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Text messages and other online feedback can help prevent obesity in very young children, a new study demonstrates. Kids had a healthier weight-for-height growth curve during their first two years if parents were offered electronic feedback on feeding habits, playtime and exercise, researchers found. “What is kind of exciting from our study is we prevented those children who would have had an unhealthy weight in the first place and helped them have a healthier weight, which sets them up better for health throughout their lives,” said co-lead researcher Dr. Eliana Perrin, a professor of primary care at the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health in Baltimore. About 1 in 5 school-aged kids were obese in 2017-2018, and these rates are expected to have increased since the pandemic, researchers said. In a prior study, Perrin and her colleagues found that in-clinic counseling improved healthy growth in newborns up to 18 months of age, but not through the age of 2. That might be because pediatric office visits become less frequent past a child’s first year of life, the researchers reasoned. Given that, they created a follow-up study focusing on using digital technology to continue providing health and diet counseling for new parents, even if they’re no longer dropping by a doctor’s office. “We found that parents are eager for more information to… read on > read on >

Women who’ve had concussions are more likely to suffer severe mental health problems following childbirth, a new study shows. A history of concussion increased a new mother’s risk of severe mental illness by 25%, after adjusting for other factors, Canadian researchers reported. “We found that individuals with a history of concussion were significantly more likely to experience serious mental health challenges, such as psychiatric emergency department visits or self-harm, in the years following childbirth,” said lead researcher Samantha Krueger, a registered midwife and doctoral candidate in health research methodology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She conducted the study while at the the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 750,000 pregnant women in Ontario between 2007 and 2017. These women’s mental health outcomes were tracked for up to 14 years following delivery. Among women with a history of concussion, 11% experienced severe mental illness. Only 7% of those without prior concussions developed severe mental disorders. The findings, published Nov. 4 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, were particularly striking among women with no prior history of mental health problems. A history of concussion increased their risk of severe mental illness following delivery by 33%. “This association was especially strong for people with no prior mental health history, meaning that concussion may be… read on > read on >

Yoga can help ease chronic low back pain, even if the classes are conducted online, a new study shows. Guidelines recommend using physical therapy or yoga to treat lower back pain before moving on to painkillers, but it can be tough for some people to make it to a yoga studio. “Attending yoga classes in person can be challenging,” said senior researcher Dr. Robert Saper, chair of the wellness and preventive medicine at Cleveland Clinic. But the study found that people taking virtual yoga classes had a sixfold greater reduction in pain compared with those not assigned to the online sessions, researchers reported Nov. 1 in the journal JAMA Network Open. The online yoga students also had a nearly threefold improvement in their back-related function. “This research shows that a virtual yoga class program can be a safe and effective therapeutic option for the treatment of chronic low back pain,” Saper said in a Cleveland Clinic news release. For the study, 140 people with chronic low back pain were randomly assigned to either participate in a virtual live-streamed yoga class for 12 weeks or continue with their usual medical care. All the participants were members of Cleveland Clinic’s Employee Health Plan from either northeast Ohio or Florida. In the classes, yoga instructors delivered a program designed especially for virtual delivery to treat people with low… read on > read on >

The GLP-1 drug semaglutide can help obese people manage debilitating knee arthritis, a new trial has found. People who received weekly injections of semaglutide — the active agent in the diabetes drug Ozempic and the weight-loss medication Wegovy — had a nearly 14% decrease in their body weight after 68 weeks, compared with 3% of people given a placebo, results showed. The trial was funded by Novo Nordisk, the drug company that makes semaglutide. This weight loss translated into a decrease in knee pain and improved knee function among those taking semaglutide, researchers reported Oct. 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine. “Obesity-related knee osteoarthritis is a progressive condition that can lead to pain and stiffness of the knee and impair critical daily functions such as walking or moving around,” said lead researcher Dr. Henning Bliddal, a professor of rheumatology with Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark. “The risk of developing the condition is more than four times higher in people with obesity,” Bliddal added in a Novo Nordisk news release. Added weight places more stress on the knee, causing the natural cartilage that cushions the joint to wear down more quickly, experts say. Dropping excess pounds is often recommended to treat knee arthritis, but it can be tough to achieve through diet and exercise alone, Bliddal noted. For this study, researchers recruited 407 adults… read on > read on >

Hillary Fisher thinks receiving weight-loss surgery as a teenager put her on the path to a better life. Fisher is one of 260 teens who participated in a long-term study which recently concluded that weight-loss surgery can bring lasting health benefits for obese teenagers. “It changed my life,” Fisher, now 31, said in a news release. “The improved health and self-esteem that came with the 100-pound weight loss were important to me and I would certainly do it again.” Fisher was not alone in her success: The surgery led to substantial and sustained weight loss for more than half of the study’s participants during a decade of follow-up, researchers reported Oct. 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The teens also had fewer obesity-related health problems in adulthood like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol, researchers report. “Our study presents impressive outcomes of the longest follow-up of weight-loss surgery during adolescence, which validates bariatric surgery as a safe and effective long-term obesity management strategy,” said lead investigator Justin Ryder, vice chair of research for the Department of Surgery at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Fisher decided to undergo the surgery at age 16. “I was crushed by the daily issues I faced due to my weight, health problems and bullying in high school,” Fisher said. “After many… read on > read on >

