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Telehealth appointments — meetings with a doctor through a phone or video call — are valuable tools in the fight against opioid use disorder in the United States, researchers say. The use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with medications for addiction, reduced the risk for fatal overdose among Medicare recipients, a new study finds. The study findings support continuing these services. “The results of this study add to the growing research documenting the benefits of expanding the use of telehealth services for people with opioid use disorder, as well as the need to improve retention and access to medication treatment for opioid use disorder,” said lead author Christopher Jones. He is director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The findings from this collaborative study also highlight the importance of working across agencies to identify successful strategies to address and get ahead of the constantly evolving overdose crisis,” Jones added in a CDC news release. For the study, the researchers analyzed data among two groups of Medicare beneficiaries with opioid disorder. Data for the first group — the pre-pandemic cohort — stretched from September 2018 to February 2020. It included more than 105,000 participants. For the pandemic group, data ranged from September 2019 to February 2021 and encompassed more than 70,000 people.… read on > read on >

Marijuana legalization in the United States appears to be driving an increase in car crash deaths due to a jump in “intoxicated driving,” researchers say. In 4 out of 7 states that legalized recreational cannabis, deaths from car crashes rose 10%, according to the University of Illinois Chicago study. On a brighter note, suicide and opioid overdose deaths declined in the states that legalized recreational marijuana. “Overall, this study provides evidence of the potential harms and benefits of legalizing recreational markets,” said lead author Samantha Marinello, a postdoctoral research associate in the university’s School of Public Health. “A potential unintended consequence of legalizing recreational cannabis is an increase in intoxicated driving and crash deaths,” she added. “Therefore, there is a need for policies and public health initiatives to reduce driving under the influence.” As of December, 21 states and Washington, D.C., allowed the sale of recreational marijuana to adults age 21 and older. Where folks can legally toke, it’s likely people are driving under the influence of cannabis or cannabis in combination with another drug such as alcohol, Marinello said. However, this study cannot prove cause and effect, she added. Some people may believe driving high is safe. “Studies of cannabis users have found safety perception is a strong predictor for cannabis-intoxicated driving,” Marinello said. There is evidence that many cannabis users do not believe… read on > read on >

While research has shown that having pets can lower the chances of respiratory allergies in children, a new study finds it might also reduce the risk of food allergies. Japanese investigators found that young children exposed to dogs in the home were less likely to experience egg, milk and nut allergies, while those exposed to cats were less likely to be diagnosed with egg, wheat and soybean allergies. Still, “pet exposure does not completely prevent food allergies,” noted first study author Dr. Hisao Okabe, from the Fukushima Regional Center for the Japan Environment and Children’s Study and the department of pediatrics at Fukushima Medical University in Japan. “All this study has shown is that it may reduce the risk of developing food allergies. In addition, the association between pet exposure and food allergies might differ, depending on the pet species and causative food,” Okabe added. For the study, Okabe’s team analyzed medical and self-reported data on more than 66,000 infants in Japan, and found that those exposed to indoor cats or dogs during pregnancy or early infancy had fewer food allergies, at least until the age of 3. About 22% of those infants were exposed to these indoor pets. There was no significant difference for children exposed to outdoor dogs. Why children with pets may have fewer food allergies wasn’t determined in this study, but… read on > read on >

Drug overdose deaths — both accidental and intentional — have quadrupled over the past 20 years among older adults in the United States, a new study finds. This increase in people ages 65 and older suggests the need for greater mental health and substance use policies, the authors said. “The dramatic rise in overdose fatalities among adults over 65 years of age in the past two decades underscores how important it is for clinicians and policymakers to think of overdose as a problem across the life span,” said co-author Chelsea Shover, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine. “Updating Medicare to cover evidence-based treatment for substance use disorders is crucial, as is providing harm reduction supplies such as naloxone to older adults,” Shover said in a school news release. About three-fourths of those who died accidentally were using illicit drugs, including synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. In 67% of intentional overdoses, seniors used prescription medication, including opioids, antidepressants, benzodiazepines, antiepileptics and sedatives. The researchers calculated overdose deaths among seniors from 2002 to 2021, using a database from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The investigators compared demographics, specific drugs, and whether the deaths were intentional, unintentional or undetermined. They found that fatal overdoses quadrupled from 1,060 in 2002, which… read on > read on >

Your body’s internal clock appears to play a big part in the time of day when severe headaches happen. Migraines and cluster headaches have different characteristics and treatments, but experts have long noted that they share key features: Both are neurological diseases in their own right, rather than symptoms of another underlying condition. And because neither can be easily identified via blood tests or imaging tools, both are diagnosed on the basis of symptoms, with excruciating pain typically topping the list. Now, a new research review is highlighting yet something else they have in common: timing. “Our team found that about 70% of cluster headache patients and 50% of migraine patients have headaches that start at the same time each day,” said study leader Dr. Mark Joseph Burish, director of the Will Erwin Headache Research Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The timing can differ from patient to patient but it tends to be consistent, Burish said. “Patient No. 1 might [regularly] have headaches at 3 a.m., and patient No. 2 might have headaches at noon, but it was consistent,” he explained. “It didn’t matter what time zone or part of the world you were in. The headaches had a daily pattern.” And that suggests that both kinds of headache are at least partially governed by the body’s internal sleep-wake… read on > read on >

