Therapy dogs can help boost the spirits of health care workers in the same way they brighten the moods of hospital patients, a new study shows.  The furry, four-legged friends reduced emotional exhaustion and job stress among a small group of workers at two surgical and two intensive care units in the Midwest, researchers report. “We brought the dogs to the units and many times we had staff in tears sitting with the dogs, telling them about their day,” said lead investigator Beth Steinberg, a senior researcher with Ohio State University’s Center for Integrative Health. “For the most part, people have an affinity to a non-judgmental, warm, furry animal that can come and just sit with them and listen,” Steinberg said in a university news release. “Dogs don’t care what you look like, how you’re feeling that day; they just know that when you need them, they’re there.” Steinberg is co-founder of Buckeye Paws, a therapy dog program initially aimed at improving the mental and emotional health of staff at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Buckeye Paws launched in March 2020, shortly before the pandemic began taking its toll on overtaxed health professionals. To see whether the program is making a difference, researchers focused therapy dog sessions with a group of 64 health care workers. The group included doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, respiratory…  read on >  read on >

Folks who are content with what they’ve got could be less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke, a new study suggests. “Our findings support a holistic approach to health care, where enhancing a person’s mental and emotional well-being is considered an integral part of preventing heart disease and stroke,” said senior study author Dr. Wen Sun, associate director of the Stroke Center at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, China. “Health care professionals might consider including strategies to improve life satisfaction and happiness as part of routine care, such as recommending regular physical activities, social activities or stress management techniques as effective ways to enhance personal well-being,” Sun added. For the study, researchers analyzed data gathered from more than 120,000 participants in the U.K. Biobank, a large-scale medical database. Participants filled out questionnaires that assessed their well-being in terms of satisfaction with family, friendships, health, finances and general happiness. Researchers compared people’s well-being with their risk of four major heart-related diseases. Results show that people with the highest well-being scores had: A 44% lower risk of clogged arteries. A 45% lower risk of stroke. A 51% lower risk of heart failure. A 56% lower risk of heart attack. Further analysis suggested that people who feel more content tend to adopt healthier lifestyles and suffer less inflammation, researchers said. “These…  read on >  read on >

Deprivation, neglect and abuse during childhood can increase a person’s long-term risk of health problems, a new study warns. “Stress is implicated in nine of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States today,” said senior researcher Dr. George Slavich, director of the UCLA Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research. “It’s about time we take that statistic seriously and begin screening for stress in all pediatric and adult clinics nationwide.” For the study, published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, researchers analyzed data on more than 2,100 participants in a long-range study funded by the National Institute on Aging. The team looked at different childhood traumas reported by the participants — financial distress, abuse, neglect, frequent moves, living apart from parents and receiving welfare. The participants also provided samples that allowed researchers to calculate 25 different disease biomarkers, and said whether they’d been diagnosed with 20 different major health conditions. Results showed that the risk of health problems in men and women increased with the amount of childhood stress they endured. Researchers also found that the effects of stress differed between men and women. Childhood stress tended to have greater effects on the metabolism of women than men, results show. On the other hand, emotional abuse and neglect appear to have greater health effects on men than women when it comes to…  read on >  read on >

As wildfires continue to burn across parts of California, a new study finds that smoke from these blazes and other air pollution could be harming kids’ mental health. Repeated exposure to high levels of particle pollution increases kids’ risk of depression, anxiety and other mental health symptoms, researchers reported. What’s more, each additional day of exposure to unsafe air significantly boosted the likelihood that a youngster would suffer mental health problems. “We need to understand what these extreme events are doing to young people, their brains and their behavior,” said lead investigator Harry Smolker, a research associate with the University of Colorado-Boulder’s Institute of Cognitive Science. For the study, researchers analyzed data from 10,000 kids ages 9 to 11 participating in an ongoing study of brain development. Using the participants’ addresses, they calculated how many days in 2016 each kid was exposed to particle pollution levels the Environmental Protection Agency considers unsafe. Some studies have found that these airborne particles could be small enough to cross the blood-brain barrier and affect the brain. These particles have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers; by comparison, a human hair is about 50 micrometers in diameter. Adult hospital admissions for depression, suicide and psychosis tend to increase on high pollution days, researchers said in background notes. When pregnant women are exposed to heavy particle pollution, their children…  read on >  read on >