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Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is issuing a CPR challenge to promote use of the emergency procedure that saved his life on national television. Hamlin, 24, suffered cardiac arrest during a Jan. 2 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, moments after being tackled hard in the chest. A month later, Hamlin is teaming up with the American Heart Association (AHA) for his “3 For Heart CPR Challenge,” asking people to learn hands-only CPR and then spread the word to others. “It’s going to be an amazing opportunity to impact and educate millions of people on the importance of CPR. It literally saved my life,” Hamlin said in an AHA news release. The challenge has three steps: Learn – Go to heart.org/3 to watch a minute-long video and learn hands-only CPR. Give – Donate to the AHA to fund CPR education and training. Share – Use #3forHeart to challenge three friends to do the same on social media. To kick off the challenge, Hamlin tagged three prominent figures he called the “G.O.A.T.s” (Greatest of All Time) — LeBron James, Tom Brady and Michelle Obama. “You’ve all been challenged. And, one more thing, make sure you share your videos on all socials and tag me and have your hearts up,” Hamlin said in a video shared on Twitter. Hamlin has not gone into detail about his medical condition… read on > read on >

THURSDAY, Feb. 2, 2023 (HealthDay News) – The wildly popular weight-loss drug Wegovy has become hard to find, but that could soon change. Novo Nordisk, which makes the medication, said Wednesday that it has increased production to meet demand. “We know for a fact that patients have been lined up,” CEO Lars Jorgensen said on a call with investors, NBC News reported. Wegovy, also known as semaglutide, is a GLP-1 agonist, mimicking a hormone that cuts appetite and helps reduce food intake, NBC News reported. It costs about $1,300 a month and often isn’t covered by insurance. An off-label alternative is the type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic, which is the same medication but given in a smaller dose and approved to help regulate blood sugar levels. Novo Nordisk also makes Ozempic. Novo Nordisk expects “pent-up demand” for Wegovy to subside over the next few months, Jorgensen said. “We are obviously encouraged by the trend line we see, but we also do believe there will be a normalization of that,” he said. During the shortage, some Americans have gained some or all of their weight back as they’ve given up the medication, NBC News reported. The company “looks forward” to the medication’s wider availability, said Doug Langa, head of North American operations for the Danish company. More information The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more… read on > read on >

A new study hints that treating low vitamin D levels with supplements might have a critical benefit for certain people: a decreased risk of attempting suicide. In a study of more than 1 million U.S. veterans, researchers found that those prescribed vitamin D were nearly 50% less likely to attempt suicide over eight years, versus those who were not prescribed the supplements. The benefit was seen specifically among veterans who had low vitamin D levels to begin with, as well as Black veterans — who may be at greater risk of insufficient vitamin D stores. Experts stressed that the study was not a clinical trial that directly tested vitamin D for reducing suicidal behavior. So it does not prove that supplements, per se, actually cause suicide risk to fall. At the same time, it’s known that vitamin D deficiency can cause depression-like symptoms, including mood changes and chronic fatigue, said Dr. Christine Crawford, a psychiatrist and associate medical director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Crawford, who was not involved in the study, said that in her practice, she often has patients with depression symptoms tested for blood levels of vitamin D, as well as vitamin B12, folic acid and thyroid hormones. (Deficiencies in those vitamins, or thyroid hormone disturbances, can also cause depressive symptoms.) “I think that medical evaluation is so important,” Crawford… read on > read on >

