All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Pedestrian deaths have surged on U.S. roads in recent years, and they are climbing again. Pedestrian deaths hit a 40-year high in 2021, and numbers for the first half of 2022 were up about 5% over the same period in 2021, according to a new Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) analysis. It cites a variety of contributors, including heavier vehicles that are more likely to injure or kill people on foot. Roads, meanwhile, are designed to prioritize fast-moving traffic over the slower speeds that are safer for pedestrians, according to the GHSA. Many parts of the United States lack adequate sidewalks, crosswalks and lighting, the group noted. In addition, dangerous driving surged at the start of the pandemic and has not abated. “There is a pedestrian safety crisis on our roads, and it’s only gotten worse since the start of the pandemic,” Jonathan Adkins, chief executive officer of GHSA, said in an association news release. “A single roadway death is tragic. But it’s absolutely mind-boggling and heartbreaking that drivers are killing an average of 19 pedestrians every single day.” GHSA’s annual Spotlight on Highway Safety report is based on preliminary data from state highway safety offices. GHSA said the increase is even more alarming compared to 2019, before the pandemic. Between the first half of 2019 and 2022, pedestrian deaths surged 18%, the GHSA found.…  read on >  read on >

If you’re struggling to find ways to get a good night’s sleep, you may not want to use YouTube videos as a resource. Researchers found what they described as an alarming amount of medical misinformation in YouTube videos about sleep disorders. “What’s tricky is that so much of health information is very nuanced, and a lot of popular YouTube videos have clickbait and appeal to shorter attention spans,” said lead study author Rebecca Robbins. She is an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and investigator in the division of sleep and circadian disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston. “People today often want very bite-sized pieces of information. However, science is fundamentally more nuanced than a one-liner or the 280 characters in a Twitter post,” Robbins explained in a hospital news release. More than 60% of U.S. adults say they used the internet to find health information, the study authors noted. To learn what they might find there, the investigators searched YouTube using terms such as “insomnia” and “sleep tips.” They sorted videos by views, labeling those with the most views as “popular.” The researchers then compared these popular videos to ones from credible sources. These were identified by a YouTube feature that places content from health care systems at the top of search results for health-related terms. Sleep experts then assessed the…  read on >  read on >

Work isn’t always easy, but sometimes it becomes almost unbearable. You might experience a constellation of symptoms, including emotional exhaustion, a reduced sense of personal accomplishment and cynicism, which affects how you interact with others in the workplace. This is a condition known as burnout and though it’s not listed in the diagnostic manual used by psychiatrists, it is a workplace-associated condition, according to the World Health Organization, said Dr. Jessi Gold, a member of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Communications. “There are lots of reasons why it happens. It depends on the person and how work is impacting them,” said Gold, who is also an assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. What is burnout? Burnout can come from a mismatch between what was expected in a job and what it really is, such as more paperwork than helping people, Gold said. “That mismatch can create burnout pretty easily,” Gold said. “And not doing the things that bring you meaning and purpose can as well.” Lack of control can also be an issue. So can a dysfunctional environment with a micromanaging boss or a workplace bully, according to the Mayo Clinic, while unclear job expectations and a work-life imbalance can also be factors. The pandemic may have made matters worse. A recent survey found 52% of workers…  read on >  read on >

A lot of people are dealing with anxiety, depression or just general unhappiness. Worry, sadness, restlessness, irritability and trouble sleeping are just a few symptoms of depression and anxiety, according to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Therapy and medications can help. But some simple self-care ideas can lift a person’s mood and add a sense of peace and joy to everyday life. “Fortunately, there are things that people can do on their own, either in place of a professional mental health professional or while waiting in line to see someone either virtually or in person,” said James Maddux, professor emeritus in the Department of Psychology and senior scholar in the Center of the Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. All of these techniques can help people dealing with the stress and emotional traumas of life to be happier, Maddux said. Mellow out with meditation Doing this quiet activity for just 10 to 20 minutes helps a person slow down and pay attention to what’s going in inside, Maddux said. “And research shows that those brief periods can carry over into the rest of the day,” Maddux added. Becoming more aware of what you’re thinking and feeling is a big step toward learning how to better manage thoughts and feelings, he said. “Mindfulness activities can be helpful for dealing…  read on >  read on >

An artificial sweetener commonly used in processed foods could be increasing people’s risk of heart attack and stroke, a new study argues. Erythritol is a natural sugar alcohol found in many vegetables and fruit. Even the human body produces small amounts of erythritol. But higher levels of the sweetener added to processed foods might increase people’s risk of blood clots, researchers reported Feb. 27 in the journal Nature Medicine. People who had large amounts of erythritol in their blood were up to twice as likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke compared to those with the least amounts, the researchers found. “I think there’s plenty of data here to argue that we should be reading our labels and avoiding erythritol, particularly if you’re at risk for cardiovascular disease,” said senior researcher Dr. Stanley Hazen, chair of cardiovascular and metabolic sciences at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute. But other experts expressed skepticism, saying more study is required before erythritol can be considered potentially harmful. “At this point, I think that using small amounts of this, whether it should be in some power bar that you eat or you use a granulated form to put it in your coffee or tea or to have occasionally on your oatmeal, I just don’t think it’s a worrisome thing at this point in time,” said Dr. Karen Aspry,…  read on >  read on >

