All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

An open question for weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound has been whether folks will keep the pounds off when they stop taking them. Regular exercise could be the key to quitting the drugs without regaining weight, a new Danish study says. “It is actually possible to stop taking the medication without large weight regain, if you follow a structured exercise regime,” said senior researcher Signe Sorensen Torekov, of the University of Copenhagen. As little as a couple hours a week of exercise maintained the weight lost with the drugs, researchers found. “Our study offers new hope, as we have shown that the majority of those who take weight-loss medication and exercise regularly are able to maintain the beneficial effects a year after treatment termination,” Torekov said in a university news release. For the study, researchers recruited four groups of test participants. One group was given a weight-loss drug, a second group was asked to exercise regularly and a third group was given the drug and asked to work out. The fourth group received a placebo. The results showed that the exercise groups experienced an improvement in their quality of life. And those taking the drug while exercising kept the weight off once they quit the medication. The new study was published Feb. 19 in the journal Lancet eClinical Medicine. “All it takes is…  read on >  read on >

Black voters support a ban on menthol cigarettes by a wide margin, refuting claims that such a ban would be strongly opposed by Black Americans, a new survey shows. Black voters support by a 37-point margin the menthol ban proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, with 62% in favor and 25% against. That’s even greater than the 29-point margin by which all voters support the ban, with 58% in favor and 29% against. Implementing the rule would not harm President Joe Biden’s chances of re-election, the poll found. There was no change in Biden’s overall standing after voters were asked to assume his administration ended the sale of menthol cigarettes. “There is clear evidence that the menthol rule has no meaningful electoral impact,” concluded The Mellman Group, a leading political research firm that conducted the poll on behalf of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free kids. In December 2023, the Biden administration announced it was delaying until March a long-planned ban on menthol cigarettes. The ban had been opposed by some civil rights leaders with ties to Big Tobacco, who argued it would give police an excuse to target Black smokers. Media reports said that a poll commissioned by tobacco giant Altria also influenced the administration’s decision to delay the ban.  The Altria poll, presented to the administration but never publicly released, claimed that the…  read on >  read on >

FRIDAY, Feb. 23, 2024 (HealthDay news) — Artificial intelligence can match and even outperform human eye doctors in diagnosing and treating glaucoma, a new study finds. The GPT-4 system from OpenAI did as well or better than ophthalmologists in assessing 20 different patients for glaucoma and retinal disease, researchers report Feb. 22 in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology. “AI was particularly surprising in its proficiency in handling both glaucoma and retina patient cases, matching the accuracy and completeness of diagnoses and treatment suggestions made by human doctors in a clinical note format,” said senior study author Dr. Louis Pasquale, deputy chair for ophthalmology research at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai. The results suggest that AI could play an important support role for ophthalmologists as they try to manage patients’ glaucoma. “Just as the AI application Grammarly can teach us how to be better writers, GPT-4 can give us valuable guidance on how to be better clinicians, especially in terms of how we document findings of patient exams,” Pasquale said in an infirmary news release. Glaucoma is notoriously difficult to diagnose. About half of the 3 million Americans with glaucoma don’t know they have it, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). Glaucoma occurs when fluid pressure builds up inside the eye, damaging the optic nerve and creating blind spots in…  read on >  read on >

Lockdown drills have become a shudder-inducing part of American life, preparing kids to lie low and keep quiet if a gunman chooses to roam their school. But a new study finds these drills help children who’ve been exposed to violence, helping them feel safer at school. The findings contradict claims that drills traumatize children rather than making them feel secure, researchers said. “Participating in drills may be a way to help students who have been exposed to violence feel safer in schools,” said researcher Jaclyn Schildkraut, executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in the U.S. Lockdown drills, now carried out at almost all public schools, involve locking classroom doors, turning off the lights, staying out of sight and remaining quiet. The drills were introduced following the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, in which two teens shot dead 12 classmates and a teacher and wounded 24 others. For this study, students in fifth grade and above at a large urban school district in New York State responded to a survey about how safe they felt at school and how prepared they were for lockdowns and other emergencies. The students were also asked about their exposure to violence, such as seeing or hearing that someone brought a gun or knife to school or being involved in or…  read on >  read on >

Toddlers who are really into their food might have a higher risk of developing an eating disorder once they enter adolescence, a new study shows. Kids ages 4 and 5 with a strong urge to eat when teased with tasty food appear more likely to report a range of eating disorder symptoms by ages 12 to 14, researchers report Feb. 20 in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal. For example, teens who responded to food most strongly as a toddler were nearly three times more likely to report binge eating symptoms as those who were least interested in food, results show. “Although our study cannot prove causality, our findings suggest food cue responsiveness may be one predisposing risk factor for the onset of eating disorder symptoms in adolescence,” said researcher Ivonne Derks, with the University College London Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care. “However, high responsiveness to food is also a normal and very common behavior and should be seen as just one potential risk factor among many rather than something to cause parents worry,” Derks added in a university news release. High food responsiveness is defined as the urge to eat when seeing, smelling or tasting good food, researchers said in background notes. For the study, researchers analyzed data from 3,670 youngsters in the U.K. and the Netherlands to see how appetite traits…  read on >  read on >

