Weekly Gravy « Weekly Gravy

All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

It might seem that surfing the web could cause a person’s mental health to suffer, but a landmark new study has concluded that internet use poses no major threat to people’s psychological well-being. Researchers compared country-level internet and broadband use to the mental well-being of millions of people in dozens of countries, and came away with no evidence that the internet is causing widespread psychological harm. “We looked very hard for a ‘smoking gun’ linking technology and well-being and we didn’t find it,” said senior researcher Andrew Przybylski, a professor of human behavior and technology at the Oxford Internet Institute in the U.K. The team also looked more closely at specific age groups as well as gender and, again, came up empty-handed — refuting concerns that internet use might be harming the psychological health of younger people and women. “We meticulously tested whether there is anything special in terms of age or gender, but there is no evidence to support popular ideas that certain groups are more at risk,” Przybylski noted in an Oxford news release. In fact, average life satisfaction has increased more for females over the past two decades, researchers found. For the study, researchers compared data from two different reports on well-being and mental health against the amount of internet and smartphone use. They examined data on the mental health of 2… read on > read on >

Personal trainers can help people increase their strength and their fitness. Could a “brain coach” be just as useful in preventing Alzheimer’s’ disease? A new study suggests that personalized health and lifestyle changes can delay or even prevent memory loss for older adults at high risk of Alzheimer’s or dementia. People who received personal coaching experienced a 74% boost in their thinking and memory tests compared with those who didn’t receive such attention. “This is the first personalized intervention, focusing on multiple areas of cognition, in which risk factor targets are based on a participant’s risk profile, preferences and priorities, which we think may be more effective than a one-size-fits-all approach,” said co-lead researcher Dr. Kristine Yaffe, vice chair of research in psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). For the study, researchers recruited 172 participants and assigned half to receive personal training in health and lifestyle areas believed to increase Alzheimer’s risk. The participants were between the ages of 70 and 89, and all had at least two of eight risk factors for dementia — physical inactivity, high blood pressure, uncontrolled diabetes, poor sleep, use of prescription medications associated with risk of cognitive decline, high depressive symptoms, social isolation and smoking. Patients met with a nurse and health coach and selected specific risk factors they wanted to address. They set personal goals… read on > read on >

Folks who smoke weed along with cigarettes are doing serious damage to their lungs, a new study warns. People who do both are 12 times more likely to develop emphysema than nonsmokers, due to the damage they’re doing to the lung’s air sacs, researchers report. “There is a common public misconception that marijuana smoking is not harmful,” said researcher Dr. Jessie Kang, a cardiothoracic radiologist at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. “With our study, we show that there are physical effects of marijuana smoking on the lungs and that cigarette smoking and marijuana smoking may have a combined damaging effect on the lungs,” Kang added. Even though weed is one of the most widely used psychoactive substances in the world, little is known about the effects of smoking cannabis on a person’s lung health, researchers noted. Tons of research has linked cigarette smoking to lung cancer, emphysema and COPD, but “currently not much research exists on the effects of marijuana smoking on the lungs,” Kang noted. For their study, Kang and her colleagues examined chest CT images of four patient groups – nonsmokers, cigarette smokers, marijuana smokers and combined tobacco and weed smokers. Weed smokers included in the study had toked at least four times a month for at least two years, researchers said. In addition to increased risk of emphysema, combined weed and… read on > read on >

Evidence that soccer heading — where players use their heads to strike a ball — is dangerous continues to mount. Research to be presented at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting in Chicago on Tuesday points to a measurable decline in brain structure and function as a result of the practice. “There is enormous worldwide concern for brain injury in general and in the potential for soccer heading to cause long-term adverse brain effects in particular,” said senior study author Dr. Michael Lipton, a professor of radiology and an affiliate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia University in New York City. “A large part of this concern relates to the potential for changes in young adulthood to confer risk for neuro-degeneration and dementia later in life.” Unlike other studies that have examined adverse effects at one point in time, Lipton’s team looked at brain changes over two years. They asked 148 amateur players (average age: 27) how often they play, practice and head the ball — and in what situations. Their exposure was ranked low, moderate or high. Just over a quarter of participants were women. Players’ verbal learning and memory were assessed and each had a specialized head scan known as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). These advanced MRI techniques track the movement of water through brain tissue. The images were telling.… read on > read on >

