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A new brain imaging study has concluded that autism likely isn’t caused by faulty connections to the amygdala. A prevailing hypothesis of autism spectrum disorder has held that people with the condition have poorer neural connections in certain brain regions, including the amygdala. However, researchers found no evidence that people with autism had amygdala connections that differed substantially to those found in people without autism. The amygdala is a small, almond-shaped structure in the brain that plays a key role in processing emotions and social cues, researchers explained. For the study, researchers analyzed high-quality MRI brain scans from 488 people, including 212 with autism. The team focused on the neural connections emanating from the amygdala when the participants were not actively engaged in any tasks. Average variation in connectivity to the amygdala was similar in people with and without autism, results showed. The results were the same when researchers looked at specific subregions of the amygdala, researchers added. The new study was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. “It is important to note that we do not conclude that amygdala [connectivity] is generally typical in autism. Instead, we conclude that the evidence for atypical [connectivity] of the amygdala in autism is weak at best, and unreliable,” concluded the researchers led by Dorit Kliemann, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences with the University… read on > read on >

The booming popularity of the weight-loss drug semaglutide has prompted increasing concerns about potential side effects from taking Ozempic or Wegovy. But a new study rules out one possible problem — using semaglutide does not increase a person’s risk of depression or suicide, researchers report. Semaglutide did not increase the risk of depression, suicidal thoughts or suicidal behavior in people without known mental health disorders, according to an analysis of data from clinical trials that led to approval of the drug. The new study reviewed data from more than 3,500 people across four major clinical trials for semaglutide. The trials were funded by Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy. About 1% or fewer of the clinical trial participants reported suicidal thoughts or behaviors, with no differences between those taking semaglutide or a placebo, researchers reported Sept. 3 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. What’s more, 2.8% of those taking semaglutide developed depressive symptoms, compared with 4.1% of those taking a placebo. “It is certainly possible that individuals with overweight or obesity who take semaglutide may experience depressive symptoms or suicidal ideation or behavior, but the data suggest that persons not taking semaglutide — in the placebo group in this study — are equally likely to experience these conditions,” said researcher Gregory Brown, director of the Penn Center for the Prevention of Suicide at… read on > read on >

A survey of Australian adolescents finds those who are experiencing depressive symptoms have double the risk of taking up vaping. “In the short term, nicotine may reduce feelings of anxiety and stress, and young people may be reaching for vapes as a coping mechanism,” said study co-author Emily Stockings. “Regardless of whether mental ill health influences smoking or vice-versa, it is clear that if we are to prevent vaping onset, we need to address mental health at the same time,” said Stockings, who is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Sydney’s Matilda Center. Her team published its findings Sept. 2 in the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. The study tracked the mental health and vaping rates of more than 5,000 Year 7 and 8 students (about 12-13 years of age) from 40 schools in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. About 8.3% said they’d used e-cigarettes. Compared to kids with low stress levels, those who said they had moderate levels of stress were 74% more likely to have taken up vaping, and those who said they had high stress levels were 64% more likely to vape, the study found. Vaping was 105% more likely among adolescents who rated their well-being as low versus though who said it was high. There was no link between anxiety levels and adolescent vaping,… read on > read on >

Folks taking weight-loss drugs like Wegovy or Zepbound might think they’ve found a shortcut to better health. But they still need to eat a high-quality diet if they want to maintain their well-being while they shed pounds, says a doctor with the University of Texas Southwestern. “One common misconception about these medications is that they’re a magic bullet for better health, and it doesn’t necessarily matter what you eat when you’re taking them. Nothing could be further from the truth,” said Dr. Jaime Almondoz, director of UT Southwestern’s Weight Wellness Center. The typical American diet contains loads of ultra-processed, calorie-dense foods, but is often deficient in fruits, vegetables, fiber and essential nutrients, Almondoz said. People on weight-loss drugs could suffer loss of muscle mass, fatigue, malnutrition and other health consequences if they don’t eat healthy, Almondoz said. Folks preparing for bariatric surgery are required to have multiple visits with a registered dietitian to create a healthy eating plan for them going forward. “No such guidelines exist yet for anti-obesity medications, though patients now lose similar amounts of weight with these medications as they do with bariatric surgery,” Almondoz said in a UT Southwestern news release. A few basic steps can reduce the risk of GI side effects while taking weight loss drugs, Almondoz said. These include: Avoiding fried and high-fat foods Limiting intake of carbonated drinks,… read on > read on >

