All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Spring break is a time to relax and enjoy a respite from the daily grind. But whether you’re flying, driving or taking a cruise, it’s essential to take care of your health while traveling. Dr. W. Graham Carlos, a professor of clinical medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine, offers key advice to help you stay healthy during your trip. “Crowded environments like airports, bus, train stations are great places to pick up viruses like norovirus and flu, so pay attention to good hand hygiene,” he said in a news release. “For those traveling south or to the sun, remember to pack sunscreen and stay hydrated as your skin and body have not acclimated to the warmer temperatures. Finally, use the time together to try to disconnect from media and connect with your family and friends with a specific plan to talk about mental and emotional well-being,” Carlos said. How you travel can make a difference in the precautions you take.  “Crowded environments increase the risk of exposure to various infectious diseases that can ruin your trip. Pay attention to hand hygiene in particular. Some people may wish to wear a mask for an extended time on a plane. For those driving to their destination, remember to get plenty of rest before a long trip and stop frequently to recharge,” Carlos added. For both…  read on >  read on >

There’s nothing like the feeling of years of hard work paying off — when you can finally transition to a life of non-work activities, whether it’s traveling, diving into personal projects or even learning a new language.  But retirement in a warm, affordable country may come with an unexpected downside: loneliness. A new study suggests that retirees who move abroad often experience greater social isolation than those who stay in their home state. The research, published recently in Psychology and Aging, compared nearly 5,000 Dutch retirees living abroad to more than 1,300 who stayed in the Netherlands.  It found that retirees who moved overseas were more socially isolated, even though they were often healthier and wealthier than those who stayed. “Although these retirement migrants generally report being happy, they may still face struggles adapting to a new country,” lead author Esma Betül Savaş, a doctoral researcher at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographics Institute, said in a news release. Social loneliness comes from a lack of a broad circle of friends, while emotional loneliness is tied to a lack of close friends or partner. The study found that, overall, retirees who moved abroad had higher levels of social loneliness.  But those who stayed connected with friends and family back home or built strong relationships in their new country felt less isolated. Researchers also found that those who…  read on >  read on >

Night owls — people who stay up late — have been shown to have an increased risk of depression. And now a new study says why that might be. Dusk dwellers tend to be less mindful — that is, less engaged in the present moment, researchers found. That, along with poor sleep quality and higher alcohol consumption, are likely explanations for their increased depression risk, researchers reported in the journal PLOS One. “Importantly, we considered the different facets of mindfulness as factors,” concluded the team led by senior researcher Simon Evans, a lecturer in neuroscience of the University of Surrey in the U.K.  “Results pointed specifically to a protective role of the ‘acting with awareness’ facet,” in which people engage fully in the present moment and carry out actions with deliberate attention rather than on autopilot, researchers wrote. For the study, researchers surveyed nearly 550 university students using an online questionnaire. Students reported information on their sleep patterns, mindfulness, alcohol use and levels of depression and anxiety. The responses revealed that night owls were indeed more likely to report symptoms of depression compared to average sleepers, researchers report. Night owls also had worse sleep quality than average sleepers or morning birds, and they tended to consume more alcohol. These results jibe with earlier studies linking bad sleep and alcohol to depression, researchers noted. But this…  read on >  read on >

Lowering the volume on earbuds or wearing earplugs in noisy environments is known to reduce a person’s risk of tinnitus. Now, new research suggests that eating more fruit and fiber or drinking more milk and coffee may also stave off the vexing and persistent buzzing that can drive folks to distraction. Simple dietary changes appear to reduce people’s risk of developing tinnitus, researchers reported in The BMJ. “Diet-based strategies for tinnitus prevention are anticipated to play a significant role in chronic tinnitus management,” the research team led by senior researcher Qinxiu Zhang with the Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Sichuan, China, concluded. “Existing evidence suggests that consuming fruit, dietary fiber, caffeine and dairy may be associated with a reduced incidence of tinnitus,” researchers wrote. About one in every six (14%) adults has tinnitus, researchers said in background notes. Although exposure to loud noise is a key risk factor for the hearing problem, “the origins of tinnitus remain elusive and involve a range of factors,” researchers wrote. For the evidence review, researchers pooled data from eight previous studies that looked at potential links between tinnitus and diet. The studies involved more than 300,000 people. Results showed that increased consumption of certain foods reduced tinnitus risk: Fruits by 35% Dairy by 17% Caffeine by 10% Fiber by 9%. These foods might influence tinnitus risk by…  read on >  read on >

