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Maybe you’ve seen a cartoon character shake their head back and forth following a sharp blow — clearing away whatever stars or birds are circling their noggins. Turns out, that same move might help coaches and physical trainers identify a concussion that’s occurred on the field. About 72% of athletes — and 92% of football players — said they’ve quickly shaken their head back and forth following a concussion, researchers report. These SHAAKEs — Spontaneous Headshake After a Kinematic Event — might help identify up to 33% of concussions that might otherwise be missed, researchers argued. “Sports and medical organizations should immediately add SHAAKE to their lists of potential concussion signs,” said researcher Chris Nowinski, co-founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation. “Coaches, medical professionals and concussion spotters should be trained to recognize when a SHAAKE happens and remove athletes for further assessment,” Nowinski added. “It’s an easy change, with no downside, that could prevent catastrophic outcomes and save careers.” A SHAAKE occurs within seconds or minutes of an impact, researchers said. People shake their heads side to side two to eight times a second, typically for less than two seconds, and they aren’t trying to communicate non-verbally with someone else. Nowinski recognized SHAAKE as a potential concussion sign after Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered a controversial undiagnosed concussion during a game on Sept. 25,… read on > read on >

Babies who breathe in polluted air tend to have higher rates of peanut allergy as they grow up, but the same wasn’t true for immune-based conditions like egg allergy or eczema, Australian researchers report. Why the connection to peanut allergy in particular? That’s not yet clear, said study lead author Dr. Diego Lopez, of the University of Melbourne. “Air pollutants have an irritant and inflammatory effect that may boost the immune systems pro-allergic response, potentially triggering the development of food allergies,” said Lopez, a researcher at the university’s School of Population and Global Health. “However, the underlying mechanisms of how air pollution increases the risk of a peanut allergy, and why eczema and egg allergy aren’t impacted in the same way, need to be explored further,” he said in a news release from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI). The new research involved nearly 5,300 children living in Melbourne who’d been enrolled at the age of 1 and then followed up at ages 4, 6 and 10. Lopez’ team was able to track local data on air pollution for whatever neighborhood the child lived in. They looked specifically at two types of pollution: fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). As rates of air pollution rose, so did a child’s odds of developing a peanut allergy, the team found. Food allergies were diagnosed using… read on > read on >

Women fighting breast cancer can relieve some of their chemotherapy “brain fog” through aerobic exercise, a new clinical trial in Canada suggests. Breast cancer patients on chemo who participated in a regular aerobics class reported that they felt sharper and had better quality of life, researchers found. “Our findings strengthen the case for making exercise assessment, recommendation and referral a routine part of cancer care,” said lead researcher Jennifer Brunet, a professor of human kinetics with the University of Ottawa. “This may help empower women living with and beyond cancer to actively manage both their physical and mental health during and after treatment.” For the study, 57 breast cancer patients in Ottawa and Vancouver were randomly assigned to take either 12 weeks or 24 weeks of aerobic exercise along with their chemotherapy. About half of the women started their aerobics regimen at the same time they initiated chemo, and the other half started after they completed chemo. No significant differences between the two groups were found in objective tests of brain function. However, women who took part in aerobics during chemo reported that they felt like they had a clearer, sharper mind, and that their overall quality of life was better. The new study was published recently in the journal Cancer. The results show that more exercise options need to be made available to women… read on > read on >

Baby Boom seniors are divorcing at rates triple that of a few decades ago, a new study has found. “Gray divorce” among folks 65 and older increased to 15% in 2022 from 5% in 1990, according to research from the National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University. Increased life expectancy and the fragile nature of second, third or fourth marriages could play a factor in this trend, said researcher Susan Brown, a sociology professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. “This cohort of individuals experienced the divorce revolution in the 1970s as young adults, and many eventually remarried,” Brown said. “We know that remarriages are more likely to end in divorce than first marriages, which could be one cause for the increase.” However, divorce rates among middle-aged Gen X’ers 50 to 64 slightly declined in 2022, researchers noted. This means that “gray divorce” is largely a phenomenon among the Baby Boomer generation, the researchers concluded. Using U.S. Census Bureau data, Bowling Green researchers also found that an increasing number of seniors never married – a percentage that steadily rose from 5.2% in 1990 to 6.6% in 2022. At the same time, widowhood has declined by more than 14% during the past three decades, thanks to increases in life expectancy. “Traditionally, when we’ve studied older adults, we tend to confine… read on > read on >