Medical imaging for thinking and memory issues happens much later in Black patients than in their white and Hispanic counterparts, new research shows. A study to be presented Thursday at a meeting of radiologists also revealed that Black patients were less often tested with MRIs, a preferred way to identify brain abnormalities that can cause cognitive issues. Other research has found that Black people have a greater risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia and they are more likely to be diagnosed later than white patients. “If disparity in obtaining access to neuroimaging is one possible barrier that delays diagnosis, it is important to identify this and figure out possible solutions to benefit these patients and prevent a delayed diagnosis,” said lead author Dr. Joshua Wibecan, a radiology resident at Boston Medical Center. Increasingly, imaging with MRI plays a big part in diagnosing thinking impairments. But it has been unclear how differences in access to imaging may lead to delayed diagnoses. Wibecan’s team studied four years of imaging data at Boston Medical Center. As a safety net medical center, it cares for people regardless of their ability to pay or insurance status. Researchers identified all outpatient CTs and CT angiographies of the head, as well as MRI brain exams done for mental impairment. Self-identified Black patients were older when they received imaging and… read on > read on >

MONDAY, Nov. 27, 2023 (Healthday News) — Three more brands of cantaloupe have been recalled by U.S. health officials after salmonella infections linked to the fruit more than doubled in just a week. The case count now includes nearly 100 people in 32 states, with Arizona, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio having the highest number of illnesses reported. Two people have died in Minnesota, while 45 have been hospitalized nationwide, according to an updated health alert issued Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s original recall, issued Nov. 14, included Malichita brand whole cantaloupe, Vinyard brand pre-cut cantaloupe and ALDI whole cantaloupe and pre-cut fruit products. Rudy brand whole cantaloupes and Freshness Guaranteed brand and RaceTrac brand pre-cut cantaloupes have now been added to the recall. The actual number of people infected with salmonella in this outbreak is likely even higher, the CDC said, because many recover without care and are never tested for the bacteria. The recalled fruits should be thrown away and any surfaces the fruits touched should be washed with hot, soapy water or in a dishwasher, the CDC advised. Salmonella is the most common form of bacterial food poisoning in the United States, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The symptoms of salmonella typically include diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps within six days… read on > read on >

In a disease cluster last year, one infected but asymptomatic man spread a rare form of syphilis that affects the eyes to five Michigan women, a new report finds. Since ocular syphilis remains very rare, researchers believe the strain of T. pallidum — the syphilis bacterium — that the man carried might have raised the risk for eye complications in his sex partners. The man and the five middle-aged white women he infected eventually all received penicillin treatment and were cured. So the researchers say it’s possible that the strain “ceased to circulate after these patients and their common partner were treated,” although no one can know that for sure. The study was led by Dr. William Nettleton of the Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services Department in Kalamazoo, Mich. His team reported the findings in the Nov. 24 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a journal of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Syphilis is making an unwelcome comeback among sexually active Americans everywhere. According to Nettleton’s group, in Michigan cases-per-100,000-people rose from 3.8 in 2016 to 9.7 by 2022. Most of the rise in cases was concentrated in southwest Michigan (the area around Kalamazoo). Syphilis is an insidious infection, because in many cases it does not cause symptoms although the bacterium can still be transmitted to others. Over time, syphilis… read on > read on >

