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A new study harnesses the power of mindfulness to help overanxious people calm themselves — and the benefit may equal the use of an antidepressant, according to researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Olga Cannistraro said practicing mindfulness certainly helped her. “There was something excessive about the way I responded to my environment,” she explained. Cannistraro, now 52, decided to join a study on mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) for anxiety disorders 10 years ago. The study was led by Dr. Elizabeth Hoge, who directs the Anxiety Disorders Research Program at Georgetown. MBSR “gave me the tools to spy on myself,” Cannistraro explained in a center news release. “Once you have awareness of an anxious reaction, then you can make a choice for how to deal with it. It’s not like a magic cure, but it was a lifelong kind of training. Instead of my anxiety progressing, it went in the other direction and I’m very grateful for that.” The latest study by Hoge’s team seems to confirm those earlier, positive results. Published Nov. 9 in JAMA Psychiatry, the study recruited 276 people with anxiety disorder who were seeking treatment at hospitals in Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C. All were offered either the SSRI antidepressant escitalopram (brand name Lexapro, commonly used to treat anxiety) or eight weeks of MBSR. The mindfulness… read on > read on >

Much like intense exercise, vigorous sex can trigger an asthma attack in folks with the chronic lung disease, according to new research. “There is a lack of current literature available on the prevalence of sexual intercourse presenting as exercise-induced asthma,” said study author Dr. Ariel Leung, chief internal medicine resident at Saint Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, Calif. This could be because sex isn’t always the easiest topic to broach with your doctor. “When sexual intercourse-induced asthma is properly identified and treated, allergists are placed in a position where they can improve their patients’ quality of life and even their marriages,” Leung said. When it comes to the risk of having an asthma attack, vigorous sex is akin to walking up two flights of stairs, she noted. The same measures that keep asthma at bay during exercise can also help stave off a sex-induced asthma attack. “We recommend that patients take their short-acting beta agonist inhaler 30 minutes prior to sexual intercourse to prevent an asthma attack,” Leung said. “Some patients might think it takes away from the romance, but nothing is more romantic than taking care of yourself and not having your partner observe an asthma attack.” The wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath and chest tightness that are hallmarks of an asthma attack are caused by inflammation that narrows airways. It can’t be cured… read on > read on >

THURSDAY, Nov. 10, 2022 (HealthDay News) – Getting vaccinated for COVID-19 while pregnant provides higher levels of antibodies for both mom and baby than catching the virus does, a new study finds. When pregnant women received one of the two available mRNA vaccines, researchers found that the women had 10-fold higher antibody concentrations than those who were infected naturally. The research team from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania detected antibodies as early as 15 days after the women’s first dose of the vaccine. “These findings suggest that COVID-19 vaccination not only provides robust protection for mothers during pregnancy — it also provides higher concentrations of antibodies to babies than COVID-19 infection,” said first study author Dr. Dustin Flannery, an attending neonatologist at CHOP. “Given that pregnancy is a risk factor for severe COVID-19, this study suggests pregnant people should prioritize getting vaccinated to protect themselves and their babies,” he said in a hospital news release. The researchers studied these questions by analyzing data from patients who gave birth between Aug. 9, 2020, and April 25, 2021, at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. The team members chose these dates because they found it easier to determine the origin of a patient’s antibodies. Vaccines were not widely available during part of this time frame, becoming available in December 2020. Boosters were not widely… read on > read on >

That smartphone in your hand could be triggering your allergies, a new study by an 18-year-old high school student suggests. A science fair project by Hana Ruran, of Hopkinton, Mass., found that cellphones are often loaded with cat and dog allergens, bacteria and fungi. “I have my phone always with me. It’s always in my hand. I never put it down for anything,” said study author Hana Ruran, a senior at Hopkinton High School. “And I have a lot of allergies. I just got interested in doing something that affects me.” The bottom line: It’s a good idea to wipe down the surface of your phone, especially if you have allergies. The research is being presented Thursday at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) annual meeting in Louisville, Ky. “The study demonstrates exposure to inhalant allergens and molecules that trigger innate immune reactions from a source most people haven’t considered,” study co-author Peter Thorne, Ruran’s mentor, said in an ACAAI news release. “If you have allergies or asthma, you may want to think about cleaning your smartphone more often to minimize exposure to these allergens and asthma triggers,” said Thorne, a professor in the University of Iowa College of Public Health, in Iowa City. For the study, the researchers created phone models that simulated the size and surface of a real phone… read on > read on >

In a finding that challenges the notion that immigrants are freeloaders in the American health care system, a new study shows they are paying a lot more through health care premiums and related taxes than they actually use in care. In fact, the amount that immigrants pay in makes up for some of the amount of health care that non-immigrants use in excess of what they pay. “Some politicians and pundits tell Americans that immigrants are a burden to society, and particularly to our health care system,” senior study author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a distinguished professor at City University of New York’s (CUNY) Hunter College and lecturer at Harvard Medical School, said in a CUNY news release. “But the opposite is true. Immigrants subsidize the care of other Americans, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars each year,” she explained. The study found that immigrants paid about $58.3 billion more in health insurance premiums and taxes than insurers and federal, state and local governments paid for their care in 2017. About 89% of immigrants’ total surplus contributions were made by undocumented immigrants. Conversely, Americans born in the United States received $67.2 billion more in care than they actually paid, according to the study authors. To arrive at that unexpected finding, researchers analyzed detailed data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, the American… read on > read on >

