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When it comes to living a longer life, staying active may matter far more than what the scale says. Per the largest study yet on fitness, body weight, and longevity published recently in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers found that people who are aerobically fit (i.e., how well your heart, lungs, and muscles work together to supply oxygen during exercise) significantly reduce their risk of premature death, even if they are obese. In fact, being fit cut the risk of premature death by half for people with obesity, compared to those of normal weight who were unfit. “This tells us that it’s much more important, all things considered, to focus on the fitness aspect” of health and longevity, “rather than the fatness aspect,” Siddhartha Angadi, senior author of the study and an exercise physiologist at the University of Virginia, told The Washington Post. The review pooled data from 20 prior studies involving nearly 400,000 midlife and older adults from multiple countries, about 30% of whom were women. Participants were grouped based on their aerobic fitness, which was objectively measured through cardiovascular stress tests, and their body mass index (BMI). They also pulled data about who’d died during follow-up periods of up to about two decades. The findings were clear: People who were fit and overweight or obese had similar risks of death as… read on > read on >

Movement is medicine, or so they tell people with knee osteoarthritis — but are they right? A recent evidence review calls into question just how helpful exercise can be for easing the pain of knee arthritis. “Exercise probably results in an improvement in pain, physical function, and quality of life in the short‐term,” concluded the research team led by Belinda Lawford, a research fellow in physiotherapy with the University of Melbourne in Australia. “However, based on the thresholds for minimal important differences that we used, these benefits were of uncertain clinical importance,” the team added in its report published previously in the Cochrane Library. The review casts a slight shadow on what has been considered an integral part of therapy for knee pain. “Movement is an essential part of an osteoarthritis treatment plan,” the Arthritis Foundation says on its website, recommending that people take part in strength training, stretching, aerobics, and balance exercises. For the new review, the team evaluated data from 139 prior clinical trials involving nearly 12,500 participants that occurred up through early Jan. 2024. On a 100-point scale, exercise for knee arthritis improved: Pain by 8.7 to 13.1 points Physical function by 9.7 to 12.5 points Quality of life by 4.2 to 6.1 points But while those were significant improvements, they did not always meet established scores for making a minimal important… read on > read on >

Exercising now can increase your chances of successfully fighting cancer in the future. Even low levels of exercise provided protection against cancer, a new study published Jan. 7 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows. People were 47% less likely to die from cancer if they’d been engaging in moderate to vigorous physical activity prior to their diagnosis, compared to people not exercising at all, researchers found. Likewise, those engaging in light exercise had a 33% lower risk of dying from cancer, compared with none at all, the study says. “Physical activity may be considered to confer substantial benefits in terms of progression and overall mortality to those diagnosed with cancer,” concluded the team led by senior researcher Dr. Jon Patricios, an associate professor with the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. “In a world where cancer continues to be a significant public health burden, the promotion of physical activity can yield important benefits regarding the progression of cancer as well as its prevention and management,” the researchers added. For the study, researchers tracked the health of more than 28,000 people diagnosed with early-stage cancers in South Africa between 2007 and 2022. Breast and prostate cancers were the most common, representing 44% of cases. Researchers compared the patients’ levels of physical activity in the 12 months prior to their cancer diagnosis with… read on > read on >

Some of the most effective public policies for suicide prevention aren’t crafted with suicide or mental health in mind, a new study says. Efforts to increase the minimum wage, prohibit gender discrimination, or reduce alcohol consumption “have spillover benefits in that they also prevent suicides,” lead researcher Jonathan Purtle, an associate professor of public health policy and management at the NYU School of Global Public Health, said in a news release from the school. In fact, those policies might be more effective at preventing suicides than efforts to increase access to health care or limit firearms, researchers argue in a study published Jan. 7 in the Annual Review of Public Health. “This research highlights the importance of considering social determinants in suicide prevention,” researcher Michael Lindsey, dean of the NYU Silver School of Social Work, said in a news release. “An individual’s mental well-being is influenced not only by clinical factors, but also by their environment, circumstances, and experiences,” Lindsey added. Suicide rates have been on the rise over the past two decades, increasing by 37% since 2000, researchers said in background notes. For younger people 10 to 24, suicide increased 62% between 2010 and 2020. To see which public policies might best help prevent suicides, researchers first analyzed state bills passed during the last two decades that explicitly mentioned suicide. They found a dramatic… read on > read on >

The Mediterranean diet is renown for its ability to improve heart health and help folks lose weight. Now a new rat study says this eating pattern also might provide folks a boost in brain power. Lab rats fed a Mediterranean diet developed changes in gut bacteria that researchers linked to better memory and improved cognitive performance, according to results published recently in the journal Gut Microbes Reports. “Our findings suggest that dietary choices can influence cognitive performance by reshaping the gut microbiome,” lead researcher Rebecca Solch-Ottaiano, a neurology research instructor at Tulane University’s Clinical Neuroscience Research Center, said in a news release from the college. For the study, researchers fed rats a diet rich in olive oil, fish and fiber over 14 weeks. The young rats were approximately equivalent in age to 18-year-old humans. The rats showed increases in four beneficial types of gut bacteria, compared to another group of rats eating a Western-style diet high in saturated fats. These changes in gut bacteria were linked to improved performance on maze challenges designed to test the rats’ memory and learning abilities, researchers said. The Mediterranean diet group also showed better cognitive flexibility, or the ability to adapt to new information, results show. They also had better short-term “working” memory. These results suggest that teenagers and young adults whose brains and bodies are still maturing could… read on > read on >