FRIDAY, Aug.30, 2024New trials are showing how the blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss meds Ozempic and Wegovy can boost health in even more ways. These two injected drugs are versions of semaglutide. In multiple new data analyses, the drugs appeared to cut people’s odds for heart failure and its complications, reduce deaths from COVID-19 and lower deaths from any cause. Semaglutide is a member of family of drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which work by mimicking the effect of a natural hormone that helps reduce appetite, hunger and food intake. The latest findings were presented Thursday in London at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and published simultaneously in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). The data show that “these groundbreaking medications are poised to revolutionize cardiovascular care and could dramatically enhance cardiovascular health,” said Dr. Harlan Krumholz, JACC Editor-in-Chief and a professor of medicine at Yale University. Some of the findings derive from sub-analyses of data from a major trial called SELECT, which included more than 17,000 people who were overweight or obese and had been diagnosed with heart disease, but not diabetes. The trial was funded by semaglutide’s maker, Novo Nordisk, and in findings published in November it found that the 2.4 milligram (mg) dose of the drug cut the odds of heart-related deaths, heart attacks and strokes. In… read on > read on >

A new, tougher rule on the sale of tobacco products will require retailers to check the IDs of any buyers under the age of 30, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday. The final rule, which will go into effect Sept. 30, also restricts tobacco vending machine sales to spaces that are limited to people aged 21 and older. “Today’s rule is another key step towards protecting our nation’s youth from the health risks of tobacco products,” Dr. Brian King, head of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in an agency news release on the rule. “Decades of science has shown that keeping tobacco products away from youth is critical to reducing the number of people who ultimately become addicted to these products and suffer from tobacco-related disease and death.” Importantly, the new restrictions also apply to e-cigarettes, which are popular among young smokers. Although the number of children using e-cigarettes has started to decline over the past five years, 1 out of 10 high schoolers still say they vaped in the previous 30 days. For middle schoolers, that number was 1 in 22, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Studies also show that 9 out of 10 adults who smoke daily reported having their first cigarette by age 18, CNN reported. The federal age limit for tobacco purchases was 18 until… read on > read on >

Teaching schoolkids to practice mindfulness can boost their mental health — and, maybe, even their grades. That’s the takeaway from a new review of more than three dozen research studies on school-based mindfulness interventions, such as seated or slow-walking meditation. In a nutshell, these programs teach kids to pay attention to the present moment and not to be judgmental about it. “As mindfulness interventions become more widely used and extensively studied, they hold promise for fostering student well-being and mitigating the development of mental health conditions over time,” Tina Marshall and her colleagues at the Maryland research organization Westat wrote in the journal Psychiatry Online. Her team reviewed 41 studies published between 2008 and 2022 of school-based mindfulness interventions. All had at least two mindfulness components — for example, a combo of breathing awareness and awareness of body sensations. Of 24 interventions researchers identified, three had strong evidence of effectiveness: Learning to BREATHE Mindfulness in School Project (MiSP) Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) All three included such components as awareness of breathing, bodily sensations, mental states and regulating one’s own emotions. Participants in these studies were middle and high school students. Three other interventions — Gaia Program, MindUP and a program that combined MBSR with mindfulness cognitive therapy — were also shown to be somewhat helpful in the elementary school children studied. These interventions generally promoted… read on > read on >