Folks who have trouble falling or staying asleep may be more likely to have a heart attack. This is the main takeaway from new research linking insomnia to heart woes. Specifically, people with insomnia were 69% more likely to have a heart attack than folks without the sleep disorder. These rates were even higher among people with both diabetes and insomnia, the study showed. “Insomnia puts the body under stress which triggers [the stress hormone] cortisol release and can accelerate atherosclerosis,” said study author Yomna Dean, a medical student at Alexandria University in Alexandria, Egypt. Atherosclerosis refers to the buildup of plaque in and on the artery walls that can set the stage for a heart attack. The findings were published Feb. 25 in Clinical Cardiology and will be presented at a joint meeting of the American College of Cardiology and World Congress of Cardiology, in New Orleans, and online March 6. For the study, Dean and colleagues culled data from more than 1,200 studies that included close to 1.2 million adults. Of these, 13% (nearly 154,000) had insomnia. Most did not have a history of heart attack. After nine years of follow-up, about 2,400 people who had insomnia and almost 12,400 without insomnia had a heart attack. Folks who slept five or fewer hours a night had the greatest heart attack risk, the study…  read on >  read on >

When depression hits, everyday activities like working, socializing, sleeping and even eating can become a daunting challenge. George Mason University clinical psychologist James Maddux treats patients with clinical depression in his practice. He said, “The problems with both depression and anxiety are the result of what people think about. These thoughts lead to feelings that also affect behavior.” So how can you deal with the emotional, mental and physical impacts of depression? Maddux shares some scientifically backed self-care tips that you can use when you or a loved one begin experiencing a bout of depression. What is depression? The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) states that depression is a serious mental health disorder, and the leading cause of disability in the United States today. It affects about 21 million adults across the country. The causes of depression are diverse and can include: Relationship issues Drug and alcohol abuse Sudden life changes Certain medications Changes in the brain’s frontal lobe activity Pituitary gland and hypothalamus hormonal responses Medical conditions such as anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), hypothyroidism and chronic pain can also trigger depressive episodes. Depression symptoms Just like the causes of depression, the condition’s symptoms are wide-ranging and vary from person to person, according to NAMI. The signs of depression include: Changes in sleeping and eating patterns Feelings of hopelessness A lack of motivation and…  read on >  read on >

Many women experience blinding migraine headaches around their monthly period, and now researchers have a clue about why. Levels of the female hormone estrogen fluctuate during menstruation, which may lead to increases in calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP). This protein widens blood vessels in the brain, which is part of the cascade of events that cause migraines. “Women with migraine had higher CGRP levels in the blood and tear fluid during menstruation than women without migraine,” said study leader Dr. Bianca Raffaelli, a neurology resident at Charité–University Medicine Berlin in Germany. She is also a fellow with the Clinician Scientist Program jointly operated by Charité and the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité. More research is needed before drawing any firm conclusion about the role that CGRP plays in menstrual migraines, Raffaelli said. “Once the exact processes are understood, appropriate treatment strategies can be developed,” she said. “In recent years, new migraine drugs have been developed that target CGRP, [and] it would be exciting to investigate whether these drugs act differently depending on the hormonal state.” The good news for women with menstrual migraines is that symptoms improve during pregnancy, and their frequency tends to decline after menopause, Raffaelli said. For the study, the researchers measured CGRP levels in blood and tears of 180 women with a history of migraine, including those with a regular menstrual…  read on >  read on >

Certain gene mutations put women at high risk of breast cancer, and now an early study hints that obesity might make matters worse. The findings come from a study of breast tissue samples from women who carried particular mutations in genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2 — which convey much higher-than-normal risks of both breast and ovarian cancers. The researchers found that among women who were obese, healthy breast tissue showed more signs of DNA damage that can promote cancer. The findings, published Feb. 22 in the journal Science Translational Medicine, do not prove that obesity exacerbates the already high breast cancer risk in women who carry BRCA mutations. But they do raise that possibility, according to senior researcher Kristy Brown, an associate professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, in New York City. If so, that would mean that maintaining a healthy weight might mitigate some of the cancer risk that BRCA mutation carriers face. Brown’s team also found hints of another potential avenue: In lab experiments with carriers’ breast tissue samples, they found that exposing the tissue to the diabetes drug metformin reduced signs of DNA damage. “We definitely need more studies to see whether lifestyle interventions, or metformin, can lower the risk of cancer in these patients,” Brown said. BRCA gene mutations are not common: In the United States, about 1 in 500 women…  read on >  read on >

MONDAY, Feb. 27, 2023 (HealthDay News) – Federal officials plan to tighten access to drugs that have the potential for abuse by reinstating federal prescribing requirements that were loosened during the pandemic. The Biden administration will require that patients see a doctor in person, rather than through a telehealth appointment, to get a first prescription for opioid painkillers and the attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) drugs like Adderall and Ritalin. Prescription refills will still be allowed during telehealth appointments, however. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration also plans to tighten prescribing for less addictive drugs, such as codeine, Xanax, Ambien and buprenorphine. Those drugs will be allowed to be prescribed once via telehealth for a 30-day dose, but then patients will need to see a doctor in person to get a refill. Codeine is used to reduce pain and coughing. Xanax is an anxiety medication. Ambien is a sleep aid. Buprenorphine is used to treat opioid addiction. The DEA plans for this new rule to go into effect before May 11, when the COVID-19 public health emergency expires. “DEA is committed to ensuring that all Americans can access needed medications,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in an agency news release announcing the changes. “DEA is committed to the expansion of telemedicine with guardrails that prevent the online overprescribing of controlled medications that can cause harm.” It will…  read on >  read on >