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A job that’s demanding but less than rewarding may take a big toll on a man’s heart health, a large new study suggests. The study, of nearly 6,500 white-collar workers, found that men who habitually felt stressed on the job had up to double the risk of developing heart disease as their peers who were more content at work. In some cases, that stress took the form of “job strain,” which meant that workers felt pressure to perform but had little power over how to get their work done. In other cases, the central problem was “effort-reward imbalance.” That’s when employees feel their diligence is not winning adequate returns — whether through pay, promotion, recognition or a sense of fulfillment. Men who reported either kind of job stress were about 50% more likely to develop coronary heart disease over the next 18 years, versus men who were happier on the job. Then there were the men who cited both types of job stress: Their risk of heart disease was double that of their male counterparts who reported neither work issue. There was no similar effect, however, seen among women. Researchers said the findings do not prove that job stress exacts a toll on men’s hearts, or that it doesn’t harm women. But there are plenty of reasons that stress at work — where adults spend… read on > read on >

Patients with Parkinson’s disease already face poorer mental and physical health, but now a new study shows they also suffer from decreased levels of hope and self-esteem due to the stigma associated with their disease. “There are patients who don’t even disclose the disease to family members because they’re afraid that the children may change their opinion of them or start making plans to put them in a nursing home or take over their finances or freedom to some degree,” said Dr. Alessandro Di Rocco, a professor of neurology at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in Hempstead, N.Y. The study found that when most people think of Parkinson’s, they imagine older white men who are drooling, shaking and hunched over. This singular image can be damaging to people with Parkinson’s who differ in race, gender or age, and can lead to misdiagnosis or a delay in diagnosis. Furthermore, those who have several visible, physical symptoms of the disease can face greater stigma and even discrimination. And those fears are illustrated in the research, which found that more than half of people with Parkinson’s conceal their diagnosis for fear of stigma. For example, actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson’s and spearheads The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, kept his illness hidden for years before coming out to the public. Having symptoms… read on > read on >

When it comes to staying trim, timing may be everything. That’s according to new research that found adults who routinely engaged in moderate-to-vigorous exercise early in the morning were less likely to be overweight or obese than those who worked out later in the day. “For individuals who exercise regularly, their body mass index [BMI] is 2 units lower and waist circumference is 1.5 inches shorter if they exercise in the early morning than in other times of day,” said study author Tongyu Ma, an assistant professor of exercise physiology at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, N.H. BMI and waist circumference are considered two key measures of obesity risk. The upshot, said Ma, is that a “morning workout is a promising tool for weight management.” To explore the question, investigators tracked obesity status among nearly 5,300 adult men and women. All were enrolled in the ongoing U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, either between 2003 to 2004 or between 2005 to 2006. Each of the participants wore a hip accelerometer whenever they were awake for somewhere between four to seven consecutive days, including at least one day over the weekend. Based on activity routines, they were then categorized into one of three exercise groups: morning (642 participants), midday (2,456) or evening (2,187). In turn, waist circumferences were measured and BMI scores were calculated. BMI… read on > read on >

Millions of Americans suffer from arthritis, and many reach for medication to ease their joint pain and inflammation. The options might seem overwhelming, though. Here, the Arthritis Foundation offers some suggestions for meds that can be purchased at a local drug store or filled with a doctor’s prescription, whether your pain is caused by normal wear and tear (osteoarthritis) or inflammatory disease. Over-the-counter meds Some of the best over-the-counter (OTC) medications for controlling arthritis pain are acetaminophen, ibuprofen, naproxen and acetylsalicyclic acid (aspirin), better known by brand names like Tylenol, Advil, Motrin, Aleve or Anacin. Ibuprofen, naproxen and aspirin are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). While those are pills, it’s also possible to get an NSAID in topical form, like diclofenac gel (Voltaren). Other OTC creams for arthritis contain salicylate, capsaicin, camphor or menthol as the active ingredient. While acetaminophen (Tylenol) is often used to treat osteoarthritis, NSAIDs are typically used for both inflammatory arthritis and osteoarthritis, according to the foundation. Acetaminophen offers only limited help with inflammatory arthritis because it doesn’t control the disease or prevent joint damage, the foundation says. Diclofenac gel and topical capsaicin might also be used in combination with oral medications to relieve pain. Only limited evidence supports using topical salicylate, camphor or menthol to treat osteoarthritis pain. A doctor or pharmacist can offer more information on these medications. How long… read on > read on >

