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As a measles outbreak spreads across the United States, doctors are now seeing a new and unexpected danger: Children getting sick from taking too much vitamin A. At Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, several unvaccinated children showed signs of liver problems after taking large amounts of vitamin A, according to Dr. Lara Johnson, the hospital’s chief medical officer. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promoted vitamin A during the outbreak, even suggesting it might help prevent measles. But doctors say this isn’t true. “If people have the mistaken impression that you have an either-or choice of MMR vaccine or vitamin A, you’re going to get a lot of kids unnecessarily infected with measles. That’s a problem, especially during an epidemic,” Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN. “And second, you have this unregulated medicine in terms of doses being given and potential toxicities.” The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is the only proven way to prevent measles. It is 97% effective after two doses. Kennedy has said he encourages vaccines, but considers vaccination a personal choice. Vitamin A can be helpful for people with measles when given in the right dose by a doctor.… read on > read on >

Splenda doesn’t directly add calories to your diet, but the sweetener still might lead people to pack on pounds, a new study says. The sugar substitute might spur on a person’s appetite and feelings of hunger, potentially leading them to overeat, according to results published March 26 in the journal Nature Metabolism. Splenda’s main ingredient, sucralose, appears to confuse the brain by providing a sweet taste without also delivering the calories one would expect, senior investigator Dr. Kathleen Page, director of the University of Southern California Diabetes and Obesity Research Center, said in a news release. “If your body is expecting a calorie because of the sweetness, but doesn’t get the calorie it’s expecting, that could change the way the brain is primed to crave those substances over time,” she said. About 40% of Americans regularly consume sugar substitutes, usually as a way to reduce their sugar intake, researchers said in background notes. “But are these substances actually helpful for regulating body weight?” Page asked. “What happens in the body and brain when we consume them, and do the effects differ from one person to the next?” To explore this further, researchers tested how 75 people responded after consuming water, a drink sweetened with sucralose or a drink sweetened with regular sugar. The team collected MRI brain scans, blood samples and hunger ratings from participants… read on > read on >

Is there a person in your life who just can’t stop scrolling social media, almost as if they’ve formed an emotional dependence on sites like Instagram and TikTok? Such an attachment might be associated with worse mental health symptoms among young people being treated for depression, anxiety or suicidal thoughts, a new study says. About 40% of troubled 8- to 20-year-olds reported social media use that could be problematic, saying that they feel discontented, disconnected and upset when they can’t log on to their favorite sites, researchers report in the April issue of Journal of Affective Disorders. These young people also had higher levels of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, as well as poorer overall well-being, compared to peers in treatment who weren’t overly attached to social media, researchers found. “There has long been speculation that excessive social media use among young people may be a factor in increased rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, but the relationship is not fully understood,” lead researcher Betsy Kennard, a teaching professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said in a news release. “Our findings are instructive because they characterize the prevalence of problematic social media use in children and adolescents who are receiving care for depression, suicidal ideation and/or suicidal behaviors, which gives us insight into how they might intersect,” she added. For the… read on > read on >

A mom’s health and lifestyle choices can affect her kids’ risk of obesity as adults, a new study says. Specifically, a child is 3 to 4 times more likely to become an obese adult if their mom was obese, researchers reported March 26 in PLOS One. A mom’s smoking also increased their kid’s risk of adult obesity by 60% to 80%, results show. “In particular, we note that the effect of maternal influences persists through to age 42 and that strikingly, those predictors were just as powerful (and prevalent) in the era before the current obesity pandemic began,” concluded the research team led by Glenna Nightingale, a research fellow with the University of Edinburgh in the U.K. In effect, factors beyond a person’s control can influence whether they become overweight or obese as adults, researchers said. For the new study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 11,500 children who participated in an ongoing British study of kids born on a single week in March 1958 across England, Scotland and Wales. The team observed health trends among these children out to age 42, and compared their health to aspects of their parents’ life that might influence their risk for obesity. Results showed that if a mom was obese or if she smoked, her child was more likely to be obese in adulthood. “The persistent importance of maternal… read on > read on >

Artificial intelligence (AI) can help improve how premature babies are fed, giving them a better chance at normal growth and development, a new study says. Currently, preemies in a neonatal intensive care unit are fed by IV, receiving a drip-drop handmade blend of nutrients that doctors call total parenteral nutrition, or TPN. This is the only way to feed newborns whose digestive systems haven’t matured enough to properly absorb nutrients, researchers said. “Right now, we come up with a TPN prescription for each baby, individually, every day,” senior researcher Nima Aghaeepour, an associate professor of pediatrics at Stanford University, said in a news release. “We make it from scratch and provide it to them.” Unfortunately, the process is error-prone, and it’s tough for docs to know if they’ve gotten the formula right, researchers said. There’s no blood test to measure whether a preemie has received enough daily calories, and preemies don’t necessarily cry when they’re hungry or become calm and content when they’re full. “Total parenteral nutrition is the single largest source of medical error in neonatal intensive care units, both in the United States and globally,” Aghaeepour said. To try to solve this problem, researchers trained an AI program on nearly 80,000 past prescriptions for preemie IV nutrition, linked to data on how the tiny patients fared. The AI uses information in a preemie’s… read on > read on >

