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Vegetarian diets have been tied to a variety of health benefits – lower blood pressure, better blood sugar control and weight loss among them. Now a new study suggests those benefits might even extend to a person’s ability to ward off COVID-19. A predominantly plant-based diet is linked to 39% lower odds of contracting COVID, according to a report in BMJ Nutrition Prevention and Health. “In light of these findings and the findings of other studies, and because of the importance of identifying factors that can influence the incidence of COVID-19, we recommend the practice of following plant-based diets or vegetarian dietary patterns,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Júlio César Acosta-Navarro, an assistant physician with the Hospital das Clinicas in Sao Paulo, Brazil. For this study, researchers tracked more than 700 adult volunteers between March and July 2022. The participants were surveyed on their diet, and divided into either omnivorous (both plant and animal products) or primarily plant-based dietary groups. The plant-based diet group also was divided into flexitarians who ate meat three or fewer times a week, and vegetarians or vegans who don’t eat meat at all. Of the total group, about 47% said they had a COVID infection, including 32% with mild symptoms and 15% with moderate to severe symptoms. About 52% of meat-eaters became infected with COVID, compared with 40%… read on > read on >

Weight gain has long been an unwanted side effect of medicines commonly used to treat psychiatric conditions such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Some patients may quit their meds to avoid piling on pounds. Or if they stick to their meds and weight gain continues, they face higher risks for diabetes and liver disease. However, research in mice is pinpointing how this drug-linked weight gain happens in the first place — and how to stop it. The answer may lie in a hormone called leptin, explain researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. According to the Cleveland Clinic, leptin is a hormone that’s emitted by fat cells and is involved in hunger and weight maintenance. Prior research has shown that patients who start taking common psychiatric meds such as olanzapine (used against bipolar disorder) and risperidone (used to treat schizophrenia) typically experience an uptick in their leptin levels before a surge in weight gain. The new study was conducted in mice. It might explain how a drug-induced rise in leptin is linked to added pounds. “While it was historically viewed as a ‘passenger’ to obesity – meaning [leptin] levels go up as we gain weight – our data strongly suggest that it is a ‘driver’ for drug-induced obesity,” said study lead author Philipp Scherer. He’s professor of internal medicine and director… read on > read on >

Could the immune system play a role in why some women become depressed during and after a pregnancy? Swedish researchers have uncovered a “bidirectional relationship” between pregnancy-linked depression and autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis and celiac disease. In other words, women who experienced depression specific to a pregnancy were more prone to developing these illnesses, and women who already had an autoimmune disease were more likely to develop pregnancy-linked depression, the study found. “Our study suggests that there’s an immunological mechanism behind perinatal depression and that autoimmune diseases should be seen as a risk factor for this kind of depression,” concluded study lead author Emma Bränn. She’s a researcher at the Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system goes awry and begins attacking healthy tissue. In their research, Bränn’s group analyzed data on 1.3 million pregnancies in Sweden between 2001 and 2013. A little more than 55,000 women in the database had developed depression during their pregnancy or within a year of delivery. Looking at the women’s health histories, the researchers found that those who’d been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease were 30% more likely to develop pregnancy-linked depression, compared to women without such diagnoses. The reverse was also true: Women with pregnancy-linked depression were 30% more likely to develop… read on > read on >

When you’re looking for a cheap and easy way to get around town, which is safer — a scooter or a bike? A nationwide look at injuries related to both suggests biking may be the safer way to go. UCLA researchers report that scooter injuries nearly tripled across the U.S. between 2016 and 2020, many serious enough to require orthopedic and plastic surgery. The cost of treating those injuries rose five-fold, underscoring their financial strain on the health care system. “Considering the rise in the number of hospitalizations and major operations for scooter-related injuries, it’s crucial to elevate safety standards for riders,” lead author Nam Yong Cho, a third year medical student at UCLA, said in a news release. “Advocating for improved infrastructure, including enforced speed limits and dedicated lanes, is also vital to minimize risks for vehicles, scooter riders, and pedestrians alike.” For the study — published Jan. 9 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons — researchers used a federal government database to compare trends and outcomes for scooter- and bicycle-related injuries. The database did not distinguish between electric and non-electric scooters. In all, nearly 93,000 patients were hospitalized for injuries — about 6,100 from scooters — during the study period. About 27% of the scooter users and 16% of bike riders were under 18. Injuries rose during winter months, and… read on > read on >

