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New Year’s resolutions often center on weight loss and personal lifestyle changes, but setting good parenting goals is also well worth the effort, pediatricians say. “This is a great time to take a step back, take a breath and look at how we as a family taking care of ourselves and each other,” pediatrician Dr. Steph Lee said. “What are we already doing right? Let’s celebrate that first. Then, let’s think about ways we can improve together and create a list of individual and shared family goals for the new year.” “Maybe this is the year you decide to join a parent’s group for support or maybe it’s time you said no to some things, if you’ve felt overextended in the past year,” Lee said in an American Academy of Pediatrics news release. “Your pediatrician can help you with your child’s health, but we care about parents, too… because when parents are feeling their best, they create a healthy environment for children to thrive.” Lee suggested the following eight goals that could help families thrive in 2024: Get recommended shots. Vaccines are the best way to protect yourself, your children and other loved ones from the flu, RSV and COVID. Call your pediatrician to make sure your children have all recommended immunizations, and remind your children that good hand hygiene habits help prevent the spread… read on > read on >

Three-quarters of Americans plan to start the New Year with a resolution to be more healthy, including 28% who want to focus on improving their mental health, a new survey has found. These folks plan to exercise more (67%), meditate (49%), keep a diary (26%), or see a therapist (35%) or psychiatrist (21%), according to the results of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Healthy Minds monthly poll. “Many see the new year as a time for a new chance, or to try something different, which is great,” said APA President Dr. Petros Levounis. “At the same time, in mental health — just like physical health — maintenance and care matter,” Levounis added in an APA news release. “Preserve your healthy routines, maintain your relationships with loved ones and take good care of yourself, as well as the people around you.” Age played a part in how likely someone was to focus on improving their mental health. More than two in five (44%) young adults ages 18-34 plan to take on a New Year’s resolution related to mental health, compared to just 7% of seniors, the poll found. Other popular resolutions that could contribute to better mental health include focusing more on spirituality (40%), cutting back on social media (31%) or using a mental health app (21%), poll results show. About 6% chose “forest bathing” —… read on > read on >

Women are more likely to lose more muscle mass during space flight than men, a new lab study suggests. Females participating in the extended bed rest study lost more leg muscle mass at two months than the men had lost at three months, results show. The findings “suggest that women are more susceptible to weightlessness-induced muscle atrophy,” researchers concluded in their report published recently in the Journal of Applied Physiology. NASA’s decision to diversify space crews in future spaceflight missions means that more women will be subject to the rigors of weightlessness, researchers said in background notes. For example, the agency intends to send the first woman to the moon in 2024, researchers said. To see how space travel might affect health, researchers recruited a group of people to spend extended periods in bed. Men spent 90 days and women 60 days in a bed tilted 6 degrees head down, placing their head below their feet. This simulates the weightlessness experienced while traveling through space, researchers said. Both volunteer groups ate, slept, cleaned up, and performed all other activities in either a head-down tilt or a horizontal position. MRI screenings of the volunteers’ thigh and calf muscles taken before, during and after the trial showed that all participants lost a significant amount of muscle mass in both areas of the leg, the researchers said. However,… read on > read on >

Measles is incredibly contagious, and outbreaks are more common now as people decide against vaccinating their kids. Now, a case involving a rare but fatal brain disease caused by the measles virus may make some rethink that decision. The patient caught measles as a child. It took years for the virus to migrate to their brain, where it mutated and caused the fatal illness, according to Mayo Clinic researchers. “Our study provides compelling data that shows how viral RNA mutated and spread throughout a human organ — the brain, in this case,” said Mayo virologist and study co-lead author Roberto Cattaneo. Reporting Dec. 21 in the journal PLOS Pathogens, Cattaneo’s team explained that while the measles virus initially congregates in the respiratory tract, it can slowly migrate throughout the body years after the illness is over. The brain disease, called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), occurs in about 1 in every 10,000 measles cases, the researchers said. They estimate that it takes about 10 years for the virus to make its way to the brain, where it can begin to mutate. Seizures, memory impairments and mobility issues can signal the onset of SSPE. In the new study, Cattaneo’s team examined the brain of a person who died from the disease. They looked at the genetics of tissues taken from 15 different brain regions. The measles virus’… read on > read on >

The smoke billowing from this summer’s devastating wildfires wasn’t just bad for your lungs. Skin problems also seem to worsen, with dermatology visits rising as air quality deteriorates, a new study says. Visits for eczema spiked at dermatology clinics within the Mass General Brigham health system during the Canadian wildfires this summer, researchers found. “We were inspired to investigate the relationship between air pollution and skin inflammation after listening to patients who kept telling us that their skin conditions like eczema were particularly bad, and in some cases ‘worse than ever before,’ this summer,” senior researcher Dr. Arianne Shadi Kourosh said in a news release. She’s director of community health in the Department of Dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “This was strange because typically patients with eczema are more likely to experience worsening symptoms or flares in winter months due to cold dry weather, but we were seeing the opposite: an unusual surge in the summer,” Kourosh said. The MGB hospital system is about 300 miles from the Canadian wildfires, and carbon monoxide (CO) levels peaked in July 2023 as a result of the blaze, researchers found. Researchers compared dermatology visits in 2019 through 2022 to the summer of 2023, and found that the visits tracked with carbon monoxide (CO) levels in the air. Wildfire smoke and chronic air pollution contain substances like… read on > read on >