Assessing heart roundness may be a new way to diagnose cardiovascular conditions, new research suggests. While doctors now use measures like heart chamber size and systolic function to diagnose and monitor cardiomyopathy and other related heart issues, cardiac sphericity (how round the heart is) may be another good tool. “Roundness of the heart isn’t necessarily the problem per se — it’s a marker of the problem,” said co-corresponding study author Dr. Shoa Clarke, a preventive cardiologist and an instructor at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. “People with rounder hearts may have underlying cardiomyopathy or underlying dysfunction with the molecular and cellular functions of the heart muscle. It could be reasonable to ask whether there is any utility in incorporating measurements of sphericity into clinical decision-making,” Clarke suggested. The researchers chose to focus on heart sphericity because clinical experience had suggested it might be associated with heart problems. While past research had primarily focused on sphericity after the onset of heart disease, the research team hypothesized that sphericity might increase before the onset of clinical heart disease. “We have established traditional ways of evaluating the heart, which have been important for how we diagnose and treat heart disease,” Clarke said. “Now, with the ability to use deep-learning techniques to look at medical images at scale, we have the opportunity to identify new ways of… read on > read on >

Living with a lot of transportation noise can increase your risk of suicide, new research suggests. A study from Switzerland found that with every 10-decibel increase of average road traffic noise at home, risk for suicides rose by 4%. An association between railway noise and suicide was less pronounced. “We used suicides as an indicator for mental health disorders as we do not have robust Swiss data on mental health diagnoses such as depression or anxiety,” said study co-author Benedikt Wicki, a PhD student at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. “Noise increases the mental load, contributing to the development of mental disorders or worsening of preexisting conditions,” he said in an institute news release. Mental health disorders affect nearly 1 billion people worldwide, including about 1.4 million people in Switzerland. They are a leading cause of suicide, the authors noted. In Switzerland, about 1,000 people die by suicide each year. Past research has linked environmental factors like air pollution or noise to adverse health effects such as cardiovascular diseases and general well-being, but robust evidence on the effects of transportation noise on mental health disorders remains scarce, according to the study. Biological mechanisms explaining why noise impacts mental health include sleep disturbance, increased levels of stress hormones, changes in brain function or a sense of loss of control. “Our brain registers noise as… read on > read on >

A new report from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reveals deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning are increasing in the United States. The report looked at carbon monoxide (CO) deaths from 2009 to 2019, finding 250 consumer product-related CO deaths in 2019, more than any other year. Generators and other engine-driven tools accounted for the largest percentage of deaths. Since 2009, portable generators alone have been associated with 765 CO-poisoning deaths not related to fires. That’s 40% of all CO deaths related to consumer products, a CPSC news release noted. Heating systems were associated with the second largest percentage of CO poisoning deaths not involving fires for 2019, with 69 deaths, or 28% of the total associated with products in this category. More than half of all CO deaths occur in the colder months of November, December, January and February. CO is an invisible killer because it is colorless and odorless. It can kill in minutes. Someone exposed to it may become unconscious before recognizing the symptoms of nausea, dizziness or weakness. The CPSC warns that portable generators should only be used outside. They should be at least 20 feet from the home with exhaust pointed away from any nearby building. The commission also offers these other safety precautions: Never operate a portable generator inside a home, garage, basement, crawlspace or shed, the commission… read on > read on >

People suffering from sciatica gain lasting relief from a procedure that uses a fine needle to heat nerve roots near the spine, a new clinical trial shows. The minimally invasive procedure, called pulsed radiofrequency (RF), provided superior pain reduction and disability improvement out to one year for patients with sciatica, according to findings published March 28 in the journal Radiology. The procedure could help people with sciatica avoid or delay back surgery, said lead researcher Dr. Alessandro Napoli, an associate professor of radiology with the Policlinico Umberto I – Sapienza University of Rome in Italy. “Pulsed radiofrequency with this method can relieve pain in 10 minutes, with no surgery, no hospitalization, and faster recovery and return to daily activities. It is an important card to play,” Napoli said. People with sciatica have a sharp pain that shoots through their hips and buttocks and down one leg. The condition is typically caused by a herniated or slipped spinal disc that’s putting pressure on the sciatic nerve, the largest nerve on the body. The standard of care is a steroid injection aimed at calming the nerve down, said Dr. Jack Jennings, a professor of radiology and orthopedic surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “The steroids are basically to fool the nerve, to say nothing’s wrong,” said Jennings, who wrote an editorial accompanying… read on > read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the over-the-counter use of a nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose. Research has shown that wider availability of naloxone (Narcan) could save lives as the opioid epidemic rages on in this country. “The FDA remains committed to addressing the evolving complexities of the overdose crisis. As part of this work, the agency has used its regulatory authority to facilitate greater access to naloxone by encouraging the development of and approving an over-the-counter naloxone product to address the dire public health need,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said in an agency news release. “Today’s approval of OTC naloxone nasal spray will help improve access to naloxone, increase the number of locations where it’s available and help reduce opioid overdose deaths throughout the country,” Califf said. “We encourage the manufacturer to make accessibility to the product a priority by making it available as soon as possible and at an affordable price.” Emergent BioSolutions, the Maryland company that makes the Narcan spray, made no mention of price in a statement it released after the FDA approval was announced, but the company’s president applauded the move. The approval “marks a historic milestone as we have delivered on our commitment to make this important emergency treatment widely accessible, given the alarming rates of opioid overdoses occurring across the country,”… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Telehealth for Opioid Use Disorder Helped Curb Fatal ODs During Pandemic

Fully Legalizing Marijuana Could Raise Car Crash Rates

Pets Could Help Prevent Food Allergies in Kids

Fatal Drug ODs Among U.S. Seniors Have Quadrupled in 20 Years

Migraines May Follow Daily Circadian Cycles, Study Shows

How Round Is Your Heart? It Might Matter for Health

Living Near Noisy Traffic Might Raise Suicide Risk

Report Finds Big Rise in U.S. Carbon Monoxide Deaths

Nerve ‘Pulse’ Therapy May Help Ease Sciatica

FDA Approves First Over-the-Counter Nasal Spray for Opioid Overdoses