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Half of young Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 spend at least four hours each day on their smartphones, computers or televisions, a new survey shows. “As technology has become more integrated into teenagers’ lives, the time spent in front of screens has continued to rise in the United States,” noted a team of researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All of that screen time might not be great for teens’ psyches: The research found that while about 27% of teens who had four or more hours per day of screen time said they’d had anxiety over the past two weeks, that was true for only 12.3% of teen with fewer hours spent looking at screens. Self-reported depression levels were also much higher (about 26%) among teens who consumed four hours or more of screen time than those who didn’t (9.5%). The new data comes from answers given by U.S. teens to a federal survey conducted between mid-2021 and the end of 2023. The survey found little difference in screen use by gender — just over 48% of boys watched TV or stared at their phones or computers for four or more hours per day, as did 52.5% of girls. Screen time did seem to rise with age, however: While 45.6% of kids ages 12 to 14 spent four… read on > read on >

Find it hard to take time to exercise during your busy workweek? No problem, a new study says — one or two “weekend warrior” workouts are just as likely to help you maintain your brain health. People who regularly exercise, whether solely on the weekend or throughout the week, are more likely to stay sharp as they age compared to people who never work out, researchers found. About 13% of cases of mild cognitive impairment might be avoided if all middle-aged adults exercised at least once or twice a week, researchers estimated. “This study is important because it suggests that even busy people can gain cognitive health benefits from taking part in one or two sessions of sport and exercise per week,” concluded the research team led by Gary O’Donovan, an adjunct professor of sport science with Los Andes University in Bogota, Colombia. For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 10,000 people in Mexico City. All participants were asked how often they worked out or played sports, and they also took part in a cognitive function test. Weekend warriors worked out once or twice a week, while regularly active people said they exercised three or more times a week. During an average follow-up period of 16 years, about 26% of the people who never exercised developed mild cognitive impairment, compared with 14% among… read on > read on >

People who regularly use marijuana experience changes in their brain structure and function, but it’s not clear that cannabis is the cause, a new study finds. Researchers found specific differences in the brains of people who’d ever used weed, particularly in areas densely packed with cannabinoid receptors. However, genetic analysis couldn’t pin down any specific association between cannabis use and these brain changes. This means some other factor besides weed might be causing these brain changes in marijuana users. “Our results need to be interpreted with careful consideration,” concluded the research team led by Saba Ishrat, a doctoral student in psychiatry with the University of Oxford in the U.K. “Additional research is needed to understand the effects of heavy cannabis use in this population, including considerations of potency and related information, to inform public policy.” For the study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 15,900 weed users participating in the U.K. Biobank research project for whom genetic profiling and MRI brain scans were available. Looking at the brains of the marijuana users, researchers found that they had poorer integrity of their “white matter,” the part of the brain that connects different brain regions. This was particularly evident in the corpus callosum, which serves as the main route of communication between the left and right sides of the brain. Weed users also had weaker neural connections in… read on > read on >

Women who enter menopause at a later age have a greater risk of asthma, a new study says. Meanwhile, early menopause is associated with a reduced risk of developing asthma, researchers found. The results run counter to other studies suggesting that early menopause, defined as ages 40 to 44, is more detrimental to a woman’s health, increasing her risk of heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and depression, the researchers noted. They also provide additional evidence for a link between female hormones and asthma, the team led by Durmalouk Kesibi, from York University in Toronto, found. Childhood asthma is more prevalent in boys than girls, but adult-onset asthma is more common in women than men. Women also tend to have more severe asthma, and they are less likely to have their asthma go into remission, researchers noted. “This study highlights sex-based differences in asthma, with women at a greater risk for asthma than men in adulthood,” said Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director for The Menopause Society. “It also showed that women with later onset of menopause are at greater risk than those with early onset of menopause,” Faubion added in a society news release. “Clinicians should be aware of this link and should monitor women with later age at natural menopause for asthma symptoms.” For this study, researchers reviewed data on more than 14,000 postmenopausal women with… read on > read on >

Pancreatic cancer rates are rising in adults younger than 50, but many continue to believe it’s a disease that only affects the elderly, a new survey shows. Folks in that age range also say they wouldn’t be able to identify early signs and symptoms of pancreatic cancer, and that there’s nothing to do to reduce their risk. “Pancreatic cancer rates have been rising by about 1% annually, and we are seeing this disease in people who are in their 40s much more regularly,” said researcher Zobeida Cruz-Monserrate, co-leader of Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Program. “This is a concerning trend, and one for which research is needed to learn why.” The survey involved 1,004 people polled in early October. A third (33%) of adults under 50 believed that only seniors are at risk of developing the cancer, the poll results showed. And more than half (53%) said they wouldn’t recognize symptoms of pancreatic cancer, the survey found. About 37% said there’s nothing they can do to change their risk of pancreatic cancer — which isn’t true, Cruz-Monserrate said. Dropping some pounds can lower one’s risk, for a start. Obesity increases a person’s lifetime risk of pancreatic cancer by 20%, the researchers noted. At the same time, only 1 in 10 pancreatic cancers are linked to genetics. “You can’t change… read on > read on >

For many reasons, bodybuilders and others involved in weight training might have to take a break from the gym. However, new Finnish research finds that even weeks-long interruptions in training won’t hamper muscle-building efforts. “Of course, the break slows progress some, but it is comforting to know that it is possible to reach the pre-break level surprisingly quickly,” said study lead author Eeli Halonen. He’s a doctoral student in sport and health sciences at the University of Jyväskylä. Halonen and his colleagues published their findings recently in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. In the new study, 42 adults (just over half were males) took part in one of two 20-week weight-training regimens. In one group, folks engaged in weight-training sessions (exercises included leg presses and biceps curls) for the whole 20 weeks without interruption. The second group exercised for 10 weeks, then took a 10-week break, then resumed exercise for another 10 weeks. “Results for maximum strength and muscle size development were similar in both groups,” the researchers concluded in a university news release. For the 20 people that took the 10-week break midway, all measures of muscle improvement bounced back quickly, Halonen’s group said. “During the first few weeks after the break, progress was very rapid and after only five weeks of re-training, the pre-break level had already been reached,”… read on > read on >

