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Researchers may have found a way for coffee-lovers to cut back without suffering symptoms of caffeine withdrawal like headache, fatigue, bad mood and irritability. It’s a cup of decaf. A new study found that people experienced fewer withdrawal symptoms with the substitute. “A convincing cup of decaf has the power to reduce withdrawal symptoms a lot when the person drinking it is unaware it’s decaf. But our study suggests that even if they are aware it’s decaf, their withdrawal still subsides,” said Dr. Llew Mills, a senior research associate at the University of Sydney School of Addiction Medicine, in Australia. For the study, researchers worked with 61 people who said they consumed three or more cups of coffee a day. Each went caffeine-free for 24 hours, and their withdrawal was measured. Participants were then separated into three groups. Two groups were given decaf coffee, and one of those groups was told that it was decaf. The other was deceived into thinking it was regular coffee. The third group was given water. About 45 minutes later, participants were asked to rate their withdrawal symptoms again. “The group we lied to reported a big drop in caffeine withdrawal even though there’s no pharmacological reason why it should,” Mills said. “Because they expected their withdrawal to go down, it did go down.” That’s known as a placebo effect… read on > read on >

FRIDAY, Feb. 17, 2023 (HealthDay News) – Sen. John Fetterman is being treated for clinical depression at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. “While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks,” Fetterman’s chief of staff Adam Jentleson said in a statement. The Pennsylvania Democrat checked himself into the hospital on Wednesday night, Jentleson added. Fetterman survived a near-fatal stroke last year while he was campaigning for the Senate seat he now holds. Just last week, the first-term senator was hospitalized at George Washington University Hospital after feeling lightheaded during a Senate Democratic retreat. At that time, Fetterman was in the stroke unit for two days, where he underwent various tests including an MRI. He had not suffered an additional stroke. On Monday, he was evaluated by Congress’ attending physician Dr. Brian Monahan, who recommended he receive inpatient care at Walter Reed, in Bethesda, Md. “John agreed, and he is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis,” Jentleson said. The senator missed votes on Wednesday and Thursday night, CNBC News reported. Fetterman’s transition to the Senate in January has been made more difficult because of his stroke recovery, the Times reported. He previously served as Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor. His wife, Gisele Fetterman, asked for privacy. “After what he’s been through in the past year, there’s probably no… read on > read on >

If you spend hours a day scrolling on your smartphone or tablet, you might get “tech neck.” “Humans are upright creatures, and our bodies aren’t designed to look down for long periods of time, which puts extra pressure on the cervical spine,” said Dr. Kavita Trivedi, associate medical director of the Spine Center at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Americans spend about five hours a day on their cellphones and more on laptops and computers, Trivedi noted in a university news release. As a result, people can experience muscle stiffness, joint inflammation, pinched nerves, arthritis, and even bone spurs or herniated discs. A typical adult head weighs 10 to 12 pounds. Bending it at a 45-degree angle increases the force on the neck to nearly 50 pounds. “With repetition, that force can strain or injure the facet joints that connect our vertebrae,” Trivedi said. “When that happens, the surrounding muscles naturally tighten up to protect nearby nerves, which leads to inflammation, pain and knots in your neck — what is often referred to as tech neck.” Nonsurgical treatments for these injuries include medication and physical therapy, trigger point and steroid injections, nerve blocks and minimally invasive techniques such as radiofrequency ablation. Radiofrequency ablation is a procedure where radiofrequency waves are delivered to certain nerves, with the goal of interrupting pain signals to the brain.… read on > read on >

Young American children are not getting enough fruits and vegetables, but they are consuming too many sugary drinks, a new state-by-state government report shows. To come to that conclusion, the survey questioned the parents of more than 18,000 children between the ages of 1 and 5 about their kids’ eating habits. “This is the first time we’ve had state-level estimates on these behaviors,” senior study author Heather Hamner, a senior health scientist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN. “It’s a really good time to think about the programs and policies that states have in place and areas where they can continue to work and improve to make the nutrition environment the best it can be for our young children.” Almost half of kids did not eat even one single vegetable every day, the report published Feb. 17 in the CDC publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found. In Louisiana, 64% of kids didn’t eat a daily veggie. About one-third of children overall did not have fruit each day. In Louisiana, that was half of all children. Young kids in Vermont ate the most fruits and vegetables. Meanwhile, about 57% of kids overall had at least one sugary beverage each week. In Mississippi, that was nearly 80%. In Maine, it was 38.6%. “Compared with children living in food-sufficient households, those living… read on > read on >

