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It’s an all-too-familiar scenario for many parents: Your preschooler starts to act up just as the phone rings or you start dinner. Maybe you hand over an iPad or smartphone to soothe the child so you can get down to business. And this probably does the trick. But if this is your go-to strategy, your child may be at risk for developing longer-term behavioral issues — especially boys and kids already hard-wired to be hyperactive or impulsive. “If a child is upset and has big emotions and you hand over a smartphone or tablet to distract them, it may keep the peace in the moment, but if this is the main way you soothe your child, it will be a setback in the long run,” said study author Dr. Jenny Radesky. She is a developmental behavioral pediatrician at the University of Michigan Health Children’s Hospital, in Ann Arbor. Instead, kids need to learn how to identify these emotions and develop self-soothing strategies, she said. “Kids who don’t build these skills in early childhood are more likely to struggle when stressed out in school or with peers as they get older,” Radesky added. For the study, the researchers looked at 422 kids and 422 parents, analyzing how often parents used screens to calm kids aged 3 to 5. Over a six-month period, the investigators charted kids’… read on > read on >

Having COPD can make it hard to breathe as it taxes both the lungs and the heart, but a new study offers a possible solution: Using an air purifier helped patients’ hearts work better. Researchers found that when people with COPD, also known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, consistently used air purifiers, their hearts were better able to adapt their heart rates in response to daily demands, something known as heart rate variability (HRV). HRV is a key measure of overall heart health. In fact, the participants who used air purifiers daily saw a 25% increase in their HRV. Study author Dr. Sarath Raju, an assistant professor of medicine who specializes in lung diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, explained that an increase in HRV is important. “People with poor HRVs are at risk for a number of cardiac problems, such as heart attacks or a worsening of COPD symptoms,” he said. “All of these things increase the odds of someone with COPD being hospitalized, which is of course something we want to avoid.” The study also looked at the role of what scientists call ultrafine particles, tiny pieces of irritants in the air that people breathe. Raju and his colleagues found there was an association between the presence of these particles in a person’s home environment and a negative… read on > read on >

For some people, dozens of U.S.-approved drugs can lead to a rare but often fatal brain infection. Researchers have now confirmed a strong link between four genetic mutations and this illness, called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). A new study found that in people taking PML-inducing drugs, having one of four genetic variants increased the odds of developing PML 8.7 times on average. One of the variants increased risk 33-fold. The findings give doctors the insight to screen out patients with the highest risk for the condition before prescribing these drugs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has put its most serious warning — called a Black Box Warning — for PML on eight approved medications. More than 30 drugs carry other PML warnings, and cases have been reported in connection with more than 75 drugs treating everything from multiple sclerosis (MS) to blood cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and organ transplant rejection. This has the potential to affect a lot of people. Nearly 1 million Americans have MS, for example. Another 1.5 million have blood cancers commonly treated with PML-inducing drugs. About 850,000 Americans have received organ transplants, the study authors noted. As more immunosuppressant medications are developed, drug-induced PML is on the rise, with more than 500 cases listed in the FDA’s adverse event reporting system in 2021. “It’s critical to be able to… read on > read on >

Capitalism is thought to bring out the best in workers, but there’s a dark side to tying a person’s everyday efforts to their weekly paycheck. Folks relying on short-term, freelanced office jobs, or jobs where pay is linked to hustle — depending largely on tips, commissions and bonuses — may often suffer poor health related to their financial insecurity, new research has shown. Employees with fluctuating and unpredictable pay tend to have poorer sleep, more stress and miserable physical symptoms that affect their work and home life, said lead researcher Gordon Sayre, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Emlyon Business School in France. Those symptoms grow worse as a person’s finances become more unstable, Sayre said, and the amount of savings they might have on hand seems to provide no solace. “There’s a lot of research looking at how performance-based pay, commission-based pay, piece-rate based pay leads to higher levels of motivation or higher levels of performance. That’s been sort of fairly well-established, and that’s one of the reasons why these pay practices have become popular,” Sayre said. “But there are some costs to these types of pay arrangements, and we need to consider them in addition to the performance benefits they bring,” he added. “They also have these health costs.” Millions of Americans are in jobs where they can’t count on a steady… read on > read on >

Both extremely hot and very cold days take their toll on people who have heart disease, particularly those with heart failure. A new multinational analysis of 32 million heart-related deaths over the past 40 years found more occurred on days with severe temperatures, an issue that climate change could make even worse. Although the greatest number of deaths were due to heart failure, extreme weather also led to a rise in stroke; arrhythmia (an irregular heartbeat); and ischemic heart disease (which is caused by narrowed heart arteries). “The decline in cardiovascular death rates since the 1960s is a huge public health success story as cardiologists identified and addressed individual risk factors such as tobacco, physical inactivity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and others,” according to researcher Dr. Barrak Alahmad. He is a fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. “The current challenge now is the environment and what climate change might hold for us,” Alahmad said in a news release from the American Heart Association (AHA). Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. To study the impact of temperatures, researchers analyzed data for 32 million heart-related deaths in 27 countries between 1979 and 2019. The investigators compared heart-related deaths on the hottest and the coldest 2.5% of days in 567 cities with those on days when temperatures were… read on > read on >

