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(HealthDay News) – General Mills has recalled four varieties of its Gold Medal flour because of concerns over potential contamination with salmonella. The recalled flour has “better if used by” dates of March 27, 2024, and March 28, 2024, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The recalled products are both bleached and unbleached all-purpose flour in 2-, 5- and 10-pound bags. Other types of Gold Medal flour are not affected by the recall. Those who find recalled flour in their pantries should throw it out, the company said. The recall was issued after a sampling of the 5-pound size flour detected the potential presence of the bacteria. The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention always recommend that consumers don’t eat raw products made with any flour. The bacteria is killed through baking, frying, sautéing or boiling. Always clean all surfaces, hands and utensils that come into contact with uncooked flour or dough. Anyone who finds recalled flour in their kitchen and discards it can contact General Mills Consumer Relations at 1-800-230-8103. About 1.2 million people are infected with salmonella each year in the United States. Healthy people may experience nausea, diarrhea, fever and abdominal pains about six hours to six days after infection. This can last four to seven days. Some people become so ill they may need to be… read on > read on >

While COVID-19’s toll on health and wellness has been obvious, the virus has also hit people in the wallet. A new study links surviving COVID to financial challenges later, especially for folks who were hospitalized with the virus. “More than half of Americans now report having had COVID-19, and more than 450,000 have been hospitalized, so the potential number experiencing serious financial issues linked to their experience with the virus is high,” said Dr. Nora Becker of the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, in Ann Arbor. Compared to people whose financial health was measured before the virus, those who had COVID-19 were more likely to have bills so overdue that they were sent to a collection agency. They were also more likely to have a low credit score. To learn more, researchers from University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore linked health care records and financial records of more than 132,000 people in Michigan. Patients’ identification was removed. About 42% of patients who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 had a low credit score six months later, the study found. That compared to 34% of a similar group who hadn’t yet required a hospital stay for COVID-19 but later needed one. The gap was smaller, but significant, between the two groups of non-hospitalized patients. About 27% of the patients who… read on > read on >

Patients who’ve had surgery should ease back into movement and exercise. These efforts may be small, but they’re better than nothing, according to one surgeon who emphasized the importance of listening to your body. “The most important thing is patient comfort. After surgery, there is often this apprehension of, ‘If I move or do something, I will hurt or damage the area where I had surgery,’” said Dr. Adil Ahmed, an assistant professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “We must counsel patients pre-op and post-op, telling them what is safe to do in terms of physical activity because they should be mobile.” Start by doing small tasks after surgery. For shoulder replacement patients in a sling and with limited mobility for four weeks, move your fingers, open and close your hands, squeeze a stress ball and flex and extend the wrist and elbow, Ahmed suggested. This can keep the joints from getting stiff and prevent swelling. “In those first four weeks, you’re doing very gentle, rotational motions because you want everything to heal, and then you progress in therapy and remove those restrictions,” he said in a Baylor news release. “Once your motion begins to improve, you begin strengthening.” If your arm is in a sling, just focus on getting out of bed on your own, going… read on > read on >

Only five months have passed since the world got its first taste of the ground-breaking artificial intelligence (AI) tool known as ChatGPT. Promising a brave new world of human-machine connectivity, AI demonstrates near-instantaneous access to in-depth information on almost any subject, all in full conversational sentences, often delivered in a human-sounding voice. A new study says health care may never be the same. That’s the broad takeaway of groundbreaking research that tackled a potentially existential question: When it comes to providing patients with high-quality medical information — and delivering it with compassion and understanding — who does it better: ChatGPT or your doctor? The answer: ChatGPT, by a mile. In fact, after comparing doctor and AI responses to nearly 200 medical questions, a team of health care professionals concluded that nearly 80% of the answers from ChatGPT were more nuanced, accurate and detailed than those shared by physicians. ChatGPT was no slouch on bedside manner, either. While less than 5% of doctor responses were judged to be “empathetic” or “very empathetic,” that figure shot up to 45% for answers provided by AI. “For the first time, we compared AI and physicians’ responses to the same patient messages, and AI won in a landslide,” said study leader John Ayers, vice chief of innovation with the division of infectious disease and global public health at the Qualcomm… read on > read on >

Travelers to the United States will now only need a single bivalent COVID vaccine from either Pfizer or Moderna to enter the country, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday. The loosening of vaccination requirements for foreign travelers comes as many other countries have already done so. “Because some traveler vaccine records might not specify whether recent Moderna or Pfizer doses received were bivalent, CDC will consider anybody with record of a single dose of Moderna or Pfizer vaccine issued on or after August 16, 2022, to meet the requirements,” because that was when bivalent vaccines first became available, the agency said in an update to its website. Earlier this month, the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration changed the vaccine schedule so that unvaccinated Americans could be considered fully vaccinated with just get one dose of bivalent vaccine instead of the earlier versions, CBS News reported. Another federal agency, the U.S.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, announced that healthcare workers would be considered “fully vaccinated” with the one bivalent dose. Travel industry officials have said they expected the vaccination requirement to be allowed to expire altogether, CBS News reported. At this point, the Transportation Security Administration has renewed the requirement through May 11. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said there was no update on… read on > read on >

