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Using two feet or two wheels to get back and forth to work each day could reduce the inflammation that leads to cancer, heart disease and diabetes, new research shows. So-called “active commuting” — walking or biking to work — for at least 45 minutes daily lowered levels of a blood marker for inflammation called C-reactive protein (CRP), Finnish researchers report. That was true even after the team factored in any other exercise the active commuters might have been doing. Avoiding cars and buses to get to work is also good for the planet, they noted. So, “in addition to climate change mitigation, active commuting could lead to public health benefits,” concluded a team led by Sara Allaouat, a researcher at the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio. It’s normal for people to suffer brief periods of inflammation, which is part of the body’s healthy short-term immune response. However, chronic inflammation lasts for months or years, and prior research has shown that it can raise the risk for a host of common health problems. Exercise has long been known to reduce inflammation. In the new study, Allaouat and her colleagues examined the commuting habits and blood CRP levels of over 6,200 middle-aged Finnish workers. Compared to folks who drove or took transit to work, those who spent at least 45 minutes per days walking or cycling… read on > read on >

Stressed-out teens are likely to have more heart health risk factors in adulthood, a new study says. Teens with elevated stress levels tended to have high blood pressure, obesity and other heart risk factors as they aged, compared to those teens with less stress, researchers found. “Our findings suggest that perceived stress patterns over time have a far-reaching effect on various cardiometabolic measures, including fat distribution, vascular health and obesity,” said researcher Fangqi Guo, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine. “This could highlight the importance of stress management as early as in adolescence as a health protective behavior,” Guo added in a university news release. For this study, researchers analyzed data from 276 participants in the Southern California Children’s Health Study, an ongoing research project that included follow-up health assessments at average ages 13 and 24 for participants. The participants’ stress levels were measured using a perceived stress scale, and they were placed in one of four categories – consistently high stress, decreasing stress over time, increasing stress over time or consistently low stress. Researcher found that teens who had higher levels of stress into adulthood were more likely to have higher total body fat, more fat around the belly and a higher overall risk of obesity as adults, researchers found. They also tended to have worse… read on > read on >

Putting a little pressure on your bones during exercise or daily activities might pay off in stronger bones as you age, new research suggests. The study focused on a crucial part of the hip joint anatomy called the femoral neck. Finnish researchers found that largely sedentary folks ages 70 to 85 maintained or gained bone strength in the femoral neck after a year-long exercise program. The key was the intensity and “impact” of physical activity. For example, people who engaged in running or brisk walking benefited far more than those who walked at a normal pace. Even in your 70s and 80s, adding in this kind of activity to your daily routine is easily done, said study co-author Tuuli Suominen. “It is possible to incorporate more high-intensity activity into your everyday life in small bouts, such as brisk walks and stair climbing,” said Suominen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. “Jumping-like impacts can also be achieved without the actual jumping by first raising up on your tiptoes and then dropping down onto your heels.” As physical activity tends to decline with advancing age, so does bone density and integrity. Can that deterioration be halted or slowed? To find out, the researchers had 299 largely sedentary men and women ages 70 and older engage in a yearlong program focused on muscle strength,… read on > read on >

Up to 9% of American teens say they’ve engaged in what’s known as “digital self-harm” — anonymously posting negative comments about themselves on social media. As is the case with acts of physical self-harm such as cutting, this “virtual” self-harm is associated with a higher risk for thinking about or attempting suicide, according to a startling new study. It found that teens who engaged in digital self-harm were up to seven times more likely to have considered suicide and as much as 15 times more likely to have made an attempt. “We can’t say that one causes the other, but we do know they are connected in some way,” said lead author Justin Patchin. He’s co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. But why would anyone want to virtually trash themselves to begin with? Patchin said that his own research has identified multiple motivations. Self-hatred is one, he noted, as is attention-seeking. In other cases, it can be depression, an attempt to be funny, or simply boredom. Some teens admit that it’s just their way to suss out how others might react to examples of bullying, in order to “know if they were talking about me behind my back.” To gain more insight, Patchin’s team took a deep dive into survey responses offered up by nearly 5,000 middle and high… read on > read on >

As levels of nighttime artificial outdoor light rise, so do the odds for a leading cause of vision loss, age-related macular degeneration (AMD). South Korean researchers found that people living in areas of that country with the highest levels of streetlights and other artificial light had more than double the odds for AMD, compared to those living in areas with the lowest levels. That risk remained even after they accounted for confounding factors such as sleep issues and depression, said a team led by Dr. Ahnul Ha, of the department of ophthalmology at Jeju National University College of Medicine. City dwellers may be at particular danger for macular degeneration, since the link between the illness and artificial outdoor light “was found solely in urban areas, where the mean outdoor-artificial-light-at-night level was 3 times higher than in rural areas,” Ha’s group reported. They published their findings Jan. 16 in JAMA Network Open. AMD occurs when a part of the eye’s retina called the macula deteriorates over time. People begin to lose their central vision, making common tasks such as driving or reading difficult. AMD “generally affects people over the age of 60,” said Dr. Matthew Gorski, an ophthalmologist at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, NY. “Common symptoms of macular degeneration include blurry vision, distortion [where] straight lines appear wavy. The symptoms can be anywhere from… read on > read on >

