occur, the FDA explained in a news release. Made by Genentech, Xolair is the first medication approved to help reduce allergic reactions to multiple types of foods, the agency noted. Xolair was first approved in 2003 for the treatment of moderate to severe allergic asthma. It’s also been approved to treat a skin rash called urticaria, as well as chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps in certain patients. The medication is a monoclonal antibody that works by binding to and blocking the function of immunoglobulin E (IgE), the antibody that helps trigger an allergic reaction. “This newly approved use for Xolair will provide a treatment option to reduce the risk of harmful allergic reactions among certain patients with IgE-mediated food allergies,” Dr. Kelly Stone said in the news release. She’s associate director of the Division of Pulmonology, Allergy and Critical Care in the FDA’s Center for Drug… read on > read on >

A study of mental health care in Maryland finds an increasing number of children and teens covered by Medicaid are taking multiple psychiatric meds. This trend towards “polypharmacy” might be happening elsewhere, prior research suggests. In the new study, Maryland kids ages 17 or younger experienced “a 4% increased odds of psychotropic polypharmacy per year from 2015 to 2020,” reported a team led by Yueh-Yi Chiang. She’s a graduate student at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. Chiang’s group tracked prescription data for nearly 127,000 Medicaid enrollees under the age of 18 between 2015 and 2020. Those receiving multiple psychiatric drugs during that time rose from 4.2% in 2015 to 4.6% five years later. “Individuals who were disabled or in foster care were significantly more likely than individuals with low income to receive three or more psychotropic classes overlapping for 90 days or more,” Chiang’s group noted. Polypharmacy among kids in foster care rose from 10.8% in 2015 to 11.3% in 2020, the study found. The reasons behind the steady increase in polypharmacy aren’t clear, although “factors such as complex medical conditions, early-life trauma and fragmented care may have contributed to these findings,” the team said. Chiang’s group believes the findings “emphasize the importance of monitoring the use of psychotropic combinations, particularly among vulnerable populations, such as youths enrolled in Medicaid who have a… read on > read on >

Nearly 15% of Americans still deny that climate change is real, according to a new national assessment from the University of Michigan. Evidence of climate change has been mounting, including science which has shown that climate-related natural disasters are growing in frequency and intensity sooner than originally predicted, researchers said. Nevertheless, climate change is still not wholly accepted as fact in the United States. To assess climate change denialism in America, researchers analyzed Twitter (now X) data from 2017 to 2019, using AI techniques to track how social media has spread such denial. The study also identified key influencers like former President Donald Trump, and assessed how they spread and cemented misinformation about climate change. Using ChatGPT AI, researchers classified more than 7.4 million tweets as “for” or “against” climate change, and mapped the results at state and county levels. “Prior to the advancement of AI and social media data, this work relied on expensive and time-consuming surveys,” said senior study author Joshua Newell, co-director of the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. Analysis of the tweets showed that belief in climate change is highest along the West Coast and East Coast, and that denialism is highest in the central and southern parts of the United States. In fact, more than 20% of the populations of Oklahoma,… read on > read on >

People who’ve suffered a moderate to severe traumatic brain injury have a greatly increased risk of brain cancer, a new study of military service members finds. Brain cancer is relatively uncommon, occurring in fewer than 1% of people in the United States, researchers said. But service members who had a moderate or severe brain injury were at 90% increased risk for developing malignant brain cancer, according to analysis of health data for more than 1.9 million veterans. And penetrating traumatic brain injury — where an object punctures the skull and enters the brain — was associated with a tripled risk of brain cancer, results show. While this was observed only in the military, civilians might be expected to run similar risks from brain injuries, researchers said. “Traumatic brain injury is not only common in the military, but also in the general population as well,” said lead researcher Dr. Ian Stewart, an Air Force colonel and professor of medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. “While these results may not be generalizable to the population at large, given that military cohorts are different from the general population in many ways, it is possible that more severe TBI increases risk in the civilian population as well,” Stewart added in a university news release. However, the study also found that mild traumatic brain injury —… read on > read on >

FRIDAY, Feb. 16, 2024 (HealthDay News) —When grandparents can lend a hand with little ones, moms are less likely to battle depression. And, in turn, they are less likely to take antidepressants, Finnish researchers report in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Population Studies. Based on a study that tracked 488,000 mothers of young children in Finland, use of antidepressants was highest in moms whose parents and in-laws lived far away or were old and ailing. “Previous studies have consistently shown that younger grandparents in good health are more likely to provide support and childcare,” said study co-author Niina Metsä-Simola, a researcher at the University of Helsinki. “Having an old and frail grandparent may even place an additional burden on mothers as they cannot expect to receive support from such grandparents, but instead need to continue providing support upwards,” she added in a news release from the journal’s publisher. The depression effect was strongest in women who separated from their partners during the 2000-2014 study period. Metsä-Simola said that made sense, because these women often have custody of their child and may need relatives’ help. “Mothers in such a situation may need to take on additional work, affecting their need for childcare, and may even need to move home,” she said, adding that parents of young children, especially those entering single parenthood, may be… read on > read on >

Doctors are bailing on the profession for a reason that may surprise their patients. It’s not frustration with government rules or cumbersome insurance requirements, but problems securing suitable childcare for long and ever-changing working hours, a new survey published Feb. 15 in the BMJ finds. Erin Dean, who wrote a summary of the survey results, noted that some doctors have quit or are considering doing so. Others have changed specialties in the hope that they will have more flexibility. And even more have altered their plans to have children. The online survey, conducted in the U.K. and completed in November, included 533 respondents who identified themselves as doctors and medical students; 14 nurses; and 49 others. Of these, 548 were women. (The survey could be completed by anyone who clicked the link.) Other studies have indicated that parenthood appears to have a bigger impact on the careers of female doctors, Dean noted. More than 9 in 10 respondents said they had struggled to find suitable childcare for their work schedule. The No. 1 problem: Finding care that covers the full length of their workday. Many respondents commented on the stress and guilt of trying to be on time for work in the morning and then to pick up their children at day’s end. Cost was the No. 2 problem, cited by 75% of respondents, followed… read on > read on >