In some people, new-onset depression may stem from the same buildup of toxic plaques in the brain that have long been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study. “Our findings provide additional support for depressive symptoms as an early feature of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease,” wrote a team led by Catherine Munro. She’s a neuropsychologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “It’s not that depression caused Alzheimer’s disease, it’s just that Alzheimer’s disease pathology affecting this part of the brain resulted in depressive symptoms relatively early on in the course,” explained another expert, Dr. Marc Gordon, who wasn’t involved in the study. He’s chief of neurology at Northwell’s Zucker Hillside Hospital in Great Neck, N.Y. As the Boston researchers point out, “neuropsychiatric symptoms, particularly depression, are common in Alzheimer disease.” But the exact links between depression and Alzheimer’s have been unclear. In the new study, Munro and colleagues tracked rates of depressive symptoms in 154 people enrolled in the ongoing Harvard Aging Brain Study. All were mentally unimpaired as they joined the study, and data were collected between 2010 and 2022. That data included the results of PET scans taken of each patient’s brain once every two to three years for an average of just under nine years. Those scans looked for the accumulation of amyloid protein plaques within brain tissues… read on > read on >

Fluorescent light can be used to highlight bacteria that hides in wounds, causing infections and slowing down the healing process, a new evidence review says. A handheld fluorescent device can light up bacteria in 9 out of 10 wounds that traditional clinical treatment would overlook, according to a study in the journal Advances in Wound Care. “We’re hopeful this new technology can help surgeons improve their accuracy when pinpointing and consequently removing bacteria from wounds and therefore improve patient outcomes, particularly for those with diabetic foot wounds,” said senior researcher Dr. David Armstrong, a podiatric surgeon and limb preservation specialist with the University of Southern California. “The early detection and removal of bacteria from a wound is vital to preventing avoidable amputations,” he added in a university news release. More than 6.5 million Americans experience chronic wounds that don’t heal within a few months, researchers said in background notes. Nearly all such wounds contain bacteria, and if not detected and removed, these germs can cause a severe infection that might end in amputation or death. Doctors cleaning out a wound do their best to remove as much bacteria as possible, but these bugs can’t be seen by the human eye and can be missed, researchers said. That’s why the research team decided to investigate autofluorescence imaging, in which violet light is used to illuminate bacteria.… read on > read on >

More than half of people around the world aren’t getting enough micronutrients essential to human health, including calcium, iron and vitamins C and E, a new study says. These deficiencies are contributing to global malnutrition, as well as health problems like blindness, increased vulnerability to infections, and pregnancy complications, researchers said in The Lancet Global Health. “These results are alarming,” researcher Ty Beal, a senior technical specialist at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, said in a news release. “Most people — even more than previously thought, across all regions and countries of all incomes — are not consuming enough of multiple essential micronutrients,” Beal said. “These gaps compromise health outcomes and limit human potential on a global scale.” For the study, researchers combined data from several sources to compare the nutritional intake of people in 185 countries. The team specifically assessed intake of 15 vitamins and minerals — calcium, iodine, iron, riboflavin, folate, zinc, magnesium, selenium, thiamin, niacin, and vitamins A, B6, B12, C and E. Researchers found widespread inadequate intake of iodine (68% of the world’s population); vitamin E (67%); calcium (66%); and iron (65%). More than half of people consume inadequate levels of riboflavin, folate, and vitamins C and B6, researchers added. Intake of niacin was closest to sufficient, with 22% of people worldwide consuming too little, followed by thiamin (30%) and… read on > read on >

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Study Debunks Theory Linking Autism to Changes in Brain’s Amygdala

Ozempic, Wegovy Won’t Raise User’s Suicide Risk, Study Finds

Depressed Adolescents Twice as Likely to Take Up Vaping

Taking Wegovy, Zepbound? One Expert Has Dietary Advice

Ozempic, Wegovy Have Health Benefits Beyond Weight Loss, Studies Find

Buying Smokes? Everyone Under 30 Now Must Show ID

School-Based Mindfulness Programs May Boost Kids’ Mental Health

Depression Might Sometimes Be Early Sign of Alzheimer’s Disease

New Medical Technology Lights Up Bacteria Hiding in Wounds

Billions of the World’s People Deficient in Essential Micronutrients