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A new study builds upon earlier evidence that vaping isn’t any healthier than smoking. In analyzing epithelial cells taken from the mouths of vapers, smokers and people who had never vaped or smoked, researchers found that vapers and smokers had more than twice the amount of DNA damage as found in non-users. Those who vaped or smoked more frequently had higher DNA damage. Epithelial cells line the mouth. DNA damage is an early change associated with an increased risk for cancer and inflammatory diseases. “For the first time, we showed that the more vapers used e-cigarettes, and the longer they used them, the more DNA damage occurred in their oral cells,” said senior study author Ahmad Besaratinia. He is a professor of research population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles. “The same pattern held up in smokers,” Besaratinia said in a school news release. In the study, the researchers recruited 72 healthy adults who were interviewed and underwent biochemical testing. The study participants were divided into three groups: vapers who had never smoked cigarettes; smokers who had never vaped; and people with no history of smoking or vaping. The researchers also collected data on how often, and for how long, participants had smoked or vaped. They asked vapers what devices and flavors they used. The investigators then collected… read on > read on >

Ramen danger: A steaming cup of instant noodles is a big cause of scald injuries in children, researchers report. A new study that examined pediatric admissions at University of Chicago Medicine for burn injuries caused by hot liquids found that nearly one-third were caused by instant noodles between 2010 and 2020. “Anecdotally, it felt like every other child we were consulted on for a burn was injured by instant noodles, so we wanted to dive into the data to see what the trend really was,” said senior author Dr. Sebastian Vrouwe, assistant professor of surgery at UChicago Medicine. “Our hope is to develop the groundwork for future burn prevention programming, as essentially all childhood burns are in some way preventable,” he said in a system news release. Researchers from the UChicago Medicine’s Burn Center reviewed 790 cases, attributing 31% to instant noodles. The research team also found that Black children and kids who lived in areas with lower Childhood Opportunity Index (COI) scores were more likely to suffer these scald burns than their peers. Broadly stated, the COI is a measure of social, economic, educational and health conditions in neighborhoods. Being unsupervised led to higher risk. About 40% of instant noodle burns occurred when kids were alone. While the study examined only data from UChicago Medicine’s Burn Center, researchers suspect the statistics speak to a… read on > read on >

Americans eat too much salt and more than a dozen favorite and convenience foods are largely to blame. Nearly 90% of Americans exceed dietary guidelines for sodium intake, a risk factor for high blood pressure and heart disease. New research out of Canada put some familiar favorites at the top of the list. “The top 15 food category contributors to dietary sodium represent just over 50% of total dietary sodium intake for American adults, with pizza, breads, cold cuts, soups and burritos being the top five contributors,” the study authors said in a news release from the Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences. At the top of the list is pizza with 5.3% of total dietary sodium intake, followed by breads, rolls and buns at 4.7%. After that is cold cuts and cured meats at 4.6%; soups at 4.4%; burritos and tacos with 4.3%; savory snacks at 4.1%; and poultry at 4%. Rounding out the bottom half of the list and comprising between 1.5% and 3.1% of sodium intake are cheese; pasta mixed dishes; burgers; meat mixed dishes; cookies, brownies and cakes; bacon, frankfurters and sausages; vegetables; and chicken nuggets. For the study, University of Toronto researchers used U.S. health survey data for 2017 to 2018. The survey asked respondents to recall what they ate. Education and food-labeling campaigns to get people… read on > read on >

A nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose should be sold over-the-counter, two expert panels to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended Wednesday. Research has shown that wider availability of naloxone — brand named Narcan — could save lives as the opioid epidemic rages on in this country. The FDA advisors voted unanimously in favor of making the drug easier to access after a daylong meeting that focused on whether untrained users would be able to safely and effectively use the nasal spray in emergencies, the Associated Press reported. The recommendation came despite concerns from some panel members about the clarity of the drug’s instructions and packaging, which caused confusion among some people in a company study. The manufacturer, Emergent Biosolutions, said it would revise the packaging and labeling to address those concerns, the AP reported. The FDA will make a final decision on the drug in the coming weeks. “Perfect should not be the enemy of the good, and the evidence we saw today provides clear indication that the drug can be used without the direction of a health care provider,” said panel member Dr. Brian Bateman, of Stanford University. In a statement, the American Medical Association applauded the panel’s decision. “The AMA believes greater access will occur when naloxone for overdose risk is just as easily accessible in a pharmacy, grocery… read on > read on >

A guy pops a little pill just before he expects to get frisky with his girlfriend. But the pill isn’t Viagra, as one might expect. Instead, it’s an on-demand contraceptive that will prevent pregnancy even if taken just before sex. Researchers think they’ve discovered a way to create such a contraceptive pill for men, by inhibiting an enzyme that’s key to a sperm’s ability to swim. Inhibiting this enzyme in lab mice using an experimental compound successfully prevented pregnancy, according to a new report published Feb. 14 in the journal Nature Communications. “The effect started within 30 minutes after dosing and the mice were completely infertile for the subsequent two hours,” said co-senior researcher Lonny Levin, a professor of pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. “By the following day, the mice were completely normal. The compound did not adversely affect the mice in any way, and their sexual behavior and ejaculate were completely normal,” he added. If proven to work in humans, such an approach “would be a tremendous advancement for the field,” said Christopher Lindsey, program officer at the U.S. National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, which helped fund the study. “The benefit of this is that unlike a hormonal approach where you’d have to take that drug for days, weeks, sometimes months, this would work similar to Viagra,”… read on > read on >

A nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose may become available for easier over-the-counter purchase. U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisers are meeting Wednesday to discuss making generic naloxone hydrochloride available without requiring interaction with a pharmacist, CNN reported. Approval could happen later this year. Research shows that wider availability of the antidote could save lives in the growing U.S. opioid epidemic. The meeting of the FDA’s Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee and the Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee is a response to an application submitted last year by Emergent BioSolutions, Inc. of Baltimore. The FDA gave the company’s application priority review, CNN reported. Emergent has said in briefing documents that its nasal spray was designed to be administered by people who have no medical training. Naloxone is available in various strengths and applications. The spray is easier to administer than an injection, the company said. Naloxone is used to revive those believed to be overdosing on opioids. There are no known harmful effects if it is given to someone who is not on opioids. Although naloxone is already available without a prescription, it must be obtained directly from a pharmacist. Not all pharmacies stock it, CNN reported. “Allowing it to be over-the-counter in the same manner in every state really clears up some confusion and hopefully clears up some of that red… read on > read on >

How close a person lives to a major road could have an impact on their eczema risk. New research suggests that folks who live farther from one are less likely to develop the skin condition. A 13-year medical chart review focused on patients in Denver, from infants to age 18. Those with eczema were compared to an equal-sized control group of patients without the condition. In all, the study included more than 14,000 children. The researchers calculated the distance from their homes to a road with annual traffic of more than 10,000 vehicles a day. The risk of eczema (atopic dermatitis) dropped 21% for every 10-fold increase in distance from a major road, the study found. “In the end, we found children who lived 1,000 meters [0.6 miles] or more from a major road had 27% lower odds of atopic dermatitis compared to children who lived within 500 meters of a major road,” said lead author Dr. Michael Nevid, a fellow at National Jewish Health in Denver, who pursued this research after learning about a similar study in Asia. “This is an early association study, so more work needs to be done to examine the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the association,” Nevid said in a news release from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. The findings were published in a February online supplement… read on > read on >

More than a decade ago, the Obama administration passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 as a way to counter the toll the obesity epidemic was taking on children’s health. The goal was to markedly improve the nutritional value of federal food programs that regularly put free and/or low-cost breakfasts, lunches and snacks on the plates of nearly 30 million American students. Did it work? A new study delivers a resounding yes. “We showed that the annual change in body mass index [BMI] decreased by 10 percent in children and adolescents in America following the implementation” of the law, said study lead author Dr. Aruna Chandran. She is a social epidemiologist and senior scientist with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore. What fueled the drop? School-based federal food programs provide “an estimated 50% of students’ caloric intake each school day,” Chandran noted. So, the upshot is that “accessibility to school meals and snacks represents a key opportunity for intervention to combat the childhood obesity epidemic,” she added. In the study, Chandran and her colleagues pored over BMI trends among 14,000 kids between the ages of 5 and 18. As a point of comparison, the investigators focused on two periods of time. The first fell between 2005 and the summer of 2016, before the new law was implemented; the second stretched… read on > read on >

Running is a fantastic workout. It burns fat, improves heart function and strengthens bones. Yet, that first step out the door in a new pair of running shoes might seem intimidating. It can also cause injury if you’re not properly prepared. That’s why it’s helpful to know the basics about beginning this more intense exercise routine. “Too many people get injured running because they throw their sneakers on, walk to the end of the block and start running. The body must be primed and readied for exercise,” said Dr. Russell Camhi, who works in primary sports medicine at Northwell Health Orthopaedic Institute at East Meadow, in New York. The health benefits of running Running is credited with offering many positive health outcomes. Any amount of running was associated with a lower risk of early death, according to the Cleveland Clinic, which cited a study that pooled data from 14 other studies. “It’s a great cardiovascular exercise because it takes a lot of work for you to move through space with that quick repetitive kind of motion,” said Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Dominic King. “There’s a lot of work done by your quads, by your gluteal muscles and by your core to keep you upright. Running is kind of coordinated falling, so it’s actually a pretty complex mechanism for the body.” Health experts are divided on whether… read on > read on >

A highly infectious strain of avian influenza is tearing through commercial and backyard poultry flocks, causing egg prices to rise as sick chickens are culled across the United States. Now, some experts are worried that the H5N1 avian flu might become humankind’s next pandemic-causing pathogen, if the raging virus makes the leap from birds to humans. That’s because other mammals have started to pick up the avian flu, and mammal-to-mammal outbreaks of the H5N1 virus are also occurring in rare instances. “We’re always concerned when it’s in mammals, just because they’re closely related to humans,” explained Dr. Ryan Miller, an infectious disease doctor at the Cleveland Clinic, in Ohio. The red flag officially unfurled last week in a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which noted the spread of avian flu into certain mink and seal populations, and assessed the threat of spread into humans. “During the past 20 years, fewer than 900 confirmed human cases of H5N1 have been reported to the WHO [World Health Organization],” the report stated. “The historic case-fatality rate for human H5N1 infection has been high — more than 50%. But some experts say that’s likely an overestimation because many mild or asymptomatic infections may go unreported.” “Lots of flu viruses circulate in birds but never pose major threats to humans,” Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Smoking or Vaping? The DNA Damage May Be the Same

Why Instant Noodles Are a Danger to Your Kids

Avoid These 15 Foods to Lower Your Salt Intake

FDA Panel Says Opioid Overdose Antidote Safe to Sell Over-the-Counter

A Short-Term Birth Control Pill for Men? Mouse Study Hints Its Possible

FDA Panel Considers Making Opioid Antidote Drug Available Without Prescription

Living Near Busy Road Could Raise Your Odds for Eczema

Healthier School Meals Program Led to Less Overweight Kids: Study

Ready, Set, Go! How to Start Running to Stay Fit

How Worried Should the World Be About Bird Flu in Humans?