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A set of chameleon-like immune cells could be contributing to severe asthma in some patients. Intermediate group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) appear to be able to get around cutting-edge asthma treatments by transforming into another type of immune cell. Targeted biologic drugs have revolutionized the treatment of severe asthma driven by eosinophils, which are white blood cells linked to ILC2s, researchers noted in a recent study in the journal Science Translational Medicine. However, not all patients respond to these biologic drugs — and the fact that ILC2s can transform themselves could be a reason why, researchers said. Intermediate ILC2s share traits of both ILC2s and another type of immune cell called group 3 innate lymphoid cells, or ILC3s. ILC3s are tied to another type of white blood cell called neutrophils. An inhaler is less likely to calm an asthma attack involving eosinophils and neutrophils, researchers said. “When asthma is associated with both eosinophils and neutrophils cells, individuals are generally less responsive to treatment with glucocorticosteroids — which are the mainstay of treatment for severe asthma,” researcher Dr. Parameswaran Nair said in a news release. He’s chair in airway diseases at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Severe asthma that resists standard therapies is believed to affect up to 10% of people with asthma, researchers said in background notes. “The findings from this research pave… read on > read on >

Want your kid to do well in school? Get them involved in an organized sport, a new study urges. Boys and girls are both more likely to earn a high school diploma if they take part in team sports like soccer or artistic sports like dance or gymnastics, researchers reported in a study published recently in the journal Children. “Structured sports were shown to have long-term benefits on success, reiterating the importance of encouraging play and an active lifestyle throughout childhood,” the study led by senior author Linda Pagani, a professor with the University of Montreal School of Psychoeducation, concluded. Boys in organized sports were nearly 15% more likely to have a high school diploma by age 20, researchers found. Likewise, girls who participated in sports were about 7% more likely to get their high school diploma, and also tended to get higher grades. For the study, researchers analyzed data from a long-term study following the development and well-being of Canadian children from birth to early adulthood. Nearly 2,800 children were included in the study. The research team looked at the sort of sports and physical activity that kids were involved in at age 12, and compared that to their later academic achievement. Girls who participated in organized sports had 8% higher grades overall, and those involved in artistic sports had nearly 23% higher grades,… read on > read on >

Rural areas are facing an increasing shortage of eye surgeons who can treat conditions like cataracts, glaucoma and detached retinas, a new study says. More than 17% of patients who need an ophthalmic surgeon live in rural America, but fewer than 6% of eye surgeons now work in a rural area, researchers recently reported in JAMA Ophthalmology. “Rural patients still disproportionately outnumber rural surgeons,” even though the U.S. rural population is slowly declining, the research team led by Dr. Fasika Woreta, director of the Johns Hopkins Eye Trauma Center in Baltimore, concluded. This means rural residents with eye problems often face a long drive to get the care they need. For example, “our results suggest that 18.2% of patients undergoing cornea transplants are rurally located,” researchers wrote. “Previous research indicated that only 3.5% of transplants occur in a rural area, suggesting that many rural patients do not receive care locally.” For the study, researchers analyzed claims data for Medicare to track people needing eye surgery and where they wound up receiving care. The U.S. rural population declined by about 2% between 2012 and 2022, researchers said. But the number of eye surgeons practicing in a rural area also declined during that period: Cornea surgeons, by 1.3%. Glaucoma specialists, by 3.3%. Oculoplastic surgeons, by 2.1%. “This may be concerning for older rural patients, who may face… read on > read on >