Fizzy sodas, microwaveable meals and packaged cookies are convenient for people on the go, but these folks might not go as far as they’d like if that’s all they eat. Ultra-processed foods appear to increase the risk of developing and dying from a variety of cancers, a new large-scale study says. Every 10% increase of these foods in your diet increases your overall risk of cancer by 2% and your risk of a cancer-related death by 6%, researchers reported Jan. 31 in eClinical Medicine. The risk is even higher for specific cancers, particularly those that primarily affect women. For example, every 10% increase in a woman’s consumption of ultra-processed foods makes her 19% more likely to develop and 30% more likely to die from ovarian cancer, the investigators found. The researchers describe ultra-processed foods as “industrial formulations made by assembling industrially derived food substances and food additives through a sequence of extensive industrial processes.” Industrially derived ingredients include things like high-glucose corn syrup, modified starch, protein isolates, emulsifiers, stabilizers and preservatives, the study authors said. “Our bodies may not react the same way to these ultra-processed ingredients and additives as they do to fresh and nutritious minimally processed foods,” lead researcher Kiara Chang, a research fellow with Imperial College London’s School of Public Health, said in a college news release. “However, ultra-processed foods are everywhere… read on > read on >

U.S. health officials are investigating whether a specific brand of over-the-counter eyedrops are behind one death and dozens of bacterial infections in several states. The infections have not been traced to preservative-free EzriCare Artificial Tears, but a majority of people who became ill reported using the drops, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement. The agency found the bacteria in bottles of the eyedrops, and it’s now testing to see if the strain found in the eyedrop bottles matches that found in patients. CDC officials recommended that “patients immediately discontinue the use of EzriCare Artificial Tears until the epidemiological investigation and laboratory analyses are complete.” At least 50 people in 11 states have been infected with the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is resistant to most antibiotics. One of those infected died after the bacterium entered the patient’s bloodstream. “That’s what’s so concerning,” Dr. Jill Weatherhead, an assistant professor of tropical medicine and infectious diseases at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told NBC News. “Our standard treatments are no longer available” to treat this infection. In 11 cases, people developed eye infections. Three were blinded in one eye. Some of those infected had respiratory or urinary tract infections. P. aeruginosa infections typically happen in hospital settings in people with weakened immune systems, though the bacteria can be found in… read on > read on >

Mila Clarke started taking Ozempic in 2020 to help manage her diabetes, but was pleasantly surprised to find herself soon shedding pounds. “I was like, this is really weird because I’m not having to try very hard to do this,” said Clarke, who has been diagnosed with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes and chronicles her diabetes journey on her Hangry Woman blog. “And as I kept going on, I kept noticing that the weight was falling off.” Then the side effects started — most worryingly, a racing and palpitating heartbeat. “I could be laying down in bed and my heart rate, like resting heart rate, would be 120 beats per minute,” the sort of rate associated with exercise, Clarke said in an interview with HealthDay Now. “It was really having an effect on my heart rate, and that was really terrifying.” First approved to treat diabetes under the brand name Ozempic, the drug semaglutide received federal approval in June 2021 to also be prescribed as a weight-loss medication — with the brand name Wegovy. People interested in dropping pounds — either for their health or for vanity’s sake — flooded the market for semaglutide, making it difficult to impossible for people with diabetes to fill prescriptions needed to manage their condition. But semaglutide comes with some troubling side effects that people might not… read on > read on >

Dave Conway had a heart attack in 2018. He was only 30. The Clintonville, Ohio, resident had been experiencing fatigue and shortness of breath, finally going to the emergency room with what he thought was pneumonia. Instead, he learned he’d had a “widowmaker” heart attack and a 100% blockage in a major artery. “I thought people who had heart attacks or heart disease were older people who drink and smoke a lot and weigh much more than I did,” Conway said. “Recovery has been really tough, but I’m willing to do whatever my doctors tell me is needed to keep my heart safe in the future,” he said in an Ohio State University news release. Stories like Conway’s are becoming more common, with studies showing heart attacks and stroke are on the rise among Americans younger than 40. Certain healthy habits can help prevent heart problems — but getting younger adults to accept their risks remains an obstacle. “It is alarming that younger people don’t feel that they’re at risk for heart disease, but it’s not surprising,” said Dr. Laxmi Mehta, director of preventative cardiology and women’s cardiovascular health at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. “Most young people think heart disease only happens in old people, but that’s not the case,” Mehta said in the release. The medical center surveyed 2,000 Americans, finding that… read on > read on >

