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Despite distance and occasional technical glitches, a new study finds that most patients like seeing a surgeon for the first time via video. The study was published Jan. 19 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. “We see patients that live hours away. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it threw fuel on the fire of our telehealth program,” said study co-author Dr. Alexander Hawkins, associate professor of surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. “Across the entire health care system, we now do about 20,000 telehealth visits a month,” he said in a college news release. “Previously, there had been concerns about whether we could effectively communicate with patients remotely, but we found that patients are just as satisfied with telehealth visits as in-person appointments.” The study included 387 patients who participated in first-time visits between May 2021 and June 2022 at general surgery clinics across the Vanderbilt system. Researchers used a standard questionnaire to look at the quality of shared decision-making and asked patients and surgeons open-ended questions about their consultations. In all, 77.8% of patients had an in-person visit, while 22.2% saw their doctor remotely. Both groups reported high levels of quality communication during these appointments. Levels of shared decision-making and quality of communication were similar between remote visits and in-person care, the study found. In responding to the… read on > read on >

When it comes to picking the best exercise to lose weight, there is no one right answer. That’s because the right answer is variety, mixing and matching types of exercise to keep the body guessing and improving. “The body adapts to the demands we put on it,” said Dr. Russell Camhi, who works in primary care sports medicine for Northwell Health’s Orthopaedic Institute in East Meadow, N.Y. “If we do the same exercise regimen over and over, results are bound to plateau,” he explained. “Now this doesn’t mean you have to change exercises every day or every week, but a little variety will help the body change and grow.” The key to weight loss is a blend of exercise and nutrition, with the latter responsible for about 80% of the heavy lifting, according to Camhi. It’s important to reduce calories while increasing physical activity, according to the Mayo Clinic, which recommends cutting about 500 to 750 calories a day to lose 1.5 pounds per week.` Though diet plays a bigger role than exercise, physical activity can help with weight maintenance, as well as counter loss of bone density and muscle mass, the Mayo Clinic noted. A high amount of physical activity would be necessary to lose weight unless also adjusting diet, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s not clear exactly… read on > read on >

When the deadly Camp Fire swept through Northern California in 2018, it may have damaged more than the landscape. University of California, San Diego researchers studying survivors’ mental functioning in the wake of the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in the state’s history have uncovered evidence of “climate trauma.” The November 2018 fire burned 239 square miles, destroyed 18,804 structures and killed 85 people. “In this study, we wanted to learn whether and how climate trauma affected and altered cognitive and brain functions in a group of people who had experienced it during the Camp Fire,” said Jyoti Mishra, an associate professor of psychiatry and associate director of the UC Climate and Mental Health Initiative. “We found that those who were impacted, directly or indirectly, displayed weaker interference processing,” she said in a university news release. “Such weakened cognitive performance may then impair daily functioning and reduce well-being.” To function well, brains need to process information and manage memories that help a person achieve goals, while dispensing of harmful distractions, Mishra said. Extreme climate events are well-documented to have significant psychological impacts. “Warming temperatures, for example, have even been linked to greater suicide rates,” Mishra said. “As planetary warming amplifies, more forest fires are expected in California and globally, with significant implications for mental health effects.” The study included 27 people who were directly exposed… read on > read on >

The key to keeping those New Year’s resolutions from fading out by February: Make sure you’ve set achievable goals. Resolutions are often lifestyle changes and those are best managed when the goal is something attainable, according to an expert at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “Resolutions and lifestyle changes are very similar. When we think about lifestyle changes, it’s normally positive, but when people have unrealistic expectations, they often fail,” Dr. Asim Shah said in a college news release. He is executive vice chair in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor. Common resolutions include weight loss, exercise routines, diet changes, managing finances and quitting smoking. Understand the pros and cons, Shah suggested. This might involve making a list of the advantages and disadvantages to keep yourself motivated. Lifestyle changes aren’t dictated by the calendar or required to start on Jan. 1. Make a plan and track your progress, Shah suggested. Take baby steps. Don’t give up too quickly because it takes time to build a habit. Link your resolution to the end result to help you achieve your goals. “It’s time for people to think about why they fail and why they continue to make resolutions that don’t succeed. Make achievable resolutions to be proud of yourself,” Shah said. More information The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has… read on > read on >

Winter is no friend to the body’s delicate skin, but an expert offers three key tips: moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. “It’s pretty intuitive, but it bears repeating,” said dermatologist Dr. David Pearson, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, in Minneapolis. “The environment treats our skin differently in the winter, and that means we may have to change our behaviors to acclimate.” As temperatures and humidity levels drop, your skin loses moisture, Pearson explained in a university news release. This is especially true in a cold, dry state like Minnesota. To help hydrate winter skin, Pearson recommends a thick moisturizing cream that has to be scooped out of a jar or squeezed out of a tube, rather than something thin that comes through a pump. “I don’t like a lot of additives, perfumes, scents, etc. — keep it simple,” Pearson said. When skin dries out, its ability to protect you from external allergens and infections is compromised. “Ceramides may be helpful in restoring the skin barrier, so those can be a good ingredient to look for,” he added. Pearson said some data suggests that humidifiers may also help, but likely less so than moisturizer. When washing, use a gentle soap and keep up your summer sunscreen routine. Even if you’re bundled up, a fair amount of UV light is reflected from the snow,… read on > read on >

