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As the popularity of GLP-1 meds like Wegovy and Zepbound grows, fewer Americans are turning to weight-loss surgeries to trim their waistlines, a new report finds. Prescriptions of this GLP-1 class of diabetes and weight-loss medications more than doubled between 2022 and 2023, a new tally finds. “In contrast, there was a 25.6% decrease in patients undergoing metabolic bariatric surgery” during the same time period, reported a team led by Dr. Thomas Tsai, an assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Wegovy (the first GLP-1 medicine aimed at weight loss) in mid-2021, sales of the drug and related GLP-1 meds such as Ozempic, Mounjaro and Zepbound have soared. Rapid weight loss has been a hallmark of these medications, which work, in part, by making folks feel full earlier. Prior to the advent of GLP-1s, diet and exercise or bariatric surgeries were the main routes to weight loss for obese Americans. However, the “Ozempic era” may have changed all that, Tsai’s team said. “Anecdotally, health systems have closed hospital-based metabolic bariatric surgery programs due to decreased demand,” they noted in the introduction to their study. To get at harder numbers, the researchers tracked data from the medical records of more than 17 million Americans insured via private coverage or Medicare Advantage. All patients were non-diabetic but… read on > read on >

Texts deliver rapid-fire messages, but a new study indicates human brains can keep up with the barrage. The brain can detect the basic linguistic structure of a brief sentence in roughly 150 milliseconds — about the speed of a blink of an eye, researchers report. “Our experiments reveal that the brain’s language comprehension system may be able to perceive language similarly to visual scenes, whose essence can be grasped quickly from a single glance,” said lead researcher Liina Pylkkanen, a professor in New York University’s Department of Linguistics and Department of Psychology. In essence, text or images can be taken in and processed much more quickly than anything someone might say to a person, researchers said. “The human brain’s processing capacity for language may be much faster than what we might think,” Pylkkanen said in a university news release. “In the amount of time it takes to hear one syllable, the brain can actually detect the structure of a short sentence.” The rise of email, followed by texts and social media, has promoted a quick and fragmented consumption of information, researchers said. Short messages are constantly flashing at people through phone notifications and online platforms. “This shift has made it clear that our brains not only have the ability to instinctively process rapid messages, but can also make snap decisions based on them — like… read on > read on >

Medication and behavioral therapy are both effective in combatting fatigue caused by multiple sclerosis (MS), either separately or together, a new study finds. MS patients felt significantly less fatigue after they were prescribed modafinil (Provigil), a drug that promotes wakefulness and is used to treat sleepiness, researchers reported recently in The Lancet Neurology journal. Patients also reported less fatigue after they were given cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), in which they were taught to recognize the factors that make their fatigue symptoms worse or better. Combining the two treatments, drugs and therapy, provided about the same results as either on their own. However, a person’s own sleep habits also played a role in whether one or the other would work better, researchers discovered. “This research offers new evidence to show that both CBT and modafinil are comparably effective for MS fatigue, which could shape treatment approaches to one of the most challenging symptoms experienced by people with multiple sclerosis,” said lead researcher Dr. Tiffany Braley, director of the University of Michigan Health’s Multiple Sclerosis/Neuroimmunology Division. As many as 90% of the nearly 3 million people with MS worldwide experience fatigue, and nearly half describe it as their worst symptom. For this study, researchers randomly assigned nearly 340 patients to either undergo CBT, take modafinil, or use both. More than 60% of participants in each group reported… read on > read on >