Depression that emerges around the time of pregnancy raises a woman’s risk for suicide sharply and for many years, new Swedish research shows. The study found that a new mom’s odds for suicide soars seven-fold in the year after a diagnosis of perinatal depression — depression that arises just before, during or after a pregnancy. The increase in risk isn’t limited to the short-term, however. Between five to 18 years after delivery, the risk of suicide in women with perinatal depression was still more than double that of women unaffected by the illness, noted a team led by Dr. Songhao Lu of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. They published their findings Jan. 9 in JAMA Network Open. According to background information supplied by Lu’s team, the period just after delivery of a new baby is a particularly dangerous time for suicide. “In fact, 13% to 36% of maternal deaths are attributable to suicide,” the study authors noted. “The consequences are devastating to the newborn and the family.” Many studies have already shown that suicide risks rise in the weeks and months after a woman suffers perinatal depression. But what about the much longer term? In their study, Lu’s team analyzed Swedish national health data for 2001-2017. They compared the suicide rate of a group of almost 87,000 women diagnosed with perinatal depression to that of… read on > read on >

Social media is abuzz with the possibility that newfangled weight loss drugs can also reduce cravings for alcohol, a new study says. Across a number of Reddit threads, users of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic reported that they felt less need to drink beer, wine and liquor. Threads bearing titles like “Did scientists accidentally invent an anti-addiction drug?” and “I don’t know if this is a side effect but … Mounjaro makes me drink less!!!!!” tout the weight-loss drugs’ potential to help folks quit drinking, researchers said. What’s more, a small study of social media participants with obesity found that they drank less and were less likely to binge if they were on a weight-loss drug. “These findings add to a growing literature that these medications may curb dangerous drinking habits,” said senior author Warren Bickel in a Virginia Tech news release. Bickel is a behavioral health research professor with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech in Roanoke. For this study, Bickel and his team analyzed more than 68,000 Reddit posts sent between 2009 and 2023 that included terms linked to GLP-1 agonists like Wegovy, Ozempic, Mounjaro and Trulicity. GLP-1 agonists help manage blood sugar levels and reduce the desire to eat by mimicking the action of hormones that the body naturally releases after a meal, researchers said in background notes. The drugs were… read on > read on >

Teens who are active are doing their bones a lasting favor, Japanese researchers report. “Physical exercise in adolescence affects BMD [bone mineral density] more than 50 years later in older adults,” said lead researcher Dr. Yoshifumi Tamura, a faculty member at Juntendo University in Tokyo. “Our findings can guide the selection of sports played during adolescence for longer health benefits.” The deterioration of bone tissue — called osteoporosis — is a leading cause of falls among older adults, leading to fractures and a need for long-term nursing care. The best time to prevent it is in youth, researchers said, because the body’s ability to build bone mass begins to decline in the 20s. “BMD is difficult to increase once it decreases,” Tamura said in a university news release. “Therefore, it is important to increase peak bone mass during adolescence to maintain BMD in old age.” While other studies have shown that a 10% increase in peak bone mass during adolescence can stave off osteoporosis for up to 13 years, this team wondered what sports activities might help most. In their study of close to 1,600 folks between 65 and 84 years of age, they zeroed in on some key trends. The takeaway: Seniors who engaged in high-impact sports as teens had healthier bones than those who didn’t. Researchers looked at their fitness, blood markers such… read on > read on >