Getting bariatric surgery may help someone lose weight and reduce their risk for obesity-related cancers by more than half. New research to be presented at a conference of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) found that patients who had sleeve gastrectomy, gastric bypass or gastric band procedures developed less obesity-related cancer over a 10-year follow-up period. About 4% developed these cancers compared to 8.9% who didn’t have the surgeries, the study found. The findings will be presented at an AGA meeting in Chicago and online May 6-9. “The primary benefit people consider when they think about bariatric surgery is weight loss and the accompanying physical and psychological benefits, such as improved blood pressure and diabetes,” said lead author Dr. Vibhu Chittajallu, a gastroenterology fellow at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals in Cleveland. “This study adds to the building evidence that the significant weight loss associated with bariatric surgery may have a protective effect against cancer formation as well,” he said in a meeting news release. For their study, researchers compared more than 55,700 patients with obesity who had these surgeries with the same number of similar patients who did not have surgery. They adjusted for risk factors that play a role in cancer formation, including smoking history, alcohol use, heart disease, hormone therapies and other health issues. In all, more than 2,200 of the… read on > read on >

A new study on veterans, gun storage and suicidal thoughts points to an urgent need for mental health and substance-related services, according to researchers. The study from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that about 1 in 7 veterans with a firearm at home in California had thought about suicide. “Suicide by firearm is the leading cause of suicide death among veterans,” said the center’s director, Ninez Ponce, principal investigator of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). “Creating programs that would facilitate the secure storage of guns is a critical first step toward ensuring the safety of those struggling with thoughts of suicide, especially California veterans,” she said in a center news release. Researchers used data from the 2021 CHIS survey to better understand the issue. They found that 38% of vets in California lived in a home with a firearm, and about 36% of them stored at least one gun unlocked. About 14% reported that at least one gun was stored loaded and unlocked — about double the number among nonveterans. About 14% of California vets said they had seriously considered suicide at some point. In all, just over 18% of veterans who had had suicidal thoughts currently had at least one firearm that was stored loaded and unlocked. About 18% of vets with a firearm said they had needed professional help… read on > read on >

Older drivers using alcohol or drugs are much more likely to be at fault in a car crash. Researchers studying the issue say that calls for sober-driving campaigns aimed at seniors. “Our research shows just how much aging increases the risk of being at fault for injury or fatality in a drug- or alcohol-related traffic accident,” said lead author Dr. Satish Kedia. He’s a professor in the division of social and behavioral sciences at the University of Memphis School of Public Health in Tennessee. His team’s analysis of nine years of U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data revealed that substance use in older drivers increased the likelihood of being at fault in a crash by two to four times. The researchers looked at alcohol, marijuana, stimulants, narcotics, depressants and hallucinogens. Overall, older drivers are less likely to report using such substances, according to the study. But in a sample of more than 87,000 drivers involved in crashes between two moving vehicles, more than one-third were drivers over 70 who tested positive for substances, the investigators found. “In general, older drivers are at an elevated risk for being at fault in a fatal car crash, this is especially the case when they are under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” Kedia said. In the more than 43,000 pairs involved in two moving-vehicle crashes, substance use… read on > read on >

America’s teens are still not alright. Instead, many continue to engage in risky behaviors, U.S. health officials reported Thursday. Top among these is an increase in suicidal thoughts and suicide planning and attempts among teen girls, according to a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, rates among teen boys stayed stable. Meanwhile, LGBQ+ students had particularly high increases in suicidal thoughts and behavior when compared with heterosexual students, and the same went for minorities when compared with white students, the researchers found. “The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated mental health issues amongst children and teenagers,” said Dr. Scott Krakower, an adolescent psychiatrist at Zucker Hillside Medical Center in Great Neck, N.Y., who was not involved in the report. “These issues continue to be problematic, with increasing disparities amongst minority groups.” Access to mental health care is key, the researchers noted. “A substantial number of students rely on school-based mental health care, especially youth in racial and ethnic minority groups from under-resourced families,” said Karin Mack, associate director for science in the CDC’s Division of Injury Prevention. “While lack of access to mental health services may have contributed to increased suicide risk, many other factors, including substance misuse, family or relationship problems, community violence, discrimination, among others, may have also contributed to the increased risk,” Mack added. But the pandemic definitely had… read on > read on >

Selfie shots might seem shallow but they’re actually serving a deeper psychological purpose, a new study suggests. So-called “third-person” photos — shots taken to include the photographer, such as selfies or group shots — are better at depicting the deeper meaning of an event in a person’s life, by showing them actively participating in that moment, according to researchers. On the other hand, “first-person” photos — the photographer’s eye view of a scene — best represent the physical experience of an event, the authors explained. These results counter the view that people post selfies on sites like Instagram just to promote themselves, said study co-author Lisa Libby, professor of psychology at Ohio State University. “These photos with you in it can document the bigger meaning of a moment,” Libby said in a university news release. “It doesn’t have to be vanity.” Previous studies have suggested that two important motivations for taking photos could be to either capture the physical experience of an event or portray the event’s broader meaning. Researchers provided two examples involving a trip to the beach. A photo of the ocean would capture the physical experience of a beautiful day, but a selfie with a friend would capture time spent with a loved one. The researchers teased out these differences in a series of six studies involving just over 2,100 participants. In… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

General Mills Issues Flour Recall Due to Salmonella Concerns

Struggles With COVID Left Many Americans With Medical Debt

How to Ease Back Into Exercise After Surgery

ChatGPT Rated as Better Than Real Doctors for Empathy, Advice

CDC Relaxes COVID Vaccination Rules for Foreign Travelers

Weight-Loss Surgery Could Cut Odds for Obesity-Linked Cancers in Half

In California Study, Many Veterans at Risk of Suicide Have Unlocked Gun at Home

Drinking & Driving in the Senior Years: A Recipe for Disaster

Many American Teens Are in Mental Health Crisis: Report

Why People Love Selfies: It’s Not About Vanity