Three GLP-1 drugs are best at helping obese and overweight people drop weight, including one that hasn’t yet been approved for that purpose. A new evidence review published in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows that the widely-known drugs tirzepatide (Zepbound) and semaglutide (Wegovy) are both safe and effective at helping the obese shed pounds. However, a third drug also FDA-approved for weight loss, liraglutide (Saxenda), didn’t work as well as the others, researchers found after reviewing data from dozens of clinical trials. The review also found that a GLP-1 drug still in development, called retatrutide, might be more effective than either Zepbound or Wegovy. “We found that, of the 12 GLP-1 (drugs) identified by our search, the greatest mean body weight reduction was reported in randomized controlled trials of retatrutide, tirzepatide, and semaglutide,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Mark Eisenberg, a professor of medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. GLP-1 drugs, initially developed to treat diabetes, help people lose weight by slowing digestion in the stomach and sending signals to the brain indicating that a person has eaten enough and feels full. The drugs mimic a hormone secreted by the small intestine when people eat food. For the new evidence review, researchers analyzed data from 26 previous clinical trials of the drugs, involving nearly 15,500 participants. Compared to placebo, the data… read on > read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA) released the first-ever guidelines for levels of lead in processed baby foods this week. However, many health and safety advocates say they are not satisfied with the guidance. Under the FDA’s new guidelines, baby food manufacturers should have no more than 10 parts per billion of lead in baby yogurts, custards, puddings, single-ingredient meats, processed fruits and vegetables, and mixtures of fruits, vegetables, grains and meat. Yet the new guidance does not cover many other products, such as infant formula, beverages, or snack foods like puffs and teething biscuits. “Nearly all baby foods on the market already comply with these limits,” Jane Houlihan, research director of Healthy Babies Bright Futures (HBBF), told CNN. HBBF is a coalition of advocates committed to reducing babies’ exposures to neurotoxic chemicals. Houlihan said the newly released FDA guidelines were ineffective — not to mention unenforceable. In 2019, HBBF released a report that found toxic metals in 95% of baby foods randomly pulled off supermarket shelves. It led to a congressional investigation that discovered some baby food ingredients contain hundreds of parts per billion of dangerous metals, according to internal documents provided by major baby food manufacturers. “As it stands, the new lead limits for commercial baby foods would reduce children’s total dietary lead exposure by less than 4% — a negligible improvement,”… read on > read on >

Patients have more access to their own medical test results than ever before, thanks to legislation requiring results be released as soon as they’re available. But that’s not necessarily a good thing, a new study warns. Many patients are reading test results in their electronic medical record before their doctor has had a chance to go over them, researchers say in a study published Jan. 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. This is provoking a lot of confusion and anxiety, mainly because medical reports contain a lot of jargon the average patient doesn’t understand, researchers said. For example, “a standard pathology report is written by a pathologist for a clinical specialist like a surgeon or a cancer doctor or for other pathologists to read,” lead researcher Dr. Cathryn Lapedis, a pathologist at University of Michigan Health, said in a news release from the college. To address this, Lapedis and her colleagues tested whether patients might benefit from pathology reports written in a way they would better understand. “A patient-centered pathology report gives important information on the patient’s diagnosis in a clear format that minimizes medical terminology,” Lapedis said. “For example, a standard pathology report will include a term like prostatic adenocarcinoma, but the patient-centered report will simply call it prostate cancer.” For the study, researchers recruited more than 2,200 men 55 to… read on > read on >

More and more adults are stuck in the middle of their families, caring not only for their children but also for aging parents and other older family members. The mental and physical health of these “sandwich carers” is more likely to deteriorate over time, a new study published in the journal Public Health says. “These individuals, who balance the demands of caring for both their children and aging parents, often experience a decline in their well-being,” lead researcher Dr. Baowen Xue, a lecturer in social epidemiology with the University College London, said in a news release from the school. “It’s crucial that we recognize and support the unique needs of this growing group to ensure their health and resilience,” Xue added. For the study, researchers analyzed data from about 2,000 sandwich carers, comparing them with 2,000 other people who only care for a child younger than 16. All participants were provided a pair of questionnaires aimed at assessing their mental and physical health. Results show that parents’ psychological distress increased significantly when they also had to care for an older relative, and even more if they spent over 20 hours a week providing care. Sandwich carers also suffered a faster decline in their physical health if they spent more than 20 hours a week in caregiving, researchers found. These folks must manage not only the… read on > read on >

Rates of whooping cough in the U.S. continue to climb, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Over 32,000 cases reported have been reported as of mid-December — about six times more than there were at this time last year, and more than there have been since 2014, according to CNN. Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a very contagious respiratory illness that spreads through bacteria in the air. It is common in the United States, with frequent outbreaks. Reported cases have been climbing for several months with about a quarter of all cases reported in Illinois, Indiana and other states in the Midwest. Pennsylvania has more reported cases compared to other states. Some states, such as Oregon, ticked a record high number of cases recently. For 2024, Oregon recorded the highest number of whooping cough cases since 1950, a news release stated. Typically, the infection starts with cold-like symptoms before a serious, full-body cough can develop. The name comes from the sound people make as they try to catch their breath between coughs. The coughing can last for several weeks or even months. Cases dropped during the pandemic, but according to the CDC, recent trends suggest that the U.S. is returning to pre-pandemic levels. Whooping cough can be serious for people of all ages, yet children younger than one… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Fitness Matters More Than Weight for Longevity, Study Says

Can Exercise Ease Knee Pain? Here’s What the Research Shows

Exercise Prior to Cancer Diagnosis May Help Slow Disease Progression

The Public Policies That Really Help Prevent Suicide

Can the Mediterranean Diet Boost Your Memory?

Some GLP-1s Achieve More Weight Loss Than Others: Study

Health Advocates Are Unhappy with FDA Guidance on Lead Levels in Baby Food

Access to Medical Test Results Is Confusing, Anxiety-Provoking

Caregivers Face Mental, Physical Health Risks

U.S. Whooping Cough Cases Surge

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