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Depression affects half of the 6 million Americans who struggle with debilitating heart failure. Now, research shows that two leading modes of treatment — antidepressants and an approach called behavioral activation psychotherapy — work equally well to ease depression among these patients. Behavioral activation psychotherapy works by promoting involvement in activities that the patient enjoys, explained the team at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. “The most important finding here is that patients experiencing depression have a choice in terms of their treatment between therapy or medications,” study lead author Dr. Waguih Ishak said in a hospital news release. “Patients who prefer not to be on medication can do behavioral activation therapy with similar results,” said Ishak. He’s vice chair of education and research in the hospital’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences. In their research, Ishak’s group tracked the mental health of more than 400 heart failure patients over the course of a year. Half of them received antidepressants to help ease their depression, while the other half engaged in behavioral activation psychotherapy. The result: Each treatment approach helped about equally, with patients in either group benefiting from an average 50% reduction in depression symptoms. Antidepressants are effective, Ishak’s group said, but some patients prefer a non-pharmaceutical approach, and behavioral activation psychotherapy may be for them. In the treatment, a therapist helps the patient draw up… read on > read on >

Back pain is a double-edged sword. In most cases, it disappears within about six weeks. But when it doesn’t, low back pain is likely to bother you for the long haul, researchers warn. “The good news is that most episodes of back pain recover, and this is the case even if you have already had back pain for a couple of months,” said researcher Lorimer Moseley, a professor of physiotherapy and pain management at the University of South Australia in Adelaide. “The bad news is that once you have had back pain for more than a few months, the chance of recovery is much lower.” More than 570 million people worldwide are affected by low back pain. In the U.S. alone, the bill for treating it added up to $134.5 billion between 1996 and 2016. And costs are increasing. In a review of 95 studies, an international team compared acute low back pain (less than 6 weeks), subacute back pain (6-12 weeks) and persistent low back pain (more than 12 weeks). They report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that for folks with new back pain, pain and mobility issues eased significantly in the first six weeks, then slowed. This study closed a gap in a 2012 study from the same team, with new findings showing that many people whose pain lasts more than 12… read on > read on >

Winter isn’t kind to your skin. Dry, cold weather causes dryness, and you might even develop “winter rash” — dry, irritated skin that’s red, bumpy, flaky and burns. That’s why it’s prime time to step up your skin care routine. Dr. Oyetewa Oyerinde, assistant professor of dermatology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, shared some tips to keep your skin glowing. “During the winter, our skin typically dries out because the air tends to be less humid, and we also use the heater indoors, which leads to even more dryness,” she said in a Baylor news release. “Dry skin is more likely to develop many types of rashes.” That’s why she recommends changing up your usual routine of daily cleansing, moisturing and sun protection. If you usually use lotion, consider using a thicker cream-like moisturizer. If you usually use cream-like moisturizers, consider switching to an ointment-type moisturizer, Oyerinde suggested. If you enjoy outdoor activities or snow sports, don’t forget your sunscreen. Following a good skin care regimen will help prevent a winter rash, she said. Your lips and skin around the eyes is especially vulnerable not only to the cold but also to rubbing caused by allergies, colds or flu, she pointed out. Soothing irritated skin is easy. Just grab a jar of petroleum jelly and slather it on affected areas. Petroleum jelly creates… read on > read on >

Your office chair could be a killer. New research shows that folks who spent most of their workday sitting were 16% more prone to an early death, compared to folks in non-sitting jobs. The Taiwanese study did offer workers a glimmer of hope, however: Getting up & moving a bit during the workday or adding a bit of leisure-time exercise greatly reduced the risk. The researchers hope that, someday, days spent sitting for work might be looked upon as just another unwanted, unhealthy habit. “Prolonged occupational sitting is [now] considered normal,” the investigators said. But more information on just how fatal a life spent sitting can be may “denormalize this common behavior, similar to the processes of denormalizing smoking.” The study was led by Dr. Chi-Pang Wen of the National Health Research Institute in Zhunan, Taiwan. It was published Jan. 19 in the journal JAMA Network Open. Numerous studies have already found that as hours per day spent sitting rise, health declines. And sitting’s dangers may not be simply that sitting equals time not spent in activity. There could be something specific to the posture of sitting that is especially harmful, the research team said. Sitting may bring about a weakening of the legs and trunk and “increased blood flow to lower extremities,” as well as low-grade inflammation, Wen’s group explained. In turn, that could… read on > read on >