Experiments in sheep are hinting that doses of caffeine given to women in pregnancy, as well as their newborns after birth, could prevent cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is a disabling condition often caused by asphyxia — reductions in oxygen supply — around the time of birth. Asphyxia can cause other neurodevelopmental disorders, as well. Researcher Dr. Emin Maltepe, a neonatologist at the University of California, San Francisco’s Benioff Children’s Hospital, explained how caffeine might prevent asphyxia damage. “Caffeine has previously proven to be safe in stimulating the respiratory centers of preterm babies and helping them remember to breathe,” said Maltepe, who is senior author of the new study. Caffeine “easily crosses the blood-brain barrier and is a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory molecule,” added first study author Dr. Jana Mike, a pediatric intensivist at the same hospital. Maltepe and Mike published their findings Oct. 21 in the journal Stroke. In the new study, 30 pregnant sheep received either a single intravenous dose of one gram of caffeine, which is equal to about 10 cups of coffee, or a placebo IV shot. Then, after their lambs were born and asphyxia was induced, some lambs got a large dose of caffeine followed by lesser doses each day for two days. The other lambs received the placebo. Measures of systemic inflammation, called cytokines, were significantly less among lambs… read on > read on >

At-home brain stimulation therapy can safely and effectively treat severe to moderate depression, a new clinical trial shows. Rates of treatment response and depression remission were three times higher in people receiving the noninvasive brain stimulation, researchers said. “The study results bring promise that an innovative treatment modality may become available for patients suffering from mood disorders some time in the near future,” said co-lead researcher Dr. Jaire Soares, chair of psychiatry with the University of Texas McGovern Medical School. For the study, 174 people diagnosed with depression were randomly assigned to receive or forego brain stimulation during a 10-week course of treatment. Those receiving brain stimulation got five 30-minute sessions a week for the first three weeks, followed by three 30-minute sessions a week for the next seven weeks. The therapy is called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), in which a current of between 0.5 to 2 milliampere is applied to the scalp through two electrodes. This amount of electricity causes at most a slight tingling sensation along the scalp. The stimulation was self-administered by patients in their own homes, researchers said. About 45% of people receiving the stimulation wound up with their depression in remission, compared with 22% of the control group, researchers found. “The burden of depression is mostly keenly felt by the 280 million people worldwide currently managing symptoms. While a… read on > read on >

Smokers find it easier to quit if they’re automatically offered support, even if they didn’t ask for it, a new clinical trial finds. Quit rates were higher among health system patients placed in an “opt-out” program, in which tobacco cessation medications and counseling are automatically prescribed upon learning they smoke, researchers found. It’s called an “opt-out” program because people get the meds and counseling unless they opt out of it. After a month, 22% of people in an opt-out group had quit smoking, compared with only 16% of smokers who had to opt into the cessation program, researchers reported recently in the journal JAMA Network Open. “Health care providers don’t ask patients if they would like to get evidence-based care for other conditions like asthma, high blood pressure or diabetes,” said senior researcher Kimber Richter, a professor of population health with the University of Kansas Cancer Center. “They just identify a health condition and provide the best care possible.” “For no reason, we’ve always treated tobacco dependence differently — we wanted to see what would happen if we proactively treated tobacco dependence,” Richter added in a university news release. For the clinical trial, nearly 750 smokers receiving medical care from the University of Kansas Health System were asked about their desire to quit, and then randomly placed into one of two groups. Those assigned to… read on > read on >