Tobacco control measures like anti-smoking campaigns and cigarette taxes have prevented nearly 4 million lung cancer deaths during the past five decades, a new American Cancer Society study estimates. More than 3.8 million lung cancer deaths were averted due to substantial reductions in smoking, gaining a little more than 76 million years of extra life among Americans, researchers say in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. “The substantial estimated numbers of averted lung cancer deaths and person-years of life gained highlight the remarkable effect of progress against smoking on reducing premature mortality from lung cancer,” lead investigator Dr. Farhad Islami, the ACS’ senior scientific director for cancer disparity research, said in a news release. In fact, the number of averted lung cancer deaths accounts for roughly one-half of all cancer deaths that were prevented in recent decades, researchers said. “However,” Islami added, “Despite these findings, lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, and smoking-attributable morbidity and mortality from other cancers or diseases remain high.” For the study, researchers analyzed federal health data from 1970 through 2022, estimating the expected number of cancer deaths for each year and comparing them to the deaths that actually occurred. In all, more than 2.2 million expected lung cancer deaths in men and 1.6 million in women were averted during the five-decade period.… read on > read on >

Childbirth is an overwhelming accomplishment, but new mothers would do best not to rest on their laurels following delivery, a new guideline says. New moms should clock at least two hours a week of moderate to vigorous physical activity in the first months following birth, experts recommend. Two to four hours of exercise per week can keep a new mother healthy and reduce her risk of postpartum depression or anxiety, researchers wrote in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Experts also recommend daily pelvic floor exercises to reduce the risk of urinary incontinence, as well as taking steps to improve sleep quality. “The weeks and months following birth are a period of abrupt changes in physiological and psychological health,” wrote a team led by Margie Davenport, a professor of kinesiology, sport and recreation at the University of Alberta in Canada. “Postpartum women and people are at increased risk of depression, weight retention, sleep disorders, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, especially if they experienced pregnancy complications,” the team wrote. “Such conditions have significant consequences on the short-term and long-term health and well-being of both the mother and the infant.” For the new guidelines, researchers analyzed data from 574 prior studies related to the health of mother and child following delivery. After consulting with a panel of new mothers, the research team selected 21 “critical” and “important” outcomes… read on > read on >

Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company, has signed a major deal worth up to $2 billion for the rights to a new obesity and diabetes drug, the company announced March 24. The drug, called UBT251, is being developed by United Bio-Technology (Hengqin) Co., a Chinese pharmaceutical company. Novo Nordisk will pay $200 million up front, with up to $1.8 billion in additional payments down the line, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company also agreed to pay royalties based on future sales. Novo Nordisk now holds the exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and sell the drug worldwide, except in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. UBT251 is different from Novo Nordisk’s current drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. The drug combines GLP-1 and GIP, which lower appetite and blood sugar, with glucagon, which helps prevent dangerously low blood sugar levels. “The addition of a candidate targeting glucagon, as well as GLP-1 and GIP, will add important optionality to our clinical pipeline, as we look to develop a broad portfolio of differentiated treatment options that cater to the diverse needs of people living with these highly prevalent diseases,” Martin Holst Lange, executive vice president for development at Novo Nordisk, told The Wall Street Journal. UBT251 is already approved for early clinical trials in China for adults with type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, chronic kidney disease… read on > read on >

Statins are very cheap and highly effective cholesterol-lowering drugs — but high-risk heart patients may have an even better option, a new evidence review says. Combining statins with another drug, ezetimibe, significantly reduces the risk of death in patients with clogged arteries, according to findings published March 23 in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Using a high-dose statin with ezetimibe significantly reduces levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol, increasing a person’s chances of reaching healthy levels by 85%, researchers found. The combo also brought about a 19% reduction in risk of death from any cause; a 16% reduction in heart-related deaths; an 18% decrease in the risk of a major cardiovascular health problem; and a 17% decline in stroke risk. This combination therapy would prevent more than 330,000 deaths a year worldwide among patients who have already suffered a heart attack, including almost 50,000 deaths in the U.S. alone, researchers said. “This study confirms that combined cholesterol lowering therapy should be considered immediately and should be the gold standard for treatment of very high-risk patients after an acute cardiovascular event,” senior researcher Dr. Peter Toth, a professor of clinical family and community medicine at the University of Illinois, said in a news release. Up to now, studies have been inconsistent regarding whether to provide combo cholesterol-lowering therapy immediately for high-risk patients, even before they suffer a heart attack… read on > read on >

Lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, smoking and blood pressure have a greater impact on the heart health of women than men, a new study says. Women with poor health have nearly five times the risk of heart disease compared to women with ideal health, according to findings scheduled for presentation Saturday at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Chicago. By comparison, men in poor health only have 2.5 times the risk of heart disease compared to men in ideal health. “For the same level of health, our study shows that the increase in risk [related to each factor] is higher in women than in men — it’s not one-size-fits-all,” lead researcher Dr. Maneesh Sud, an interventional cardiologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto, said in a news release. The new study is the first to show that such lifestyle risks are more strongly linked to women’s heart health, researchers said. “This is novel and something that hasn’t been seen in other studies,” Sud said. The study focused on eight factors associated with heart disease: diet, sleep, exercise, smoking, body mass index, blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure. (Body mass index is a estimate of body fat based on height and weight.) Researchers looked at these factors in more than 175,000 Canadian adults who enrolled in the Ontario Health Study between 2009… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Measles Outbreak Leads to Dangerous Vitamin A Toxicity

Sugar Substitute Appears To Boost Appetite, Hunger

Social Media Can Drag Down Troubled Young People

Obesity More Likely Among Kids Of Obese Moms, Smokers

AI Improves IV Nutrition For Preemies

Tobacco Control Has Saved Nearly 4 Millions Lives, Study Estimates

New Moms Benefit From Regular Workouts

Novo Nordisk to Pay $2 Billion for New Weight Loss Drug

Two-Drug Combo Lowers Cholesterol Better Than Statins Alone

Women More Vulnerable To Heart Risk Factors