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Damage to the brainstem could be behind the physical and psychological effects of Long COVID, a new study suggests. Brain scans of 30 Long COVID patients found they had damage to the region of the brainstem associated with breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety, researchers reported Oct. 7 in the journal Brain. “The brainstem is the critical junction box between our conscious selves and what is happening in our bodies,” said co-lead researcher James Rowe, a senior research fellow with the University of Cambridge Department of Clinical Neurosciences. “The ability to see and understand how the brainstem changes in response to COVID-19 will help explain and treat the long-term effects more effectively.” Post-mortem studies of people who died of severe COVID-19 early in the pandemic showed changes in their brainstem, researchers said in background notes. “People who were very sick early in the pandemic showed long-lasting brain changes, likely caused by an immune response to the virus. But measuring that immune response is difficult in living people,” Rowe said. “Normal hospital type MRI scanners can’t see inside the brain with the kind of chemical and physical detail we need.” So, the research team turned to more powerful MRI machines called 7-Tesla scanners, which found that COVID infection caused inflammation damage in multiple regions of the brainstem. These abnormalities appeared several weeks after hospital admission, generally in regions… read on > read on >

In a small, preliminary study, piano lessons provided to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy appeared to help them maintain brain health. “There were a lot of outside stressors contributing to my mood, but piano practice and going to lessons were always something good and positive that I would look forward to, no matter what else was happening,” said Robin Hesselink, an enrollee in a pilot program at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla. Heeselink, who’s undergoing treatment for stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, explained that “even for those 30 minutes or an hour, I could forget about the other stuff and have something enjoyable. At least temporarily, while I’m doing it, it has a very positive effect on me.” Besides those mood-boosting effects, the piano lessons appeared to enhance the “executive function” of participants’ brains, according to a news release from the University of South Florida (USF). The new protocol, called Keys to Staying Sharp, seeks to curb declines in memory and thinking that sometimes accompany chemotherapy, explained Jennifer Bugos, a professor of music education at USF. “We are interested in examining whether social support while learning a musical instrument can increase cognition in patients undergoing treatment for cancer,” she said in a university news release. Specifically, the research is looking at “which areas of cognition may be improved and what duration of music training is… read on > read on >

Checking your blood pressure at home? Pay attention to arm position. A new study by Johns Hopkins researchers confirms that it makes a “huge difference” when it comes to getting an accurate measurement. And, the authors add, health care providers need to be more careful about it, too. “[Patients] must advocate for themselves in the clinical setting and when measuring their BP at home,” said senior study author Dr. Tammy Brady, vice chair for clinical research in the department of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Nearly half of U.S. adults have elevated blood pressure, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). The diagnosis is made when the force of blood flowing through blood vessels is higher than normal (120/80, on average). Left untreated, hypertension puts a person at increased risk of stroke, heart attack and other serious heart conditions. The new study looked at the effects of three arm positions during a blood pressure test: supported on a desk; supported on a lap; and hanging at the patient’s side. The study found that lap support overestimated systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) by nearly 4 mmHg, while an arm hanging at the patients side overestimated it by nearly 7 mmHg. Systolic pressure is the pressure against artery walls when the heart beats. AHA guidelines for measuring blood… read on > read on >

Light therapy: It’s long been a go-to therapy for seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a kind of depression that can beset some people when winter looms and days shorten. But new research is suggesting that time spent in front of light box might ease other forms of depression as well. The new review of data was led by Artur Menegaz de Almeida, of the Federal University of Mato Grosso in Sinop, Brazil. His team noted that, right now, light therapy’s effectiveness has only been proven against SAD. However, “Bright light therapy has been studied as a potential adjunctive treatment for major depressive disorder, as light exposure is well understood to affect human mood and cognitive function,” he said in a news release from the American Psychiatric Association. Reporting Oct. 2 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, the Brazilian team pored through data from 11 randomized clinical trials involving a total of 858 patients. These people had diagnoses of nonseasonal forms of major depression or bipolar depression. Some patients used light therapy in addition to whatever medication they had been prescribed. Therapy was defined as sitting in front of fluorescent 10,000 lux-powered light box for at least 30 minutes, with treatment lasting for between 1 and 6 weeks. Their outcomes were compared to those of patients on other adjunct treatments, such as air ionizers or dim red light. A… read on > read on >

The health benefits of fluoridated drinking water may be waning as Americans increasingly turn to using toothpastes and mouthwashes that already contain fluoride, a new review suggests. The research, published Thursday in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, came to that conclusion after analyzing more than 157 studies that compared tooth decay in kids living in communities that added fluoride to their water supply with communities that didn’t. Exactly what did the scientists discover? The studies of more than 5,700 children conducted before fluoride-fortified toothpaste became widely available in the mid-1970s found that adding fluoride to water systems reduced the number of decayed teeth by an average of 2.1 teeth per child. However, studies conducted after 1975, including nearly 3,000 children in the U.K. and Australia, estimated the benefit was lower, at 0.24 fewer decayed baby teeth per child, just one-quarter of one tooth. Despite that finding, the researchers stressed municipalities shouldn’t interpret the results as a reason to stop adding the cavity-fighting mineral to their water systems. “When interpreting the evidence, it is important to think about the wider context and how society and health have changed over time,” study co-author Anne-Marie Glenny, a professor of health sciences research at the University of Manchester in England, said in a journal news release. “Most of the studies on water fluoridation are over 50 years old, before… read on > read on >