Are you necessarily at higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease just because you’re 80, and not 75? New research shows it’s more complex than that. The findings suggest that it’s the pace of buildup in the brain of Alzheimer’s-linked amyloid protein plaques that matters most, not age. “Our findings are consistent with studies showing that the amyloid accumulation in the brain takes decades to develop,” said study lead author Dr. Oscar Lopez, a professor of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh. His team’s findings were published Dec. 22 in the journal Neurology. Neuroscientists have long known that the slow but steady accumulation of amyloid-beta protein plaques within brain tissue is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, although whether it actually causes the illness is still debated. Rates of dementia do rise with advancing age, but is age alone the key factor? To find out, Lopez’ team examined amyloid buildup in the brains of 94 people who were 85 at the time they enrolled in the study. All were tracked for 11 years or until they died, and all received two PET scans of their brains during that time. The researchers compared levels of amyloid buildup seen in those scans to those seen in scans from a younger group of patients (in their 60s) observed in a prior Australian trial. As expected, amyloid plaque buildup rose over time,… read on > read on >

Christmas dinners aren’t usually known for healthy offerings, and instead bring to mind thoughts of Uncle Fred loosening his belt after a third round of helpings. But there are traditional offerings that can be healthy, if prepared in the proper way, researchers at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom report. For example, Brussels sprouts contain glucosinolates, which can aid the body in fighting chronic conditions like diabetes and cancer. However, maximum benefit from Brussels sprouts is derived when the veggies are steamed, rather than boiled or roasted, said Kirsten Brandt, a senior lecturer in food and human nutrition at Newcastle University. “If you boil the Brussels sprouts, then you lose a lot of the important compounds into the water,” Brandt said in a university news release. “If you roast them, they are being broken down during the cooking.” “Steaming is the one that gives most of these tasty and healthy compounds in the final product,” Brandt continued. A side of carrots also can help reduce a person’s risk of cancer. Five servings of carrots each week has been linked to a 20% reduction in cancer risk, according to a new evidence review from Brandt’s team that was published Dec. 17 in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. Even serving still lowers cancer risk by 4%, researchers said. Carrots contain a wide array… read on > read on >

Can’t afford Ozempic? You might soon have another weight-loss option, in the form of an ingestible vibrating capsule that tricks the body into thinking the stomach is full. Animals given the multivitamin-sized pill 20 minutes before eating ate about 40% less than usual, researchers report. “For somebody who wants to lose weight or control their appetite, it could be taken before each meal,” lead researcher Shriya Srinivasan, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Harvard University, said in a news release. “This could be really interesting in that it would provide an option that could minimize the side effects that we see with the other pharmacological treatments out there.” The capsule, developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, takes advantage of the process by which the stomach signals the brain that it’s full, which helps you realize it’s time to stop eating. A stomach full of liquid can also send these signals, which is why dieters often drink a glass of water before eating, researchers noted. The vibrations of the capsule activate the same receptors in the stomach that sense it is stretching as a result of being full of food. As a result of those signals, the brain floods the body with insulin and other hormones that work together to aid digestion and provide a feeling of fullness. At the same time, it reduces… read on > read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has uncovered counterfeit Ozempic shots in the legitimate U.S. drug supply chain, and is warning patients to be on their guard. The FDA said Thursday that it has seized thousands of counterfeit doses of Ozempic, the weight-loss drug manufactured by Novo Nordisk, but warned that more might still be available for purchase. Patients, practitioners and pharmacies are specifically warned not to sell or use Ozempic 1-milligram (mg) injections labeled with lot number NAR0074 and serial number 430834149057, the FDA said. People in possession of Ozempic doses meeting that description can report the counterfeit product directly to the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations, the agency said. The agency and the drugmaker are testing the seized products, but don’t have any information yet about the fake drugs’ identity, quality or safety. Five people have gotten sick from injections of the counterfeit Ozempic, but no cases have been serious, the FDA said. The sickened patients all suffered side effects consistent with legitimate Ozempic, like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and constipation. The rest of the Ozempic injection package is also counterfeit, including the needles, the injection pen label, the carton and the accompanying doctor and patient information, the FDA said. Because the needles are counterfeit, their sterility can’t be guaranteed and an injection presents an infection risk to anyone using the fake… read on > read on >

Online gaming and vaping to the point of addiction have become widespread enough that most high school counselors regularly confront these behaviors in today’s teens, a new survey shows. Four out of five counselors say they’ve worked with at least one student during the past year who had struggled with problematic use of video games or e-cigarettes. However, few said they had the training necessary to adequately help their young charges, researchers found. “School counselors are aware this is an issue, but it doesn’t seem like we’re providing the training as a profession so that they can address it,” said principal investigator Amanda Giordano, an associate professor in the University of Georgia’s Mary Frances Early College of Education. “They’re seeking their own continuing education and self-study to learn how to meet these needs.” About 41% of teens say they’ve vaped nicotine at some point in their lives, while 26% say they have vaped marijuana, researchers said in background notes. “These are really distressing numbers because as a society, we’ve worked hard to curb adolescent smoking of combustible tobacco products,” said Giordano. “Now with vaping, we see those numbers going back up.” Gaming addiction is also a growing problem, marked by compulsive behavior, a loss of control and cravings, researchers said. It was officially recognized as a disorder by the World Health Organization in 2019. For the… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Pediatricians Offer 8 Goals to Parents to ‘Start the Year Strong’

Many Americans Are Resolving to Boost Their Mental Health in 2024

One Gender Loses More Muscle During Space Flight

In Rare Cases, Measles Mutates in Brain and Kills

Skin Conditions Flare Up When Wildfires Nearby

Brain Plaques, Not Just Age, Point to Who’ll Get Alzheimer’s Disease

Christmas Dinner Items That Bring the Gift of Health

A Vibrating Capsule You Swallow Might Keep Weight Gain at Bay

FDA Warns of Counterfeit Ozempic

America’s School Counselors Say Vaping, Gaming Are Tough Issues for Kids