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Preeclampsia can be a life-threatening complication of pregnancy, but a new blood test can help predict a woman’s risk for the condition while she is in her first trimester, the test’s maker said Wednesday. It’s the first test in the United States that can be used between 11 and 14 weeks gestation to determine the risk of preeclampsia before 34 weeks of pregnancy, Labcorp said in a news release announcing the launch of the test. “By giving healthcare providers another tool to assess preeclampsia risk in their pregnant patients with objective biomarkers, we’re helping to advance prenatal care and improve outcomes for mothers and their babies,” Labcorp’s Chief Medical and Scientific Officer Dr. Brian Caveney said in the news release. Roughly one in 25 U.S. pregnancies is affected by preeclampsia, which poses an even greater risk for Black women, who experience the condition at a 60% higher rate than white women do, the company noted. Still, some doctors wonder how much it will help. “It is currently unclear how useful the Labcorp test will be in accurately predicting risk for developing preeclampsia and whether it is appropriate for all pregnant patients,” Dr. Christopher Zahn, interim CEO at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), told CNN. “Before a screening test can be successfully employed, there needs to be an evidence-based intervention to either prevent or reduce the impact of… read on > read on >

In a small pilot study, some young women looking to lose weight on a low-calorie keto diet got an unexpected benefit: Their acne began to clear up. “These findings represent an opportunity to control a skin disease that affects most teenagers and many adults at some point in their lifetimes, causing distress, embarrassment, anxiety and low self-confidence among sufferers, robbing them of their quality of life,” said lead study author Luigi Barrea, of the Università Telematica Pegaso in Naples, Italy. His team presented its findings Tuesday at the European Congress on Obesity on Vienna, Italy. As Barrea’s group explained, acne is thought to be a chronic inflammatory illness affecting what’s known as the pilosebaceous unit: the hair follicle, hair shaft and nearby sebaceous gland. About 9% of the world’s population is affected by acne, largely in the teenage years. According to the Italian researchers, acne has long been linked with obesity, perhaps because both conditions are tied to rising inflammation and oxidative stress. Could the ketogenic diet fight that underlying inflammation and oxidative stress? “While the role of diet in acne is inconclusive, the very low-calorie ketogenic diet is known for aiding weight loss and generating anti-inflammatory ketone bodies that provide energy when dietary carbohydrates are scarce, as well as promoting resistance against inflammatory and oxidative stress,” Barrea explained in a meeting news release. “We thought… read on > read on >

People who regularly ride bikes throughout their life are less likely to develop knee arthritis, a new study suggests. Bicyclists are 17% less likely to have knee pain and 21% less likely to have symptoms of knee arthritis, compared to people who’ve never biked, researchers discovered. It also appears that people who’ve biked all their lives have a lower risk of knee arthritis than people who’ve only pedaled at one point or another, results show. “Each increase in the number of age periods engaged in bicycling resulted in lower likelihood of reporting knee pain” and knee arthritis detected by both symptoms and X-rays, said lead researcher Dr. Grace Lo, an associate professor of medicine in allergy, immunology and rheumatology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Doctors often encourage regular physical activity to prevent knee arthritis, but some exercises tend to be more effective than others. For this study, researchers analyzed data from more than 2,600 people ages 45 to 79 participating in a study of knee arthritis. About half of the people said they had a consistent history of biking. The participants were asked about their bicycling activities during four age periods of their lives — 12 to 18, 19 to 34, 35 to 49 and 50 or older. These activities could include either outdoor biking or riding an indoor stationary cycle. The new… read on > read on >

A competitive game with a potential cash reward appeared to help overweight British men lose weight, researchers report. The incentive was winning the “Game of Stones” — a stone is a British measurement of body weight equal to 14 pounds — and pocketing the equivalent of just over $500 in American dollars if the man achieved weight-loss goals. Weight loss was more successful among men who engaged in Games of Stones versus those who weren’t offered the challenge, said a team led by Dr. Pat Hoddinott, of the University of Stirling in Scotland. Nevil Chesterfield, 68, lost weight and called Game of Stones “a real success for me.” “The financial incentive was important — it did give the project tremendous credibility when I explained it to my peer group,” he said in a news release from the University of Bristol, which partnered in the research. “Partaking in a university study sounds worthy, and the fact that it is intended to inform future health policy gives seriousness, but the payments for hitting targets takes it to new heights, particularly with male friends. To them, it becomes something more than some sort of diet,” Chesterfield said. The premise of Game of Stones was simple. Men living with obesity were promised the cash reward if they met three weight-loss targets: 5% weight loss at three months, 10% at… read on > read on >

Inmates released from jail have a ninefold increased risk of suicide within the following year, compared to people who’ve never been incarcerated, new research shows. “Suicide prevention efforts should focus on people who have spent at least one night in jail in the past year,” concluded the team led by Ted Miller, a senior research scientist with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Beltsville, Md. For the study, researchers pooled data from 10 different studies of death rates among formerly incarcerated adults. They used that data to estimate the suicide rate among the nearly 7.1 million adults who had been released from jail at least once in 2019. Inmates had a nine times greater risk of dying by suicide within one year of their release, and a seven times greater risk of suicide within two years of release, researchers found. People newly released from jail account for an estimated 20% of all adult suicide deaths, but they only account for just under 3% of the entire adult population. Adults are often arrested while in the throes of a mental health crisis, researchers noted. It’s now possible for health systems to link jail release data to patient health records, and thus can target for outreach patients who have been recently released, the researchers noted. “Focused suicide prevention efforts could reach a substantial number of… read on > read on >

