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Experiments in sheep are hinting that doses of caffeine given to women in pregnancy, as well as their newborns after birth, could prevent cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is a disabling condition often caused by asphyxia — reductions in oxygen supply — around the time of birth. Asphyxia can cause other neurodevelopmental disorders, as well. Researcher Dr. Emin Maltepe, a neonatologist at the University of California, San Francisco’s Benioff Children’s Hospital, explained how caffeine might prevent asphyxia damage. “Caffeine has previously proven to be safe in stimulating the respiratory centers of preterm babies and helping them remember to breathe,” said Maltepe, who is senior author of the new study. Caffeine “easily crosses the blood-brain barrier and is a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory molecule,” added first study author Dr. Jana Mike, a pediatric intensivist at the same hospital. Maltepe and Mike published their findings Oct. 21 in the journal Stroke. In the new study, 30 pregnant sheep received either a single intravenous dose of one gram of caffeine, which is equal to about 10 cups of coffee, or a placebo IV shot. Then, after their lambs were born and asphyxia was induced, some lambs got a large dose of caffeine followed by lesser doses each day for two days. The other lambs received the placebo. Measures of systemic inflammation, called cytokines, were significantly less among lambs… read on > read on >

At-home brain stimulation therapy can safely and effectively treat severe to moderate depression, a new clinical trial shows. Rates of treatment response and depression remission were three times higher in people receiving the noninvasive brain stimulation, researchers said. “The study results bring promise that an innovative treatment modality may become available for patients suffering from mood disorders some time in the near future,” said co-lead researcher Dr. Jaire Soares, chair of psychiatry with the University of Texas McGovern Medical School. For the study, 174 people diagnosed with depression were randomly assigned to receive or forego brain stimulation during a 10-week course of treatment. Those receiving brain stimulation got five 30-minute sessions a week for the first three weeks, followed by three 30-minute sessions a week for the next seven weeks. The therapy is called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), in which a current of between 0.5 to 2 milliampere is applied to the scalp through two electrodes. This amount of electricity causes at most a slight tingling sensation along the scalp. The stimulation was self-administered by patients in their own homes, researchers said. About 45% of people receiving the stimulation wound up with their depression in remission, compared with 22% of the control group, researchers found. “The burden of depression is mostly keenly felt by the 280 million people worldwide currently managing symptoms. While a… read on > read on >

Smokers find it easier to quit if they’re automatically offered support, even if they didn’t ask for it, a new clinical trial finds. Quit rates were higher among health system patients placed in an “opt-out” program, in which tobacco cessation medications and counseling are automatically prescribed upon learning they smoke, researchers found. It’s called an “opt-out” program because people get the meds and counseling unless they opt out of it. After a month, 22% of people in an opt-out group had quit smoking, compared with only 16% of smokers who had to opt into the cessation program, researchers reported recently in the journal JAMA Network Open. “Health care providers don’t ask patients if they would like to get evidence-based care for other conditions like asthma, high blood pressure or diabetes,” said senior researcher Kimber Richter, a professor of population health with the University of Kansas Cancer Center. “They just identify a health condition and provide the best care possible.” “For no reason, we’ve always treated tobacco dependence differently — we wanted to see what would happen if we proactively treated tobacco dependence,” Richter added in a university news release. For the clinical trial, nearly 750 smokers receiving medical care from the University of Kansas Health System were asked about their desire to quit, and then randomly placed into one of two groups. Those assigned to… read on > read on >

Light therapy could be a useful treatment for the most common form of age-related macular degeneration, a new study says. The therapy, called photobiomodulation or “red light” therapy, can reduce the risk of vision loss and slow progression of the “dry” form of macular degeneration, researchers reported recently at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, in Chicago. “It’s the first and only noninvasive treatment that appears to be helpful in improving vision and decreasing progression of dry AMD,” said lead investigator Dr. David Boyer, with the Retina-Vitreous Associates Medical Group in Los Angeles. About 8 out of 10 people with macular degeneration have the “dry” form of the disease. They slowly lose central vision as the macula — a small but important area in the center of the retina — becomes thinner and accumulates tiny clumps of protein called drusen. There are effective drugs available for people with “wet” AMD, in which leaking blood vessels damage the macula, Boyer said. But people with dry AMD have few options to protect their eyesight, aside from changes to their diet and lifestyle, he said. Photobiomodulation uses different wavelengths of light to improve function in the cells of the retina, keeping them healthier for longer. It’s a technique already used in eye diseases like diabetic retinopathy, researchers said. For this study, researchers recruited 100 patients… read on > read on >