Smokers diagnosed with cancer often shrug and keep lighting up, figuring a few more butts won’t make much difference. They’re very mistaken, a new study finds. Smokers are 22% to 26% less likely to die if they quit following a cancer diagnosis, researchers found. The best outcomes occurred in patients who quit within six months of their cancer diagnosis and remained off the butts for at least three months, researchers reported Oct. 31 in the journal JAMA Oncology. “While smoking cessation is widely promoted across cancer centers for cancer prevention, it remains under-addressed by many oncologists in their routine care,” said principal investigator Paul Cinciripini, chair of behavioral science and executive director of the Tobacco Research and Treatment Program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. “Our research underscores the critical role of early smoking cessation as a key clinical intervention for patients undergoing cancer treatment,” Cinciripini added in an MD Anderson news release. For the study, researchers followed more than 4,500 smokers who had been diagnosed with cancer and were in a quit smoking program at MD Anderson. Nearly all of the quit support was provided via telemedicine. Cancer patients who successfully abstained from smoking had an average survival of four years, compared with two years for those who couldn’t quit, results show. “This is a call to action for experts, regulatory… read on > read on >

Doctors in New York City are describing the first known U.S. cases of sexually transmitted ringworm, which can cause a nasty rash that can take months to bring under control. Despite the name, ringworm isn’t any kind of worm but instead is a fungus, Trichophyton mentagrophytes. It’s more commonly known as jock itch (when it affects the groin area) or athlete’s foot, and can produce a round, itchy rash. Until now, transmission of the fungal infection through skin-to-skin sexual contact has been rare, although cases have been reported in Southeast Asia and France since 2021, researchers reported. These have been a subtype of T. mentagrophytes called TMVII. The new report concludes that the first U.S. case of sexually transmitted TMVII was reported in June, and “four additional TMVII infections were diagnosed during April-July 2024 in New York City among men who have sex with men.” The rash appeared “on the [patients’] face, buttocks or genitals, and was successfully treated with antifungal medications,” said a team led by dermatologist Dr. Avrom Caplan, of NYU Langone Health in New York City. His team published its findings Oct. 31 in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a journal of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the report, all five cases of sexually transmitted ringworm so far documented in the United States involved gay or bisexual… read on > read on >

If anxiety over this year’s presidential election is keeping you up at night, you’re not alone. About 17% of all U.S. adults — a striking 45 million Americans — say the election has negatively impacted their sleep, according to a survey by the National Sleep Foundation. These folks are sleeping less on the weekend and have poorer sleep quality overall, the survey found. The negative impact on sleep of the 2024 presidential election cut across all groups, including political party affiliation, results showed. “The dynamics of stressful societal events like elections and election day can adversely affect the public’s mood, and in turn sleep health, which is critical for health and well-being,” Joseph Dzierzewski, senior vice president for research and scientific affairs at the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), said in an NSF news release. “This reinforces the importance of addressing sleep health during periods of high stress.” Anxiety and sleeplessness can feed on each other, sleep experts say. People who are anxious get poorer sleep, and people who don’t sleep well are more prone to anxiety. People affected by the election are getting about 7 hours of sleep on the weekend, nearly a half hour less than those who say their sleep hasn’t been disturbed by politics, results showed. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being excellent and 5 being poor), those worried… read on > read on >

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have created a nation of homebodies in the United States, a new study finds. People are spending nearly an hour less each day doing activities outside the home, researchers reported Oct. 31 in the Journal of the American Planning Association. In essence, not going out has become the “new normal” post-COVID, experts say. Since 2019, there’s been an overall drop of about 51 minutes in the daily time spent on out-of-home activities, researchers found. People also spend about 12 minutes less time on daily travel in cars or public transportation. This decrease in time spent away from home appears to be a lasting consequence of the pandemic, researchers said, and it will affect society on many levels. For example, cities will need to rethink their dependence on folks who commute in for their workdays, noted the researchers, who are urban planners. “In a world where cities cannot rely on captive office workers and must work to attract residents, workers and customers, local officials might seek to invest more heavily in their remaining strengths,” said lead study author Eric Morris, a professor of city and regional planning at Clemson University in South Carolina. “These include opportunities for recreation, entertainment, culture, arts and more,” Morris added in a journal news release. “Central cities might shift toward becoming centers of consumption more than… read on > read on >

Sugar overload is a real danger on Halloween, as piles of candy prove a powerful temptation to both Trick-or-Treaters and the folks handing out the goodies. Too many sweet treats can instigate a blood sugar spike followed by a hard crash, causing folks to become irritable and experience symptoms like dizziness, upset stomach, tiredness and headache, said Luis Rustveld, an associate professor of family and community medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “Sugar gets broken down into glucose by your body and travels through your bloodstream, signaling the pancreas to make insulin, which helps your cells convert glucose into energy,” Rustveld explained in a Baylor news release. “Too much sugar overwhelms the system, resulting in spikes in blood glucose levels.” The best way to prevent both kids and adults from overloading on sugar is to start the night with a normal, balanced meal, Rustveld advised. Slow-digesting protein from the meal will help blunt blood sugar spikes, and a fuller stomach will lower the desire to munch on too much candy, he said. It’s also good to get in some physical activity — either lots of steps Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood, or working out earlier in the day — to help maintain a balance between exercise and the added sugar in a Halloween diet, Rustveld said. He advised parents to stick with the American… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Text-Messaging Program Helps Parents Keep Infants at Healthy Weight

History of Concussion Could Raise a New Mom’s Odds for Mental Health Issues

Online Yoga Classes Can Ease Lower Back Pain

Ozempic, Wegovy Could Help Ease Knee Arthritis Pain

Weight-Loss Surgery for Teens Brings Lasting Benefit

Quitting Smoking After Cancer Diagnosis Boosts Survival by Up to 26%

Doctors Report First U.S. Cases of Sexually Transmitted Ringworm Rash

Election Fears Are Keeping Americans Awake at Night, Survey Shows

Staying In: Did Pandemic Shift Americans’ Leisure-Time Habits Permanently?

Halloween Candy: Don’t Get Spooked by All That Sugar