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Adult acne can significantly change how women are perceived in social settings, a new study finds. And where the acne is located on the face changes the onlooker’s perception. Researchers tracked eye movements of 245 study participants looking at pictures of women with clear skin or acne on different parts of their faces. Faces with acne were perceived as significantly less attractive, less trustworthy, less successful, less confident, less happy and less dominant. Acne that was primarily located in the U-zone, which is around the jawline, mouth and chin, received the lowest scores for attractiveness and was considered the most visually disturbing. “This study concerns simple questions: Who is more burdened by the disease? Which lesions need to go first? Whom should I treat more aggressively?” said lead author Dr. Marek Jankowski, an assistant professor of dermatology at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. “What they’re really trying to get at is where on the face acne is going to have the most impact on how someone perceives the acne, either self-perception or another person looking at the face,” added Dr. Christopher Bunick, an associate professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine. “The implication they’re trying to make is that, if someone has more kind of mid-facial acne then maybe that’s a little bit closer to the healthy skin and a little less… read on > read on >

A new guideline from four leading medical organizations should help doctors determine if someone is brain dead. “Until now, there have been two separate guidelines for determining brain death, one for adults and one for children,” said author Dr. Matthew Kirschen, a critical care physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “This update integrates guidance for adults and children into a single guideline, providing clinicians with a comprehensive and practical way to evaluate someone who has sustained a catastrophic brain injury to determine if they meet the criteria for brain death,” Kirschen said in a news release from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). The guidance was jointly crafted by the AAN, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Child Neurology Society (CNS) and the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM). With brain death, there is a complete and permanent stopping of brain function after a catastrophic brain injury. “Brain death means that clinicians cannot observe or elicit any clinical signs of brain function,” said author Dr. David Greer, of Boston University School of Medicine. “Brain death is different from comatose and vegetative states. People do not recover from brain death. Brain death is legal death.” The guidelines offer professionals a standardized procedure for evaluating people for any clinical functioning of their brain and brainstem. Current policies vary among U.S. hospitals and around the world,… read on > read on >

Most folks know that certain antidepressants have to be taken for a few weeks before people start seeing improvement, and now a new study sheds light on that delay. Scientists have discovered this is because of physical changes in the brain that unfold over those first few weeks of using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and lead to greater brain plasticity. SSRIs include a range of common antidepressants such as Paxil, Prozac, Celexa, Lexapro and Zoloft. “The delay in therapeutic action of antidepressants has been a puzzle to psychiatrists ever since they were first discerned over 50 years ago. So, these new data in humans that use cutting-edge brain imaging to demonstrate an increase in brain connections developing over the period that the depression lifts are very exciting,” said David Nutt from Imperial College London, who was not involved in the research. “Also, they provide more evidence [that] enhancing serotonin function in the brain can have enduring health benefits.” The researchers studied this in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in a group of healthy volunteers. The researchers gave 17 volunteers a 20-milligram (mg) daily dose of the SSRI escitalopram (Lexapro). Another 15 volunteers received a placebo. About three to five weeks in, the volunteers’ brains were scanned using a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner. The scans made it possible to see the amount of synaptic… read on > read on >

Raging wildfires, droughts, floods and record-breaking heat brought on by climate change are taking a toll on kids’ already fragile mental health. This is the main message from a new report by the American Psychological Association and the climate advocacy organization ecoAmerica. These effects may start before kids are born and worsen with age, and are on top of other known stressors such as COVID-19, war and gun violence. What’s more, certain groups of children are even more hard-hit by the mental health effects of climate change due to poverty, racism, disability and other factors. Climate change affects mental health directly and indirectly, said report co-author Christie Manning, of Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minn. She’s an associate professor of environmental studies. Wildfires release fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, into the air, driving pollution, and exposure to air pollutants and high temperatures during pregnancy may increase the chances of having kids with learning issues and some mental health conditions, Manning said. “Living through and surviving a flood or wildfire impacts children and can cause long-lasting anxiety, and when parents are dealing with stress and trauma, it has repercussions for children,” she noted. Many families have been forced to leave their homes and pets due to fires or floods. Kids may have been injured during the evacuation, lost a loved one or witnessed the destruction of… read on > read on >

Renting a home, rather than owning it outright, may speed up the body’s aging process, a new study suggests. Researchers found that when compared with people who owned their home outright (no mortgage), those who rented showed signs of faster “biological aging” — which meant their body cells and tissues were a bit “older.” On average, the impact was equivalent to just a small fraction of a year of aging. Even so, the study found, that was greater than the effects of being unemployed or being a former smoker. In addition, the link was specifically seen among people who rented privately — not those in public housing. While that might seem puzzling, the researchers said it makes sense: At least in the United Kingdom, where the study was conducted, “social” housing is often better maintained, more affordable and more stable than private rentals. “We believe that the typically poorer physical conditions in privately rented housing is likely one factor,” said lead researcher Amy Clair, of the University of Adelaide, in Australia, and the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. Beyond that, she said, private renters face more insecurities around their housing. And based on past research, Clair added, that kind of stress could speed biological aging. Biological aging is determined by certain physiological markers of the rate at which the body’s cells and tissues… read on > read on >

