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Magnetic zaps to the brain can significantly help people with severe depression, if the procedure is guided using MRI brain scans, a new clinical trial has concluded. On average, patients showed substantial improvements in depression, anxiety, cognition and quality of life for at least six months after undergoing MRI-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), results show. One-third experienced a 50% improvement in symptoms, while one-fifth managed to go into remission and remain there. “Given these patients are people who have not responded to two previous treatment attempts and have been ill for an average of 7 years, to get such a significant response rate and a fifth who have a sustained response is really encouraging,” said researcher Richard Morriss, lead for the Center for Mood Disorders at the University of Nottingham’s Institute of Mental Health in the U.K.. TMS is a noninvasive outpatient treatment in which powerful magnetic impulses are delivered to the left side of a person’s head while they are conscious. The method has been used since the 1980s to treat severe depression in people who don’t respond to antidepressants or therapy, researchers said. However, the benefits of TMS have so far proven fleeting, tending to last just one to three months, researchers explained in background notes. In this clinical trial, investigators examined whether better targeting of the magnetic pulses could provide longer-lasting benefits… read on > read on >

Employees at many companies are urged to take advantage of free wellness programs focused on mindfulness, life coaching, better sleep and many other issues. Too bad most won’t actually boost their well-being, a new study of over 46,000 British workers finds. Only one of the 90 different workplace wellness offerings appeared to boost well-being: Getting employees involved in charity work or volunteering, the researchers found. The findings “pose a challenge to the popularity and legitimacy of individual-level mental well-being interventions like mindfulness, resilience and stress management, relaxation classes and well-being apps,” concludes the study’s sole author, William Fleming. He’s a fellow at Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Center. Fleming’s research is based on data from the Britain’s Healthiest Workplace surveys for 2017 and 2018, representing workers at 233 different organizations. He compared the survey answers of “matched pairs” of people who were working at the same company: One who was using a wellness program, and another who was not. Because it is a survey, the data only focuses on worker well-being at a specific moment in time, not before and after the introduction of workplace wellness programs. The main finding: With the exception of charity/volunteer programs, workers’ mental well-being didn’t seem to change regardless of whether or not they were involved in any of the many programs on offer. Speaking with the New York Times, Fleming said… read on > read on >

Scientists from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration conclude in newly released documents that marijuana has less potential for abuse than other drugs with the same restrictions and it should be reclassified as a less dangerous drug. Not only that, the review found there is some evidence backing its use as a medical treatment. Right now, cannabis is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, a high-risk category that includes heroin and LSD. The move to reconsider the dangers of marijuana first began in 2022, when President Joe Biden asked U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra and the attorney general to begin reviewing how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. As part of that process, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Rachel Levine wrote a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in August supporting the reclassification of marijuana to a Schedule III drug, a list that includes ketamine, testosterone and Tylenol with codeine. The FDA documents, which were posted online Friday, state that the agency recommends rescheduling marijuana because it meets three criteria: a lower potential for abuse than other Schedule I and II substances; an accepted medical use; and a low or moderate risk of physical dependence in people who abuse it. The National Institute on Drug Abuse backed the recommendation, the documents state. Although marijuana is widely used for recreational purposes,… read on > read on >

A crowded house may not be the best for the mental health of a family’s kids, a new study has found. Teens from larger families tend to have poorer mental health than those with fewer siblings, according to a large-scale analysis of children in the United States and China. In the United States, children with no or one sibling had the best mental health, while in China well-being was best among only children, says the report published Jan. 9 in the Journal of Family Issues. Having older siblings and siblings closely spaced in age tended to have the worst impact on kids’ mental health, the U.S. data revealed. The strongest negative associations with mental health were observed among siblings born within a year of each other, results show. The results likely are best explained by “resource dilution,” said lead researcher Doug Downey, a professor of sociology at Ohio State University. “If you think of parental resources like a pie, one child means that they get all the pie — all the attention and resources of the parents,” Downey said in a university news release. “But when you add more siblings, each child gets fewer resources and attention from the parents, and that may have an impact on their mental health.” That explanation is given more weight by the fact that closely spaced siblings have the… read on > read on >

Snowstorms are blanketing the United States, prompting countless Americans to pick up snow shovels and clear walkways and driveways. Shoveling snow is more than a chore, however — it can be a health hazard. The exertion of shoveling snow increases a person’s risk of heart attack or sudden cardiac arrest, warns the American Heart Association. Snow shoveling has a prominent place among physical activities that place extra stress on the heart, especially for folks who aren’t used to regular exercise, the AHA says. “Shoveling a little snow off your sidewalk may not seem like hard work. However, the strain of heavy snow shoveling may be as or even more demanding on the heart than taking a treadmill stress test, according to research we’ve conducted,” said Barry Franklin, director of preventive cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation at Corewell Health East William Beaumont University Hospital, in Royal Oak, Mich. Shoveling snow is mostly arm work, which is more taxing and demanding on the heart than leg work, Franklin explained. In addition, people straining to lift a heavy shovelful of snow often unconsciously hold their breath, which causes a big increase in heart rate and blood pressure, he said. Since people mostly stand still as they shovel, their legs don’t move much as they work. This results in blood pooling in their legs and feet, denying the heart part… read on > read on >