A cancer diagnosis can be devastating. Now, new research shows that patients diagnosed with cancer have a risk of suicide 26% higher than the general population. A variety of factors contribute to the elevated risk, including geography, race and ethnicity, economic status and clinical characteristics, American Cancer Society (ACS) researchers found. The study also showed a decline in elevated risk for cancer patients compared with the general population from 67% in 2000 to 16% in 2016. “Our findings highlight the importance of timely symptom management and targeted interventions for suicide prevention in individuals with cancer,” said senior author Xuesong Han, scientific director of health services research at ACS. “These require joint efforts by federal and state governments, as well as health care providers, to ensure comprehensive health insurance coverage for psycho-oncological, psychosocial and palliative care, development of appropriate clinical guidelines for suicide risk screening, and inclusion of suicide prevention in survivorship care plans,” Han said in a society news release. Her team analyzed data from 16.8 million individuals diagnosed with cancer in 43 states between 2000 and 2016. During that time, nearly 20,800 people with cancer died by suicide. This elevated suicide risk was seen across all demographic groups, with particularly higher risks among folks who were Hispanic, uninsured, covered by Medicaid, or under 64 years of age and on Medicare. The suicide risk was… read on > read on >

Wastewater research isn’t for the squeamish, but it can get to the bottom of questions about such things as the effectiveness of COVID-19 air travel restrictions. Tests of toilet tank water from flights entering the United Kingdom helped Welsh scientists determine that steps meant to keep the virus from traveling among countries appear to have failed. “Despite all the intervention measures that the U.K. had in place to try to stop people with the illness getting on flights to the U.K., almost every single plane we tested contained the virus, and most of the terminal sewers, too,” said researcher Davey Jones, a professor in the School of Natural Sciences at Bangor University in Wales. “That might have been because people developed symptoms after testing negative; or were evading the system, or for some other reason,” Jones said in a university news release. “But it showed that there was essentially a failure of border control in terms of COVID surveillance.” For their study, the researchers tested the toilet tank water taken from long- and short-haul flights entering Britain at three airports — Heathrow, Edinburgh and Bristol — between March 8 and March 31, 2022. They also collected samples from sewers connected to arrival halls in the airport terminals and from a nearby wastewater treatment plant. During those three weeks, almost all planes had SARS-CoV-2 in their… read on > read on >

FRIDAY, Jan. 20, 2023 (HealthDay News) – Organic food will soon have to comply with stricter labeling rules under new requirements announced Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In what the Organic Trade Organization (OTA) called the biggest change since the USDA’s organic program was first founded in 1990, the new requirements include that all imported organic food be certified by the USDA National Organic Program. The rule increases certification of more supply chain businesses, and boosts authority for inspections, record-keeping, traceability and fraud prevention. The rule also builds on the USDA’s definitions for organic food, which must use “natural substances and physical, mechanical or biologically based farming methods to the fullest extent possible.” The new program will start in March, and companies must comply within a year. The OTA had lobbied for the changes and said in a statement the regulation “will do much to deter and detect organic fraud and protect organic integrity throughout the supply chain.” Organic food does big business in the United States, where customers spent $63 billion in 2021 for food free of pesticides and contaminants, the Associated Press reported. Working to ensure customers were getting what they paid for, the U.S. Department of Justice recently indicted those alleged to have been involved in a multimillion-dollar fraud operation to export non-organic grain to the United States with… read on > read on >

Doctors are seeing an alarming increase in cases of a specific genital malformation in male babies, and new research suggests environmental factors might be at play. The malformation is known as hypospadias, where the opening of the urethra is not at the tip of the penis, but on the underside of the organ. In the study, scientists identified a direct link between hypospadias tissue samples and the presence of epigenetic alterations — changes to the molecular factors and processes around DNA that determine how genes behave. “Previous researchers have done extensive analyses and not found any kind of genetic DNA sequence mutations that correlate with the presence of the disease, so there has always been a big question mark regarding where it comes from,” explained senior study author Michael Skinner, a professor of biology at Washington State University. “Our study shows the etiology of the disease is environmentally driven through epigenetics, rather than a result of changes to the DNA sequence,” he said in a university news release. “It gives us a clearer picture of what is going on.” Incidents of this malformation have increased by 11.5% in recent decades. This research could ultimately lead to earlier detection and better clinical management this genital defect, the study authors said. What happens next is uncertain, but researchers pointed to one potential path. It could be identifying… read on > read on >

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be an even bigger predictor of depression and anxiety in adulthood than autism is, a new study finds — highlighting the mental health side of the disorder. It’s known that kids and adults with ADHD often have co-existing conditions, including depression and anxiety. Research suggests that about 14% of children with ADHD have depression, while up to 30% have an anxiety disorder, according to the National Resource Center on ADHD. Adults with ADHD, meanwhile, are even harder-hit — with each of those conditions affecting up to half. The new study, researchers said, adds to what’s known by showing that ADHD is even more strongly linked to anxiety and depression than “autistic traits” are. Autism, which impairs communication and social skills, is itself tied to higher-than-normal rates of those mental health conditions. The findings spotlight the mental health component of ADHD, according to Richard Gallagher, an associate professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at NYU Langone Health in New York City, who reviewed the findings. “There’s a notion that people with ADHD have a ‘simple’ problem with paying attention,” he said. “They just need to learn to sit down and focus.” But like autism, ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder, and it can cause significant problems at school, work, home and in relationships, Gallagher said. “Over time, it can impact quality of life,”… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Patients Give High Ratings to Pre-Surgery Telemedicine Consultations

Want to Lose Weight? Here Are the Best Exercises to Shed Pounds

‘Climate Trauma’: Brain Changes Seen in Survivors of California’s Deadliest Wildfire

Be Realistic: It’s Key to Achieving Those New Year’s Resolutions

Winter Wonderland? Not for Your Skin

Suicide Risk Rises When Cancer Strikes

Plane Wastewater Study Shows How COVID Travel Restrictions Failed

New USDA Rules Ramp Up Oversight of Organic Food

Penis Birth Defects Are on the Rise – Are Environmental Toxins to Blame?

ADHD Tied to Higher Rates of Anxiety, Depression