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MONDAY, Oct. 30, 2023 (HealthDay News) – Matthew Perry, one of the stars of the beloved television sitcom “Friends,” died on Saturday. Perry, 54, was best known for his portrayal of Chandler Bing in the long-running show, but he also starred in many other roles. Capt. Scot Williams, of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide division, confirmed Perry’s death, the New York Times reported. Investigators saw no sign of foul play, but the cause of death has not been determined. The actor had spoken openly about his history of addiction in interviews and in the memoir he released in 2022, called “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.” In 1997, he went to rehab for an addiction to pain medication, according to news reports at the time. He was hospitalized for pancreatitis in 2000, an inflammation that can be caused by alcohol and drug abuse, the Times reported. Then in 2018, he developed pneumonia, suffered an exploded colon, spent time on life support, was in a coma for two weeks, had a colostomy bag for nine months and went through several stomach surgeries, all of which were tied to his addiction, the Times reported. He was newly sober two years ago. Perry had said he had spent more than half his life in treatment centers or sober living facilities. “I was a guy who wanted… read on > read on >

Kids with a genetic risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are likely to spend hours a day glued to their screens, but researchers say it doesn’t mean screen time causes ASD. The investigators also found that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) gradually increased their screen time as they got older, even if they started out with low levels of initial screen use. “While long periods of screen time in childhood have been suggested to be a cause of ASD/ADHD, the results of this study suggest that some people may have a genetic disposition to use screens because of ASD,” said lead researcher Dr. Nagahide Takahashi. He is an associate professor of medicine at Nagoya University in Japan. “Screen time may be an early sign of ASD, rather than a cause, as children with ASD are often more attracted to objects than people,” he added in a university news release. “Physicians should know that it is not fair to conclude that prolonged screen time is a risk factor for the development of ASD,” Takahashi explained. Most people are spending more time on digital devices, including smartphones, computers, television and video game systems. The researchers said that’s especially true for kids with neurodevelopmental disorders. Joining with colleagues from Hamamatsu University, Takahashi’s team examined 6.5 million differences in the DNA of 437 children to determine genetic susceptibility to… read on > read on >

Millions of people spend hours looking at screens every day, straining their eyes. An ophthalmologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston offers some tips for easing both eye strain and headaches. “We focus on one object, especially an object that’s up close, like a computer screen or phone, for prolonged periods of time, and we don’t give our eye muscles time to rest,” said Dr. Masih Ahmed, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Baylor. “If you don’t give your muscles enough time to rest, that can cause some tension of those muscles,” Ahmed explained. Dry eye can also cause eye strain, as you subconsciously blink less when reading, watching TV or working on the computer. Follow the 20-20-20 rule when working in front of a screen, Ahmed suggested. Take a 20-second break every 20 minutes to focus on something 20 feet away to give your eyes a rest. And use artificial tears if you have dry eyes. Prolonged eyestrain can give you a headache. If you wear corrective lenses, make sure you have the proper prescription, he advised. If you have an astigmatism, you won’t see as sharply. This might require more focus and energy, leading to eye strain. “You might squint more trying to get that pinhole effect for things to look clearer. Astigmatism can also make things look distorted in shape if… read on > read on >

You might be talking to a real person while on Zoom, but it’s just not the same to your brain as a face-to-face conversation. New research using sophisticated imaging tools found that the brain activity of people engaged in conversation looks different from that of two people conversing on Zoom. “In this study we find that the social systems of the human brain are more active during real live in-person encounters than on Zoom,” said senior author Joy Hirsch. She is a professor of psychiatry, comparative medicine and neuroscience at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. “Zoom appears to be an impoverished social communication system relative to in-person conditions,” she explained in a Yale news release. Zoom, of course, is a popular videoconferencing platform. Most previous research using imaging tools to track brain activity involved single individuals, rather than pairs in natural settings. The researchers noted that human brains are finely tuned to process facial cues during in-person encounters. In this study, which recorded neural system responses in the two types of conversations, increased neural signaling among participants in face-to-face conversations was associated with increased gaze time and wider pupils. This suggested increased arousal in the two brains. Participants in in-person interactions also had increased brain wave activity characteristic of enhanced face-processing ability, the study authors said. The investigators also found more coordinated neural activity… read on > read on >

Federal regulators have sent warning letters to two companies for illegally selling probiotic products for use in preterm infants. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also sent a letter to health care providers warning of the risks. Probiotic products contain live organisms such as bacteria or yeast. They are commonly found in dietary supplements. These products may be dangerous for preterm infants and are being illegally sold to treat or prevent diseases in preemies in hospitals, such as necrotizing enterocolitis. Those young babies who are given a probiotic product are at risk of invasive, potentially fatal disease, or infection, caused by the bacteria or yeast in the probiotics, the FDA said. Certain products have contributed to invasive disease in hospitalized babies, including one death this year. They have been linked to more than two dozen other reported adverse events nationwide since 2018, according to the FDA. “Adverse events in any infant following the use of a probiotic are a concern to the FDA. We especially want to make clear that products containing live microorganisms may present serious risks to preterm infants in hospital settings,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in an agency news release. “With today’s message, we want to warn parents, caregivers and health care providers that if these products are used for the prevention… read on > read on >