Light therapy could be a useful treatment for the most common form of age-related macular degeneration, a new study says. The therapy, called photobiomodulation or “red light” therapy, can reduce the risk of vision loss and slow progression of the “dry” form of macular degeneration, researchers reported recently at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, in Chicago. “It’s the first and only noninvasive treatment that appears to be helpful in improving vision and decreasing progression of dry AMD,” said lead investigator Dr. David Boyer, with the Retina-Vitreous Associates Medical Group in Los Angeles. About 8 out of 10 people with macular degeneration have the “dry” form of the disease. They slowly lose central vision as the macula — a small but important area in the center of the retina — becomes thinner and accumulates tiny clumps of protein called drusen. There are effective drugs available for people with “wet” AMD, in which leaking blood vessels damage the macula, Boyer said. But people with dry AMD have few options to protect their eyesight, aside from changes to their diet and lifestyle, he said. Photobiomodulation uses different wavelengths of light to improve function in the cells of the retina, keeping them healthier for longer. It’s a technique already used in eye diseases like diabetic retinopathy, researchers said. For this study, researchers recruited 100 patients… read on > read on >

The skin condition eczema appears to be linked to a serious condition that can end in leg amputation, a new study finds. People with eczema are at significantly higher risk of developing peripheral vascular disease, researchers reported recently in the journal Clinical and Experimental Dermatology. Peripheral vascular disease occurs in 11% of patients with eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, but only 6% of those without the skin disease, researchers found. “This study deepens our understanding of the relationship between atopic dermatitis and cardiovascular diseases,” said senior researcher Dr. Jeffrey Cohen, an assistant professor of dermatology with the Yale School of Medicine. In peripheral vascular disease, the blood vessels in a person’s legs become narrow. People begin feeling pain in their legs, and wounds develop that won’t heal on pressure points like the heels or ankles. Eventually the limb can turn gangrenous, and amputation is required. For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 260,000 American adults gathered by a National Institutes of Health program. Results show that eczema patients are 23% more likely to develop peripheral vascular disease, even after adjusting for other risk factors, researchers said. It’s not clear why eczema would increase the risk of narrowed arteries, researchers said. Eczema is associated with allergies, and might be caused by the body’s immune system. “The underpinnings of the relationship between peripheral vascular… read on > read on >

The repeated fasting required for multiple surgeries in a row can slow a patient’s recovery and increase the risk of death, a new study warns. Surgical patients are asked to not eat after midnight prior to their procedure, to reduce the risk that they’ll throw up during general anesthesia and deep sedation. But folks having multiple surgeries during the same hospital stay are more likely to suffer malnutrition as a result of all this fasting, researchers found. “Our research determined that repeated fasting in hospitalized patients having multiple orthopedic surgeries over days or weeks increases the risk for protein-calorie malnutrition, leading to longer hospital stays, slower recovery and higher health care costs,” said lead researcher Ivie Izekor, a fourth-year medical student at Texas A&M College of Medicine. For the study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 28.5 million patients who had any type of orthopedic surgery in a hospital between 2016 and 2019. Of those patients, more than 1.8 million were diagnosed with malnutrition after admission. Patients diagnosed with malnutrition had gone through more surgeries during their hospital stay — an average of 2.3 surgeries per stay, compared with nearly 1.6 for those who didn’t become malnourished. Malnourished patients were 15% more likely to die, and their risk of death increased with more surgeries, researchers found. Malnourished patients typically died from infection, complications from poor wound… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Common Post-Injury Action by Players Signals Concussion, Study Shows

Could Dirty Air Raise Kids’ Odds for Peanut Allergy?

Aerobic Exercise May Ease ‘Brain Fog’ of Breast Cancer Chemo

Seniors Who Split: Rates of ‘Gray Divorce’ Have Tripled Since 1990

Could Caffeine in Pregnancy Help Prevent Cerebral Palsy in Kids?

At-Home Brain Stimulation Treatment Can Safely Ease Depression

Even Hardcore Smokers May Quit If Given Right Tools, Study Finds

Light Therapy Might Help Ease ‘Dry’ Form of Macular Degeneration

Eczema Could Be Linked to Poorer Leg Artery Function

Too Much Fasting in Hospital Could Have Downside for Orthopedic Surgery Patients