All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Want to give your brain a boost for tomorrow? Get in a little pulse-pounding exercise today, a new study shows. In a finding that suggests the benefits of exercise may linger longer than believed, researchers discovered that middle-aged adults and seniors perform better on memory tests even a full day after they’ve had some moderate to vigorous physical activity. “Moderate or vigorous activity means anything that gets your heart rate up — this could be brisk walking, dancing or walking up a few flights of stairs. It doesn’t have to be structured exercise,” said lead researcher Mikaela Bloomberg, a senior research fellow in social epidemiology with the University College London’s Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care. “Our findings suggest that the short-term memory benefits of physical activity may last longer than previously thought, possibly to the next day instead of just the few hours after exercise,” Bloomberg said in a UCL news release. People ages 50 to 84 also did better on memory tests if they spent less time sitting the day before or got six or more hours of sleep. Exercise is known to provide a short-term brain boost by increasing blood flow to the brain, and by stimulating the release of neurochemicals that support many different cognitive functions, researchers explained in background notes. These brain chemical changes are known to last at least…  read on >  read on >

Watch out for tall, fast-moving cars. The height of a vehicle, not only its speed, determines its potential danger to a pedestrian, new research shows. “Multiple factors — in this case speed and vehicle height—converge to create negative outcomes on the road,” said David Harkey, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Measurements of the vehicles involved were used to examine the moderating effect of hood height.  “Our fondness for tall SUVs and pickups has intensified [the consequences of speeding],” Harkey noted in an IIHS news release. The report involved an analysis of 202 crashes involving people ages 16 and older in cities across the United States. The accidents occurred between 2015 and 2022. In general, higher vehicle front ends increased the likelihood of both moderate and serious pedestrian injuries, data showed. At 27 mph, the average speed of the crashes, a median-height car had a 60% chance of causing moderate injuries to a pedestrian and a 30% chance of causing serious injuries. Risks rose along with hood height, however: A median-height pickup — with a front end 13 inches higher than that of a median car — had an 83% chance of causing moderate injuries and a 62% chance of causing serious injuries. This tracks with earlier IIHS research that found that vehicles with taller front ends are more likely to kill…  read on >  read on >

It can feel like a shameful moment, bracing yourself to hand over a Christmas or birthday gift that’s days or months overdue for one reason or another. But slackers take heart — a new study has found that your friend or loved one likely won’t be as upset about getting that late gift as you suspect. “Go ahead and send that late gift, because it doesn’t seem to bother most people as much as givers fear,” said lead researcher Cory Haltman, a doctoral student in marketing at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. A series of six studies showed that people receiving late gifts generally tend to be patient and appreciative, rather than annoyed or hurt, according to results published Dec. 5 in the Journal of Consumer Psychology. That runs counter to what most folks think. About 65% of Americans believe a gift should arrive on time for a holiday, birthday or other occasion, according to a survey performed by the research team. “A majority of U.S. consumers seem to think that gifts should be given on time — but our study shows that there’s more to the story,” said researcher Rebecca Walker Reczek, a professor of marketing at Ohio State University. In one study, participants were asked to imagine giving or receiving a birthday gift that would arrive either on time or two…  read on >  read on >

Ableism, or prejudice against people with disabilities, is an established problem in general healthcare. Now, a small study shows those same issues persist in mental healthcare. Sometimes, the barriers to care are physical, such as inaccessible entrances or a lack of reliable transit. Other times, the hurdles are informational, such as hard-to-use online patient portals. “Participants identified ableism as a major concern when they talked about their experiences in seeking mental health services,” said study author Katie Wang, a social psychologist and associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Conn. Some 25% of Americans live with disabilities, and many face greater mental health issues and are more likely to need counseling and medication. But are they getting that care? Maybe not. In the study, 20 disabled participants, who ranged in age from 22 to 67, had mobility problems (such as spinal cord injury), sight issues, chronic health conditions or a mixture of disabilities alongside mental health conditions. The researchers unearthed several recurring themes that exacerbated care for these folks: not understanding how much disability can harm mental health, not paying enough attention to the link between mental health and disability and unwittingly causing emotional pain during treatment. Researchers also found that being Black or transgender in addition to being disabled presented additional barriers to receiving care. “These individuals often struggle…  read on >  read on >

Heavy smoke from wildfires more frequently chokes the skies over the Western United States, but cities farther to the east are no longer being spared, new research shows. Canada’s unusually intense 2023 wildfire season smothered American cities as far off as Baltimore and New York City, according to research presented Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual meeting, in Washington, D.C. “2023 was this strange year where the Canadian forests were just torched like crazy, and the Midwest got hit extremely hard,” lead researcher Dan Jaffe, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Washington, said in an AGU news release. Cities in Oregon, Nevada, Washington and other Western states have had the highest smoke levels, on average, researchers said. But in 2023, several Eastern Seaboard cities were flooded with unhealthy smoke. Further, cities in Wisconsin and Minnesota bore the brunt of incoming smoke from Canadian forest fires, they found. Smoke from forest fires impacts the health of millions of Americans each year, creating a level of haze that promotes asthma attacks and makes it harder for everyone to breathe. This smoke can travel thousands of miles from a wildfire, depending on atmospheric conditions. For this study, researchers tracked wildfire smoke using satellite data and ground-level measures of particle air pollution. Three cities in western Oregon — Medford, Grants Pass and Bend — were the…  read on >  read on >

