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People plagued by frequent nightmares may find relief from hearing a specific sound as they sleep, a new, small study suggests. It’s estimated that about 4% of adults have nightmares that are frequent and distressing enough to impair their sleep and daily functioning. In some cases, the nightmares are related to an underlying condition, like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while others are considered “idiopathic,” or having no known cause. Many nightmare sufferers simply live with them. “Most people either think it’s normal to have so many nightmares, or they don’t know there’s treatment available,” said Jennifer Mundt, a behavioral sleep medicine specialist at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. When it comes to nightmare disorder, as it’s officially known, the treatment with the best evidence is imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT), Mundt said. With that technique, people work with a therapist to recall their nightmares, change the negative storyline to one with a positive ending, and then rehearse the new script during the day. Research shows that IRT can start to banish people’s nightmares within two to three weeks. However, around 30% of patients do not respond, according to the new study’s researchers, from the University of Geneva in Switzerland. So, they tried to boost the effectiveness of IRT by adding an approach known as targeted memory reactivation — where people learn to associate a cue, like a… read on > read on >

A particular brain wave may help diagnose concussions in high school football players and predict when it’s safe for them to return to play, new research suggests. Delta waves are markers of brain injury and perhaps healing. They tend to decrease with age, but researchers found increased levels of these low-frequency waves in the brains of high school football players after a concussion. Levels declined only after symptoms eased, the researchers observed. “There’s debate right now in the science literature over whether that indicates damage or if it’s a healing response to the damage,” said lead researcher Elizabeth Davenport, an assistant professor of radiology at University of Texas Southwestern O’Donnell Brain Institute in Dallas. “The jury’s out on whether or not it’s healing or just a kind of distress signal.” Concussions are a form of brain injury caused by a blow to the head or violent shaking of the head and body. Davenport suspects delta waves might be a sign of the brain cleaning and repairing itself after such an injury. They might also be a sign of the brain’s connecting cells, axons, being torn apart, she said. These two activities might not, however, be mutually exclusive. As the brain heals, delta waves disappear, Davenport noted. “What we’re really hoping for with this is that it becomes a part of the toolkit that doctors have… read on > read on >

People at risk for developing diabetes could help themselves now by eating fewer carbs, according to new research. While low-carb diets are a common next step for someone diagnosed with the disease, people who are prediabetic or with diabetes not treated with medication don’t need to wait to cut back and see benefits to their blood sugar levels. “The key message is that a low-carbohydrate diet, if maintained, might be a useful approach for preventing and treating type 2 diabetes, though more research is needed,” said lead author Kirsten Dorans. She’s an assistant professor of epidemiology at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. For the study, the researchers studied two groups of 75 people each. In one, participants were assigned to a low-carb diet. The other ate as usual. Six months later, the low-carb diet group had greater drops in hemoglobin A1C, which is a marker for blood sugar levels. That group also lost weight and had lower fasting blood sugar levels. While the study doesn’t prove that a low-carb diet prevents diabetes, it opens the door to further research on how to work through health risks of those with prediabetes and diabetes not treated by medication, Dorans said. “We already know that a low-carbohydrate diet is one dietary approach used among people who have type 2 diabetes, but… read on > read on >

The best way to get back to feeling more normal after breast cancer surgery is to get moving, experts say. One surgeon offers some post-surgery suggestions for arm stretches and light aerobic exercise. “People who return to everyday activity sooner after surgery tend to heal better and have fewer complications,” said Dr. Alastair Thompson, section chief of breast surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “If you have had surgery to the chest wall, the breast or the armpit, exercising the arm gently is a good way to improve shoulder mobility and reduce swelling,” he said in a college news release. Thompson recommends gentle stretches. Start by touching the top of your head. Reach behind your back. Reach toward the ceiling. Yoga may also provide helpful stretching, but Thompson said it’s important to remember that the area around the surgery site may be less flexible. Aerobic exercise can stimulate the muscles, bones, heart and lungs. “Walking is a good light exercise, and you don’t need anything other than a pair of comfortable shoes to do it,” Thompson noted. “It can be on the treadmill or around your neighborhood, as long as the area is well-lit, and the path is safe under foot.” If you’re a runner, take some time to work back to your usual pace. Give yourself at least five to seven days… read on > read on >

