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U.S. gun deaths and injuries in children have risen at astronomical rates. Yet, among kids on Medicaid, only about two of every five children who get shot receive mental health care within six months of these traumatic incidents, researchers say. The need is great, given that more than 11,250 U.S. kids experienced nonfatal firearm injuries in 2020. “There are many things that can happen after a traumatic accident like this from a mental health perspective. One, there are very frequently people who experience chronic pain associated with it, and chronic pain has a high rate of developing substance use disorders and addiction,” said study co-author Dr. Eric Fleegler. These patients may have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and could be dealing with depression. Without proper therapy and medication, this may lead to worse school performance, trouble retaining work, issues in relationships, suicidal ideation and premature death, added Fleegler, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Boston Children’s Hospital. He’s also an associate professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School. Those most likely to receive care already had sought mental health care or they received a mental health diagnosis at the time of the firearm injury, the study found. They were also more likely to be white. “There should be nothing different between somebody who is Black versus somebody white versus somebody who’s Hispanic in… read on > read on >

Many men will put off going to the doctor unless they are really sick, but men’s health screenings help catch problems before symptoms appear. So, how can you tell if a health screening or preventive care appointment is right for you? The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Library of Medicine offer several men’s health screening and preventative care recommendations. Many of these recommendations are guided by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which is made up of experts in primary care and disease prevention. Here’s a comprehensive guide, based on this expert advice, to the most important men’s health screenings you need — and how often you should go — to stay on top of your health. Physical exam When to get it: Start at age 18 How often: Periodically or annually if aged 65 and older Regular exams by your doctor are used to screen for current and potential medical issues. A physical exam may include: Checking your height, weight and body mass index Discussing healthy lifestyle practices Updating your vaccinations Talking about health issues or medical concerns you have Asking about your diet plan, exercise routine, and alcohol and tobacco use Asking if you’re experiencing any issues with anxiety and depression If you’re aged 65 and older, checking your blood pressure… read on > read on >

No man wants to hear that he has prostate cancer, but if he is diagnosed he will need to learn about the disease and how it is treated. Prostate cancer affects one in seven men. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), it is the second most common type of cancer among men after skin cancer. With an estimated 288,300 new cases in the United States in 2023, it is important to know more about prostate cancer and what you can expect if you are the one in seven. What is prostate cancer? The prostate, a walnut-shaped organ, is part of men’s reproductive organs, providing some of the seminal fluid. Living below the bladder, it surrounds the urethra through which urine drains and the seminal tube through which semen flows. As with other cancers, it begins when cells mutate, grow out of control and eventually damage and steal nutrients from the surrounding healthy cells, according to the ACS. Prostate cancer causes While specific prostate cancer causes have not been identified, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists several prostate cancer risk factors. These include: Age : The most common risk factor. The older you are, the more likely you are to develop prostate cancer Race: Black men are more likely to get prostate cancer, get it at a younger age, have advanced disease… read on > read on >

It’s tempting to treat little skin bumps on your own, but that delays proper diagnosis and treatment that may work better, federal regulators cautioned. Among the many types of skin conditions a person can contract are a virus called molluscum, which look like white, pink or flesh-colored bumps. Products marketed as treatments for molluscum have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency warned. There are no approved treatments in either prescription or over-the-counter form for the condition, which will typically go away on its own in six to 12 months but could last up to five years. Molluscum are sometimes called water warts. They can grow alone or in groups almost anywhere on the skin, including the face, neck, arms, legs, abdomen and genital area. They are rarely on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet. Sometimes these bumps itch and get irritated. People with a weakened immune system may have larger or more bumps. They’re more common in children, but can happen in teens and adults. Without seeing a doctor, you won’t know if what you have is actually molluscum or something else. Molluscum is spread by skin-to-skin contact, including sexual contact, and by sharing clothes or infected objects such as sports equipment. Staying clean, including washing your hands, is the best way to prevent them.… read on > read on >

Summer vacation has begun for some families and screen use may already feel like too much. A psychiatrist from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston offers some tips for making sure smartphones and tablets are put to good use and not used to excess. Dr. Laurel Williams, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, said no arbitrary number of hours spent online indicates addiction. She suggests parents should focus on their child’s behavior toward their phone. If something seems different or problematic, that might be a warning sign of too much screen time. “It could be that your child is not talking to anyone at home, talking less, always spending time in their room or getting anxious or unhappy about whatever they see or do online,” Williams said in a college news release. Kids tend to get less physical activity when they overuse devices, whether watching TV, playing video games or scrolling through social media. They need to be active, and they also need to pursue some enrichment to make sure they are ready for their studies in the fall. Poorer children who can’t afford to participate in summer enrichment programs often lose knowledge during the break and take longer to catch up at the start of the school year, Williams noted. Some may not have many options other than turning to… read on > read on >