Most kids with attention issues won’t go on to develop serious psychiatric conditions like psychosis or schizophrenia. However, a new study finds poor attention spans in childhood, plus certain genes, could play a role in raising the risk for these conditions. Of course, much more research is needed to pinpoint precursors to psychotic symptoms in a person’s teens or 20s, said a team from the University of California, Los Angeles. Even if children have certain risk factors, that’s still not a guarantee of psychiatric illness in adulthood, they stressed. “If you have this strong liability based on your genetics and early attentional span, we don’t know what the longer-term trajectories are and who are the people who are going to be more resilient to their underlying risk,” explained study lead author Dr. Carrie Bearden. “That’s going to be really important to look at when those [better] data become available,” said Bearden, a professor at the UCLA Health Semel Institute and the UCLA Health Brain Research Institute. Her team published its findings Oct. 28 in the journal Nature Mental Health. The study looked at cognitive, brain and genetic data for more than 10,000 children tracked for an average of six years, from about age 9 into adolescence. Bearden’s team sought to compare rates of attentional issues in childhood, plus certain genetics, against the likelihood of a… read on > read on >

Smoking marijuana during pregnancy may quell your morning sickness, but it could also harm your child’s development, a new study warns. Cannabis exposure in the womb is associated in early childhood with poorer thinking skills, researchers reported Oct. 28 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. These kids also have behavioral problems like impulse control, poor attention and aggressive behavior, researchers found. “Although cannabis is a natural product, there are still many risks to using it during pregnancy,” said lead researcher Sarah Keim, principal investigator in the Center for Biobehavioral Health at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio. “Some women may turn to cannabis to help deal with some common issues of pregnancy including nausea, sleep problems and stress,” Keim said. “This is not recommended. Consulting with a health care provider to find safer options to help with these issues during pregnancy is important.” For the study, researchers combined multiple assessment tools to track the development of preschool children. Kids exposed to weed during pregnancy had more difficulty controlling their impulses, paying attention and planning, based on observations of their behavior in a play laboratory environment. They also tended to show more aggressive behavior. “Our findings were not surprising — they actually confirm and expand on longstanding evidence from previous research,” Keim said in a hospital news release. “With our more contemporary and diverse sample of women and… read on > read on >

Repeated concussions dramatically increase a hockey player’s risk of depression and burnout, a new study warns. Hockey players who’d suffered three or more concussions had twice the risk of depression symptoms than whose who’d never had a concussion, researchers found. They also faced three and a half times the risk of burnout symptoms, results showed. Concussion caused these effects in both male and female players, the researchers noted. “Other studies have shown that women experience more short-term symptoms after a concussion than men, but it was interesting that the link between concussion and heightened prevalence of symptoms of depression, anxiety and burnout was equally strong for both sexes,” said lead researcher Mitchell Andersson, a doctoral student in psychiatry at Lund University in Sweden. “This might indicate that the long-term neuropsychiatric recovery process is more similar in men and women than the short-term process,” Andersson added in a university news release. For the study, researchers surveyed nearly 650 active hockey players in Sweden’s top hockey divisions. They found that more than 1 in 4 men and nearly 1 in 5 women reported having suffered three or more concussions. Both men and women had a higher risk of depression if they’d suffered repeated concussions, researchers found. Athletes with at least three concussions were also 3.5 times more likely to develop burnout as those with none, and twice… read on > read on >

The weight-loss drug Ozempic can guard against kidney disease in obese people, a new study shows. Patients taking semaglutide — the active agent in Ozempic and Wegovy — had as much as a 52% reduction in kidney damage, as measured by urine testing, researchers reported Oct. 25 in the journal Nature Medicine. The results will also be presented simultaneously at the American Society of Nephrology’s annual meeting. Semaglutide patients also had a 30% reduction in kidney inflammation, researchers found. “The great thing is that the drug has both direct and indirect effects on the kidneys,” said lead researcher Hiddo Heerspink, a clinical pharmacologist with the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands. “The drug has direct effects on inflammation parameters in the kidney, and lowers fat tissue around the kidneys, lowering the amount of protein in the urine,” Heerspink said. “And indirectly because it reduces participants‘ weight and blood pressure.” For the study, researchers recruited 101 obese people with chronic kidney disease in Canada, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, starting in 2022. Half received injections of semaglutide for 24 weeks, while the other half received a placebo. Participants taking the drug lost about 10% of their weight, and they also experienced a decrease in high blood pressure similar to that from taking a blood pressure medication, researchers found. The results also show that the drug… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Half of U.S. Teens Stare at Screens More Than 4 Hours Per Day

Even ‘Weekend Warrior’ Exercise Can Keep Your Brain Healthy

Can Cannabis Change Your Brain? Maybe, Maybe Not

Late-Life Menopause Linked to Higher Asthma Risk

What You Don’t Know About Pancreatic Cancer Could Harm You

You Can Take Weeks-Long Breaks in Weight Training and Muscles Bounce Back

Childhood Attention Issues Show Links to Later Risk for Psychosis, Schizophrenia

Weed Use During Pregnancy May Harm Kids’ Behavior, Thinking Skills

Concussion Could Raise Depression, Burnout in Pro Hockey Players

Ozempic Curbs Kidney Disease in Obese People Without Diabetes