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Don’t worry if someone’s checking your blood pressure in a loud public place. The reading they get is apt to be just as accurate as if the test were taking place in a quiet, less stressful environment, researchers reported in a study published Jan. 27 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. “The BP readings obtained in public spaces were minimally different from BPs obtained in a private office, suggesting that public spaces are reasonable settings to screen for hypertension,” the research team led by Dr. Tammy Brady, a professor of epidemiology with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, concluded. Current guidelines for accurate blood pressure measurement emphasize the importance of performing the test in a quiet, private setting free from distractions, researchers noted. But the new study’s results open up the possibility of more practical and convenient mass efforts to screen for high blood pressure, in locales like shopping malls, public markets, churches, sports venues, supermarkets and business offices. High blood pressure is a leading contributor to heart disease and stroke. Nearly 47% of U.S. adults have high blood pressure, according to the American Heart Association’s newly released 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics report. For the study, researchers compared blood pressure readings taken at a historic public market in Baltimore, the Northeast Market, with those taken at a quiet office… read on > read on >

Major heart health risk factors like obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure remain on the rise in the United States, according to an annual report from the American Heart Association (AHA). These risks are thwarting efforts to save lives from heart disease, heart attack, stroke and other lethal heart-related diseases, says the report published Jan. 27 in the AHA journal Circulation. Overall, there was a slight increase in heart-related deaths in 2022, the most recent year for which final data is available, the 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics report says. There were 941,652 heart-related deaths in 2022, an increase of more than 10,000 from the 931,578 deaths in 2021. The report indicates that heart-related deaths appear to be leveling out after a major uptick during the COVID pandemic, the report says — but heart disease remains the No. 1 killer in the U.S. Someone dies of heart disease every 34 seconds, amounting to nearly 2,500 people every day, noted Dr. Keith Churchwell, volunteer president of the American Heart Association. “Those are alarming statistics to me — and they should be alarming for all of us, because it’s likely many among those whom we lose will be our friends and loved ones,” Churchwell said in a news release. He noted that heart disease and stroke together kill more people than all cancers and accidental deaths… read on > read on >

Adderall shortages have prompted doctors to switch kids with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to other forms of stimulant medication. Adderall prescription fills for children and teens plunged after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a shortage of the drug in October 2022, researchers reported in a new study published today in the journal Pediatrics. But at the same time, prescriptions for other types of stimulant drugs used in ADHD treatment increased, according to study results. “Our findings suggest that the Adderall shortage did not cause many children to stop stimulant therapy altogether, but it did force some to switch to alternative stimulants,” lead investigator Sijia He, a researcher at the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center in the University of Michigan, said in a news release. It’s too soon to tell whether these alternative stimulants wound up being a good or bad thing for children with ADHD, He noted. “This would be potentially concerning if the switches may have resulted in worsened ADHD control,” He said. “We need more research to evaluate whether any switches led to adverse outcomes.” More than 11% of children will be diagnosed with ADHD at some point during their lives, and prescription stimulants are considered a first-line treatment when drugs are required, researchers said in background notes. Stimulants are the most widely used ADHD medication, according… read on > read on >

Maintaining tight control over blood pressure for even a short while can provide lasting benefits for seniors’ brain health, a new clinical trial says. People had lower risk of mild cognitive impairment or dementia after keeping their blood pressure around 120 systolic for three and a half years, according to results published recently in the journal Neurology. (Systolic pressure, the top number in a blood pressure reading, measures the pressure in arteries when the heart pumps blood.) What’s more, this reduced risk stayed with seniors long after they stopped such intense blood pressure treatment. “Our study shows that intensive blood pressure control is an important strategy in the prevention of cognitive impairment, a major cause of loss of independence in older adults,” said senior researcher Dr. Jeff Williamson, a professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. “Lowering your blood pressure to more aggressive targets can improve the quality of life and extend active life for individuals with hypertension,” Williamson added in a news release. The new study is the latest from a landmark clinical trial which, in 2015, reported that intensive blood pressure management reduced risk of heart disease and death by 30% to 40% in people with high blood pressure. The trial — called the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial, or SPRINT — compared the… read on > read on >

That busy highway could be contributing to depression, and not just because you’re snarled in a traffic jam. Air pollution from traffic appears to increase risk of depression among women, according to a new study published Jan. 21 in the journal Menopause. Further, researchers think this air pollution might be raising depression risk by affecting women’s menstrual cycles. “Traffic-related air pollution exposure was significantly related to having a longer menstrual cycle length, and having a longer menstrual cycle length was significantly related to higher depression,” wrote the research team led by Anwesha Pan, a graduate student at the University of Washington in Seattle. These effects could be more pronounced among minority and poor women, whose neighborhoods are often located nearer to high-traffic areas. Thus, air pollution could be “potentially setting the stage for a clustering of risk factors for poor psychological health in vulnerable individuals,” the researchers wrote. For the study, researchers tracked the health of nearly 700 healthy women of reproductive age living in Northern California. Their exposure to vehicle exhaust was calculated by comparing their home address to state traffic data. Results showed that the more traffic-related air pollution a woman faced, the greater her symptoms of depression. “Women with greater traffic-related air pollution exposure were significantly more likely to experience depression according to self-reports on an established questionnaire measure of depressive symptoms,”… read on > read on >