The harms of smoking are many, but new research delivers evidence of another troubling type of damage: Lighting up alters your immune system, leaving you more vulnerable to disease and infections even years after quitting. “Stop smoking as soon as possible,” study co-author Dr. Violaine Saint-André, a specialist in computational biology at Institut Pasteur in Paris, told CNN. “The key message of our study, especially to the youth, is that there seems to be a significant interest for long-term immunity to never start smoking.” The findings, published Feb. 14 in the journal Nature, show just how smoking lowers the body’s ability to fight off infection, and that it may also raise the risk of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. “The major discovery of our study is that smoking has short-term but also long-term effects on adaptive immunity associated with B-cells and regulatory T-cells and with epigenetic changes,” Saint-André noted. To arrive at that conclusion, the French scientists looked at blood samples gathered over time from a group of 1,000 healthy people ages 20 to 69. The researchers wanted to see how numerous variables, including lifestyle, socioeconomic status, eating habits, age, sex and genetics, affected immune response. During the study, they exposed the blood samples to common germs like E. coli bacteria and the flu virus while also measuring immune response. What did they discover? Smoking, body-mass index and a… read on > read on >

THURSDAY, Feb. 15, 2024 (Health Day News) — Schools that want little girls to get plenty of exercise might want to rethink their dress code. A University of Cambridge study of more than 1 million kids in 135 countries found that in countries where most students wear school uniforms, fewer kids get the 60 minutes a day of physical activity recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). And regardless of schools’ uniform policies, fewer girls than boys are hitting the benchmark in the early grades, the study found. Researchers noted there was already evidence that little girls aren’t always comfortable participating in active play when they’re wearing skirts or dresses. While the new study doesn’t prove that uniforms limit kids’ activity, researchers called on schools to consider whether specific uniform designs might encourage or restrict opportunities to be active during the day. “Schools often prefer to use uniforms for various reasons,” said study leader Mairead Ryan, of the University of Cambridge. “We are not trying to suggest a blanket ban on them, but to present new evidence to support decision-making.” Previous, smaller studies have also suggested that uniforms may be a barrier to physical activity. The WHO recommends young people get an average of 60 minutes a day of moderate-intensity physical activity. The difference in percentage of boys and girls meeting the guideline across all… read on > read on >

Indigenous people in seven countries, including the United States and Canada, appear to be more likely to suffer a stroke than non-natives, a new, large review finds. “Disparities are especially evident in countries where high average quality of life and long life expectancies are often not mirrored in Indigneous populations,” said study author Anna Balabanski of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. “These disparities may reflect inequitable access to resources to prevent and manage stroke,” she added in a university news release. Besides the United States and Canada, the 24 studies reviewed were done in Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore and Sweden — countries with high standards of living, health and knowledge. The review found stroke risk was higher in six countries for indigenous people than for non-natives. In New Zealand, native Māoris were more likely to have a stroke than non-natives, the study found, but researchers noted the finding was from a single study done in 2002 and 2003. In the United States, American Indians were 20% more likely to have a stroke than non-natives; and in Canada, Métis people were 40% more likely to have a stroke. In Australia and Singapore, the risks for indigenous peoples were even more stark. Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders were up to 70% more likely to have a stroke than non-native people. And Malay people in Singapore… read on > read on >

Looking for a workout that will chase the blues away? Try walking, jogging, yoga or strength training, which a new study reports are the most effective exercises for easing depression. These activities can be used on their own or combined with medication and psychotherapy, according to an evidence review published Feb. 14 in the BMJ. While low-intensity activities like walking and yoga are OK, the more vigorous the activity, the bigger the benefits, the Australian-led team found. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 300 million people worldwide have depression. While exercise is often recommended, treatment guidelines and previous research differ on the best ways to prescribe it for depression. To learn more, researchers in Australia and Europe looked at 218 randomized trials that compared exercise with other depression treatments. The studies included more than 14,100 participants. They found meaningful benefits when exercise was combined with SSRI antidepressants or psychotherapy, suggesting that working out could be beneficial alongside these established treatments. Researchers reported large reductions in depression for dance and moderate reductions for walking or jogging, yoga, strength training, mixed aerobic exercises and tai chi or qigong. While walking or jogging helped both men and women, women benefited more from strength training and men from yoga or qigong, the study found. Yoga was more effective in older people, while strength training worked best among… read on > read on >

Weekly Gravy

Look Good – Feel Good – Feed Good

A little about: Weekly Gravy

All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

FDA Expands Use of Asthma Med Xolair to Treat Food Allergies

More Kids, Teens May Be Taking Multiple Psychiatric Meds

Despite the Evidence, Nearly 15% of Americans Deny Climate Change

Brain Cancer Risk Rises in Vets After Serious Head Injury

When Grandparents Support Mom, Antidepressant Use Drops: Study

Stress, Lack of Child Care Driving Many Doctors to Quit

Smoking Harms Immune System Years After Quitting

School Uniforms Might Get in the Way of Kids Exercising

Around the World, Indigenous People Face Higher Stroke Risk

Walking, Jogging, Yoga Are All Good Medicine for Depression