Doctors should prescribe triptans for migraine patients who aren’t receiving relief from over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers, according to a new clinical guideline from the American College of Physicians. The recommendation is based on an evidence review showing that adding a triptan to either a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) or acetaminophen worked better to quell migraine pain and headache than OTC products alone, researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine. This combination therapy “resulted in a higher likelihood of sustained pain relief up to 48 hours after initial treatment and lower likelihood of using rescue medication at 24 hours,” compared with using a triptan alone, said the research team led by Dr. Carolyn Crandall, an internist with the UCLA School of Medicine. “In addition, combination therapy of a triptan and an NSAID probably results in a higher likelihood of achieving pain relief at 2 hours and sustained pain freedom at 48 hours,” researchers added. Triptan drugs treat migraines by changing the way blood circulates in the brain, and the way the brain processes pain signals, according to the Cleveland Clinic. “Using a triptan alone has historically been the first-line treatment of episodic migraine,” reads a summary for patients provided by the ACP. Episodic migraine occurs when a person has less than 15 headache days a month. By contrast, chronic migraine occurs when an individual has…  read on >  read on >

Removing the tonsils and adenoids can improve the sleep of kids with mild breathing problems that disturb their slumber, a new clinical trial reports. Children with sleep problems needed to see a doctor 32% less often and had a 48% reduction in medication use after surgical removal of their tonsils and adenoids (adenotonsillectomy), researchers reported in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. The results mean that “for every 100 children, 125 encounters and 253 prescriptions can be avoided in the first year following surgery,” senior researcher Dr. Susan Redline, a professor of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said in a news release. As many as 17% of kids in the U.S. experience sleep-disordered breathing, in which snoring or full-blown sleep apnea causes them to wake repeatedly in the night, according to information cited in the news release. Taking out enlarged tonsils is standard treatment for moderate to severe cases, but the practice hadn’t been tested in kids with mild sleep-disturbed breathing. For this study, researchers analyzed data from a clinical trial involving 459 children with mild sleep-disordered breathing who were followed for a year. The kids were 3 to 12 and being treated at seven academic sleep centers across the U.S. During the trial, half the children had their tonsils and adenoids removed while the other half received supportive care without surgery that included education…  read on >  read on >

Dancing is known to lift the spirit, and a new study shows that Alzheimer’s disease patients respond to the rhythmic moves as well. Dance classes eased agitation in a small group of people with Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias, researchers reported in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. “This study highlights how movement-based interventions, like adapted dance, can be a meaningful way to improve both physical and emotional well-being for individuals with dementia,” researcher Rodney Guttmann, interim chair of biology with the University of West Florida, said in a news release. The three-month study took place in The Retreat, an adult day care fun by the Council on Aging of West Florida. “I was fortunate to witness the dancing intervention multiple times in person, and the activity was so well-run and fun that I could see morale, comprehension and physical ability among the participants improve in real time,” Council on Aging President and CEO Josh Newby said in a news release. For the study, researcher recruited four men and 12 women with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to take hour-long dance classes twice a week for three months, while the other half participated in activities without music like bingo, puzzles, crafts, cards and board games. Those in the dance group were taught six different routines like the box…  read on >  read on >

TikTok’s most popular videos on ADHD are as likely to misinform viewers as they are to provide helpful hints, a new study says. More than half the claims made in the 100 most-viewed TikTok videos about attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are not accurate, researchers reported in the journal PLOS One. Unfortunately, college students are more likely to rate videos containing bad information as accurate and recommend them to others, results show. “TikTok can be an incredible tool for raising awareness and reducing stigma, but it also has a downside,” lead researcher Vasileia Karasavva, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of British Columbia, said in a news release. “Anecdotes and personal experiences are powerful, but when they lack context, they can lead to misunderstandings about ADHD and mental health in general,” Karasavva added. For the study, researchers identified the 100 most popular TikTok videos with the #ADHD hashtag, and had two clinical psychologists who are ADHD experts review the video’s claims. “The creators of the top 100 #ADHD TikTok videos regularly contributed such content; almost 80% had posted multiple videos discussing ADHD,” researchers wrote in their paper. The psychologists judged that only about 49% of the claims made in the TikTok videos were accurate based on diagnostic guidelines for ADHD, the study says. In their next step, researchers surveyed nearly 850 college undergrads about…  read on >  read on >

Where a person lives can influence their recovery from a traumatic brain injury, a new study says. Based on their neighborhood’s characteristics, people are less likely to receive home rehab visits or go to a rehab clinic following a concussion or other traumatic brain injury (TBI), researchers report in the March/April issue of the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. The results indicate a “need to improve access to rehabilitation services for persons with TBI living in communities with greater social needs,” concluded the research team led by Monique Pappadis, vice chair of population health and health disparities with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 19,000 Medicare patients in Texas treated for a traumatic brain injury between 2014 and 2018. About 48% of the patients received home health rehabilitation services, and another 14% attended rehab at a clinic. The rest received no rehab at all. Results showed that: Patients in higher-income areas or areas with higher unemployment rates were less likely to receive home health visits. Rural patients and those in areas with lower insurance coverage were less likely to receive rehab at a clinic. Patients who lived near grocery stores were more likely to have home health visits. People in areas with severe housing problems were more likely to have outpatient visits. Overall, some…  read on >  read on >