Stress appears to increase a person’s chances of developing metabolic syndrome, a cluster of unhealthy factors that add up to an increased risk for serious problems, a new study finds. Inflammation driven by a person’s stress levels can make them more likely to develop metabolic syndrome, just as their lifestyle and genetics also contribute to the risk, researchers said. So, simple stress-reduction techniques might be a way to help improve people’s health as they enter middle age, the researchers concluded. “There are many variables that influence metabolic syndrome, some we can’t modify, but others that we can,” said senior study author Jasmeet Hayes, an assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University. “Everybody experiences stress, and stress management is one modifiable factor that’s cost-effective as well as something people can do in their daily lives without having to get medical professionals involved,” Hayes added in a university news release. People with metabolic syndrome have at least three of five factors that increase the risk of chronic health problems like diabetes or heart disease. These factors are excess belly fat, high blood pressure, low HDL “good” cholesterol and high levels of either blood sugar or “bad” triglycerides, researchers said. For this study, researchers analyzed medical data from nearly 650 people taking part in a study of midlife health in the United States. The study gathered information… read on > read on >

In the middle of winter when sunshine can be hard to come by, it’s tough to get enough vitamin D, but one expert has some advice. “Vitamin D is well known to support bone health, but it also plays a role in the health of your heart as well as your GI tract. It is tougher to get it [in the winter] because a lot of the absorption and how the vitamin gets transformed to a usable substance in our bodies is from the sun,” explained Dr. Mike Ren, an assistant professor in Baylor College of Medicine’s Department of Family and Community Medicine. “You need the sun high in the sky, not when it’s rising or about to set, for your body to effectively absorb sunlight to absorb the vitamin D.” Although vitamin D is found naturally in fatty fishes and seafood, it is not typically found in other foods, so people often don’t get enough vitamin D from their diet, Ren said. So, most folks need to get outside in the sun, even when the temperatures plummet. “The typical adult needs 800 international units of vitamin D per day, which roughly translates to 15 to 30 minutes of good, direct sunlight,” Ren said in a Baylor news release. “There is no need to put on a bathing suit just to get sun. You can… read on > read on >

Drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic, which have become a wildly popular way to lose weight or battle diabetes, show no link to suicidal thoughts or actions, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday. “Our preliminary evaluation has not found evidence that use of these medicines causes suicidal thoughts or actions,” an FDA review released Thursday stated. Still, the agency noted officials can’t rule out that “a small risk may exist,” and it will continue to look into similar reports involving this class of weight-loss drugs, known as GLP-1 medications. The FDA review comes on the heels of a study funded by the National Institutes of Health that showed people taking semaglutide, the active ingredient in both Ozempic and Wegovy, had a lower risk of suicidal thoughts than those taking other drugs to treat obesity and diabetes. In that study, researchers tracked over 240,000 obese people and more than 1.5 million people with type 2 diabetes. They looked at the risk of suicidal ideation within six months of starting the medicines, as well as at later times. At six months, it found that among people taking the drug for weight loss, semaglutide was linked to a 73% lower risk of first-time suicidal ideation and a 56% lower risk of recurrent suicidal ideation. The drugs that semaglutide was compared to included bupropion, naltrexone, orlistat, topiramate and phentermine.… read on > read on >

Imagine easing a fear of heights by getting over a phobia of spiders. That might sound odd, but it works, researchers report. Folks who use exposure therapy to overcome one phobia can find themselves less afraid of other things, according to the results of a study published recently in the journal Translational Psychiatry. It’s very often the case that people prone to phobias often develop more than one, said lead researcher Iris Kodzaga, a doctoral student with Ruhr University Bochum’s Department of Behavioral and Clinical Neuroscience. “Anxiety rarely comes alone,” Kodzaga said in a university news release. “Patients who suffer from one fear often subsequently develop another.” Exposure therapy has proven to be the most effective treatment against phobias, researchers said. By confronting a fear-inducing situation under the supervision of a therapist, patients learn to overcome their fear. However, it has been long assumed that a person with multiple fears would require multiple rounds of exposure therapy, with each round targeting a different phobia, Kodzaga noted. To challenge that assumption, researchers performed exposure therapy treating a fear of spiders on 50 people who also had a fear of heights. Prior to the therapy, participants answered questionnaires and performed tasks to quantify their phobias. For example, researchers noted how close the subjects dared approach a spider, and how far they could climb a high church tower.… read on > read on >

Women who’ve survived breast cancer may want to up their dietary intake of soy, nuts, beans and whole grains, a new analysis finds. A higher intake of soy compounds called isoflavones was especially tied to better odds that cancer would not return, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and elsewhere. The findings can’t yet determine the ideal dosages of isoflavones or other nutrients that appear to prevent recurrence, the authors said, so more research is needed in that area. The study also can’t determine “whether starting to consume them after diagnosis has the same effect as a lifelong dietary habit before diagnosis,” senior study author Dr. Channing Paller said in a Hopkins news release. That’s information that “patients are looking for,” he said. The review of data on nutrition and breast cancer recurrence was conducted by Paller’s group at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, along with researchers at other centers worldwide. Investigators looked at data from 22 major studies that focused on soybeans, lignans (compounds found in a variety of plants such as seeds and nuts), cruciferous vegetables (crunchy veggies like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower), and green tea. They also looked at the effect of phytonutrients (compounds derived from plants) that are found in these foods. Paller and her colleagues discovered that a high intake of soy isoflavones was linked to a… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

MRI-Guided Brain Zaps Ease Severe Depression for 6 Months

No Benefit Seen From Most Workplace Wellness Programs

FDA Review Supports Reclassifying Marijuana as Less Risky Drug

Bigger Families Could Mean Poorer Mental Health for Kids

Shoveling Snow Can Be a ‘Perfect Storm’ for Your Heart, Experts Warn

Clues to How Mental Stress Takes Toll on Physical Health

Be Sure to Get Enough of the ‘Sunshine Vitamin’ This Winter

FDA Finds No Link to Suicide With Drugs Like Wegovy, Ozempic

Overcoming One Phobia Might Ease Other Fears, Study Finds

Soy, Nuts, Beans May Help Prevent Breast Cancer’s Return