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Soldiers can suffer brain injury if they are repeatedly exposed to explosive blasts, a new study shows. Further, the more frequently a soldier is exposed to explosions, the greater their risk for brain injury, researchers reported April 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Based on this, researchers intend to develop a diagnostic test to detect blast brain injury in military personnel. “The availability of a reliable diagnostic test could improve operators’ quality of life by ensuring that they receive timely, targeted medical care for symptoms related to repeated blast brain injury,” said co-senior researcher Yelena Bodien, an investigator with Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery. For this study, researchers followed 30 active-duty U.S. Special Operations Forces personnel. On average, the soldiers were 37 and had 17 years of military service. They all had extensive combat exposure and had high levels of blast exposure and blows to the head. Half had endured more blunt impacts to the head than they could recall. The soldiers underwent a series of brain scans focused on a region of the frontal lobe called the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, which is known to be a widely connected brain network hub that modulates cognition and emotion, researchers said. The scans showed an association between cumulative blast exposure and changes to this brain region, particularly with blast… read on > read on >

Parents too often wave the white flag when it comes to young picky eaters, a new survey finds. Three out of five parents say they’re willing to play personal chef and cobble up a separate meal for a child who balks at the family dinner, according to a national poll from the University of Michigan. This often leads to the kids munching something less healthy, said Dr. Susan Woolford, a pediatrician with the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. Parents should instead greet such obstinance with a shrug, Woolford said. “Rather than allowing the child to choose an alternate menu, parents should provide a balanced meal with at least one option that their child is typically willing to eat,” Woolford said in a hospital news release. “Then if their child chooses not to eat, parents should not worry as this will not cause healthy children any harm and they will be more likely to eat the options presented at the next meal,” Woolford added. Parents’ biggest mealtime challenge is getting a healthy diet into a picky eater, according to results from the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. But the desire to make sure a preschool or elementary-aged child eats a balanced, nutritional diet often leads to strategies that backfire, poll results suggest. “The preschool and… read on > read on >

Another broiling summer looms, along with another season of kids’ summer sports. It’s a potentially harmful, even lethal combination. But experts at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) have advice for kids, parents and coaches on how to keep young athletes safe when thermometers rise. Each year, an estimated 240 people die from heat-linked illnesses, and heat stroke is the third-ranked cause of death for young U.S. high school athletes, according to NCH. Heat poses special threats to young athletes, said Dr. Thomas Pommering, medical director for Nationwide Children’s Sports Medicine. “Youth and adolescent athletes sweat less, create more heat per body mass, and acclimate much slower than adults to warmer environments, putting them at greater risk for heat-related injuries in hot and humid temperatures,” he said in an online post from the hospital. Spotting heat-linked illness There are telltale signs on the playing field (or anywhere) that someone may be overcome by the heat. Various types of heat illness include: Heat cramps. As too much sweating causes salt and water to leave the body, this can cause severe cramping in the limbs and abdomen. Heat syncope. Syncope is the medical term for fainting, which can be preceded by weakness and fatigue. Heat exhaustion. This could manifest in cool, pale skin and the onset of headache, nausea, chills, weakness, unsteadiness, dizziness, rapid pulse, excessive thirst and muscle… read on > read on >

A British study finds that beyond the physical pain and turmoil of an mpox diagnosis, many of the mostly gay and bisexual men infected during the 2022 outbreak faced stigma, homophobia and shame. Mpox is spread largely through skin-to-skin contact, and the outbreak in Europe and the United States was largely localized to men who have sex with men. Cases were first detected in May of 2022, and the outbreak peaked in August. A vaccine against the disease had already been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2019 and was rolled out to at-risk people once the outbreak emerged. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the outbreak of mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) viral illness in the United States sickened more than 32,000 people and killed 58. In the United Kingdom, there were over 3,700 confirmed cases of mpox. The illness is characterized by painful skin lesions that form scabs, and it can be especially harmful in people infected with HIV. In the new study, a team led by Dr. Charles Witzel, of the University College London (UCL) Institute for Global Health, conducted in-depth interviews with 22 gay and bisexual men who’d been diagnosed with mpox during the outbreak. The interviews focused on their experience with the illness itself, as well as the men’s interactions with health care… read on > read on >

A head-to-head trial of obese, pre-diabetic people who ate the same amount of daily calories — with one group following a fasting schedule and the other eating freely — found no difference in weight loss or other health indicators. So, despite the fact that fasting diets are all the rage, if you simply cut your daily caloric intake, weight loss will occur no matter when you eat, the study authors concluded. “Consuming most calories earlier in the day during 10-hour time-restricted eating did not decrease weight more than consuming them later in the day,” wrote a team led by Dr. Nisa Maruthur, an associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore. Her team presented its findings Friday at the annual meeting of the American College of Physicians (ACP) in Boston. The study was published simultaneously in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Intermittent fasting has become very popular among weight-conscious Americans in recent years. In an ACP news release, the researchers noted that “evidence shows that when adults with obesity limit their eating window to 4 to 10 hours, they naturally reduce caloric intake by approximately 200-550 calories per day and lose weight over 2-12 months.” But what if people simply cut their daily calories by the same amount, without shifting their eating schedules? The new trial involved 41 people with obesity and pre-diabetes,… read on > read on >