If someone is stricken with a blood cancer or life-threatening clot, they’ll probably fare better if they are white and wealthy, three new studies show. The ongoing impact of patient race and income to medical outcomes was in the spotlight Saturday in New Orleans at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). In one study, a team led by Dr. Matthew Maurer, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., looked at who got enrolled (or didn’t) in clinical trials for new treatments against a blood cancer known as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). It’s the most common form of lymphoma in the United States. According to ASH, existing therapies help cure about 60% of patients, but another 40% may not be helped. So, enrollment in clinical trials can be crucial for some patients. The Mayo study examined data on enrollment in DLBCL trials from eight large academic medical centers across America. It found that 76% of enrollees were white. Results from lab tests were key to getting accepted into the trials, but Black or Hispanic Americans were much less likely to meet those lab-based criteria than were whites, the research showed. That means trial organizers may need to take a closer look at lab-based eligibility criteria to help level the playing field for entry into future clinical trials. “These exclusion criteria are… read on > read on >

Before you toast the holiday season with too much alcohol, here’s a sobering thought. Folks who get injured severely enough while intoxicated to require hospital treatment are five times more likely to die in the coming year, according to new research published in Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. The same is true of folks with alcohol use disorders. “Injuries are one of the most immediate hazards of problematic drinking behavior,” said lead researcher Sidra Goldman-Mellor, an assistant professor of public health at the University of California, Merced. “In addition to getting injured from things like car accidents and falls, some people may get injured in fights or even engage in self-harm after they’ve been drinking,” she said in a journal news release. “However, we actually know very little about what happens to people with an alcohol use disorder after they’ve had a serious injury,” Goldman-Mellor said. “So, we wanted to investigate the most important outcome of all: How likely they were to die?” For the study, she and her colleagues looked at 10 million visits to emergency rooms between 2009 and 2012 by California residents ages 10 and older. Of those, more than 262,000 had an injury that wasn’t fatal initially and either had a diagnosis of alcohol use disorder or were intoxicated at the time. In all, close to 77% of the… read on > read on >

Skiiers and snowboarders, take note: You’re less likely to get hurt if you ease back into the winter sports season. “We see a lot of patients in the After-Hours Clinic (of the department of orthopaedic surgery) on their way back from skiing and snowboarding,” said Dr. Sabrina Sawlani, a sports medicine physician at UCLA Health, in Los Angeles. Sawlani, whose UCLA sports medicine fellowship included training at the urgent care ski clinic at Northstar Resort in Lake Tahoe, offered some tips for those who want to hit the slopes without getting hurt. Before downhill skiing, she recommended six weeks of cardiovascular conditioning through running, biking, stair-climbing or using an elliptical machine. Target muscles involved in skiing, such as your core, hamstrings, quadriceps and glutes. “Those are the areas I’d really try to focus on — really stretching out those areas, and your low back and shoulders,” she said in a UCLA Health news release. “There’s no perfect routine, but really incorporating strength, endurance, stability and your overall fitness and flexibility to keep your body safe from injury is important.” Have your equipment checked by a professional if you haven’t used it in a couple of years, she urged. “Retest that release mechanism with a certified shop every year,” said Sawlani, who is a skier and snowboarder. “You want to test that self-release each day while… read on > read on >

From burns to cuts, kitchen accidents happen, and they may be more likely as you cook for holiday gatherings. Treating those injuries quickly and effectively can help begin the healing process and may reduce scarring, according to a skin expert at the American Academy of Dermatology. “Whenever your skin is injured — whether by accident or from surgery — your body works to repair the wound. As your skin heals, a scar may form, as this is a natural part of the healing process,” said Dr. Lindsay Strowd, associate professor and interim chair of dermatology at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. “The appearance of a scar often depends on how well the wound heals,” she said in an academy news release. “If you have minor cuts or scrapes, you can help reduce the appearance of a scar by properly treating the injury at home.” First-degree burns can occur after accidentally touching a hot stove or oven or from a mishap with holiday decorations. This only involves the top layer of skin, unlike the more severe second- or third-degree burns. You may experience mild swelling and your skin may be red and painful. “If you get a minor, first-degree burn, it’s important to treat it right away,” Strowd said. “Not only can a first-degree burn be very painful, but it can leave a… read on > read on >

Black patients with brain tumors may be less likely to have surgery recommended to them than white patients are, according to a large U.S. study. The research, which looked at two national databases, found that on average, Black patients were less likely to have surgery recommended for any of four types of brain tumor. That included three considered benign (non-cancerous) and one that is a deadly type of brain cancer. Experts said the reasons for the disparity are unclear. But the nature of patients’ tumors — the size, stage or location in the brain — did not explain the gap. Nor did differences in health insurance coverage or any of the other factors the researchers were able to assess. The findings are being published Dec. 10 in The Lancet, as part of a special issue on racial disparities in health care globally. And they add to a body of research documenting gaps in U.S. health care, across medical specialties. Black people and Hispanic Americans often face more obstacles to accessing care, and often fare more poorly when they are diagnosed with a health condition, versus white Americans. When it comes to cancerous brain tumors, like glioblastoma, surgery is the standard of care, said Dr. Andrew Venteicher, one of the senior researchers on the study. Surgery may also be done to remove benign tumors, in order… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Using Devices as Babysitters Can Backfire on Parents

Air Purifiers May Help the Hearts of People With COPD

Patients’ Genes Raise Odds for Rare Brain Infection When Using Certain Meds

Gig Economy Could Be Harming Workers’ Health

Climate Change’s Extreme Temperatures Could Mean More Heart Deaths

Race, Income Can Determine Blood Cancer Outcomes, Studies Show

Odds for Early Death Rise After Severe Injury Linked to Alcohol

It’s Snow Season: Stay Safe on the Slopes

Holiday Kitchen Accident? Here’s How to Treat Minor Cuts, Burns

Black Patients With Brain Tumors Less Likely to Get Surgery Than Whites