Weekly Gravy « Weekly Gravy

All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

You’ve heard of eating your spinach to stay strong, but how about loading up on your flavonols? New research suggests that plant-based foods rich in these important dietary compounds could lower your chances of developing frailty as you age. Apples and blackberries are among the fruits that contain a particular flavonoid called quercetin that may be the most important to prevent frailty, the investigators added. “There may be some validity to the old saying, an apple a day keeps the doctor [or frailty] away,” said a team that included Steven Oei, from the department of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston. “Our findings suggest that for every 10 mg [milligrams] higher intake of flavonols per day, the odds of frailty were reduced by 20%. Individuals can easily consume 10 mg of flavonols intake per day since one medium-sized apple has about 10 mg of flavonols.” About 10% to 15% of older adults experience frailty. This geriatric syndrome leads to a greater risk of falls, fractures, disability, hospitalization and death. Dietary recommendations to prevent frailty typically focus on eating protein, but many other foods have health benefits, the study authors reported. “Although there was no significant association between total flavonoid intake and frailty, higher flavonols intake (one of the subclasses of flavonoids) was associated with lower odds of developing frailty,” according to study… read on > read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a second nasal spray for reversing an opioid overdose. To be sold as Opvee, the spray contains the medication nalmefene hydrochloride and will be available to Americans aged 12 and older with a prescription, the FDA said. “The agency continues to advance the FDA Overdose Prevention Framework and take actionable steps that encourage harm reduction by supporting the development of novel overdose reversal products,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said in an agency news release. “On the heels of the FDA’s recent approval of the first over-the-counter opioid reversal agent [Narcan], the availability of nalmefene nasal spray places a new prescription opioid reversal option in the hands of communities, harm reduction groups and emergency responders,” Califf added. Indivior, which will make and sell Opvee going forward, said the spray should be available by October. Indivior bought Opiant Pharmaceuticals, which developed Opvee, in March. “Opvee’s FDA approval represents a significant achievement in the development of new treatment options to address today’s era of opioid overdoses that are driven by powerful synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl,” Indivior CEO Mark Crossley said in a company news release. “Opvee is an emergency treatment for the fast reversal of respiratory depression triggered by natural or synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, and we are committed to making this novel rescue medication widely available… read on > read on >

About 7 in 10 American parents are concerned that social media trends related to appearance and editing apps and filters are harming their children’s body image, a new survey shows. Among those polled, about 69% of parents expressed worry about these editing apps and filters, which can completely change the look of someone’s face and body. This may make them appear to meet some supposed standard of beauty. Also, about two-thirds said that trends related to diet and exercise also had a negative influence, according to the survey results released May 23 by the On Our Sleeves Movement for Children’s Mental Health, from Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. A young person’s feelings about their body can affect their mental health, said Erin McTiernan, a contributor to On Our Sleeves and a pediatric psychologist at Nationwide Children’s. “Those concerns are valid,” McTiernan said about parents’ strong response to the survey questions. “Social media has some great benefits for kids, especially in the areas of entertainment and social connection. But when it comes to body image, there are some things that we know can have a negative impact.” Making comparisons Children may compare themselves to these unrealistic standards or feel this is how they should be because of the numbers of “likes” they get on social media for a certain look, McTiernan said. “We know that… read on > read on >

For people who survive gunshot wounds, the trauma may leave mental scars that worsen with time, a new study finds. Among 87 adults treated for gun injuries at a Wisconsin trauma center, many had worsening symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression six months later. The findings, published May 22 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, come from one of the few studies that has tracked the long-term mental health of gunshot victims. For years, gun violence research was stymied in the United States after Congress suspended federal funding for it in 1996. That changed just a few years ago. “For a long time, we weren’t able to do firearms research, so we don’t really know a lot about these long-term outcomes,” said Dr. Peter Ehrlich, director of the pediatric trauma center at the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. Ehrlich, who was not involved in the new research, published a study last year that looked at the mental health of U.S. children and teenagers who’d sustained gun injuries — and the findings were similar. Of 1,450 kids injured by guns, 35% were newly diagnosed with a mental health condition in the year afterward — most often PTSD or substance abuse. That compared with 26% of U.S. kids who were injured in a motor vehicle crash. Ehrlich said that while the new study… read on > read on >