Signing up for “food stamps” might help lower-income seniors preserve their mental capabilities, a new U.S. study suggests. Researchers found that eligible older adults who used the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — commonly called food stamps — had two fewer years of mental decline over a 10-year period than those who could have registered for the program but did not. “Less than half of the older adults who are eligible for SNAP actually participate,” said senior study author Adina Zeki Al Hazzouri, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, in New York City. “With the number of people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias expected to increase, this low participation is a huge, missed opportunity for dementia prevention,” Zeki Al Hazzouri added in a school news release. The study included more than 3,500 people, average age 66. All met the income requirements for SNAP benefits, but only 559 used the program, the researchers said. The study participants had memory function tests every two years for 20 years. These involved recalling a list of words and answering questions about what they could remember from their everyday lives. SNAP users had lower income and a greater number of chronic conditions at the beginning of the study than those who opted not to participate in the program, according to the… read on > read on >

In an advance in treating spinal cord injuries, researchers have pinpointed nerve cells that are key to allowing people with paralysis to walk again. The findings come, in part, from nine patients involved in an ongoing Swiss study that is seeking to restore movement to people with paralysis. All nine rapidly regained the ability to stand and walk with the help of implants that electrically stimulate spinal nerves that control lower-body movement. Now the researchers are reporting that they’ve identified a specific group of cells in the lower spine that appear necessary for that movement recovery to happen. The hope, experts said, is that the discovery will help in refining the electrical stimulation therapy — and, eventually, aid in developing even more sophisticated ways to restore complex movement to people with paralysis. In the United States alone, as many as 450,000 people are living with a spinal cord injury, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Just over half of those injuries are in people younger than 30, most of whom are male — with traffic accidents or violence often to blame. Spinal cord injuries essentially cut off communication between the brain and the spinal nerves located below the level of the injury. But those nerve cells are not useless — just offline. And for years, researchers have been studying epidural electrical stimulation (EES)… read on > read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday warned health care workers to look out for patients who may have been exposed to a potentially deadly animal sedative, possibly through illicit drug use. The veterinary medication xylazine is sometimes added to fentanyl, heroin or other drugs, after either being diverted from the legal animal supply or illicitly produced, the FDA said. “FDA is aware of increasing reports of serious side effects from individuals exposed to fentanyl, heroin, and other illicit drugs contaminated with xylazine,” the agency announced in a news release. The non-opioid — sometimes called tranq — is approved for use in animals as a sedative and pain reliever. It is not safe for use in humans. Deaths tied to xylazine have increased significantly in recent years. According to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, overdose deaths involving xylazine jumped from 2% to 26% in Pennsylvania alone between 2015 and 2020. Serious side effects may resemble those linked to opioid use, making it difficult to distinguish opioid overdoses from xylazine exposure. Moreover, naloxone, which can reverse the effects of some opioid drug overdoses, may not have the same effect on xylazine, the agency said. The FDA warned health care professionals not to administer reversal agents used for xylazine in veterinary medicine because it is not known whether they are safe or effective in… read on > read on >

Equipping offices with “healthier” furnishings could reduce human exposure to risky PFAS chemicals, new research suggests. To look at indoor PFAS levels, a team led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in Boston, analyzed building dust in classrooms and common campus spaces. “Our findings provide desperately needed scientific evidence for the success of healthier materials — which don’t have to be more expensive or perform less well — as a real-world solution to reduce indoor exposure to forever chemicals as a whole,” said Anna Young, lead author of the study. She’s a research associate in the department of environmental health and associate director of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings program. PFAS — or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are called “forever chemicals” because they persist in the environment. Used for stain and water resistance, at least 12,000 types of PFAS are found in products such as furniture, carpet, textiles, food packaging, nonstick cookware, cosmetics and firefighting foam. Linked to thyroid disease, stunted development, weakened immune systems, high cholesterol, testicular cancer, obesity and diabetes, these chemicals have been detected in the blood of more than 98% of Americans. For this study, the researchers wanted to expand on an earlier investigation that looked at 15 types of PFAS in buildings. It’s difficult because most of the thousands of PFAS chemicals are unknown or can’t be measured with… read on > read on >

Women tend to be better able than men to recover from kidney injury, but why? Apparently women have an advantage at the molecular level that protects them from a form of cell death that occurs in injured kidneys, a new study in mice has discovered. “Kidney disease afflicts more than 850 million people worldwide every year, so it’s important to understand why female kidneys are more protected from these acute and chronic injuries,” said study author Dr. Tomokazu Souma. He is an assistant professor in the department of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, in Durham, N.C. “Our study is a step toward identifying the causes, and suggests that this female resilience could be therapeutically harnessed to improve kidney repair in both sexes,” Souma said in a Duke Health news release. In the study, researchers looked at a form of cell death called ferroptosis, which is dependent on iron and oxidative stress, and has been identified as a key player in kidney diseases. The researchers used a special type of RNA analysis on mice. They found that being female conferred striking protection against ferroptosis through a particular pathway called nuclear factor erythroid 2–related factor 2 (NRF2). This NRF2 is highly active in females. In males, the sex hormone testosterone reduces NRF2 activity and that promotes ferroptosis and undermines cell resiliency in kidney injury. The… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Mindfulness Program Equals Antidepressants in Easing Anxiety Disorders

Can Sex Trigger an Asthma Attack?

For Pregnant Women and Their Newborns, COVID Vaccine Offers Better Protection Than Prior Infection

Your Smartphone Is a Haven for Allergens

U.S. Immigrants’ Premiums, Taxes Exceed Health Care Expenditures: Study

Could ‘Food Stamps’ Program Give Memory a Boost?

Targeting Key Cells in Spinal Cord Got Paralyzed Patients Walking Again

FDA Warns of Animal Tranquilizer in Illicit Drugs

‘Healthier’ Furniture Without PFAS Toxins Brings Healthier Offices

Kidney Disease Is Tougher on Men Than Women, and Researchers Now Know Why