Fighting climate change could come down to choosing chicken for your burrito or using soy milk for coffee creamer, a new study suggests. Making simple substitutions to an everyday diet can reduce the average American’s food-based carbon footprint by more than 35%, according to an article published online Oct. 26 in the journal Nature Food. “What we’re looking at here is a small changes approach. What happens if somebody just changes one thing in their diet?” said senior researcher Diego Rose, nutrition program director at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. “What we found was that if you just made one change — if everybody that was eating a high-carbon footprint food in those categories just made one change on a given day — that you could really lower the overall carbon footprint,” Rose continued. What’s more, these substitutions also tended to improve the quality of a person’s diet, the researchers noted. A person might scoff at the thought of their bacon cheeseburger contributing to global climate catastrophe, but they would be wrong, Rose said. “What a lot of people don’t realize is that human food systems globally account for a third of greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. To assess how small substitutions might help the climate, Rose’s team analyzed diet data from more than 7,700 adults and children… read on > read on >

Millions of older Americans may be unaware they have memory and thinking impairments — mostly because their doctors aren’t diagnosing them, new research suggests. After analyzing Medicare data covering 40 million older Americans, researchers found that only a small percentage of expected cases of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) were actually diagnosed. The upshot was that more than 7 million cases went undetected. Mild cognitive impairment refers to problems with memory, judgment, language and other mental skills that are not disabling, but go beyond the occasional slips that are expected with age. MCI may turn up as forgotten appointments, regularly misplacing things, trouble following the plot of a book or movie, or difficulty navigating well-known places. Some older adults with MCI eventually develop Alzheimer’s — around 10% per year, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. But more often, MCI has other, often reversible causes, said Dr. Saket Saxena, a geriatrician at the Cleveland Clinic who was not involved in the new research. Those causes run the gamut, Saxena said — including medication side effects, low thyroid hormone, depression, untreated sleep apnea, uncontrolled health conditions like diabetes, mobility limitations and social isolation. “It is not a foregone conclusion that you’re going to develop dementia,” said senior study author Soeren Mattke, director of the Brain Health Observatory at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. And the fact that MCI has… read on > read on >

High triglycerides, widely known as an enemy of the aging heart, may not be as threatening to older adults’ brains, new research suggests. The study, of over 80,000 older adults, found those with triglycerides in the “high-normal” or moderately high range were less likely to develop dementia, versus their peers with lower triglyceride levels. Over six years, 3% of older folks with the highest triglyceride levels developed dementia — half the rate seen in the study group with the lowest triglycerides, at 6%. Experts stressed some important caveats around the findings, published Oct. 25 in the journal Neurology. The main one is the study doesn’t prove that triglycerides somehow shield the aging brain. “This particular study is not enough to derive recommendations and claim with certainty that changing triglyceride levels will affect future dementia risk,” said Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas, a neurologist at Columbia University in New York City. The findings are still important, though, said Scarmeas, who cowrote an editorial published with the study. He noted that blood “lipids” — cholesterol and triglycerides — can be easily modified with diet or medication. So, if further studies show they directly affect dementia development, that would offer one way to lower the risk. Zhen Zhou, a research fellow at Monash University in Australia, led the study. She said there could be various explanations for why low triglycerides… read on > read on >

A variety of risks can make it more likely that someone develops Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias. Now you can add neighborhood environment to that list. A new study finds low income levels and a lack of green spaces are among the factors that can harm brain health. “Social determinants of health have a major impact on cognition, as well as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health,” said lead author Lilah Besser. She’s a research assistant professor of neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Comprehensive Center for Brain Health. “Understanding these interactions is crucial in developing interventions to improve brain health in individuals living in disadvantaged neighborhoods,” Besser explained in a university news release. Past research has shown that a type of brain damage known as white matter hyperintensities has been linked to higher risks of Alzheimer’s disease and dementias, as well as stroke. Other studies have found an increased risk of dementia in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods. This study built on that, using MRIs of 1,260 people. The participants were cognitively normal and age 65 or older. Scans were taken approximately five years apart. The researchers measured changes in white matter hyperintensities and brain ventricle size. They also assessed associations between neighborhood green space, neighborhood income and the MRI scans. “We found that white matter worsening was more likely for individuals in lower… read on > read on >

Even a little exercise can counter the harms of sitting all day, a new study suggests. Prolonged sitting raises your odds for an early death, but just 20 to 25 minutes of physical activity a day may offset that risk, researchers found. “If people, for any reason, are sedentary for most of the day, small amounts of physical activity will still lower the risk of death substantially,” said lead researcher Edvard Sagelv, from UiT The Arctic University of Norway, in Tromso. That can even include light intensity exercise like cleaning. For the study, Sagelv and his team reviewed data on nearly 12,000 older adults. They found that being sedentary for over 12 hours a day — perhaps either watching TV or sitting at a desk — raised the risk of early death, but only in those getting less than 22 minutes of moderate exercise a day. “Individuals doing more than 22 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day, the equivalent of the World Health Organization’s 150 minutes per week guidelines, had no increased risk of death with more sedentary time,” Sagelv said. This study, however, can’t prove that exercise alone lowered the risk of premature death, only that there appears to be an association. Still, the study “is a reaffirmation of our fundamental need to move our bodies if they are to reward us with… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

‘Friends’ Star Matthew Perry Dead at 54

Lots of Screen Time Could Be Early Sign of ADHD, Autism

Staring at Screens Can Cause Eye Strain. Here’s Tips to Prevent That

This is Your Brain on Zoom

FDA Issues Warning on Dangers of Probiotic Products for Preemie Babies

Even Small Dietary Changes Bring Big Benefit to the Planet

7 Million Americans Have Mild Cognitive Impairment and Don’t Know It

High Blood Triglycerides Could Help Ward Off Dementia

Neighborhood Parks Could Help Your Aging Brain

Even a Little Physical Activity Can Offset a Day Spent Sitting