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Americans are terribly lonely, a new poll reveals. Among U.S. adults, about one in three said they feel lonely at least once a week. Worse, one in 10 Americans say they feel lonely every day, results show. Younger people are more likely to experience loneliness, which is defined as a lack of meaningful or close relationships or sense of belonging, according to the American Psychiatric Association’s latest Healthy Minds Monthly Poll. About 30% of respondents ages 18 to 34 said they feel lonely every day or several times a week. The poll “confirms loneliness is widespread, especially in young people,” said APA President Dr. Petros Levounis. “Doctors and other clinicians can make a major difference in their patients’ well-being and physical health when they ask about loneliness and how to mitigate its effects,” Levounis added in an APA news release. “Helping people feel less lonely is straightforward and deeply gratifying.” The poll, which was conducted online from Jan. 10 to Jan. 12 among 2,200 adults, also found that: Single adults are nearly twice as likely as married adults to feel lonely on a weekly basis, 39% versus 22% About 50% of respondents ease their loneliness with distractions like TV, podcasts or social media Another 41% said they go for a walk to feel less lonely, while 38% said they reach out to family or friends… read on > read on >

A much anticipated government study finds that military personnel stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina between 1975 and 1985 face at least a 20% higher risk for certain cancers than those stationed elsewhere. Why the increased risk? For decades, the drinking water at the Marine Corps base was contaminated with industrial solvents, federal documents show. When the contamination was first detected in the early 1980s, wells on the base were shut down, but not before soldiers and their families had drunk it, cooked with it and bathed in it for years. The contamination has prompted a spate of lawsuits and several studies looking at the health effects of the exposure. In the latest research, folks stationed at Camp Lejeune were more likely to develop certain blood cancers and cancers of the lung, breast, throat, esophagus and thyroid than those stationed at Camp Pendleton in California, where the water had not been contaminated. Civilians who only worked at Camp Lejeune were at higher risk for a shorter list of cancers. The study was conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The ATSDR has already done numerous studies focused on health problems at Camp Lejeune. Among other things, those studies looked at male breast cancer rates and birth defects in children born to… read on > read on >

Losing the use of an arm after a stroke can be devastating, but new research could offer survivors fresh hope. The study found that a combination of targeted brain stimulation therapy, along with intense physical rehabilitation, can restore control of an affected arm or hand. “This is the first time that brain stimulation combined with rehabilitation therapy for stroke is available outside of a clinical trial,” noted study lead author Teresa Kimberley. “It could set the stage for even more advancements in recovery from other impairments beyond the arm. This is a watershed moment for rehabilitation science.” Kimberley is a professor of rehabilitation science and physical therapy at the MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston. Her team’s findings will be presented at next week’s International Stroke Conference in Phoenix. As a stroke attacks the brain, vital neural pathways connecting the brain to the limbs can be damaged, triggering a loss of function. Re-establishing those connections can be tough, Kimberley’s team reports. “The recovery of arm and hand function after a stroke often stalls or even declines, leaving many patients with chronic motor deficits that limit their independence and quality of life,” she said in an American Stroke Association news release. “New treatments that can boost the benefits of physical rehabilitation are desperately needed.” The new study involved an implanted device that produces stimulation to… read on > read on >

Women with a common ovarian disorder might be more likely to have memory and thinking problems in middle age, a new study suggests. Females diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) scored lower on cognitive tests than women without the condition, according to a report published Jan. 31 in the journal Neurology. The condition specifically appeared to affect memory, attention and verbal abilities, researchers said. “Polycystic ovary syndrome is a common reproductive disorder that impacts up to 10% of women,” said researcher Dr. Heather Huddleston, director of the PCOS Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). “Our results suggest that people with this condition have lower memory and thinking skills and subtle brain changes at midlife,” Huddleston said in a UCSF news release. “This could impact a person on many levels, including quality of life, career success and financial security.” Polycystic ovary syndrome is a hormonal disorder in which the ovaries produce an abnormally high amount of androgens, which are male sex hormones. The condition causes irregular menstruation, as well as excess body hair, weight gain, acne, infertility and thinning hair. Some women with PCOS wind up with ovarian cysts, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. For the study, researchers tracked more than 900 women between the ages of 18 and 30 for three decades, at which time they completed a series of cognitive tests.… read on > read on >

Radon, an invisible, naturally occurring radioactive gas, appears to raise a person’s risk of stroke, a new study suggests. Already known as the second leading cause of lung cancer, these new findings suggest exposure to radon can increase risk of stroke by as much as 14%, according to a report published Jan. 31 in the journal Neurology. “Our research found an increased risk of stroke among participants exposed to radon above — and as many as two picocuries per liter (pCi/L) below — concentrations that usually trigger Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommendations to install a home radon mitigation system,” said researcher Dr. Eric Whitsel, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Radon is produced when metals like uranium or radium break down in rocks and soil, researchers said. The gas can make its way into homes through gaps around pipes and cracks in basement walls and floors. For the new study, researchers tracked nearly 159,000 women with an average age of 63, none of whom had suffered a stroke at the start of the study. The team followed participants for an average of 13 years, during which there were nearly 7,000 strokes. Researchers used participants’ home addresses to gather radon concentration data from the U.S. Geological Survey and the EPA. EPA standards recommend that average indoor radon… read on > read on >