A subset of people may be at high risk for both psychiatric disorders and for using marijuana, based on their genetics, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Oslo in Norway have found that some of the genetic variants associated with cannabis use are also linked to psychiatric disorders. “These findings are important as they show that the complex links between cannabis use and these disorders may not only be caused by cannabis use itself, but could also be driven by shared genetic susceptibility,” lead co-author Nadine Parker said in a university news release. The rate of cannabis use is high among patients with disorders linked to psychosis, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Cannabis is a psychoactive drug that can sometimes produces psychotic-like symptoms, according to the study. “This study shows that there is a shared genetic basis underlying our susceptibility to both cannabis use and certain psychiatric disorders,” lead co-author Weiqiu Cheng said in the release. To study this, Parker, Cheng and their colleagues used advanced statistical modeling. They found that a majority of shared variants increased the risk of both cannabis use and developing either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Yet, there were some genetic variants with opposing effects that increased the risk of cannabis use while decreasing the risk of the two psychiatric disorders. In some parts of the world,… read on > read on >

A new study finds that while hydrocortisone on its own may not prevent death from sepsis, it can improve survival when combined with other steroids while eliminating the need for vasopressor drugs. Vasopressor medications help raise blood pressure when it’s so low that you can’t get enough blood to your organs. Doctor often deliver these drugs via an IV. “For the first time, the effects of hydrocortisone for the treatment of patients with septic shock could be studied by analyzing individual data from the main randomized trials published to date,” said researcher Dr. Romain Pirracchio, a professor of anesthesia at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). “This study shows that if the effect of hydrocortisone on the mortality of septic shock is modest, this treatment makes it possible to spare the exposure of patients to vasopressor drugs and to prevent their complications,” he added in a UCSF news release. “The combination of fludrocortisone with hydrocortisone seems to provide a greater benefit in terms of survival.” Sepsis is the body’s extreme response to infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It affects about 55 million people worldwide and causes 11 million deaths each year. Treatment can include recognizing it quickly, controlling the source of the infection, antibiotics, fluids, vasopressors and other therapies. Corticosteroids have been one of these therapies for septic shock… read on > read on >

Maybe you can’t weed your garden without sneezing. Perhaps your eyes start watering when you clean your home. Did your skin begin itching last night during dinner? You may have an allergy, but you’re not alone. More than 50 million adults and children in the United States have a bad reaction to pollen, dust, mold, pet dander and other common allergens, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology (ACAAI). What are allergies (allergic reactions)? An allergy is your body’s reaction to an allergen such as pollen, mold and more. Pollen causes a pollen allergy and mold causes a mold allergy. It’s your immune system that reacts. It is very important because it protects you from germs and viruses, but sometimes it gets confused. “Most people don’t have an immune response to pollen, but a certain percentage of people’s immune systems see it as foreign and dangerous, and they treat it like a pathogen or infection,” said Dr. Christina Price, an allergist and immunologist at Yale Medicine in New Haven, Conn. How your body treats allergens When your immune system decides that something might hurt you, it fights back. This fight triggers those miserable symptoms like shortness of breath, hives, sneezing and itching, the ACAAI explains. In other words, while trying to protect you, your body accidentally causes harm. The most common allergy… read on > read on >