The saga of Damar Hamlin’s recent collapse during a football game has thrown the dangers of sports-related cardiac arrest into the spotlight. What about this happening to someone much older? A new study brings reassuring news: It’s rare for an older adult to have a sudden cardiac arrest during exercise, and those who do tend to have fewer health issues than those who experience this medical emergency outside of exercise, according to researchers. While exercise is among the most heart-healthy habits, a new study from Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles noted that it can trigger an irregular heart rhythm that leads to sudden cardiac arrest. Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when an electrical malfunction causes a person’s heart to stop beating. Most people die within minutes. In recent years, rates of sudden cardiac arrest have increased for older adults. However, “the annual incidence of sports-related sudden cardiac arrest among older adults is extremely rare,” said senior study author Dr. Sumeet Chugh. He is director of the Heart Rhythm Center in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai. For the new study, his team analyzed cases of sudden cardiac arrest in people aged 65 and older in Portland, Ore., and Ventura County, Calif. The data came from the Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study, which began in 2002, and the Ventura Prediction of Sudden Death in Multi-ethnic Communities study, which… read on > read on >

People who have sleep apnea may have another issue to worry about — weaker bones and teeth. Known as low bone-mineral density, the condition is an indicator of osteoporosis and can increase the risk of fractures and cause teeth to become loose and dental implants to fail, according to new research from the University at Buffalo (UB) in New York. To study this, researchers used cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) — a type of X-ray — to measure bone density in the heads and necks of 38 adults. Half of the study participants had sleep apnea. These scans found that participants with sleep apnea had significantly lower bone-mineral density than the participants without the condition. Sleep apnea can cause difficulty breathing while asleep, which can lead to low levels of oxygen in the body, inflammation, oxidative stress and shortened breathing patterns. These symptoms may each have a chronic negative effect on bone metabolism and eventually bone density, said senior author Dr. Thikriat Al-Jewair. She is an associate professor of orthodontics in the UB School of Dental Medicine and director of the school’s Advanced Education Program in Orthodontics. “While the link between obstructive sleep apnea and low bone-mineral density has yet to be fully explored, this study offers new evidence on their connection that could have several implications for orthodontic treatment,” Al-Jewair said in a university… read on > read on >

Stung by recent food safety scandals — most notably last year’s infant formula shortage, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it is creating a new unit devoted to food safety. The newly dubbed Human Foods Program will wield wide-ranging powers. “We’re proposing the creation of a unified, newly envisioned organization, called the Human Foods Program, that elevates key focus areas, removes redundancies and consolidates activities under a single leader, a deputy commissioner for human foods,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said during a media briefing announcing the change. The deputy commissioner “will have clear decision-making authority and oversight of priorities to ensure a safe and nutritious U.S. food supply,” Califf added. Not only that, the new program will “elevate the importance of nutrition, given declining life expectancy in the U.S. due in large part to chronic diseases with a basis in nutrition,” he noted. The sweeping move comes after a scathing report in early December from the Reagan-Udall Foundation found that the FDA’s food program is in a state of “constant turmoil” and requires stronger leadership. That report was commissioned by Califf once the agency conducted its own review after facing serious criticism for its handling of the infant formula shortage. That shortage, which dragged on for months, was prompted in part by a recall of potentially contaminated infant formula at Abbott… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Damar Hamlin Teams With Heart Experts to Promote Life Saving CPR

Maker of Diet Drug Wegovy Ramps Up Production to Meet Demand

Could Vitamin D Help Ward Off Suicide?

Another Study Links ‘Ultra-Processed’ Foods to Higher Cancer Risk

CDC Warns of Dangerous Infection Risk With EzriCare Eyedrops

Ozempic: Dieters Who Use Scarce Diabetes Drug Could Face Side Effects

Many Young Americans Don’t Realize Heart Attacks Can Hit Them Too: Poll

Sports-Linked Cardiac Arrest Rare in Seniors, Study Finds

Sleep Apnea Linked to Weaker Bones, Teeth

After Baby Formula Scandal, FDA Announces New Unit Focused on Food Safety