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When states let gun owners carry a firearm openly without a permit, death rates soar. Significantly more people died by firearms and suicides in states that have relaxed open carry laws, a nine-year study of death data from all 50 states shows. “Our analysis suggests that because of the change in the law, which provides easier access to firearms, we saw an increased firearm suicide rate and total suicide rate,” said principal study author Dr. Jose Diaz, a professor of surgery at the University of South Florida in Tampa. His team evaluated annual rates of firearm-related deaths, total suicides and total homicides from 2013 to 2021. Death data came from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the study period, 19 states barred open carry or required a permit, and five states switched to open carry laws without a permit. Twenty-six states already allowed open carry without a permit before 2013. Over the study period, firearm deaths jumped 45% nationwide, from 33,636 in 2013 to 48,830 in 2021. Researchers found a significant link between more liberal gun laws and rates of firearm-related deaths. Total suicide rates rose by about 57%, while suicides by firearm rose 18% in states that switched to permitless open carry, the data showed. There was no link between permitless open carry laws and homicides related to firearms. Diaz said… read on > read on >

Women who’ve gone through menopause and hope that supplemental vitamin D plus calcium might shield them from disease may be disappointed by new data. A follow-up analysis of data from the landmark Women’s Health Initiative trial found the supplement combo lowered a woman’s long-term odds of dying from cancer by 7%. However, it also raised her odds of fatal heart disease by 6%. The bottom line: there was “no net effect on all-cause mortality” among older women who took the supplement combo, the study authors said. It’s possible “that calcium supplements may increase calcification of coronary arteries, thus increasing cardiovascular disease mortality,” said a team led by Cynthia Thomson, a professor of health promotion sciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The findings were published March 11 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. For years, many older women have popped a combination of calcium plus vitamin D to help strengthen their bones. Many may also wonder if the supplements cut their odds for two major killers, heart disease and cancer. The Women’s Health Initiative began enrolling tens of thousands of women as far back as 1991, and has tracked their health outcomes over subsequent decades. In 2006, the first (seven-year) findings on the effects of calcium/vitamin D supplementation on women’s health were announced; the results were “largely null,” Thomson’s group noted. Could that result… read on > read on >

Gay and bisexual people, as well as those undergoing gender transition, could face unique dermatological issues, an expert says. Board-certified dermatologist Dr. John Zampella, who runs a clinic in New York City that caters to many LGBTQ+ patients, said the risk for sexually transmitted infections is higher among this group and can sometimes lead to skin complications. “Dermatologists are the experts in the diagnosis and treatment of many sexually transmitted infections like syphilis, HPV and herpes that often have skin-related symptoms,” Zampella explained at the American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting in San Diego. There are recent reports on the emergence of fungal infections, such as ringworm, that could also be sexually transmitted among gay and bisexual men. These typically appear as a spreading rash in the groin or buttocks area, and should be examined by a physician such as a dermatologist, Zampella said. Strains of these infections often prove resistant to traditional antifungal meds and may take longer to treat. The best way to stop many STIs is prevention, of course. As Zampella noted, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) antivirals are now available as injections that can provide users with two months of protection against HIV. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also approved the antibiotic doxycycline, taken within 72 hours of having sex, as a preventive measure against syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea.… read on > read on >

The cost to American families of caring for a child with a mental health condition rose by almost a third between 2017 and 2021, a new report finds, to an average $4,361 per year. Overall, American families spent an estimated $31 billion in 2021 on child mental health services, which now make up nearly half (about 47%) of all child medical spending, the report found. The findings “underscore the large financial burden associated with pediatric mental health conditions on the U.S. health care system,” said a team led by Theoren Loo. He works for Brightline, a California company focused on virtual mental health care for kids. The findings were published March 11 in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Network Open. As the study authors noted, “the prevalence of pediatric mental health conditions and the demand for behavioral health services is growing in the U.S.” In 2021, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a report outlining “alarming increases in the prevalence of certain mental health challenges” among kids. In the study, Loo’s group tracked 2017-2021 federal data on medical spending from a representative sampling of American households. They found that diagnoses for mental health conditions in kids ages 5 to 17 rose by almost 22% over those five years. By 2021, about one in every four (25.9%) American children was diagnosed with a mental health… read on > read on >

Slicing some fresh limes for that margarita savored in the sun could be a bad combo for some people’s skin, dermatologists warn. Folks can break out in what are nicknamed “margarita rashes” if they are skin-sensitive to certain fruits or vegetables and then get sun exposure soon after. The medical term for these outbreaks is photocontact dermatitis. “Sun sensitivity is a common condition that can negatively impact a person’s quality of life,” said board-certified dermatologist Dr. Brandon Adler, an assistant professor of dermatology at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He spoke about the issue on Friday during the American Academy of Dermatology’s annual meeting. Handling produce such as lime, figs and celery or coming into contact with plants like hogweed and St. John’s wort can set some folks up for photocontact dermatitis. For other people, medicines — taken either by mouth or applied to the skin — can help spur skin reactions, Adler explained. A medicinal cream might only cause a rash where it was applied, but a pill taken by mouth might bring on a rash that breaks out all over the body after sun exposure. Typical photocontact rashes occur in areas most exposed to sun — face, neck, arms or legs, Adler said. “While we will often prescribe anti-inflammatory medications to treat photocontact dermatitis, the… read on > read on >