Black American women have much higher rates of high blood pressure than white women, and it’s especially deadly if hypertension sets in before the age of 35, new research shows. Black women diagnosed with high blood pressure before the age of 35 had triple the odds of suffering a stroke, compared to Black women without hypertension, the study found. “This research was motivated by the glaring disparity I have seen in my own practice. Strokes are occurring at younger ages among my patients who identify as Black and among women,” study lead author Dr. Hugo Aparicio said in an American Heart Association (AHA) news release. “Early-onset stroke, particularly at midlife, is even more tragic because these patients often have families or are caretakers for sick family members,” noted Aparicio, a professor of neurology at Boston University’s School of Medicine. Aparicio’s team plans to present its findings at next week’s International Stroke Conference in Phoenix. Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. Already, high blood pressure is a much bigger threat to Black American women compared to other patients. According to the AHA, about 58% of Black women have high blood pressure, compared to 43% of white women, 38% of Asian women and 35% of Hispanic women. That makes the rate of hypertension among Black American women “among… read on > read on >

A walk in the woods appears to sharpen the mind better than an urban asphalt amble, a new brain scan study finds. People strolling through an arboretum at the University of Utah performed better on brain function tests than those who walked around an asphalt-laden medical campus, according to findings published recently in the journal Scientific Reports. EEG data showed that a nature walk lit up brain regions related to executive control, which influences a person’s working memory, decision-making, problem-solving and planning, researchers said. “The kinds of things that we do on an everyday basis tend to heavily use those executive attentional networks,” said researcher David Strayer, a professor of psychology at the University of Utah. “It’s an essential component of higher-order thinking.” Humans have a primal need for nature, the researchers noted. “There’s an idea called biophilia that basically says that our evolution over hundreds of thousands of years has got us to have more of a connection or a love of natural living things,” Strayer said in a university news release. “And our modern urban environment has become this dense urban jungle with cellphones and cars and computers and traffic, just the opposite of that kind of restorative environment,” he added. To see how a nature walk might affect the brain, researchers recruited 92 participants and recorded EEG readings on each immediately before and… read on > read on >

Even small increases in a man’s cardio fitness can significantly reduce his risk of developing prostate cancer, researchers report. An annual increase in aerobic fitness of 3% or more is linked to a 35% lower risk of prostate cancer, according to a report published Jan. 30 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. “Improvements in [cardiorespiratory fitness] in adult men should be encouraged and may reduce the risk of prostate cancer,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Kate Bolam, an exercise oncology researcher with the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences GIH in Stockholm. There already is good evidence regarding the benefits of physical activity when it comes to overall cancer risk, but the association between fitness and prostate cancer risk has not been well-studied, researchers said in a journal news release. To examine this, they analyzed the records of nearly 58,000 men kept in a national occupational health profile database. The men included in the study had taken at least two cardio fitness tests, measured by pedaling on a stationary bike. The database also included information on physical activity, lifestyle and body-mass index. Researchers divided the men into groups according to their fitness trends – those whose heart fitness improved by 3% or more annually, fell by more than 3% or remained stable during the study period. During an average follow-up period… read on > read on >

Elon Musk, co-founder of Neuralink, said this week that the company placed the first brain implant in a human over the weekend. In a statement posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter that is now owned by Musk, the billionaire said the patient was “recovering well.” He added that “initial results show promising neuron spike detection.” Musk offered no additional details about the patient. But when Neuralink announced in September that it would begin recruiting people for brain implant trials, the company said it was searching for people with quadriplegia due to spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Laura Cabrera, who researches brain science at Pennsylvania State University, told the Associated Press that even though Neuralink uses cutting-edge robotic surgery to place the device precisely in the brain, there are potential dangers to the procedure. Brain surgery is “not a trivial thing,” she said, bringing with it risks such as brain hemorrhage or seizures. “And so I think we have to be mindful that even though they’re using a novel way to implant the device, we just don’t know if it’s truly going to be a … safer approach for human patients.” Neuralink isn’t the only company developing brain-computer interface technology to treat brain disorders and overcome brain injuries. According to clinicaltrials.gov, there are more than 40 such trials in progress. Neuralink’s device… read on > read on >

Many swear that trendy fasting diets are keeping them slimmer and healthier. They may now have some science to back that up. British researchers at the University of Cambridge believe they’ve uncovered the processes that cause fasting to lower bodily inflammation. Long hours without eating appears to trigger a rise in a blood chemical called arachidonic acid, which has anti-inflammatory properties, reports a team led by Clare Bryant of Cambridge’s department of medicine. “We’re very interested in trying to understand the causes of chronic inflammation in the context of many human diseases,” she noted in a university news release. The new findings were published Jan. 23 in the journal Cell Reports. Bryant’s team are focused on what scientists are now calling the “inflammasome” — the cellular “alarm” system by which the body defends itself from injury or illness, triggering inflammation. Inflammatory processes can go awry, however, helping to foster illness on their own. “What’s become apparent over recent years is that one inflammasome in particular — the NLRP3 inflammasome — is very important in a number of major diseases such as obesity and atherosclerosis, but also in diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, many of the diseases of older age people, particularly in the Western world,” Bryant explained. It’s long been known that fasting appears to dampen inflammation, although it’s not been known why. In… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Loneliness Is Plaguing Americans in 2024: Poll

More Cancers Linked to Contaminated Water at Camp LeJeune

Nerve Zaps Plus Intense Rehab Can Help Stroke Survivors Use Hands, Arms Again

Common Gynecologic Condition Tied to Cognitive Issues

‘Hidden Killer’ Radon Could Raise Your Stroke Risk

High Blood Pressure in Young Black Women Sends Stroke Risks Soaring

How Walking in Nature Sharpens the Mind

Just a Small Boost in Fitness Cuts Men’s Prostate Cancer Risk

Elon Musk Says First Human Has Received Neuralink Brain Implant

New Clues to How Fasting Might Keep You Healthy