Playing sports can offer a lot of benefits for kids, but it’s also important to help protect them from injuries. Parents and coaches can make a big difference in helping kids play safely, according to Nemours Kids Health. The medical organization suggests starting with proper equipment. Use it, but also make sure the safety gear is the right size, fits well and is right for the sport. That includes helmets for baseball, softball, bike riding and hockey, as well as for inline skating or riding scooters and skateboards. Ask your child’s coach about the appropriate helmets, shoes, mouth guards, athletic cups and supporters, and padding, Nemours advised. Also ask about protective eyewear for racquet sports, field hockey, lacrosse, basketball, softball and baseball. This might include shatterproof glasses. Make sure protective equipment is approved by the organizations that oversee the sports. That means bike helmets with safety certification from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and hockey masks approved by the Hockey Equipment Certification Council (HECC) or the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), for example. Take good care of this equipment so it holds up and continues working. Kids also need safe playing surfaces, including playing fields that are not full of holes and ruts that are a tripping hazard. High-impact sports, like basketball and running, should be done on surfaces like tracks and wooden basketball courts,… read on > read on >

When an earthquake struck the center of Morocco earlier this month, killing nearly 3,000 and injuring thousands more, no one was expecting it. That sudden rapid shaking of ground as the rocks underneath the earth shift can happen anywhere, but higher-risk areas in the United States include Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Washington and the entire Mississippi River Valley. In their aftermath, earthquakes can cause fires, tsunamis, landslides and avalanches.That’s why the best time to prepare for such a disaster is before it happens, according to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA offers some tips for preparing for an earthquake. Start preparing by creating an emergency plan that includes an out-of-state contact, FEMA suggests. Know where your family will meet if you get separated. Have a supply kit that includes enough food and water for several days, a flashlight, a fire extinguisher and a whistle, FEMA advises. Supplies can be expensive, so it’s fine to slowly build them up. Make your home a safer place in the event of an earthquake by securing heavy items, such as bookcases, refrigerators, water heaters, televisions and items that hang on walls. Store heavy and breakable items on low shelves. Fix any structural problems at home that could collapse if there was an earthquake, FEMA recommends. Get earthquake insurance, if you can. Standard homeowner’s insurance does… read on > read on >

Emergency medicine doctors someday might rely on consultation from artificial intelligence (AI) programs like ChatGPT to help them quickly and accurately diagnose patients’ ailments. A new study found that ChatGPT performed about as well as human doctors in diagnosing patients, when both are given the same set of clinical information. “In the end, they were pretty comparable,” said senior researcher Steef Kurstjens, a clinical chemist with Jeroen Bosch Hospital in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. “And as they’re pretty comparable, [AI] might be helpful to speed up the process or enhance the amount of diagnoses at the emergency department.” For the study, two-doctor teams and the artificial intelligence program each reviewed physician’s notes and lab tests for 30 patients treated in March 2022 at the emergency department of Jeroen Bosch Hospital. The researchers used a free version of ChatGPT and a subscriber version. The AI tools and the medical teams then compiled lists of the top five potential diagnoses for each patient, based on the information at hand. Because these were past cases, the researchers already knew what the exact diagnosis had been. Doctors had the correct diagnosis within their top-five list 87% of the time. By comparison, the free version of ChatGPT had the correct diagnosis listed 97% of the time, and the subscriber version of the AI program 87% of the time. “It’s a nice… read on > read on >

