Eczema and psoriasis are skin conditions that can each affect a person’s quality of life. The best way to know which one you have if you have an itchy rash or burning feeling on your skin is to see an expert. “Both eczema and psoriasis can impact your sleep, mood and quality of life, so it’s important to seek help if you are struggling with these conditions,” said Dr. Catherine Emerson, a dermatologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Understanding the differences between psoriasis and eczema can ensure that you’re getting the right treatment and making choices that can help you avoid flare-ups. Both conditions can appear as dry, flaky skin with itching or burning. Both can emerge at any age, through eczema usually begins in childhood. It often develops along with allergic rhinitis and asthma. Together these conditions are sometimes called the “atopic triad.” Eczema tends to be itchier than psoriasis. It can appear inside the elbows and behind the knees. “Itch is a defining feature of eczema,” Emerson said in a center news release. “In fact, it is often called ‘the itch that rashes.’ It can present as dry patches, bumps or even fluid-filled blisters.” While psoriasis can also cause itchiness, sometimes it doesn’t. It is marked by red, thick and scaly plaques with defined edges. “Psoriasis classically involves the scalp, elbows…  read on >  read on >

New Swedish research suggests that up to 5% of 70-year-olds have glaucoma, and half of those diagnosed didn’t even know they had the disease. “Of those who were diagnosed with glaucoma via the study, 15 people — or 2.7% of all participants — were unaware that they had the disease before being examined,” said study author Lena Havstam Johansson, a PhD student at the University of Gothenburg and a specialist nurse at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, both in Gothenburg, Sweden. “So half of those who turned out to have glaucoma were diagnosed because they took part in the study.” Those who received this diagnosis were able to start treatment with daily eye drops that lower the pressure in the eye and slow optic nerve damage. Researchers noted that those with glaucoma had similar levels of physical activity and did not smoke more or drink more alcohol than those without the disease. Their overall quality of life was as good as the others. They were not more tired or more depressed. “This was a positive surprise, and was a finding that I hope can bring comfort to many people who have been diagnosed with glaucoma. It’s hard to live with a disease that gradually impairs vision, but life can still be good in many ways,” Havstam Johansson said in a University of Gothenburg news release. Yet, those…  read on >  read on >

Some people mistrust the safety and effectiveness of human vaccines for COVID-19 and other diseases, a fact that became abundantly clear during the pandemic. Now, a new survey of 2,200 dog owners shows this mistrust may often extend to canine vaccinations. The finding suggests there is spillover between the issues, with those who have negative feelings about human vaccines more likely to hold these same views about vaccinating their pets, even when it comes to deadly conditions like rabies. “We knew that this phenomenon existed, but we didn’t know how prevalent it was. We didn’t know where it came from and what policy and public health implications might be, and that’s why we set out to do this research,” said Matt Motta, an assistant professor of health law, policy & management at Boston University School of Public Health, who conducted the research with his sister, Dr. Gabriella Motta, a veterinarian at Glenolden Veterinary Hospital in Pennsylvania. “A lot of our motivation for this project was born out of conversation that she and I had, her lived experience as a vet, encountering folks who didn’t want to vaccinate their pets and trying to understand why,” he explained. What they found is that nearly 40% of dog owners think dog vaccines aren’t safe. About 20% think they’re not effective. And 30% think they aren’t medically necessary. About…  read on >  read on >

The blockbuster drug Ozempic has become a household name for its ability to spur weight loss. Now an early study hints at an intriguing possibility: The drug might allow people newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes to drop their daily insulin shots. Experts emphasized that the findings are based on only 10 patients, and larger, longer-term studies are necessary. However, all 10 patients were able to stop their meal-time insulin injections after starting semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic. And most were also able to drop their long-acting insulin, which is used to keep overnight blood sugar levels in check. “It sounds like science fiction, that people with type 1 diabetes can stop taking insulin,” said lead researcher Dr. Paresh Dandona of the State University of New York at Buffalo. “This really opens up a new area of research,” he said. “Could we use this drug to change the natural course of type 1 diabetes?” Type 1 diabetes arises when the immune system mistakenly goes after cells in the pancreas that produce the hormone insulin. Insulin has the critical job of moving sugars from food into the body’s cells to be used as fuel. In order to survive, people with type 1 diabetes have to take synthetic insulin, via daily injections or a pump attached to the body. The disease is far less common than…  read on >  read on >

Your thinking and memory skills may take a hit decades after recovering from a concussion, a new study indicates. Scientists who studied male twins, from an average age of 67, found that earlier concussions were tied to lower scores on tests of thinking and memory. These men also had a more rapid decline in their cognitive skills — skills needed for reasoning and the acquisition of knowledge. “It is concerning and, honestly, since previous studies had not been able to capture the cognitive decline, it was not something I really was expecting to see,” said study author Marianne Chanti-Ketterl, a gerontologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. “But it is also promising because it’s something that we can intervene on.” Studying identical twins makes sense because they share the same genes and many of the same early life exposures. In this research, one person from each pair had sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) during their lifetime and the other hadn’t been injured. This study worked with data from nearly 7,200 white, male World War II veterans who were twins. The men took a thinking skills test when the study began, at age 67 on average. They took the tests three more times over 12 years. Those with a history of concussion had the brain injury 34 years earlier on average. Participants started…  read on >  read on >