Most parents of a child with a food allergy opt to cut the offending food completely out of their homes. However, that strategy is tied to an emotional toll, researchers said. Parents who exclude food from their home because of their child’s allergy have a worse quality of life on average, due to worry and anxiety, researchers reported in a study published last month in JAMA Network Open. “In this study, most families chose to exclude food allergens from their household, and families engaging in this practice reported more food allergy-related psychosocial concerns than families who did not,” concluded the research team led by Hana Ruran, a research intern in immunology at Boston Children’s Hospital. About 10% of children around the world have a food allergy, researchers said in background notes. For this study, researchers surveyed more than 900 families of children with food allergies between April 2022 and November 2023. Nearly two-thirds of parents (64%) responded to their child’s allergy by excluding the offending food from their home, results showed. The most commonly excluded foods were peanut (62%), tree nut (55%) and sesame (51%), researchers found. On the other hand, only 24% of homes with an egg allergy excluded eggs from their home. Cow’s milk, soy and wheat allergies also were less likely to prompt their exclusion from the pantry or fridge. “Other studies… read on > read on >

TUESDAY, Jan. 21, 2025 (HealthDay New) — A landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision barring job discrimination significantly eased the minds of LGBTQ+ workers, a new study says. The court extended employment protections to nearly 3.6 million LGBTQ+ people in 12 states with its 2020 Bostock v Clayton County decision. As a result, those workers experienced improvements in their mental health, according to a study published Jan. 15 in JAMA Psychiatry. “Implementation of a federal ban on sexual orientation–based employment discrimination after the Bostock decision was associated with significant relative reductions in poor mental health days and severe mental distress among employed sexual minority adults,” a team led by Michael Liu, a student at Harvard Medical School, concluded. The Bostock decision affirmed that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation. To see the effect that had on LGBTQ+ people, researchers analyzed federal survey data that regularly assesses the mental health of Americans. The team specifically looked at the mental health of LGBTQ+ workers in the 12 states where work protections were extended — Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. They compared those workers to LGBTQ+ folks employed in nine states that had independently passed employment protection prior to the Bostock decision — Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington… read on > read on >

Medicare Advantage isn’t that great an advantage for seniors compared with traditional Medicare, researchers say. The privatized form of Medicare offers more supplemental benefits than traditional Medicare, including dental, vision and hearing benefits. But many seniors aren’t using those additional benefits, and their out-of-pocket costs are about the same as with regular Medicare, researchers report in a study published recently in JAMA Network Open. For example, just a little more than half of seniors (54%) with Medicare Advantage are aware of having either dental or vision coverage, even though nearly all plans offer those benefits, results show. “Supplemental benefits are a major draw to Medicare Advantage, but our findings show that people enrolled in Medicare Advantage have no better access to extra services than people in traditional Medicare, and that much of the cost comes out of their own pockets,” senior researcher Dr. Lisa Simon, an assistant professor of general and internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said in a news release. “Older adults and people with disabilities deserve better from Medicare,” Simon added. About 51% of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage in 2023, researchers said in background notes. The federal government pays Medicare Advantage plans about 22% more than the cost of covering similar beneficiaries under traditional Medicare, which amounted to about $83 billion in 2024. For the study, researchers… read on > read on >

Popular GLP-1 medications for weight loss and diabetes may have unexpected benefits for reducing risks for conditions such as substance abuse, psychosis, infections and even dementia. But these drugs also come with risks that shouldn’t be overlooked, researchers warn in a study published Jan. 20 in the journal Nature Medicine. The study is among the first to take a comprehensive look at how these meds — Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound — affect overall health. Researchers reviewed data from nearly 2 million people treated by the Veterans Health Administration, including more than 216,000 patients prescribed GLP-1 medications. The study found that people taking GLP-1 medications had a 24% lower risk of developing liver failure and a 22% reduced risk of cardiac arrest compared to those on other diabetes treatments. In all, researchers found that people taking GLP-1 medications had lower risks for 42 health outcomes, including liver failure, lung failure, cardiac arrest, aspiration pneumonia and shock. These medications have also been associated with a potential impact on obesity rates, which declined in the U.S. for the first time in more than a decade in 2023, CNN reported. However, the drugs weren’t without drawbacks. People taking GLP-1 medications had higher risks for 19 health outcomes, mostly involving digestive issues such as heartburn, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and gastroparesis (stomach paralysis). They were also more likely to… read on > read on >