Older people have vaccines available to prevent severe influenza and COVID-19, but there’s been nothing to protect against the third respiratory virus that contributed to this season’s wretched “triple-demic.” Until now. Two major pharmaceutical companies published clinical trial results this week that pave the way for an RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccine to be available for adults by the time next cold and flu season rolls around. “RSV continues to be the last of the major winter respiratory viruses for which we don’t have a vaccine, but as these two articles in the New England Journal of Medicine indicate, we’re getting close,” said Dr. William Schaffner. He is medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, in Bethesda, Md. The companies — GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Janssen — both have RSV vaccine candidates that can prevent severe illness in seniors, results show. The GSK vaccine provides 94% protection against severe lower respiratory tract RSV, and about 83% protection against lower respiratory tract infections overall, said Dr. Leonard Friedland, vice president and director of scientific affairs and public health for GSK U.S. Vaccines. “We’re very, very pleased and excited because this is the first time that an RSV vaccine has made it through phase 3 and has published data in a peer-reviewed journal,” Friedland said. The Janssen vaccine also provided good protection in a phase 2b… read on > read on >

Talk about the stuff of nightmares. You have extremely itchy skin at bedtime, not to mention a pimple-like rash. What is it? Those are fairly clear signs of scabies, a microscopic parasitic infestation where mites burrow under your skin and lay eggs there. Scabies infection comes from prolonged contact, not just a quick brush against someone else’s skin. It can also be passed through bedding or clothing. “Anyone who is diagnosed with scabies, as well as his or her sexual partners and other contacts who have had prolonged skin-to-skin contact with the infested person, should be treated,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises. What is scabies? This “human itch mite” lives and lays eggs in the upper layer of the skin, according to the CDC. About 200 million people worldwide have scabies at any one time, including up to 10% of children in poor areas, according to the World Health Organization. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae can travel to the skin’s surface, spreading to other areas or other people, according to the Mayo Clinic. What does scabies look like? It may resemble hives, tiny bites, knots under the skin or even eczema-like scaly patches, according to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD). Sores may develop from scratching. Under magnification, the mite is creamy-white, has eight legs and a round body. It… read on > read on >

Following a healthy plant-based diet after a diagnosis of prostate cancer may help prevent the disease from progressing or recurring, a new study suggests. Men who ate a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains had a 52% lower risk of cancer progressing and a 53% lower risk of recurrence, compared with men who had the lowest amounts of plants in their diet, the researchers found. “Progressing to advanced disease is one of many pivotal concerns among patients with prostate cancer, their family and caregivers and their physicians,” said lead researcher Vivian Liu, a clinical research coordinator at the Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of California, San Francisco. “These findings may directly inform clinical care by providing diet recommendations as guidance for managing their health and reducing morbidity for the most common cancer facing U.S. men, in addition to having other positive health benefits for preventing other chronic diseases,” Liu said. A plant-based diet may have these benefits because fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants and anti-inflammatory components, as well as dietary fiber that improve glucose control and reduce inflammation, she explained. Also, this diet reduces potentially harmful exposures to animal-based foods, such as hormones and heterocyclic amines created during high-temperature cooking, which have been linked to prostate cancer in particular, Liu said. Diets high in animal protein may also increase insulin… read on > read on >

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 >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Kicking the Coffee Habit But Scared of Withdrawal? Try Decaf

Sen. John Fetterman Enters Hospital for Treatment of Clinical Depression

Scrolling, Staring at Screens Could Give You ‘Tech Neck’

Young Kids Eating Too Few Greens, Drinking Too Much Soda

Two Vaccines May Soon Shield Seniors Against RSV

Scabies: What It Is, Symptoms, Treatment & More

Switch to Plant-Based Diet Could Boost Prostate Cancer Survival

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