The skin condition eczema appears to be linked to a serious condition that can end in leg amputation, a new study finds. People with eczema are at significantly higher risk of developing peripheral vascular disease, researchers reported recently in the journal Clinical and Experimental Dermatology. Peripheral vascular disease occurs in 11% of patients with eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, but only 6% of those without the skin disease, researchers found. “This study deepens our understanding of the relationship between atopic dermatitis and cardiovascular diseases,” said senior researcher Dr. Jeffrey Cohen, an assistant professor of dermatology with the Yale School of Medicine. In peripheral vascular disease, the blood vessels in a person’s legs become narrow. People begin feeling pain in their legs, and wounds develop that won’t heal on pressure points like the heels or ankles. Eventually the limb can turn gangrenous, and amputation is required. For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 260,000 American adults gathered by a National Institutes of Health program. Results show that eczema patients are 23% more likely to develop peripheral vascular disease, even after adjusting for other risk factors, researchers said. It’s not clear why eczema would increase the risk of narrowed arteries, researchers said. Eczema is associated with allergies, and might be caused by the body’s immune system. “The underpinnings of the relationship between peripheral vascular… read on > read on >

The repeated fasting required for multiple surgeries in a row can slow a patient’s recovery and increase the risk of death, a new study warns. Surgical patients are asked to not eat after midnight prior to their procedure, to reduce the risk that they’ll throw up during general anesthesia and deep sedation. But folks having multiple surgeries during the same hospital stay are more likely to suffer malnutrition as a result of all this fasting, researchers found. “Our research determined that repeated fasting in hospitalized patients having multiple orthopedic surgeries over days or weeks increases the risk for protein-calorie malnutrition, leading to longer hospital stays, slower recovery and higher health care costs,” said lead researcher Ivie Izekor, a fourth-year medical student at Texas A&M College of Medicine. For the study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 28.5 million patients who had any type of orthopedic surgery in a hospital between 2016 and 2019. Of those patients, more than 1.8 million were diagnosed with malnutrition after admission. Patients diagnosed with malnutrition had gone through more surgeries during their hospital stay — an average of 2.3 surgeries per stay, compared with nearly 1.6 for those who didn’t become malnourished. Malnourished patients were 15% more likely to die, and their risk of death increased with more surgeries, researchers found. Malnourished patients typically died from infection, complications from poor wound… read on > read on >

An overwhelming majority of teens and young adults are worried about how climate change will affect their future, a new survey has found. About 85% of 16- to 25-year-olds are worried about the impact of climate change on people and the planet, according to the survey of nearly 16,000 people from all 50 states. That includes nearly all who identify as Democrats (96%), as well as overwhelming numbers of independents (86%) and Republicans (75%). In almost all states, as least half of teens and young adults reported being very or extremely worried, results show. “Given the environmental crises happening all around, these findings should not be surprising,” said lead researcher Eric Lewandowski, a clinical psychologist with the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. “Nonetheless, it is stunning to find such high levels of distress, and desire and plans for action, in young people across the country, in every state and of every political stripe.” The survey also found that: More than 60% say climate change makes them feel anxious, powerless, afraid, sad and angry More than one-third (38%) say their feelings about climate change affect their ability to function daily Three-quarters (76%) said the future is frightening, with climate change weighing on future life decisions such as where to live (69%) and whether to have children (52%) Two-thirds (66%) believe climate change… read on > read on >