A heart-pounding workout suppresses a person’s hunger levels better than less strenuous exercises like a brisk walk or active yoga, a new study shows. Running, swimming laps or taking a fast-paced spin class is more effective in suppressing the hunger hormone ghrelin than less intense exercise, researchers report. What’s more, women might respond better than men to this sort of exercise, results show. “We found that high-intensity exercise suppressed ghrelin levels more than moderate intensity exercise,” said lead researcher Kara Anderson, a postdoctoral fellow with the University of Virginia School of Medicine. “In addition, we found that individuals felt ‘less hungry’ after high-intensity exercise compared to moderate-intensity exercise.” For the study, researchers examined eight men and six women. All fasted overnight and then completed exercises of varying intensity levels. The intensity of their exercise was measured by levels of lactic acid in their bloodstream. Lactic acid is produced in the body during intense physical activity. The researchers then tested participants’ blood levels of ghrelin, and asked them to self-report their appetite levels. Ghrelin has been shown to have wide-ranging effects in the body, influencing energy balance, appetite, blood sugar levels, immune function, sleep and memory, researchers noted. Women had higher levels of ghrelin prior to exercise, compared to men. But only women had significantly reduced levels of acylated ghrelin — one form of the hormone —… read on > read on >

Brain scans can provide early warning of who will develop chronic pain following a whiplash injury, a new study finds. Higher levels of “cross talk” between two specific brain regions within one to three days of the injury increases the risk that pain will last long-term, researchers found. The more the hippocampus (the brain’s memory center) talked to the cortex (involved in long-term memory), the more likely a person was to develop chronic pain, results showed. In addition, the higher a person’s anxiety was immediately after a whiplash accident, the more precisely doctors could predict the chronic pain they would feel a year later. These results highlight the role that memory plays in a person’s pain perception, said lead researcher Paulo Branco, an assistant professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “While we commonly think of pain as relating only to an injury, it is the brain that actually makes up the pain experience,” Branco said in a Northwestern news release. “The brain makes the decision about whether a movement should be painful or not, and we think this may rely on previous experiences stored in memory.” For the study, researchers gathered data on more than 200 whiplash patients, of whom 177 had MRI scans performed on their brains within three days of their injury. The data was collected… read on > read on >

Next time you’re on a cruise, be wary of your (or your neighbor’s) private balcony hot tub, researchers warn. These luxe cabin features were pinpointed as a source of outbreaks of the respiratory illness Legionnaires disease that broke out on two ships. The Legionella bacterium thrives in wet, warm conditions, so “hot tubs offer favorable conditions for Legionella growth and transmission when maintained and operated inadequately, regardless of location,” said a team of researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And while more public bathing spots onboard may be rigorously cleaned by staff, “private hot tubs on cruise ships are not subject to the same maintenance requirements as are public hot tubs in common areas,” said a team led by Sooji Lee, an epidemiologist at the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Legionnaires disease is a rare form of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria. The germ is sometimes found in fountains, spray parks, hot tubs, showers and faucets. People can contract the disease by breathing in a mist or vapor containing the bacteria. The first cruise ship outbreak covered by the new report occurred on an unnamed vessel during a two-week cruise in November 2022. By May of 2023, five passengers who took part in that cruise had gotten sick with Legionnaires, the researchers reported. Three more passengers on the same ship,… read on > read on >

Anxiety is driving more children with potentially dangerous food allergies to seek out psychological care, a new study finds. Focusing on one Ohio hospital, the researchers found a more than 50% jump in psychology referrals for kids with food allergies between 2018 and 2023. “Our center has devoted significant resources to address the psychosocial support needed by many families who have children with food allergies,” said study lead author Dr. Andriana La Mantia, a pediatrician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “Our goal in this study was to characterize use of these services for food allergy-related anxiety,” La Mantia said in a news release from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). Her team presented its findings Thursday at the ACAAI annual meeting in Boston. Food allergies can bring the specter of analphylaxis: A sudden, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction to even small amounts of the food allergen. Anxiety around preventing these incidents and trauma resulting from anaphylactic episodes can harm a child’s mental health. “Food allergy patients, particularly children, often suffer from anxiety related to potential accidental ingestion and anaphylaxis,” said study co-author Dr. David Stukus, director of the Food Allergy Treatment Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. In the new study, the Columbus team reviewed the cases of 250 kids with food allergies, who averaged 9.5 years of age. Many were allergic to… read on > read on >