Robert Kennedy Jr. should not be confirmed to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, over 75 Nobel laureates urged Monday. In a letter published by the New York Times, the esteemed scientists took issue with Kennedy’s lack of experience and controversial stands. “In addition to his lack of credentials or relevant experience in medicine, science, public health or administration, Mr. Kennedy has been an opponent of many health-protecting and lifesaving vaccines, such as those that prevent measles and polio; a critic of the well-established positive effects of fluoridation of drinking water; a promoter of conspiracy theories about remarkably successful treatments for AIDS and other diseases; and a belligerent critic of respected agencies [especially the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes of Health],” the letter stated. “The leader of DHHS [Department of Health and Human Services] should continue to nurture and improve — not threaten — these important and highly respected institutions and their employees,” the letter added. “In view of his record, placing Mr. Kennedy in charge of DHHS would put the public’s health in jeopardy and undermine America’s global leadership in the health sciences, in both the public and commercial sectors.” While the group of Nobel laureates avoids politics whenever possible, the potential confirmation of Kennedy was a threat they could not ignore, Dr.…  read on >  read on >

People with diabetes who are taking GLP-1 meds such as Ozempic or Mounjaro may be getting an added bonus: Reductions in their odds for a dangerous blood clot, new research finds. The study found that folks with diabetes who were using the drugs lowered their odds for a form of clot called venous thromboembolism (VTE) by 20%, compared to people taking another type of diabetes drug. “From a public health perspective, given how prevalent these [GLP-1] drugs are, there is potential to see if the overall burden of VTE might be reduced at a national or population level,” said study lead author Dr. Rushad Patell. “VTE risk seems to continuously go up; maybe this will bring the curve down.”  His team presented its findings Sunday in San Diego at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). Because these findings were presented at a medical meeting, they should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. As the researchers explained, VTEs are common and dangerous clots that form in veins. The two best known forms of VTEs are pulmonary embolisms, where clots travel to the lungs, and deep vein thromboses (DVTs), where clots often form in the legs. Any VTE can lead to hospitalization and death if left untreated. Could the blockbuster class of new GLP-1 diabetes medications help ward off VTEs?…  read on >  read on >

Over 3 million Americans with asthma can’t afford to take their medications as prescribed, a new poll estimates. In total, about 1 in 6 folks with asthma are struggling to cover the costs of inhalers and other medications, according to survey results published Dec. 9 in the journal Thorax. The findings are troubling because people who skip asthma meds “are at increased risk of asthma-related adverse events, including asthma attacks and ER visits,” noted a team of Taiwanese researchers led by Dr. Chung-Hsuen Wu, of Taipei Medical University. As the researchers noted, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently estimates that over 20 million American adults — 8% of the adult population — have asthma. But how many are getting proper treatment? To find out, Wu and colleagues tracked data from major U.S. federal health surveys for 2011 through 2022. Among other questions, people with asthma were asked if cost had caused them to skip or delay their asthma treatment over the past month, or if they had consciously lowered the dosage of medicine they used due to cost. They were also asked about the frequency of asthma attacks and ER visits linked to the breathing disorder. All told, about 18% of respondents said high cost had caused them to forgo some level of recommended asthma care. This could mean that, due to…  read on >  read on >

Inebriated e-scooter and e-bike users, many of them teens, are increasingly showing up in the nation’s emergency rooms, new research shows. Overall, rates of injuries from these “micromobility” devices have tripled in recent years — from close to 23,000 in 2019 to nearly 66,000 by 2022, the new study found. Alcohol use was a factor in many of the injuries, and rates of use were highest among teens and college-age males, reported a team from North Dakota State University, in Fargo. Driving while intoxicated is a crime even when the vehicle is an e-scooter, so “there is a need to enforce the law against the use of alcohol and substance use among these adolescents,” especially, said researchers led by Akshaya Bhagavathula. He’s an associate professor of public health at the university. Bhagavathula’s team published its findings Dec. 9 in the journal Injury Prevention. Especially during and after the pandemic, the popularity of e-scooters and e-bikes soared as a means of transport. However, accidents can happen on these small two-wheeled vehicles. The Fargo team looked at federal data for 2019 through 2022 for these types of injuries treated at ERs in over 100 hospitals nationwide. During that time, a total of 4,020 injuries linked to micromobility devices were recorded at the hospitals — 3,700 linked to e-scooters and 320 tied to e-bike use. Extrapolated to the U.S.…  read on >  read on >

If you are middle-aged or older, you may often feel lonely and isolated as you deal with the strains of daily life. Now, a new survey suggests you are far from alone: More than one-third of middle-aged and senior Americans feel that way. The good news? That means that loneliness and isolation has mostly returned to pre-pandemic rates among older Americans, the researchers noted. The bad news? Some older adults still have much higher rates of social isolation than others, particularly those dealing with major physical or mental health problems. “At the surface, this might seem like great news, that we’re back to where we were before COVID-19 struck,” said lead researcher Dr. Preeti Malani, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School. “But that baseline was not good, and it was especially bad for some groups of older adults, who continue to have very high rates of loneliness and social isolation,” Malani said in a university news release. About 33% of adults ages 50 to 80 felt lonely some of the time or often in 2024, about the same rate as in 2018 (34%), according to results from the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging. During the pandemic years, as many as 42% of older adults reported this level of loneliness, the researchers noted. Meanwhile, 29% of older…  read on >  read on >