The most common screening test for prostate cancer so often returns a false positive result that it’s no longer recommended for men older than 70, and it’s offered as a personal choice for younger men. But researchers think they’ve found a way to make the blood test for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) accurate enough to significantly reduce overdiagnosis and better predict dangerous cancers. By calibrating PSA levels to each man’s genetics, doctors could control for other factors that might cause levels to be elevated, according to researchers at Stanford Medicine, in California. The researchers envisioned combining the regular blood-based PSA test with an additional genetic analysis that detects inherited genetic variants that can affect PSA levels. Elevated PSA levels can be a sign of prostate cancer, but levels can also be high due to other issues like inflammation, infection, an enlarged prostate or just old age, the study authors said in background notes. “Some men have higher PSA levels due to their genetics,” senior researcher John Witte, a Stanford professor of epidemiology and population health, said in a university news release. “They don’t have cancer, but the higher PSA level leads to a cascade of unnecessary medical interventions like biopsy.” By one estimate, less than one-third of men with elevated PSA levels were confirmed by a biopsy to have prostate cancer, the researchers reported. Moreover, 15%… read on > read on >

Ticks are extremely resilient even when temperatures vary wildly, according to scientists who are working to better understand the spread of Lyme disease. In their new study, black-legged ticks, notorious for carrying pathogens, were very good at surviving both extreme cold and high heat, the scientists found. This was true both for nymph and adult ticks. Only larval ticks were more affected by weather conditions. “We thought we would see some evidence that if there was like a very dry period, all the ticks might be at a greater risk of dying,” said lead study author Jesse Brunner, an associate professor of biological sciences at Washington State University, in Pullman. “However, just the larvae were impacted by heat and dry conditions. Cold weather had even less of an impact. Somehow, they hunker down and survive great.” For the study, Brunner and a team of collaborators from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies set up a large field study at three military bases along the U.S. East Coast using funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. The researchers placed more than 9,000 ticks in soil core enclosures, monitoring their survival over a three-year period and collecting data on the ticks’ response to climate conditions. The extreme weather did make ticks go through their food more quickly. This means that the window for ticks looking for a… read on > read on >

Summer is here and so, too, is swimming season. As fun as a pool can be, it’s also a major safety risk if you don’t take the appropriate precautions. An expert from Huntington Health, an affiliate of Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, offers some tips for a safe pool season. “If children or non-experienced swimmers will be in the pool, it’s very important to have adult supervision. I think asking another child to watch after their sibling, for example, is not adequate,” said Dr. Amal Obaid-Schmid, medical director of trauma services at Huntington Health. “You need a supervisor who’s an adult, who is not distracted with their cellphone, or a phone call inside the house, or a conversation with another adult, really taking that role very seriously. Not letting your eye off the child is huge because drowning can happen in an instant,” she said in a Cedars-Sinai news release. More children aged 1 to 4 die from drowning than any other cause of death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pool owners should be sure to have a fence at least four feet high around their pool, Obaid-Schmid advised. Keep a variety of flotation devices in and around the pool — a life jacket plus pool noodles or a paddle board — so that a drowning person has something to grab… read on > read on >

There is no cure for nearsightedness, but medicated eye drops can slow down its progression in children, a new trial finds. The study tested the effects of eye drops containing a very low dose of the drug atropine — the same medication used to dilate the pupils during an eye exam. Researchers found that when children with nearsightedness used the drops every day for three years, their vision worsened more slowly — and was more likely to stabilize — versus kids given placebo drops. That does not mean the drops will reverse vision problems or liberate kids from glasses, experts stressed. “The real point here is the longer term,” said lead researcher Karla Zadnik, dean of Ohio State University’s College of Optometry, in Columbus. Nearsightedness, she explained, arises when at some point during childhood, the eyeball “grows too long” and becomes more oval-shaped than round. That alters how light hits the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye — turning far vision into a “big, blurry mess,” Zadnik explained. Glasses or contact lenses can clear up that mess, but the underlying nearsightedness typically keeps progressing until at least the mid-teens. That matters, Zadnik said, because more severe nearsightedness can lead to problems for some people in adulthood. That elongated eyeball can raise the risk of conditions like retinal detachment, glaucoma and cataracts.… read on > read on >

Erectile dysfunction (ED) has been tied to an increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Now, research suggests that erectile woes during late middle age may also be linked to a man’s chances of developing memory issues later on. “Because subtle changes in erectile function were related to memory decline, our results suggest that neglecting this aspect of sexual health may contribute to cases of cognitive impairment and dementia in men,” said study author Tyler Reed Bell. He’s a post-doctoral scholar at the University of California, San Diego. “An ounce of erectile function treatment may be worth pounds in the number of years lived without cognitive impairment or dementia,” Bell reasoned. Researchers don’t know precisely how the two conditions are linked, but they have a theory. “It is likely related to microvascular changes [in the walls of the small blood vessels] that are important to both penile and cognitive health,” Bell suggested. For the study, the researchers tracked associations between erectile function, sexual satisfaction, and memory and thinking skills (“cognition”) in more than 800 men, about age 56 on average at the study’s start. The men underwent tests of their memory and processing speed and completed questionnaires about erectile function and sexual satisfaction when they were 56, 61 and 68. Those men who had reduced erectile function at age 56 were more… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Many Kids Wait Too Long for Mental Health Care After Gun Injury

Men: Here Are the Health Screenings You Need

Prostate Cancer: The Basics Every Man Needs to Know

FDA Warns Against Using Bogus Treatments for Skin Condition Molluscum

Does Your Kid Need a Summer Vacation From Smartphones?

Scientists Get Closer to a Better PSA Test

Ticks Can Take a Licking From Really Tough Weather

Get in the Swim: Summer Pool Safety Tips

Drug Might Help Slow Nearsightedness in Kids

Erectile Troubles in Middle Age a Bad Sign for Men’s Brains