TUESDAY, Jan. 16, 2024 (HeathDay News) — Folks often feel more alert and savvy after a great workout, and dopamine might be the reason why. A small, new study by British and Japanese researchers found higher levels of the “feel good” brain neurotransmitter were released by men during exercise. In turn, that seemed tied to better performance on thinking tests, the researchers said. “These latest findings support our previous theory that cognitive performance during exercise is affected by changes to brain-regulating hormones, including dopamine,” said study co-author Dr. Joe Costello. He’s at the University of Portsmouth’s School of Sport, Health & Exercise Science, in England. The findings were published recently in the The Journal of Physiology In the study, Costello and colleagues team had 52 men engage in three separate experiments. All were having their brain activity monitored with sophisticated PET imagery during the experiments. In one trial, men were asked to work on mentally challenging tasks while cycling lying down. The second experiment had the men complete the same tasks, but this time they got “electrical muscle stimulation,” rather than a workout. The third experiment had them completing mental tasks while working out and getting the electrical muscle stimulation. Based on data from the PET scans, Costello’s group found a surge in dopamine release in the brain while men were actively working out —… read on > read on >

Magnetic zaps to the brain can significantly help people with severe depression, if the procedure is guided using MRI brain scans, a new clinical trial has concluded. On average, patients showed substantial improvements in depression, anxiety, cognition and quality of life for at least six months after undergoing MRI-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), results show. One-third experienced a 50% improvement in symptoms, while one-fifth managed to go into remission and remain there. “Given these patients are people who have not responded to two previous treatment attempts and have been ill for an average of 7 years, to get such a significant response rate and a fifth who have a sustained response is really encouraging,” said researcher Richard Morriss, lead for the Center for Mood Disorders at the University of Nottingham’s Institute of Mental Health in the U.K.. TMS is a noninvasive outpatient treatment in which powerful magnetic impulses are delivered to the left side of a person’s head while they are conscious. The method has been used since the 1980s to treat severe depression in people who don’t respond to antidepressants or therapy, researchers said. However, the benefits of TMS have so far proven fleeting, tending to last just one to three months, researchers explained in background notes. In this clinical trial, investigators examined whether better targeting of the magnetic pulses could provide longer-lasting benefits… read on > read on >

Employees at many companies are urged to take advantage of free wellness programs focused on mindfulness, life coaching, better sleep and many other issues. Too bad most won’t actually boost their well-being, a new study of over 46,000 British workers finds. Only one of the 90 different workplace wellness offerings appeared to boost well-being: Getting employees involved in charity work or volunteering, the researchers found. The findings “pose a challenge to the popularity and legitimacy of individual-level mental well-being interventions like mindfulness, resilience and stress management, relaxation classes and well-being apps,” concludes the study’s sole author, William Fleming. He’s a fellow at Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Center. Fleming’s research is based on data from the Britain’s Healthiest Workplace surveys for 2017 and 2018, representing workers at 233 different organizations. He compared the survey answers of “matched pairs” of people who were working at the same company: One who was using a wellness program, and another who was not. Because it is a survey, the data only focuses on worker well-being at a specific moment in time, not before and after the introduction of workplace wellness programs. The main finding: With the exception of charity/volunteer programs, workers’ mental well-being didn’t seem to change regardless of whether or not they were involved in any of the many programs on offer. Speaking with the New York Times, Fleming said… read on > read on >

Scientists from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration conclude in newly released documents that marijuana has less potential for abuse than other drugs with the same restrictions and it should be reclassified as a less dangerous drug. Not only that, the review found there is some evidence backing its use as a medical treatment. Right now, cannabis is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, a high-risk category that includes heroin and LSD. The move to reconsider the dangers of marijuana first began in 2022, when President Joe Biden asked U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra and the attorney general to begin reviewing how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. As part of that process, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Rachel Levine wrote a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in August supporting the reclassification of marijuana to a Schedule III drug, a list that includes ketamine, testosterone and Tylenol with codeine. The FDA documents, which were posted online Friday, state that the agency recommends rescheduling marijuana because it meets three criteria: a lower potential for abuse than other Schedule I and II substances; an accepted medical use; and a low or moderate risk of physical dependence in people who abuse it. The National Institute on Drug Abuse backed the recommendation, the documents state. Although marijuana is widely used for recreational purposes,… read on > read on >

A crowded house may not be the best for the mental health of a family’s kids, a new study has found. Teens from larger families tend to have poorer mental health than those with fewer siblings, according to a large-scale analysis of children in the United States and China. In the United States, children with no or one sibling had the best mental health, while in China well-being was best among only children, says the report published Jan. 9 in the Journal of Family Issues. Having older siblings and siblings closely spaced in age tended to have the worst impact on kids’ mental health, the U.S. data revealed. The strongest negative associations with mental health were observed among siblings born within a year of each other, results show. The results likely are best explained by “resource dilution,” said lead researcher Doug Downey, a professor of sociology at Ohio State University. “If you think of parental resources like a pie, one child means that they get all the pie — all the attention and resources of the parents,” Downey said in a university news release. “But when you add more siblings, each child gets fewer resources and attention from the parents, and that may have an impact on their mental health.” That explanation is given more weight by the fact that closely spaced siblings have the… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Walking, Biking to Work Lowers Inflammation That Could Trigger Disease

Stressed Teens at Risk of Heart Trouble Years Later

Add Some Impact to Your Exercise to Keep Aging Bones Strong

‘Digital Self-Harm’: When Teens Cyberbully Themselves

Does More Outdoor Light at Night Help Cause Macular Degeneration?

Dopamine Hit Could Drive Mental Boost From Exercise

MRI-Guided Brain Zaps Ease Severe Depression for 6 Months

No Benefit Seen From Most Workplace Wellness Programs

FDA Review Supports Reclassifying Marijuana as Less Risky Drug

Bigger Families Could Mean Poorer Mental Health for Kids