Whether abusive parents, drug addiction or gun violence are to blame, the fallout from childhood traumas can reverberate until a person’s final days of life, new research shows. “We found that early-life trauma in particular, especially physical abuse by parents, was strongly related to end-of-life pain, loneliness and depressive symptoms,” said senior study author Dr. Ashwin Kotwal, of the University of California, San Francisco’s division of geriatrics and the San Francisco VA Medical Center. Traumatic events in childhood may lead to poor health habits, social and emotional isolation and an increased risk of subsequent trauma, he explained in a UCSF news release. His team looked at data from a study that followed about 6,500 Americans over age 50 who died between 2006 and 2020. Their average age at death: 78. Study participants completed questionnaires about their experiences with 11 traumatic events and their psychosocial well-being and were interviewed every other year until they died. A final interview with a family member or friend with power of attorney provided insights about their final year of life. In all, 2 in 5 participants had experienced traumas during childhood, including exposure to relatives’ drug or alcohol abuse or getting into trouble with the law. The most common potential source of childhood trauma was being held back a grade in school. Life-threatening illness or having a spouse or child… read on > read on >

A new, large study from France underscores the link between adult hearing loss and dementia. “Given the major burden of cognitive decline and the absence of curative treatment, identifying modifiable risk factors is of importance,” a team led by Dr. Baptiste Grenier, of the Université Paris Cité, wrote Oct. 1 in the journal JAMA Network Open. They said thinking skills may decline not only because people with hearing loss become socially isolated but also because they go for a long periods without auditory input. In addition, hearing loss is linked to loss of volume in critical areas of the brain. Even so, researchers said hearing aids for patients with disabling hearing loss should be prescribed based on potential benefit to quality of life and not to ease cognitive decline. For that, they wrote, more research is needed. For the study, Grenier’s team analyzed data from more than 62,000 people in France (average age: 57) recruited between January 2012 and December 2020. Participants age 45 and older underwent cognitive testing at the outset. In all, 49% had normal hearing; 38% had mild hearing loss; and 10% had disabling hearing loss but did not use a hearing aid; 3% wore a hearing aid. Participants took both hearing and cognitive tests. In all, 27% of participants with mild hearing loss and 37% with disabling hearing loss had cognitive… read on > read on >

The large majority of people with food allergy, and the caregivers of kids with such allergies, say the condition has led to psychological distress, a new study finds. However, only about 1 in every 5 such people have ever been assessed and counseled on their anxieties, the same report also found. “Our research highlights a major unmet need for psychological support for food allergy,” said Rebecca Knibb, a professor of psychology at Aston University in Birmingham, England. The main source of worry: The danger of anaphylaxis, a severe reaction to even small amounts of the food the person or their child is allergic to. The new study centered on an online survey of more than 1,300 adults with food allergy, as well as more than 1,900 caregivers of children with food allergy. Respondents to the survey came from more than 20 countries. In total, almost 68% of the adults with food allergy surveyed said that they’d had “direct experience” of psychological distress linked to their condition, as did nearly 78% of those caring for a child with such allergies. Most of those people said their main source of anxiety was the possibility of anaphylaxis, but “over half felt sadness about the impact of food allergy on their lives [54.1%],” Knibb’s team reported. Among caregivers of kids with food allergy, about 35% worried that the condition… read on > read on >

Japanese researchers have successfully used a transplant of human stem cells to close a hole in a key part of a monkey’s retina. They say the achievement could pave the way for better treatment of small gaps that form in the macula, the central part of the eye’s retina. These macular holes can cause distorted or blurred vision, making it hard to see fine details, read or drive a car. “Our results suggest that this method could become a practical, safe and effective treatment option with minimal invasive risks, particularly for difficult macular hole cases,” said senior study author Dr. Michiko Mandai, of Kobe City Eye Hospital in Japan. However, experts stress that the results of research in animals don’t always pan out in people. While treatment advances over the past decade have successfully closed more than 90% of macular holes, stubborn cases that defy treatment persist, researchers explained in background notes. Managing care after surgery is also difficult. While retina transplants are able to close the holes, they do little to improve vision. Mandai’s team wondered whether a transplant of human stem cells might overcome these obstacles. In this new study, published Oct. 3 in the journal Stem Cell Reports, they successfully transplanted retinal tissue derived from human stem cells to close a macular hole in a monkey’s eye. The transplant grafted successfully and… read on > read on >

Avoiding couches and chairs might be a good way of keeping your back pain from getting worse, new research suggests. Finnish researchers found that when people with back pain sat even a little less each day, their pain was less like to progress over the next six months. “If you have a tendency for back pain or excessive sitting and are concerned for your back health, you can try to figure out ways for reducing sitting at work or during leisure time,” advised study lead author Jooa Norha, of the University of Turku. There’s not been a lot of study into the effects of prolonged sitting on back health and back pain, Norha’s group noted. So, they asked 64 overweight or obese people with heart risk factors to reduce the time they spent sitting each day by 40 minutes. All of the participants were already battling some level of back pain when they entered the study. After six months, “back pain intensity increased significantly more in the control group than in the intervention [less sitting] group in which back pain intensity remained unchanged,” Norha’s team concluded. He said he wasn’t surprised by the finding, which was published recently in the journal BMJ Open. “Our participants were quite normal middle-aged adults, who sat a great deal, exercised little and had gained some extra weight,” said Norha,… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Damage to Brainstem Could Be Driving Long COVID

Could Music Lessons Help Clear the ‘Brain Fog’ of Chemotherapy?

Are People Holding Their Arms Incorrectly for Blood Pressure Tests?

Bright Light Therapy May Ease Multiple Forms of Depression

Water Fluoridation May Be Less Beneficial Than in Past, Review Finds

Trauma at Life’s Beginning Can Mar Its End, Study Finds

Hearing Loss Can Raise Risks for Cognitive Decline

Food Allergies Spur Serious Anxiety in Most of Those Affected, Survey Finds

Stem Cell Therapy Might Repair Vision-Robbing Holes in Retinas

Sitting Less Helps Prevent Back Pain From Getting Worse