Folks who drop pounds to help control their diabetes receive other substantial heath benefits for all their efforts, a new study says. Substantial weight loss that led to even a short-lived remission in type 2 diabetes also prompted a 40% lower rate in heart disease and a 33% lower rate of kidney disease, researchers report in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal Diabetologia. “As the first intervention study to associate remission with reduction of diabetes-related complications, this is encouraging news for those who can achieve remission from type 2 diabetes,” said lead researcher Edward Gregg, head of population health at RSCI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Dublin. For the study, researchers tracked 5,145 overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes for 12 years. About 18% of patients randomly assigned to an intensive diet and lifestyle plan wound up controlling their diabetes to the point they needed no medication and had normal blood sugar levels, which researchers considered remission. Those patients had lower rates of heart and kidney disease than those who didn’t achieve remission, researchers found. Further, the risk of heart or kidney disease declined most in people with longer-term remission. Those who experienced at least four years of remission had a 49% reduced risk of heart disease and a 55% reduced risk of kidney disease. Patients were more likely to… read on > read on >

Getting bored with your treadmill or exercise bike? Picking up a couple dumbbells instead of lacing up your running shoes once in a while won’t do your heart any harm, a new study reports. Splitting the recommended amount of physical activity between aerobic and resistance exercises reduces the risk of heart disease just as well as an aerobic-only workout regimen, researchers found. “If you’re bored with aerobic exercise and want variety or you have joint pain that makes running long distances difficult, our study shows you can replace half of your aerobic workout with strength training to get the same cardiovascular benefits,” said lead researcher Duck-chul Lee, a professor of kinesiology at Iowa State University. “The combined workout also offers some other unique health benefits, like improving your muscles,” Lee added in a university news release. Heart disease is the United States’ top killer, accounting for approximately one in three deaths, researchers said in background notes. Many studies have shown that aerobic exercise benefits the heart, especially for those with excess weight, but few have compared those results to resistance exercise, the researchers said. For the study, the team tracked more than 400 people ages 35 to 70 for a year. All were overweight or obese, and all had high blood pressure. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups – resistance exercise only,… read on > read on >

People coming off antidepressants often struggle with emotional and social turmoil, especially if they quit their meds cold turkey, a new study reports. Challenges reported by patients quitting antidepressants included feeling overwhelmed by their emotions, finding social situations less enjoyable, and feeling detached and less empathetic towards others. “Some symptoms were so severe, family and friends of the person coming off medication encouraged them to go back on it,” said lead researcher Raqeeb Mahmood, a doctoral student in psychology with the University of Bath. For the study, researchers conducted interviews with 20 people who had attempted within the past year to withdraw from SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressants like Prozac. Stopping antidepressant therapy is known to trigger physical symptoms like restlessness, fatigue and excessive sweating. But this study, published recently in the journal Health Expectations, supports the notion that patients will also experience emotional symptoms. “From these interviews, it became clear that the lived experience of withdrawal significantly impacts individuals’ well-being,” Mahmood said in a university news release. “The participants emphasized that withdrawal is not just about physical side effects, but it also affected their emotional, cognitive and social functioning.” Some patients found the first days or weeks of withdrawal most challenging, while other struggled several months after they started coming off antidepressants. More than half of the participants said that withdrawal negatively affected… read on > read on >