Food stamps and food banks can be key to healthy pregnancies. Food assistance programs are effective in helping hungry women avoid pregnancy complications, researchers say in a new study published Jan. 23 in JAMA Network Open. Food insecurity in pregnancy is associated with a higher risk of gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, preterm birth and newborn admission to a neonatal intensive care unit. However, risk of those complications disappears if women receive food assistance through state or federal welfare programs or local food banks, according to the findings. “Food insecurity in pregnancy was associated with a higher risk of perinatal complications, and these associations were overall attenuated to the null among individuals who received food assistance in pregnancy,” the research team led by senior investigator Yeyi Zhu, a research scientist with Kaiser Permanente Northern California, concluded. Food insecurity refers to when people don’t have enough to eat and don’t know where their next meal will come from. “Pregnancy is a critical period during which exposure to food insecurity can have magnified detrimental effects on the pregnant individual and their developing fetuses,” the researchers said in background notes. More than 8% of households in the U.S. have low food security, and another 5% have very low food security, according to 2023 data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That means about 18 million families were food insecure at… read on > read on >

Could a virtual avatar be the future of mental health care? New research shows that artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) goggles could revolutionize therapy — helping patients overcome addiction and receive unbiased care. A recent study in the Journal of Medical Extended Reality focused on patients with alcohol-associated cirrhosis, a serious liver condition linked to long-term alcohol use. Using a VR app developed at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, patients had counseling sessions with AI-powered avatars programmed for motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy. After 30-minute sessions, 85% of participants said they found the experience to be helpful, and 90% expressed interest in doing it again. “For individuals awaiting liver transplants for cirrhosis, alcohol addiction remains a high-risk factor,” corresponding author Dr. Brennan Spiegel, a professor of medicine and director of health services research at Cedars-Sinai, said in a news release. “We see VR as a way to augment traditional interventions, which often fall short due to a shortage of mental health professionals, societal stigmatizing of alcoholism and other factors.” A second study, published earlier this month in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, explored whether AI-driven virtual therapists could provide care to a varied selection of patients. Researchers simulated more than 400 conversations between AI-powered therapists and virtual patients, assigning each patient a unique profile based on characteristics such as race,… read on > read on >

In the throes of winter’s yearly round of respiratory virus outbreaks, it pays to remember what Grandma told you. Wash your hands often, cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you sneeze or cough and stay away from folks who may be infected. And, of course, wearing a mask won’t hurt. Respiratory viruses that cause the common cold, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), COVID-19 and flu peak at this time of year. Vaccines can help head off RSV, COVID and flu, but there’s no vaccine to protect against the common cold. While Grandma’s advice on prevention is still sound, experts at Johns Hopkins Medicine dismiss some old-school misconceptions about these diseases. For example, colds are not caused by exposure to cold weather or getting wet in winter. Having COVID once does not provide lifetime immunity. The flu vaccine won’t give you flu. And the RSV virus only affects young kids. Most important, Johns Hopkins doctors advise, if you do get sick, see your doctor for a diagnosis and, if appropriate, treatment for your particular illness. Getting plenty of rest, keeping warm, increasing fluid intake and using over-the-counter medications for congestion, sinus woes and aches and pains can help. Here’s what else Johns Hopkins doctors want you to know: Common cold: It’s caused by one of more than 200 viruses and spread through coughing, sneezing… read on > read on >

Many major maladies have been linked to disturbed slumber caused by sleep apnea, high blood pressure, heart problems and diabetes. Add car wrecks to that list, a study published Jan. 21 in the journal Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, says. People with untreated sleep apnea are more likely to wind up in a vehicle crash, researchers reported. “Our findings underscore the profound impact that inadequately managed obstructive sleep apnea can have on individual health and public safety,” lead researcher Elliott Sina, a student at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said in a news release. Sleep apnea occurs when a person’s breathing repeatedly stops and starts during the night, causing them to wake again and again. It’s most commonly caused by throat muscles relaxing during sleep and blocking the flow of air into the lungs. This form of sleep apnea can be treated using a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, which maintains enough air pressure to keep upper airway passages open. Surgery to remove or shrink the tissue that’s sagging into the airways, or to reposition the jaw, can also effectively treat sleep apnea. Another surgical method involves inserting an implant to stimulate the hypoglossal nerve, which controls tongue movement. For the new study, researchers analyzed data on more than 2.8 million people with sleep apnea, including more than 700,000… read on > read on >

Patients can improve their odds for a successful surgery by actively preparing for the procedure through diet and exercise, a tactic called “prehabilitation,” a new evidence review shows. Surgical patients who prehabbed had fewer complications and shorter hospital stays, also recovered better and had a higher quality of life, researchers reported Jan. 22 in The BMJ. “If you are going to be having surgery, it is always a good idea to ask about prehabilitation,” said lead researcher Dr. Daniel McIsaac, an anesthesiologist and senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and clinical research chair in perioperative innovation at the University of Ottawa in Canada. “If you are willing and able to regularly increase your activity levels and protein intake for a few weeks before surgery, you are likely to experience a noticeably shorter recovery time after surgery,” he added in a news release. The term “prehabilitation” dates to World War II and the British Army’s efforts to improve the general health and fitness of military recruits, researchers said in background notes. The medical community later adopted the term, making prehabilitation a major area of research for the past three decades, researchers said. “We know that people who are more physically fit tend to recover faster from surgery and suffer fewer complications,” McIsaac said. “While many patients, with encouragement from their doctors, want to improve their fitness… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Noisy Settings OK For Blood Pressure Testing

Heart Health Risk Factors Continue To Increase

Adderall Shortage Sparks Scramble for ADHD Alternatives

Locking Down Blood Pressure Protects Brain Health

Highway Exhaust Linked to Depression in Women

Food Assistance Ensures Healthy Pregnancies

AI Virtual Therapists Could Improve Mental Health Care, Studies Find

How To Fight Common Wintertime Respiratory Viruses

Does Sleep Apnea Contribute to Car Crashes?

Eating Right, Exercising Before Surgery Improves Outcomes