Former talk show host Wendy Williams has been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia, her representatives announced in a statement on Thursday. The conditions are the same diagnoses actor Bruce Willis received in 2022; his aphasia later progressed to frontotemporal dementia. Williams’ team said the 59-year-old’s decision to reveal her diagnoses was “difficult and made after careful consideration.” Williams is receiving treatment and is still able to “do many things for herself,” they added. Primary progressive aphasia is a nervous system disorder that brings a gradually increasing inability to communicate, the Cleveland Clinic explained. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, frontotemporal dementia is “a group of disorders caused by progressive nerve cell loss in the brain’s frontal lobes [the areas behind your forehead] or its temporal lobes [the regions behind your ears].” It is a progressive, debilitating neurological condition for which there is no effective treatment, the association said. The illness can also affect speech, language comprehension and movement. Behavioral changes are common. Unlike Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia is typically diagnosed at a younger age, often in a person’s 40s or 50s. Williams was diagnosed in 2023 after a series of medical tests, her team said. Aphasia and frontotemporal dementia have already “presented significant hurdles in Wendy’s life,” they said. “Wendy would not have received confirmation of these diagnoses were it not for the diligence…  read on >  read on >

Some Americans living with diabetes are using smartwatches and smart rings that claim to be able to track their blood sugar. However, such claims from any device that does not pierce the skin are fraudulent and potentially dangerous, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned in an advisory issued Wednesday. Don’t be fooled, the agency said. “Sellers of these smartwatches and smart rings claim their devices measure blood glucose levels without requiring people to prick their finger or pierce the skin. They claim to use noninvasive techniques. These smartwatches and smart rings do not directly test blood glucose levels,” the agency said. No such devices have ever been approved by the agency, and trusting them can be hazardous. “For people with diabetes, inaccurate blood glucose measurements can lead to errors in diabetes management,” the agency warned. Those errors include taking the wrong doses of a drug that might send blood sugar plummeting to dangerous lows. In other cases, “taking too much of these medications can quickly lead to dangerously low glucose, leading to mental confusion, coma or death within hours of the error,” the FDA warned. The agency said consumers are able to buy these unapproved devices easily online. “These smartwatches and smart rings are manufactured by dozens of companies and sold under multiple brand names,” according to the FDA. “If your medical care depends…  read on >  read on >

The common hair-loss drug in Propecia and Proscar might lower men’s risk of heart disease by lowering cholesterol levels, a new study suggests. Finasteride is used to treat male pattern baldness, and it’s also been shown effective in treating an enlarged prostate, researchers said in background notes. But men who use finasteride also have substantially lower cholesterol levels, according to data gathered by a federal health survey between 2009 and 2016. “When we looked at the men taking finasteride in the survey, their cholesterol levels averaged 30 points lower than men not taking the drug,” said lead researcher Jaume Amengual, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “I thought we’d see the opposite pattern, so it was very interesting,” Amengual added in a university news release. Researchers then replicated this finding in lab mice. Mice getting high doses of finasteride had lower cholesterol, less hardening of the arteries, reduced liver inflammation and other related health benefits. Finasteride works by blocking a protein found in hair follicles and the prostate gland that activates testosterone, researchers said in background notes. Because heart disease is far more common in men than women, scientists have long suspected that testosterone plays an important role in clogged arteries, researchers said. “It was just my own curiosity, based on the fact that hormone levels are known to have an effect…  read on >  read on >

Infection with the COVID-19 virus triggers the production of an immune system protein that’s long been associated with fatigue, muscle ache and depression. Trouble is, for folks suffering from Long COVID this protein overproduction does not stop, researchers at the University of Cambridge report. “We have found a potential mechanism underlying Long COVID which could represent a biomarker — that is, a tell-tale signature of the condition. We hope that this could help to pave the way to develop therapies and give some patients a firm diagnosis,” said study co-author Dr. Benjamin Krishna. There was another silver lining from the research: Vaccination against SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, appears to lower production of the culprit protein, called interferon gamma (IFN-γ). “If SARS-CoV-2 continues to persist in people with Long COVID, triggering an IFN-γ response, then vaccination may be helping to clear this,” said Krishna, who works at the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease. According to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 7% of Americans say they have experienced Long COVID. Most cite persistent fatigue as the major symptom, but Long COVID can also bring brain fog, chronic cough and other issues. The exact causes of the illness have remained unclear. In the latest study, Krishna’s team tracked outcomes for 111 COVID patients admitted to…  read on >  read on >

Burnout: It’s a common enough concept, but how do you know if you’re experiencing it at work and at home? According to experts at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, a myriad of daily pressures placed on individuals can culminate in burnout. “Burnout is not a result of one singular thing,” explained Dr. Eric Storch, vice chair of psychology at Baylor. “Work, familial responsibilities and everyday stressors can all contribute to a sense of depleting motivation.”  Storch lists the common signs of burnout: a persistent sense of being mentally overwhelmed and stressed each day little sense of satisfaction at work or in the home, even during moments of success physical tension and difficulties relaxing chronic sleep issues fatigue that doesn’t ease There are ways to help prevent or ease burnout. Having honest conversations about issues is crucial, Storch said. “If you find that you are beginning to show signs of becoming burned out at work, speak with a trusted colleague for their advice or talk to a supervisor about what you both can do to change your work environment into one that allows for a healthier balance between personal and professional responsibilities,” he advised in a Baylor news release.   If you believe that someone else is suffering from burnout, reaching out to them in the correct way is key. First off, be clear that…  read on >  read on >