Electric scooters might seem a fun way to zip about, but they’re also a pricey hazard to riders’ health, a new study argues. Orthopedic treatment for 82 patients injured in e-scooter wrecks averaged more than $28,400 per person, as doctors labored to mend broken bones and dislocated joints. “E-scooters go up to 20 miles per hour, but people are allowed to ride them on sidewalks with no safety equipment. It’s no surprise that many riders have had high-energy traumas, and their communities often absorb the cost,” said researcher Dr. Drew Sanders, an associate professor of orthopedic surgery and residency program director at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. E-scooter injuries have increased dramatically in recent years, rising 22% between 2021 and 2022, according to a recent report from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Dallas offers an e-scooter sharing program that was suspended in 2020 due to safety concerns but brought back in spring 2023, researchers said in background notes. For their study, researchers analyzed medical records at Parkland Memorial Hospital, a public hospital that serves Dallas County. The hospital is funded by county residents through property taxes to provide safety-net care for those without insurance. The team identified 82 patients treated between January 2017 and August 2020 for injuries linked to e-scooters. About 7 in 10 patients were male, with an average age of 34.… read on > read on >

A daily multivitamin could help people keep their brains healthy as they age, a new trial finds. Results suggest taking multivitamins could help prevent memory loss and slow cognitive aging among older adults, researchers report in the Jan. 18 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The effect was measurable: A daily multivitamin slowed brain aging by the equivalent of two years compared to placebo. Still, experts expressed some skepticism, and wondered if simply eating healthy might not bring about the same results. “Taking a multivitamin supplement is probably good for you, but we don’t know if it’s likely to have a big impact in people who have a healthy diet,” Dr. Richard Caselli, a professor emeritus of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, told NBC News. “I still maintain a bit of skepticism as far as what magnitude of impact this makes,” he added. “I’m doubtful the difference would be really big.” The new study was led by Dr. Chirag Vyas, an instructor in investigation at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry. “Cognitive decline is among the top health concerns for most older adults, and a daily supplement of multivitamins has the potential as an appealing and accessible approach to slow cognitive aging,” he said. The Cocoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS) is a large-scale, randomized trial performed in collaboration by… read on > read on >

Many studies have found that getting high on weed and then getting behind the wheel is dangerous for young drivers, and now new research finds it’s no different for seniors. In a driving-simulator experiment, seniors who were long-term marijuana smokers were weaving in and out of their lanes 30 minutes after getting high, Canadian researchers report. The effect was not seen when the same drivers were tested again three hours after smoking weed. However, the seniors themselves still rated their ability to drive as “impaired.” There was one silver lining: Senior tokers tended to slow their driving speed once high, perhaps because they knew they were intoxicated, said a team led by Patricia Di Ciano, a scientist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Di Ciano’s team noted that the percentage of aging Boomers who regularly use marijuana continues to rise. They believe that “older adults may be particularly affected by cannabis, given age-related changes in cognition,” they added. Many seniors are also prescribed medications, and the combination of those meds with marijuana could also be problematic. While there’s been lots of study on the effect of marijuana on younger drivers, the effects of cannabis on driving among seniors “remain unknown,” according to the Toronto team. To help answer the question, they recruited 31 seniors, averaging about 69 years of age, to… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Depression Can Strike Patients With Heart Failure, But Two Therapies Help

Good News & Bad on Recovery From Lower Back Pain

Tips to Help Your Skin Thrive This Winter

All That Sitting at Work Is Shortening Your Life

When Weight Loss Cures Diabetes, Risks for Heart Disease Tumble, Too

Cardio or Resistance Workouts: Is There a Best Combo for Your Heart?

Quick Withdrawal From Antidepressants Can Take Emotional, Cognitive Toll

E-Scooter Injuries Rack Up Big Medical Bills

Daily Multivitamin Might Help Aging Brains

Seniors Who Smoke Weed & Drive Are Road Hazards: Study