Following disappointing trial results, the maker of a controversial ALS drug may pull the medication off the market. In a statement issued Friday, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals said that Relyvrio failed to help patients in a large follow-up study, but the company stopped just short of saying it will definitely pull the drug from the market. The drug is sold as Albrioza in Canada. “Amylyx intends to share plans for Relyvrio/Albrioza in ALS, which may include voluntarily withdrawing Relyvrio/Albrioza from the market,” the company said in its statement. “At this time, Relyvrio/Albrioza and its related patient support program will continue to be available for people living with ALS. Amylyx has voluntarily decided to pause promotion of the medication during this time.” Executives added that they were “surprised and disappointed” by the results and would announce their plans for the drug in the next two months. Relyvrio was first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September 2022, following a lengthy, impassioned campaign by patients with ALS, a fatal muscle-wasting disease. Unfortunately, the latest company study showed the drug did not slow the disease compared with a placebo treatment, and it also did not produce improvements on any secondary measures, such as muscle strength. ALS is a devastating neurological disease slowly destroys nerve cells and connections that are needed to walk, talk, speak and breathe. Most patients die… read on > read on >

Kids struggling with mental health problems have a tougher time recovering from a concussion, a new study finds. These troubled kids tend to have more emotional symptoms after concussion and take longer to fully recover, results show. In fact, the more mental health diagnoses a child had, the worse their emotional symptoms and the longer their recovery following a concussion, researchers reported recently in the journal Sports Health. “While research has emphasized the negative mental health effects that persist after a concussion and how they can impact development and recovery, it’s also very important to consider the burden these children and adolescents face prior to their injuries, and how their preexisting mental health status can impact recovery,” said senior researcher Dr. Matthew Grady, a pediatric sports medicine specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Concussions are a common childhood injury, with about 2 million sports- and recreation-related concussions occurring each year in the United States, researchers said in background notes. These mild traumatic brain injuries can cause a variety of problems with brain function, emotions, sleep and vision, researchers said. A child’s physical health prior to concussion is known to influence their symptoms and recovery time. To see whether that held true for mental health as well, researchers analyzed data on more than 3,100 kids who had suffered a concussion. The research team checked the… read on > read on >

Days clogged with numerous after-school activities are detrimental to the mental health of over-scheduled high school students, a new study finds. Researchers also found that these “enrichment’ activities — tutoring, sports, school clubs and even homework — are unlikely to benefit students academically. Many folks think extra study time or tutoring will lead to better grades, but the new study shows many students are at their limit, said researcher Carolina Caetano, an assistant professor of economics with the University of Georgia College of Business. “We found that the effect of those additional activities on cognitive skills, that last hour, is basically zero,” Caetano said in a university news release. “And what’s more surprising is that the last hour doing these activities is contributing negatively to the child’s non-cognitive skills.” In other words, academic overload is causing high schoolers to lose out on social and emotional abilities — well-being, emotional control, resilience and communication, Caetano said. Caetano said it’s best to think of the relationship between enrichment activities and these social and emotional skills as a curve. For a while, an additional hour of studying, tutoring or group activities will help students improve their academic performance. But the more time a student spends on enrichment, the less time they have to relax, freely socialize or sleep – activities valuable for life skills and knowledge retention, Caetano… read on > read on >

Wegovy (semaglutide), the weight-loss version of blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic, was approved on Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help prevent heart attack, stroke and heart death. “Wegovy is now the first weight-loss medication to also be approved to help prevent life-threatening cardiovascular events in adults with cardiovascular disease and either obesity or overweight,” Dr. John Sharretts, director of the Division of Diabetes, Lipid Disorders and Obesity in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in an agency statement. “This patient population has a higher risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke,” Sharretts explained. “Providing a treatment option that is proven to lower this cardiovascular risk is a major advance for public health.” According to the FDA, over 70% of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, putting them at added risk for heart attack or stroke. In one multinational study involving over 17,600 people, participants received either injected Wegovy or a placebo injection. All participants also got standard-of-care management of their blood pressure and cholesterol plus counseling on exercise and healthy eating. “Wegovy significantly reduced the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events [cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke], which occurred in 6.5% of participants who received Wegovy compared to 8% of participants who received placebo,” the FDA said. It’s thought that this expanded approval from the FDA could remove… read on > read on >

Instead of approving the new Alzheimer’s drug donanemab this month, as was expected, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will now require the experimental medication be scrutinized more closely by an expert panel, the drug’s maker said Friday. “The FDA has informed Lilly it wants to further understand topics related to evaluating the safety and efficacy of donanemab, including the safety results in donanemab-treated patients and the efficacy implications of the unique trial design,” the company said in a statement. The move surprised the company, which had believed the agency would give its blessing to the drug during the first quarter of this year. “We were not expecting this,” Anne White, a Lilly executive vice president and president of its neuroscience division, told the Times. While independent FDA advisory committees are often called upon when the agency has questions about drugs, it was unusual to do so “at the end of the review cycle and beyond the action date that the FDA had given us,” White noted. While the FDA did not comment on the news, Lilly officials said they expected it would be a few months before the appropriate advisory committee meets to weigh the benefits of the drug, the Times reported. “The FDA did commit to us to move quickly, so we would hope that they would then take action shortly after the… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Permissive Gun Laws Linked to Higher Suicide Rates

Vitamin D Plus Calcium: Good News, Bad News for Older Women

LGBT People Can Face Unique Skin Health Challenges

Medical Costs for Kids’ Mental Health Jumped 31% in 5 Years

Sun Plus Certain Foods, Meds Can Bring on ‘Margarita Rashes’

Poor Trial Results May Prompt Maker to Pull ALS Drug From Market

Kids Battling Mental Health Issues Have Tougher Time Recovering From Concussion

How After-School Programs Can Harm Teens’ Mental Health

FDA Approves Wegovy to Help Prevent Heart Attack, Stroke

FDA Delays Decision on New Alzheimer’s Drug

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