Obese people might be wise to slim down before undergoing an ablation procedure to treat an abnormal heart rhythm, researchers report. Folks with atrial fibrillation who lost 3% or more of their body weight before undergoing ablation had greater odds of their heart returning to a normal rhythm than those who didn’t, a new study finds. A-fib, as atrial fibrillation is called, is an abnormal heartbeat that causes the heart to beat faster and out of sequence. A-fib can cause blood clots that can result in a stroke. To control a-fib, doctors prescribe medication or a procedure called catheter ablation. Ablation uses heat to kill heart cells that are causing the abnormality. The goal is to return the heart to its normal sinus rhythm. “Weight loss is a key factor in the management of atrial fibrillation for those that are overweight or obese,” said lead researcher Dr. Jeffrey Goldberger, a professor of medicine and director of the Center for Atrial Fibrillation at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Obesity is not only a risk factor for a-fib, but appears to also have an effect on treatment, he said. “Obesity is known to be a pro-inflammatory condition,” he said. “It turns out that there’s fat tissue that sits directly on the heart muscle and these fat cells can secrete all sorts of hormones that could… read on > read on >

It’s a social media darling and one of the hottest prescription medications on the U.S. market. But does Wegovy really help patients lose weight? Yes, a new study suggests. Investigators analyzed data on more than 100 people using Wegovy (semaglutide). They found that after a year participants had shed more than 13% of their body weight on average. “This medication showed superior weight-loss outcome to all previously approved anti-obesity medications that were tested,” said study lead author Dr. Wissam Ghusn, a research fellow in gastroenterology and hepatology with the Precision Medicine for Obesity Program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Semaglutide was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2017 to help control blood sugar levels and reduce the risk for heart attacks, stroke and death among patients with type 2 diabetes. For this purpose, the once-weekly injectable medication — sold under the brand name Ozempic — helps the body make more insulin, which lowers blood sugar levels for people with diabetes. But the drug was also associated with weight loss, and the FDA approved it for that purpose in 2021. Sold as Wegovy, the self-administered injectable is given at a higher once-a-week dosage of 2.4 mg. It is intended as a weight-loss medication for adults with an “overweight” body mass index (BMI) between 27 and 29 who also struggle with at… read on > read on >

(HealthDay News) – Cases of vision loss and deaths are mounting in an investigation into eye drops contaminated with a rare strain of a drug-resistant bacteria. In all, four people have died, with one new death now being reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, a total of 14 people have experienced vision loss, with six new cases reported last week. Infections have now been reported in 81 people living in 18 states. Four cases have involved people who have had to have their eyeballs surgically removed. The cases involve 10 brands of eye drops, most commonly EzriCare Artificial Tears. Global Pharma Healthcare’s Artificial Tears Lubricant Eye Drops were first recalled in February. The drops were distributed by EzriCare and Delsam Pharma. “Patients who have used EzriCare or Delsam Pharma’s artificial tears and who have signs or symptoms of an eye infection should seek medical care immediately,” the CDC said in its latest update. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the bacteria infecting these patients. It’s a strain never before seen in the United States, CNN reported. Among the newly identified patients, many had either recalled using the eyedrops or lived in long-term care facilities in which others were infected with the bacteria. The bacteria can spread to those who haven’t used the drops, the CDC noted. “The bacteria can spread when one patient… read on > read on >

Weekly Gravy

Look Good – Feel Good – Feed Good

A little about: Weekly Gravy

All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

An Apple (and Some Blackberries) Each Day May Keep Frailty Away

FDA Approves New Nasal Spray to Reverse Overdoses

Many Parents Worry About Social Media’s Impact on Kids’ Body Image: Poll

PTSD, Other Mental Health Ills Haunt Gunshot Survivors

‘Complex’ Genetic Links Between Marijuana Use, Psychiatric Ills

Steroid Hydrocortisone Alone May Not Cut Death Risk From Septic Shock: Study

The Most Common Symptoms for Seasonal Allergies, Food Allergies & More

Losing Weight Before Atrial Fibrillation Treatment Boosts Outcomes

Wegovy Shows Weight-Loss Effectiveness in Real-World Study

Another Death, More Cases of Vision Loss Linked to Tainted Eye Drops