A medication already approved for excessive daytime sleepiness may help ease attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in adults who aren’t getting relief from available treatments, according to a small pilot study. Solriamfetol is a nonstimulant drug that is approved for sleepiness caused by narcolepsy (sudden sleep attacks) and obstructive sleep apnea (marked by breathing lapses during sleep). “The pilot study is very promising, but more research is needed before this medication can be recommended or approved for adults with ADHD,” said study author Dr. Craig Surman. He is the director of the clinical and research program for adult ADHD at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, in Boston. For the study, 60 adults with ADHD took 75 or 150 milligrams of solriamfetol or a placebo for six weeks. They were interviewed about ADHD symptoms throughout the study and filled out self-reports. By the end of the study, more folks taking solriamfetol showed improvements in ADHD symptoms than those who took the placebo. The drug’s makers, Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Axsome Therapeutics, funded the study. In the United States, as many as 10 million adults have ADHD. They may have difficulty paying attention, impulsiveness and trouble with executive functions such as analyzing, organizing and planning — problems that can hinder success at school, work or in personal relationships, according to Children… read on > read on >

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 11, 2023 (HealthDay News) – California has become the first state to ban four chemicals commonly added to food that are linked to health issues. Although the law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, only bans the additives in his state, it’s possible the chemicals could be removed from products across the country, NBC News reported. The chemicals are red dye No. 3, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oil and propylparaben. All four are currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but they are illegal in the European Union and some other parts of the world, NBC News reported. “The additives addressed in this bill are already banned in various other countries,” Newsom said in a statement. “Signing this into law is a positive step forward on these four food additives until the United States Food and Drug Administration [FDA] reviews and establishes national updated safety levels for these additives.” Assembly member Jesse Gabriel introduced the bill with Assembly member Buffy Wicks. Gabriel said that the law won’t eliminate the foods these additives typically go in — ranging from orange soda to hamburger rolls and candies — but the manufacturers will need to make “really minor” changes to ingredients. “We have incredible confidence that consumers are still going to be able to enjoy all the products that we know and love here in… read on > read on >

Americans are losing sleep over worries about money, a new survey reveals. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) polled about 2,000 U.S. adults, finding that 69% reported lost sleep due to concerns about job security and 75% were kept up with thoughts about whether the United States would enter a recession. “Persistent, anxious thoughts can make it difficult to fall asleep and impact sleep quality, so it’s understandable that a substantial number of Americans are losing sleep during this period of economic instability, inflation and job market insecurity,” said Dr. Susheel Patil, sleep medicine physician and spokesperson for the AASM. Still, suffering prolonged sleep disturbances can have some negative side effects in work and life, including decreased productivity, impaired decision-making and an increased risk of mental and physical health issues, according to the AASM. This anxiety can worsen at night, just when someone should be winding down. The AASM suggests measures to improve slumber, including keeping a regular sleep schedule by going to bed and waking at the same times each day, including weekends and holidays. Some other tips include: Try to get at least seven hours of sleep a night. Make your bedroom a peaceful sanctuary, with limited noise and distractions. It should be quiet, dark and cool. Only use your bed for sleeping, not watching TV or reading. Your nightly routine should… read on > read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers about risks of using compounded versions of the drug ketamine, often taken for psychiatric disorders. Compounded products are not evaluated by the FDA for safety and effectiveness. They’re also not regulated like approved drugs, so they present a greater risk. “Although compounded drugs can serve an important medical need for certain patients when an FDA-approved drug is not medically appropriate, they also present a risk to patients and should only be used under the care of a health care provider,” the FDA said in a news release. It offered an example of a concerning case reported about a patient in April. That person had taken compounded oral ketamine outside of a health care setting for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The result was slowed breathing and a ketamine blood level that appeared to be twice what a person would typically receive as anesthesia, the FDA said. Patients are increasingly interested in taking compounded ketamine products, including oral formulations, for mental health disorders including depression, anxiety, PTSD and obsessive-compulsive disorder, according to the FDA. Known safety concerns associated with the drug are abuse and misuse, psychiatric events, increases in blood pressure, slowed breathing and lower urinary tract and bladder symptoms. In the FDA-approved version of ketamine, the expected benefit outweighs these risks when used at… read on > read on >

Cigarette makers are using synthetic menthol substitutes in what appears to be an effort to skirt a looming federal menthol ban, researchers say. The menthol flavor appeals to younger and newer smokers, according to investigators at Duke Health in Durham, N.C., and Yale University in New Haven, Conn. These new “non-menthol” cigarettes are being introduced in states that have already banned actual menthol in advance of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration ban later this year. In studying these “non-menthol” products, researchers identified new compounds that achieve cooling sensations similar to menthol. “We found that tobacco companies are adding a synthetic cooling agent called WS-3 to these new ‘non-menthol’ cigarettes,” said senior author Sven-Eric Jordt, an associate professor at Duke University School of Medicine. “The added amounts are sufficient to produce robust cooling sensations, with some brands having more cooling activity than their menthol equivalent cigarettes,” he said in a university news release California and Massachusetts have already banned menthol cigarettes. After California’s December 2022 ban, RJ Reynolds and ITG introduced non-menthol cigarettes with packaging and marketing strategies similar to those of menthol products. Lead author Sairam Jabba, a senior research scientist at Duke, measured whether cigarettes purchased in the two states with bans contained chemicals that activate the cold/menthol receptor. “We found that four of the non-menthol cigarette products, all manufactured by RJ Reynolds,… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Women With Acne Bear Another Burden: Stigma

Medical Groups Issue Consensus Definition of Brain Death

Some Antidepressants Take Weeks to Kick In, and Scientists May Now Know Why

Climate Change Will Harm Children’s Mental Health: Report

Renters May Age Faster Than Homeowners, Study Finds

Narcolepsy Drug Might Be New Treatment Option for ADHD

California Becomes First State to Ban Four Additives in Food

Job Worries Are Keeping Americans Awake at Night: Survey

FDA Warns of Dangers of Compounded Ketamine for Psychiatric Use

As Menthol Ban Nears, Big Tobacco Is Adding Synthetic Version to Cigarettes Instead