Check out your surgeon as you’re wheeled into the operating room. Do they seem tense, on edge, or stressed out? If so, that could be good news for you, a new study says. The patients of stressed surgeons tend to suffer fewer major complications from surgery, according to findings of new study published in JAMA Surgery. Like high-level athletes, experienced surgeons appear to work best under pressure, researchers concluded. The findings show that “stress among experienced surgeons is associated with patient outcomes and may warrant attention from future efforts geared toward improving surgical care,” a research team led by Dr. Jake Awtry, a research fellow with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, concluded. For the study, researchers monitored nearly 800 surgeries conducted by 38 attending surgeons. The surgeons’ average age was 46, and about 3 out of 5 were either professors or associate professors, the study says. The surgeons wore devices to track their heart rates while they operated. The surgeries took place between November 2020 and December 2021 at four university hospitals in Lyon, France. They involved 14 surgical departments and seven specialties — digestive, orthopedic, gynecologic, urologic, cardiac, thoracic and endocrine surgery. Patients had a 37% lower risk of major complications if their surgeon’s heart rate revealed increased signs of stress at the start of an operation, researchers found. But stress did not… read on > read on >

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses have increased among adults in recent years, while remaining stable among teenagers. ADHD diagnoses among adults increased by 15% between 2020 and 2023, after declining by nearly 11% from 2016 to 2020, researchers reported in a new study published in the journal Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice. At the same time, teen ADHD rates remained stable between 2018 and 2023, following a significant 26% decline between 2016 and 2018. These trends “are likely due to a complex interplay of various factors,” the research team led by Dr. Erick Messias, chair of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at St. Louis University School of Medicine, said. ADHD is more widely known and is less stigmatizing as a diagnosis, researchers said. There’s also increased access to health care services that could lead to diagnosis. “As knowledge about ADHD symptoms improves among healthcare providers, parents, and teachers, more cases may be identified and diagnosed,” researchers wrote. In addition, an expansion of diagnostic guidelines for ADHD might have contributed to the increase. For the study, researchers reviewed medical records for more than 144,000 patients with the Sisters of Saint Mary health care system, which has locations in Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. The study represents one of the largest efforts to investigate new ADHD diagnoses among teens and adults before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers… read on > read on >

Black people with obesity are less likely to get weight-loss surgery than others. Black people are just as likely to discuss the procedure with their doctor — nearly 10%, compared with 9% of patients of other races, researchers said. But only about 8% of those Black patients go on and actually get the surgery, compared with nearly 13% of other patients, researchers report in a study published Jan. 15 in the Annals of Surgery Open. These results show that doctors need to do more to promote weight-loss surgery as an option for all patients, regardless of race, researchers said. “As a clinician, I often see patients who could potentially benefit from metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) but who aren’t aware of this treatment option,” senior researcher Dr. Alexander Turchin, director of quality in diabetes at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension, said in a news release. “Patients who discuss MBS are much more likely to undertake it and lose weight,” Turchin continued. “Our findings indicate that we need to improve these conversations and identify barriers to undergoing surgery once it has been discussed.” Obesity affects more than 40% of U.S. adults, including nearly 50% of Black Americans, researchers said in background notes. For the study, researchers used artificial intelligence to analyze records of more than 122,000 patients with obesity treated… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

“Chameleon” Immune Cells Linked To Severe Asthma

Sports Boost Academic Performance in Teens

Rural America Faces Growing Shortage of Eye Surgeons

Most Families Exclude Foods Linked to Allergies

Job Protections Improve Mental Health Among LGBTQ+ Workers

Seniors Miss Out on Services With Medicare Advantage

Popular GLP-1 Drugs Are Shaping Health Beyond Weight Loss & Diabetes

Stressed-Out Surgeon? That’s Good News for Patients!

ADHD Diagnoses On The Rise Among Adults

Black Patients Less Likely To Get Weight Loss Surgery