“School spirit” appears to provide long-lasting mental health benefits for Black teens, new research finds. School connectedness – the degree to which students feel like part of to their school community – is a protective factor against depression and aggressive behavior later in life among Black students, researchers report in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence. “Our data provide fairly strong evidence for the idea that the experiences Black adolescents have in their school impacts their long-term mental health,” lead researcher Adrian Gale, an assistant professor in the Rutgers University School of Social Work, said in a news release. Lots of research has been conducted on the benefits of school connectedness for well-being and physical health, but most studies have focused on white teenagers, researchers said. To take a closer look at Black students, researchers analyzed data from an ongoing study following nearly 5,000 children born in large U.S. cities between 1998 and 2000. Of those kids, nearly 1,700 were Black children interviewed at ages 9 and 15, researchers said. The kids’ caregivers also were interviewed at the 15-year follow-up. The children were asked at age 9 to rate how often they felt “part of your school, close to people at your school, happy to be at your school, and safe at school.” Six years later, the kids’ caregivers were asked whether their children often… read on > read on >

There’s information emerging on how the common Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) might be crucial to triggering multiple sclerosis (MS). The virus, which also causes “mono” (mononucleosis) and other illnesses, has gained prominence in recent years as a potential cause of MS. Over 95% of people are thought to carry EBV, although for most people it remains dormant. Now, a team of Texan researchers report that certain immune cells targeted to EBV infection are found in high numbers in people newly diagnosed with MS. The immune system cells are called T-cells, and they appear to be targeting lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) infected with Epstein-Barr virus. “This work demonstrates that T-cells specific for LCL are present in the cerebrospinal fluid at the earliest stages of [MS] disease,” said study senior author Dr. J. William Lindsey. “This strongly suggests that these T-cells are either causing the disease or contributing to it in some way,” said Lindsey, a professor of neurology at McGovern Medical School, UTHealth Houston. “We have experiments in progress to define what these cells may be doing,” he added in a UTHealth news release. The study was published Jan. 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. EBV is a form of herpes virus that can be spread by bodily fluids, especially saliva. It’s been strongly linked in recent years to MS, a chronic, debilitating illness… read on > read on >

Exposing babies and toddlers to TV and other digital media could be linked to a heightened risk for dysfunction in what’s known as “sensory processing,” a new study warns. Kids with “atypical sensory processing” are often hypersensitive to the touch, sound, taste or look of stimuli in their environment. For example, kids might try to avoid the feel of certain clothing, the taste of certain foods or necessary activities like getting their hair washed. Conversely, they might seek out sensations — twirling in place, staring at bright lights or ceiling fans — to the neglect of other activities. Sensory processing issues are highly correlated with other psychiatric conditions, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism. About 60% of kids with ADHD have issues with sensory processing, as do about 70% of kids with autism, said researchers at Drexel University in West Reading, Pa. They looked at data on nearly 1,500 young children tracked from 2011 to 2023. According to the study, those who’d been exposed to TVs and DVDs in the first three years of life were much more likely to have symptoms of atypical sensory processing, compared with those whose parents delayed such exposures. The study could not prove cause-and-effect. However, the Drexel team theorize that kids’ screen time could reduce “meaningful play and social interactions, which may have significant implications for the… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Meat-Free Diet Could Cut Your Risk for COVID

Patients Taking Psychiatric Meds Often Gain Weight. Scientists May Now Know Why

Pregnancy-Linked Depression Could Have Links to Autoimmune Diseases

Serious Scooter Injuries Tripled in U.S. in Four Years

Pregnancy-Linked Depression Raises Odds for Suicide Years After Delivery

Reddit Posts Show Ozempic, Wegovy Cutting Users’ Alcohol Use

Teen Sports Pay Dividends for Bone Health Decades Later

Black Teens Gain Mental Health Boost From ‘Connectedness’ at School

More Insight Into How a Virus Might Cause MS

Too Much Screen Time Might Harm Kids’ ‘Sensory Processing’