Before pouring another drink, consider this sobering new research: Heavy drinkers can develop fat around the heart, leading to heart failure and other cardiac problems. This so-called pericardial fat is associated with increased risk of heart disease. Researchers also linked heavy drinking to excess fat deposits around the liver and kidneys, which can result in diseases of these organs, too. “The accumulation of fats in these areas, especially at the heart, has been linked to higher risk of heart disease like heart failure, atrial fibrillation as well as coronary heart disease, which is the major killer of U.S. adults,” said lead researcher Dr. Richard Kazibwe, an assistant professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. Alcohol affects how the body handles fat, he said. “Drinking is a known risk for obesity. We know from the past that alcohol can influence metabolism. It can influence levels of hormones in the body that can lead to the distribution of fat in general, but also in various areas of the body,” Kazibwe said. That’s how fat ends up surrounding the heart, but if you stop imbibing will that fat disappear? Kazibwe said fat around the liver can be reduced if you stop drinking, but it isn’t known if the same is true for fat around the heart. The bottom line, in his… read on > read on >

Perhaps succumbing to fraudsters or facing mounting bills, older Americans begin losing wealth in the years preceding a definitive dementia diagnosis, new research shows. For example, the median household net worth of the seniors in the study dropped by more than half in the eight years before they were diagnosed with dementia, but dipped much less for folks who retained their mental capacity, according to a team reporting Sept. 18 in the journal JAMA Neurology. “Household wealth, especially financial wealth, declined much faster among people with probable [undiagnosed] dementia than [healthy] controls during the decade before dementia onset,” concluded researchers led by Jing Li. She works at the Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics Institute at the University of Washington in Seattle. It’s well documented that aging people who are losing mental acuity can find finances tough to manage, and are also prime targets for scammers. Li and colleagues wondered if mental deterioration might be reflected in the financial deterioration of a person’s assets, as well. To find out, they tracked 20 years of data (1998-2018) from the ongoing Health and Retirement Study, which follows outcomes every two years for Americans 50 years of age and older and their spouses. Looking over medical records, researchers compared the financial health of two groups of participants: One group of about 5,400 people whose mental capacity (and that… read on > read on >

Over 3 million American children now take medication for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but new research shows medication errors have spiked nearly 300% in the past two decades for these kids. The increase in ADHD medication errors parallels the increase in ADHD diagnoses, said study co-author Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “Because therapeutic errors are preventable, more attention should be given to patient and caregiver education, and development of improved child-resistant medication dispensing and tracking systems,” Smith suggested. “Another strategy may be a transition from pill bottles to unit-dose packaging, like blister packs, which may aid in remembering whether a medication has already been taken or given.” About 10% of American children had an ADHD diagnosis in 2019, Smith said, making it one of the most common childhood neurodevelopmental disorders. The study, which researched errors reported through poison control centers from 2000 to 2021, found that about 54% of these mistakes happened when someone was accidentally given or took their medication twice. In about 13% of cases, someone inadvertently took or was given someone else’s medication, Smith said, and in about 13% of cases, the wrong medication was taken or given. A very large number of these mishaps, about 93%, happened at home. In two-thirds of cases, they involved kids aged 6… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Job Frustrations Can Really Be a Heartbreaker for Men

Parkinson’s Patients Often Battle a Hidden Foe: Stigma

Early Morning Exercise May Be Best for Weight Control

Using Meds to Manage Your Arthritis Pain: An Overview

Another School Sports Season: How to Lower Your Child’s Odds for Injury

Earthquakes Are Unpredictable: Plan Ahead to Lower the Danger

ChatGPT Equals Doctors in Diagnosing Emergency Department Patients

Heavy Drinking Tied to Dangerous Buildup of Fat Around Heart, Liver

Older Americans’ Finances Decline in Years Before Dementia Diagnosis

ADHD Drug Errors Among Kids Have Quadrupled in 20 Years