A healthy diet can help keep prostate cancer in check, a new study finds. The better a man eats, the less likely his low-grade prostate cancer will progress to a more dangerous state, researchers reported Oct. 17 in the journal JAMA Oncology. For every increase of 12.5 points in a zero-to-100 healthy eating scale, men were 15% less likely to have their grade 1 prostate cancer progress to at least grade 2, and 30% less likely to have it progress to grade 3 or greater, results show. “While there have been previous research studies looking at diet and its relationship to prostate cancer, we believe that ours is the first to provide statistically significant evidence that a healthy diet is associated with a reduction in risk of prostate cancer progressing to a higher grade group, as shown by a reduction in the percentage of men on active surveillance experiencing grade reclassifications over time,” said co-senior researcher Dr. Christian Pavlovich. He’s a professor in urologic oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. For the study, researchers tracked the data on 886 men diagnosed with grade 1 prostate cancer between January 2005 and February 2017. Grade 1 prostate cancers are indolent, don’t look very different than normal tissue, and haven’t spread to other parts of the body. All of the men completed a… read on > read on >

Studies in mice have shown that the fungal toxin zearalenone can mimic estrogen, and it might hamper reproduction. It’s not yet clear if the “mycoestrogen” compound can do the same in women. However, a new study finds that nearly all pregnant women ingest zearalenone as part of their daily diets. Researchers at Rutgers University and the University of Rochester say they detected traces of zearalenone in 97% of urine samples they received from pregnant women. The toxin appears to be more common among folks who eat lots of “ultraprocessed” foods, they added. “For every 1 percent higher ultra-processed food consumption, there was a higher exposure to mycoestrogen,” noted study lead author Carolyn Kinkade, who studied zearalenone for her PhD thesis at Rutgers. Kinkade’s team published its findings recently in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environment Epidemiology. As the researchers explained, mycoestrogens are produced by various fungi that commonly contaminate grains, meats and processed foods. Zearalenone, in particular, can be found on corn, wheat and barley. Animal studies suggest that zearalenone can disrupt reproduction because it acts similarly to estrogen. In fact, it’s so similar to the estrogenic hormone17β-estradiol “that it binds with estrogen receptors” on cells, according to a Rutgers news release. High concentrations of zearalenone have already been linked to smaller numbers of offspring for mammals such as cattle, pigs, mice and rats. On… read on > read on >

Teenagers are increasingly turning to protein-packed bars, shakes and powders to help them add muscle to their frames, a new study shows. Two in five parents say their teen consumed protein supplements in the past year, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. Teen boys more commonly turned to protein supplements, which they were more likely to take every day or most days, parents said. “Protein is part of a healthy diet, but it can be hard for parents to tell if their child is consuming the right amount,” said Mott Poll co-director Sarah Clark. “Our poll highlights that many teens are using protein supplements, particularly protein powders, to improve their athletic performance and build muscle.” Boys are more likely to use protein supplements to boost muscle growth and for athletic training, researchers said. On the other hand, girls more often use protein supplements to replace a meal when they’re on-the-go or to help maintain a balanced diet, results show. About 1 in 10 parents also indicated their teen used protein supplements to help with weight loss, most often girls. This additional protein likely is unnecessary for most teenagers, Clark said. “Despite what some teens — and their parents or coaches — think, eating more protein than what your body needs will not result in larger… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Could Caffeine in Pregnancy Help Prevent Cerebral Palsy in Kids?

At-Home Brain Stimulation Treatment Can Safely Ease Depression

Even Hardcore Smokers May Quit If Given Right Tools, Study Finds

Light Therapy Might Help Ease ‘Dry’ Form of Macular Degeneration

Eczema Could Be Linked to Poorer Leg Artery Function

Too Much Fasting in Hospital Could Have Downside for Orthopedic Surgery Patients

Most Young Americans Worry About Climate Change, Survey Finds

Healthy Eating May Keep ‘Low Grade’ Prostate Cancers in Check

Most Pregnant Women Exposed to ‘Hormone-Disrupting’ Chemical in Food

Many Teens Using Protein Bars, Shakes to Boost Muscle