(HeathDay News) — Following decades of declines, drowning deaths are once again climbing in the United States, new government data shows. More than 4,500 people died from drowning each year in 2020 through 2022, 500 more per year than in 2019, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Increased access to basic swimming lessons and water safety training could save many lives, researchers said. “I’ve seen firsthand the effects of drowning: families forced to say goodbye to their loved ones too soon,” CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry said in an agency news release. “Understanding the barriers people face to accessing basic swimming and water safety skills training can help us better understand how to address those barriers, decrease drowning rates and save lives,” Houry added. Drowning is the leading cause of death for toddlers ages 1 to 4 in the United States, and the new study found that drowning rates were the highest in this age group. By race and ethnicity, the highest drowning rates were found among Black people and American Indian/Alaska Native people, researchers found. Nearly 40 million adults (15%) do not know how to swim, and over half (55%) have never taken a swimming lesson, researchers noted. Black people in particular lack swimming skills. More than one in three (37%) Black adults said they don’t know how… read on > read on >

San Francisco is on the verge of passing a ban on “forever chemicals” in the protective clothing firefighters wear while battling blazes. City lawmakers are expected to pass an ordinance on Tuesday that will prohibit the use of firefighting gear made with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS have been linked to health harms, including decreased fertility, low-birth weight and developmental delays in children, a greater risk of certain cancers and higher cholesterol levels, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. While the compounds, which linger for years in the environment, have been phased out of most manufacturing, they are still used in some firefighting foams and nearly all firefighters’ uniforms because they resist flames and extreme heat, NBC News reported. If passed into law, the city’s fire department would have until June 30, 2026, to buy new protective clothing made without PFAS for its more than 1,400 firefighters. San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who authored the legislation, said he believes the ban “is morally right and it is financially right.” “Cost is so small compared to a human life, is so small compared to the cost of health care, is so small compared to the cost of settling lawsuits,” he told NBC News. Lt. Magaly Saade, a firefighter and training instructor at the San Francisco Fire Department, has had cancer twice, forcing her to undergo… read on > read on >

Semaglutide — the active ingredient in the blockbuster weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy — can produce long-term weight and heart health benefits, a pair of new studies show. Researchers found that overweight and obese adults lost an average 10% of their body weight and nearly three inches off their waistline after taking semaglutide for four years. Further, more than half of adults taking semaglutide moved down at least one BMI category after two years, compared to 16% of those who received a placebo, results show. And 12% reached a healthy BMI of 25 or less, compared with 1% in the placebo group. Finally, the studies showed that semaglutide contributes to heart health, regardless of how much weight a person lost while on the drug. “This degree of weight loss in such a large and diverse population suggests that it may be possible to impact the public health burden of multiple obesity-related illnesses,” said lead researcher Dr. Donna Ryan, associate executive director for clinical research with the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans. Ryan led the first clinical trial, which focused on the long-term weight effects of the drug. A second trial evaluated its heart health benefits. Both studies are based on data gathered from the largest and longest clinical trial of semaglutide, which tracked more than 17,600 overweight or obese adults without diabetes from… read on > read on >

Women who smoke during pregnancy run a higher risk of their kids becoming overweight or obese, and researchers now think they know one reason why. Children born of moms who smoked while expecting tend to have gut bacteria that is significantly different from that of kids whose moms didn’t light up, scientists reported recently in the journal Gut Microbes. It’s been known for some time that women who smoke in pregnancy tend to have babies who become overweight children, said co-senior researcher Anita Kozyrskyj, a microbiome epidemiologist and professor of pediatrics at the University of Alberta in Canada. “We just didn’t know how it happened,” Kozyrskyj said in a university news release. “There may be many ways, but in our study we showed one way is by changing the gut bacteria in the infant.” Obesity currently affects more than 18% of children and teens, up from only 4% back in 1975, researchers said in background notes. For the study, researchers used data from more than 1,500 children being tracked as part of a long-term study of child development. The kids’ weight was measured at ages 1 and 3, and stool samples were collected at 3 and 12 months of age. Researchers found that a child’s risk of excess weight was associated with higher levels of a type of gut bacteria called Firmicutes, and that smoking… read on > read on >

People with heart failure are often prescribed what are known as loop diuretic medications to help reduce the fluid buildup that’s a hallmark of the disease. Now, research suggests that taking the blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy (semaglutide) can help patients reduce their need for diuretics. After a year taking Wegovy, “there was evidence of a significant reduction in average loop diuretic dose, a lower likelihood of diuretic treatment escalation, and a greater likelihood of diuretic treatment de-escalation with semaglutide versus placebo,” said study lead author Dr. Kavita Sharma, associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Her team described its findings Monday in Lisbon, Portugal, at Heart Failure 2024, a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology. The type of heart failure the Hopkins’ study focused on was “heart failure with preserved ejection fraction” (HFePF). In this common form of the disease, the “heart pumps normally but is too stiff to fill properly, rendering the heart unable to support the body’s need for oxygen-rich blood,” according to a meeting news release. A total of 1,145 patients with HFePF were enrolled in the international trial. Patients were obese (body mass index, BMI, at or above 30) and averaged 70 years of age; half were men and half were women. At the start, 220 patients were not receiving diuretics, 223 were… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

New Blood Test Could Help Spot Preeclampsia in First Trimester

Could a Low-Cal Keto Diet Help Ease Acne?

Pedal Power: Biking Could Help Prevent Knee Arthritis

One Key to Weight Loss for Men: Competing for Cash

Recent Release From Jail a Big Risk Factor for Suicide

U.S. Drowning Deaths Rising Again After Years of Decline

San Francisco Set to Ban ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Firefighter Gear

More Studies Support Wegovy’s Long-Term Weight-Loss Benefits

Smoking During Pregnancy Could Raise Baby’s Odds for Obesity Later

Wegovy Can Help Heart Failure Patients Reduce Meds: Study

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