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People are using “browning lotions” to tan quickly, but experts are questioning the safety of this trend driven by social media influencers. Browning lotions work with the sun’s UV rays to darken skin faster. “It is important to know that a tan is never considered to be healthy and exposure to UVA and UVB radiation can cause skin cancer, that’s the first issue I have,” said dermatologist Dr. Alexis Young of Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. “A tan is a warning flag or a sign of sun damage, and the second problem I see is that products like this might make it seem as though people are somewhat protected from the sun’s UV rays when they are not,” she said in a center news release. The best and only way to protect exposed skin from sun is to use broad spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher, even on cloudy days, experts agree. “Apply a broad spectrum sunscreen containing either titanium dioxide and/or zinc oxide, which provides protection from both UVA and UVB rays, liberally to all uncovered skin, especially your nose, ears, neck, hands, feet and even your lips,” Young advised. Reapply sunscreen every two hours and after going in the water, she urged. In addition, wear photoprotective clothing, wide-brimmed hats and sunglasses to further protect yourself from the sun.… read on > read on >

As you stare down your freshman year of college and contemplate living away from home, you’re probably facing a few “firsts”: First roommate who isn’t a sibling; first time fending for yourself to make sure you’re eating properly; and if you have nasal allergies, food allergies or asthma, this could be the first time you’re in charge of keeping your symptoms under control. Your health, particularly regarding allergic diseases, shouldn’t be among the last things you prepare for as you make plans to leave home for college. There are many details to handle before you depart, so start planning now for your allergy and asthma care. Some of the things you’ll need to consider as you plan for your first year away include: What will health care visits look like? — If you have an allergist you’ve been seeing for years, you’ll have to consider whom you’ll consult while away. Ask your allergist for a recommendation or contact the health care service at your school to find out if they have an allergist you can work with. The American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology has an allergist locator that can help you in your search to find an allergist in your new town. What other health factors will change? — Will your prescriptions need to be transferred to a new pharmacy? Are your prescriptions… read on > read on >

Pickleball has burst onto the scene, inspiring people of all ages to pick up a paddle. But as with any sport, it’s possible to get hurt. Some best practices can help prevent injuries, according to a sports medicine expert. For pickleball players, the most common injury is to the rotator cuff tendon in the shoulder. This can cause shoulder pain, especially with movement and use. Problems range from tendonitis and bursitis to a tear of the tendon itself. Bigger tears can create weakness. Someone might not be able to use their arm. “The unfortunate reality of the rotator cuff is that everyday use can cause tearing and damage,” said Dr. Bruce Moseley, an orthopedic surgeon from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “You don’t necessarily have to do anything wrong or abnormal to get a rotator cuff tear — in many instances it just happens as a consequence of living.” Most adults who use their shoulders are at risk. For many people, rotator cuff damage appears over time. In pickleball, reaching overhead requires a lot of force from this tendon, which can worsen rotator cuff injuries. These tears are not preventable. But the shoulder does better when it’s flexible and strong. Moseley suggests stretching and doing light to moderate strengthening. “If you warm up and stretch before your activity and ice down afterwards, your shoulder… read on > read on >

The trendy weight-loss drug Ozempic could be dangerous for a patient undergoing anesthesia for an operation, according to a new warning from the American Society of Anesthesiologists. Semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and other drugs of their class known as GLP-1 receptor agonists cause digestion to slow down, which decreases hunger and reduces how much people eat. That food left in the stomach increases the risk you will vomit while under anesthesia, said ASA President Dr. Michael Champeau. “We’ve had reports of people vomiting immediately preoperatively when there shouldn’t be any food in their stomach,” Champeau said. “As soon as we started hearing anecdotal reports and case reports, the mind immediately goes to how the drug works and what it does.” The ASA is recommending that people on a GLP-1 agonist like Ozempic stop taking it prior to surgery. If you take such a drug once a day, you should not take your daily dose the morning of surgery, Champeau said. If you take the drug once a week, you should hold off on your dose until after surgery. “If you take it every Sunday and you’re having surgery on a Wednesday, you can’t take it the Sunday before the surgery,” Champeau said. “You’ve got to stop it at least a week in advance, if you’re taking the once-a-week dose.” There’s a reason patients are told to… read on > read on >

A man’s cardio fitness might influence whether he’ll develop — or survive — three of the most common cancers in males, a new Swedish study reports. Higher levels of cardio fitness are associated with a significantly lower risk of developing colon and lung cancers, researchers report. Cardio fitness also plays a role in a man’s likelihood of surviving prostate, colon and lung cancers, results show. “Better cardiorespiratory fitness [CRF] is not only important for reducing cardiovascular disease risk, which is often communicated, but also for reducing cancer risk in men,” said lead researcher Elin Ekblom-Bak, a senior lecturer with the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in Stockholm. “Current cancer prevention guidelines focus on physical activity, but these findings show that CRF is also very important for both reducing cancer risk and risk of death from common cancers in men,” Ekblom-Bak said. For this study, Ekblom-Bak and her colleagues analyzed data on nearly 178,000 Swedish men, all of whom completed an occupational health assessment between October 1982 and December 2019. As part of this assessment, the men tested their cardio health on an exercise bike, with doctors registering their blood oxygen levels as they pedaled. Researchers then tracked the men’s health using Swedish health registries, to see which men wound up developing cancer. They specifically found a strong dose-response association between cardio fitness and… read on > read on >