Whole grains could be the key to Black people protecting their brains against aging and dementia, a new study reports. Black folks who ate more foods with whole grains appeared to have a slower rate of memory decline than those who ate fewer whole grains, according to findings published Nov. 23 in the journal Neurology. Among Black people, those who ate the most whole grains had brains about 8.5 years younger than those who ate the least. Whole grains only appeared to help Black people – researchers saw no similar trend in white participants. “With Alzheimer’s disease and dementia affecting millions of Americans, finding ways to prevent the disease is a high public health priority,” researcher Xiaoran Liu, an assistant professor of internal medicine at Rush University in Chicago, said in a journal news release. “It’s exciting to see that people could potentially lower their risk of dementia by increasing their diet of whole grains by a couple of servings a day,” Liu added. For the study, researchers followed more than 3,300 people without dementia (average age: 75). About 3 out of 5 participants were Black. Participants filled out a questionnaire every three years about the whole grains they ate, and they also completed brain games and memory tests. Researchers divided participants into five groups based on the amount of whole grains in their diet.… read on > read on >

Squats and lunges aren’t the most fun exercises, but a new study says they’ll help save your knees. Folks with strong quads building up their thighs appear to be less likely to require a total knee replacement, according to a presentation scheduled for Monday at a meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago. Stronger muscles are generally associated with a lower rate of total knee replacement, researchers said in background notes. However, it’s been unclear whether people benefit more from stronger extensor muscles like the quadriceps, which extend the leg, or stronger flexor muscles like hamstrings that bend the leg. “Our study shows that in addition to strong muscles individually, larger extensor muscle groups — relative to hamstring muscle groups — are significantly associated with lower odds of total knee replacement surgery in two to four years,” said Dr. Upasana Upadhyay Bharadwaj, a research fellow in radiology at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine. About 14 million U.S. adults have knee arthritis, and more than half will eventually require knee replacement surgery, researchers said. The quads and the hamstrings are of particular interest because they’re the two most important muscle groups to the knee. The quads are located on the front of the thigh. They are the strongest muscle group in the body and are essential to a person’s… read on > read on >

People with long COVID exhibit brain changes that are different from the brains of fully recovered COVID-19 patients, a new brain scan study reports. COVID-19 induced a specific pattern of microscopic structural changes in various brain regions of people with long COVID, researchers will report at the upcoming annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study comparing patients with long COVID to both a group without history of COVID-19 and a group that went through a COVID-19 infection but is subjectively unimpaired,” lead researcher Dr. Alexander Rau, a neuroradiology resident at University Hospital Freiburg in Freiburg, Germany, said in an RSNA news release. Between 10% and 25% of patients with a COVID infection wind up developing long COVID, researchers estimate. Long COVID involves a collection of different symptoms that can last for weeks, months or even years after a person gets over their initial illness, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Symptoms can include “brain fog,” fatigue, joint or muscle pain, shortness of breath, GI disturbances, heart palpitations, and changes in sense of smell or taste. For this study, researchers scanned participants’ brains using a novel MRI technique that analyzes the movement of water molecules in tissues. This method can provide detailed information on the brain’s microstructure, and can detect even very small… read on > read on >

Weekly Gravy

Look Good – Feel Good – Feed Good

A little about: Weekly Gravy

All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Internet Poses No Threat to Mental Health, Major Study Finds

Could a ‘Brain Coach’ Help Folks at Higher Risk for Alzheimer’s?

Smoking Tobacco Plus Weed Greatly Raises Odds for Emphysema

Soccer ‘Heading’ Tied to Declines in Brain Function

Black Patients Wait Longer Than Whites for Alzheimer’s Diagnosis

After Salmonella Cases Double in a Week, Cantaloupe Recall Expanded

In Michigan, 5 Women Contracted Syphilis Affecting the Eyes From the Same Asymptomatic Man

Whole Grain Foods Could Help Black Seniors Avoid Alzheimer’s

Want to Avoid Knee Replacement? Build Up Your Thighs

Scans Show Brain Changes in People With Long COVID

Share on Mastodon