In a move that further toughens safety standards for lead paint dust, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced the finalization of a rule that declares any detectable amount of the toxin in a home or child care center to be hazardous. “Too often our children, the most vulnerable residents of already overburdened communities, are the most profoundly impacted by the toxic legacy of lead-based paint,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a news release announcing the new rule. “EPA is getting the lead out of communities nationwide. These protections will reduce lead exposures for hundreds of thousands of people every year, helping kids grow up healthy and meet their full potential.” How will the tougher standard accomplish that? The new rule would trigger extensive cleanup by a property owner once a doctor, public health official or other expert identifies signs of lead exposure, depending on state and local laws. It also establishes an aggressive new standard for cleanup that would reduce lead to be at the lowest detectable levels that can be measured in a lab. Lead dust can be created when lead paint crumbles or is disturbed. The EPA estimated that the rule will reduce lead exposure for up to 1.2 million people every year, including up to 326,000 children under the age of 6. “We can all breathe a little easier now that… read on > read on >

Add Alzheimer’s disease to the list of conditions that might benefit from the revolutionary diabetes drug Ozempic, a new study says. People with type 2 diabetes taking semaglutide appeared to have a significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s compared to patients taking seven other diabetes drugs, researchers reported Oct. 24 in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia. The results jibe with other studies that have found semaglutide might protect against dementia, said lead researcher Rong Xu, a biomedical informatics professor with Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, in Cleveland. “This new study provides real-world evidence for its impact on Alzheimer’s disease, even though preclinical research has suggested that semaglutide may protect against neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation,” Xu said in a Case Western news release. Semaglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drug, and is the active agent in Ozempic and its weight-loss cousin, Wegovy. These medications mimic the GLP-1 hormone, which helps control insulin and blood sugar levels, decreases appetite and slows digestion of food. For the study, researchers analyzed three years of health records for nearly 1 million U.S. patients with type 2 diabetes. They found that patients prescribed semaglutide had a significantly lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, compared to those taking seven other diabetes meds. However, they warned that more research is needed to confirm this potential benefit. “Our results indicate that further research into semaglutide’s… read on > read on >

A “case of the Mondays” is more perilous than just the return-to-work blues, a new study warns. Suicide risk is highest on Monday in the United States and around the world, an international team of researchers has discovered. “Mondays and New Year’s Day were both associated with increased suicide risk in most countries,” concluded the team led by Yoonhee Kim, an associate professor with the University of Tokyo’s Department of Global Environmental Health. Mondays constitute 15% to 18% of total suicides, compared with other days, researchers found. Results also show that weekend suicide risk varies greatly between countries. Suicide risk is lowest on Saturdays or Sundays in many countries across North America, Asia and Europe. However, suicide risk increases during the weekend in South and Central American Countries, Finland and South Africa. For the study, researchers analyzed suicide data for 740 locations in 26 countries and territories from 1971 to 2019, including more than 1.7 million suicides. Previous studies have shown that suicide risk differs by day of the week, but results have been inconsistent, researchers said in background notes. Suicide risk increased on New Year’s Day in all countries, especially in men, the results showed. The researchers said there are several potential explanations for the increased suicide risk on Mondays and New Year’s Day. One is the “broken-promise effect theory,” which holds that people… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Weight-Loss Surgeries Decline 25% as More Americans Turn to GLP-1 Meds

People’s Brains Now Process Texts Almost as Quickly as Pictures

What Works Best to Ease MS-Linked Fatigue? New Study Finds Out

Vigorous Workouts Suppress Hunger, Especially for Women

Will Injury Pain Become Chronic? Brain Scans Might Tell

Private Balcony Hot Tubs Spread Legionnaires Disease on Cruise Ships

More Kids With Food Allergies Are Needing Psychological Care

EPA Finalizes Tough New Standards on Lead Paint Dust

Ozempic, Wegovy Might Help Lower Alzheimer’s Risk in People With Diabetes

One Day of the Week Has Highest Suicide Risk