Researchers have found significant new evidence of a link between a decreased sense of smell and the risk of developing depression later in life. Known as hyposmia, or at its most profound, anosmia, the condition has been associated previously with Alzheimer’s disease in older adults. “We’ve seen repeatedly that a poor sense of smell can be an early warning sign of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, as well as a mortality risk. This study underscores its association with depressive symptoms,” said Vidya Kamath, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. “Additionally, this study explores factors that might influence the relationship between olfaction and depression, including poor cognition and inflammation,” she said in a university news release. In the study, researchers followed more than 2,100 community-dwelling older adults over eight years, using data from the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study (Health ABC). These older adults were healthy and ages 70 to 73 when the study period began in 1997. They each had no difficulty walking a quarter of a mile, climbing 10 steps and performing normal activities. The participants were assessed in person each year and by phone every six months. Smell was first measured in 1999, when 48% of participants displayed a normal sense of smell. Another 28% showed a… read on > read on >

Fewer teens consider themselves overweight and more underestimate what they weigh, a perception concerning to experts worried about childhood obesity. These trends could reduce the effectiveness of public health interventions meant to help young people lose weight, researchers warn. Their findings were published July 3 in the journal Child and Adolescent Obesity. “Young people who underestimate their weight and therefore do not consider themselves to be overweight may not feel they need to lose excess weight and, as a result, they may make unhealthy lifestyle choices,” lead author Anouk Geraets said in a journal news release. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg. For the study, researchers reviewed 2002-2018 data involving more than 745,000 adolescents from 41 countries in Europe and North America. Information was collected at four-year intervals from kids who were 11, 13 and 15 years old. Over the period, underestimation of weight status increased for both boys and girls, but the trend was stronger for girls. Girls’ weight perception did get more accurate over time, however, but boys’ got worse. These changes in correct weight perception varied across countries. They could not be explained by an increase in country-level overweight/obesity prevalence. The authors noted that boys’ and girls’ body ideals may differ, which would explain why their perceptions differed. Body ideals have also changed over time, they pointed out.… read on > read on >

As outdoor gatherings begin for the Fourth of July holiday, a leading asthma and allergy group is offering suggestions on how to avoid those seasonal symptoms. “The Fourth of July is a great time to gather with friends and family and celebrate summer,” said Dr. Kathleen May, president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). “But as with any outdoor holiday, July Fourth festivities mean those with allergies and asthma need to take a few extra precautions to make sure their holiday is safe, and sneeze- and wheeze-free. “Those with asthma need to be cautious at events where smoke will be featured. Smoke in any form — from fireworks, bonfires or campfires — should be avoided as it can cause asthma to flare,” she added in an ACAAI news release. Among other tips are to avoid “wings and stings.” If you’ve had a previous allergic reaction to a sting, always carry two doses of your epinephrine auto-injector, the ACAAI advises. Stay safe by wearing shoes when walking in grass where stinging insects may be looking for food. Cover soft drink cans and food because these bugs love open cans and containers. Your asthma may flare with temperature swings, such as going from a hot picnic area to a cold pool or an air-conditioned room. Consider instead doing an indoor workout on a… read on > read on >

(HealthDay News) – It’s been said many times, but it deserves repeating: Use caution when handling fireworks. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) is repeating the message to try to help people avoid injuries to the fingers, hands, arms and face. “It may be a tradition to let children and teens oversee fireworks, but parents should always be cautious. Fireworks-related injuries can have long-term and sometimes devastating effects,” said orthopedic hand surgeon Dr. Tyler Steven Pidgeon, a spokesman for the AAOS. “Common fireworks, such as bottle rockets and hand sparklers, may seem tame, but the high temperatures of these devices can result in third-degree burns down to the bone or even loss of limbs.” Fireworks injuries jumped 25% between 2006 and 2021, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Body parts most injured in 2021 were hands and fingers, at 31%, and head, face and ears, at 21%. About 32% of the fireworks-related injuries seen in emergency departments were burns. To enjoy a safe Fourth, the AAOS recommends taking the following steps: Check with your local police department to learn what fireworks are legal in your area and to verify that there is not a burn ban in effect. Never buy or use illegal fireworks. Quality cannot be assured. Only adults should light fireworks. Do not allow young children to play with… read on > read on >

The artificial sweetener aspartame is in the hot seat once more. Two separate committees made up of health experts from around the world will soon offer advice on consuming aspartame, a popular sugar substitute that is added to sodas, cough drops, desserts and gum. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is analyzing whether the ingredient is a carcinogen. Meanwhile, the WHO’s Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives will offer guidance on an acceptable daily intake of aspartame. Both are expected to issue their reports on July 14, according to leaked WHO documents, CNN reported. Aspartame continues to have approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a safe product. Not only that, but U.S. health officials are concerned that doing simultaneous, potentially conflicting, reviews will “seriously undermine” confidence in the scientific process and “inflame the current climate of public skepticism about the validity of science and scientific process,” according to a letter sent to the WHO last summer by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The WHO’s cancer research committee considers a broad range of items carcinogens, including mobile devices, Qi Sun, an associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told CNN. For aspartame to be ruled a carcinogen “boils down to what kind of evidence we have,” he added.… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

‘Browning Lotions’ Are the Latest Summertime Trend, But Are They Safe?

Are Your Allergies Ready to Head Off to College?

As Pickleball’s Popularity Rises, So Do Related Injuries

Taking Ozempic, Wegovy? Stop Before Surgery, Anesthesiologists Say

Staying Fit Lowers a Man’s Cancer Risk, Study Confirms

As Seniors’ Sense of Smell Declines, Their Risk for Depression Rises

More Teens Worldwide Are Underestimating Their Weight

Stay Independent of Allergies, Asthma This July Fourth

Fireworks for the 4th? Here’s Your Safety Checklist

WHO Experts Take Another Look at Aspartame’s Safety