The right diet may be the best medicine for easing the painful symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), new research shows. In the study, two different eating plans beat standard medications in treating the debilitating symptoms of the gastrointestinal disease. One diet was low in “FODMAPs,” a group of sugars and carbohydrates found in dairy, wheat and certain fruits and vegetables, while the second was a low-carb regimen high in fiber but low in all other carbohydrates. Published April 19 in the journal Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the findings suggest that patients should first try dietary changes before moving to drugs for relief. IBS is one of the most common and stubborn conditions gastroenterologists treat. It affects roughly 6 percent of Americans, with women diagnosed more often than men. Its symptoms are hard to ignore and life-limiting: abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea and constipation. Treatments often include dietary changes or taking medications that can include laxatives and antidiarrheals; certain antidepressants; and other prescription medications such as linaclotide and lubiprostone — both of which increase fluid in your gut and the movements of your intestines. Research has found that a low-FODMAP diet — which involves avoiding foods like wheat products, legumes, some nuts, certain sweeteners, most dairy products and many fruits and vegetables — can reduce IBS symptoms in most people, Dr. William Chey, a gastroenterologist at Michigan Medicine, told the… read on > read on >

Women who smoke and become pregnant may worry that the weight gain that comes with quitting might bring its own harms to themselves or their baby. However, a new study confirms the health benefits of quitting smoking still far exceed any weight-linked concerns. Weight gain can occur once women decide to forgo cigarettes, but even that can be minimized, said a team led by Morgan Dunn. She’s a final year obstetrics and gynecology resident at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey. “We recommend that doctors advise patients to quit while offering nutrition counseling that might minimize the weight gain,” she said in a Rutgers news release. The study was published recently in the journal Hypertension. In the study, Dunn’s group looked at data on health outcomes in over 22 million pregnancies. They found that rates of dangerous hypertension in pregnancy did rise among women who quit smoking. It occurred in 6.8% of pregnancies to nonsmoking women, compared to 8.6% of pregnancies for women who quit smoking when they learned they were pregnant. The percentage rose even higher — to 17% — among women who quit smoking at the outset of a pregnancy and then gained weight that exceeded recommended levels, Dunn’s team found. However, any risk linked to a rise in blood pressure during pregnancy for former smokers were easily eclipsed by… read on > read on >

An early marker of multiple sclerosis could help doctors figure out who will eventually fall prey to the degenerative nerve disease, a new study says. In one in 10 cases of MS, the body begins producing a distinctive set of antibodies in the blood years before symptoms start appearing, researchers reported April 19 in the journal Nature Medicine. This antibody pattern was 100% predictive of an MS diagnosis, researchers found. Every patient who carried this set of antibodies went on to develop MS. Researchers hope these antibodies will someday form the basis of a simple blood test to screen for MS. “Over the last few decades, there’s been a move in the field to treat MS earlier and more aggressively with newer, more potent therapies,” said senior researcher Dr. Michael Wilson, a neurologist with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). “A diagnostic result like this makes such early intervention more likely, giving patients hope for a better life,” Wilson added in a news release. MS occurs when the body’s own immune system attacks the central nervous system, damaging the protective sheath around nerve fibers called myelin. This disrupts signals to and from the brain, causing a variety of symptoms that impede the senses and impact the ability to move. An autoimmune disease like MS is believed to result in part from rare immune reactions… read on > read on >

Teenagers are frequently bullied about their weight on social media, and the bullying increases with each hour they spend on these sites, a new study reveals. Nearly one in five teens (17%) said they’d experienced weight-related bullying online, according to results published April 17 in the journal PLOS One. “This experience can have adverse effects, including poor body image, disordered eating behaviors and anxiety and depression symptoms,” said the research team led by David Hammond. He’s a professor with the University of Waterloo School of Public Health Sciences in Ontario, Canada. Further, each additional hour of social media use brought with it a 13% increase in weight-related bullying, researchers calculated. “Notably, greater time spent on screens [was] associated with a greater prevalence of experiencing weight-related bullying,” the researchers reported. Twitter, now known as X, was the most toxic site, with teens there 69% more likely to be bullied regarding their weight. However, Twitter was also the least-used social media platform among teens, with only 22% saying they used it. But more popular social media sites also had an increased risk of bullying over weight, researchers found: Instagram, used by 55% of teens, had a 35% increased risk of weight bullying Facebook, used by 50% of teens, had a 39% increased risk TikTok, used by 49% of teens, had a 26% increased risk Snapchat, used by… read on > read on >

Jobs that challenge your mind could help your brain age more gracefully, a new study suggests. The harder your brain works on the job, the less likely you are to have memory and thinking problems later in life, researchers reported April 17 in the journal Neurology. “We examined the demands of various jobs and found that cognitive stimulation at work during different stages in life — during your 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s — was linked to a reduced risk of mild cognitive impairment after the age of 70,” said researcher Dr. Trine Holt Edwin, of Oslo University Hospital in Norway. For the study, researchers analyzed data on 7,000 people in 305 occupations across Norway. Researchers measured the degree to which each job taxed the brain and the body, based on the different skill sets required for the work. They then divided the study subjects into four groups, based on their work routine and whether the job required more manual skill or brain power. Teaching wound up being the most common job with the highest demands on a person’s brain, while mail carriers and janitors had the most common jobs with the least demands on brain skills. After age 70, participants completed memory and thinking tests to judge how well their brain was aging. About 42% of people with jobs involving little brain work had… read on > read on >

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Repeat Blasts Can Damage Soldiers’ Brains, Study Confirms

Many Parents Cook Special Meals for Little Picky Eaters: Poll

Parents, Coaches: Help Young Athletes Avoid Summer Heat Hazards

Stigma, Shame Hit Many Gay Men Affected by Mpox Outbreak

Calories, Not Meal Timing, Key to Weight Loss: Study

Dietary Changes May Beat Meds in Treating IBS

Even With Weight Gain, Quitting Smoking in Pregnancy Still Best for Health

Blood Test Might Someday Diagnose Early MS

Teens Often Bullied Online About Their Weight: Study

Work That Challenges Your Brain Helps You Stay Sharp With Age