Universities sometimes offer “Pet Your Stress Away” events offering a chance to relax while gently patting the head and stroking the back of a calm dog. But some people are more interested in interacting with cats than dogs, according to a new study that linked preference to personality type. “Our study shows that we may be able to reach a larger audience by offering interventions that include dogs and cats,” said co-author Patricia Pendry, a professor of human development at Washington State University. Folks with strong and highly reactive emotions would benefit from having cats on campus, the study showed. “Emotionality is a pretty stable trait; it doesn’t fluctuate and is a quite consistent feature of our personalities,” Pendry said in a university news release. “We found that people on the higher end of that scale were significantly more interested in interacting with cats on campus,” she noted. “Given that prior research has shown that such individuals may be more open to forming strong attachments to animals, it makes sense they would want cats to be included in these programs.” For the study, the researchers surveyed more than 1,400 students and staff at more than 20 universities. They found that the link between personality and openness to interacting with cats mattered even after accounting for openness to dog visits, owning a cat and identifying as… read on > read on >

Perhaps to no one’s surprise, new research has determined that men do, in fact, have a much stronger sex drive than women. After reviewing more than 200 studies, investigators “found that men consistently report a higher sex drive,” said study author Julius Frankenbach, a doctoral student of psychology at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany. En masse, the research showed that men say they spend considerably more time thinking about sex, fantasizing about sex, feeling sexual desire and masturbating, compared to women. “What did surprise us,” said Frankenbach, “was that the finding was consistent across countries, age groups, ethnicities or sexual orientations. Men having a higher sex drive than women seems to be a quite universal psychological pattern.” But there’s a hitch. When discussing one’s own sexual proclivities, are people always honest? “Sexuality is a sensitive topic,” Frankenbach acknowledged. “So we also considered the possibility that people’s self-reports are not fully accurate. There was some evidence for such inaccurate responses in our data.” “For example,” he noted, “men reported having had more sexual partners than women, which, by simple logic, is almost impossible. However, we concluded that this response bias was relatively small, and could not explain all of the gender difference in sex drive we observed. In other words, we think that the gender difference is real.” The 211 studies reviewed were published after 1996,… read on > read on >

A “virtual autopsy” of a mummified 17th century Austrian infant has shed new light on Renaissance childhood — as well as the importance of vitamin D to health. The researchers used CT scans to examine the remains, which had been found in an aristocratic Austrian family crypt containing the perfect conditions for natural mummification. Analysis revealed that the child was a boy approximately 1 year old and overweight for his age, according to the German scientists However, his diet didn’t result in proper nutrition for a healthy body, creating a mystery for scientists. The child had been stricken by severe rickets or scurvy, diseases that are driven by deficiencies in vitamins D and C, the scans revealed. The child’s rickets had caused his ribs to become malformed in a pattern called a “rachitic rosary.” Bone knobs formed at the ends of his ribs, creating the appearance of a chain of large rosary beads under the thin skin over his rib cage. The scans also revealed that the boy had inflammation of the lungs characteristic of pneumonia. Since children with rickets are more vulnerable to pneumonia, the researchers speculate his nutritional deficiency might have contributed to his early death. It appears the aristocratic son was not exposed to direct sunlight, which allows the body to create its own supply of vitamin D, said lead researcher Andreas… read on > read on >

A new trend promoted on the social media platform TikTok has people taping their lips shut at bedtime — a practice that could be dangerous, an expert warns. The purpose of mouth taping is to keep from breathing through your mouth at night. “If you have obstructive sleep apnea, yes, this can be very dangerous,” sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta told CNN. “There is limited evidence on the benefits of mouth taping and I would be very careful — and even talk to your health care provider before attempting it,” added Dasgupta, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Not everyone who has obstructive sleep apnea knows it. People with the sleep disorder stop breathing repeatedly during the night. More than 1 billion adults worldwide between the ages of 30 and 69 alone likely have the condition, according to a 2019 study. Millions are undiagnosed. The reasons given for the mouth taping trend include trying to achieve beauty sleep. “I tape my mouth shut every single day,” one woman said on TikTok. “Sleeping properly is really important to anti-aging and looking and feeling your best.” One woman said she doesn’t remember why she started taping her mouth shut at night. “Truth be told, I don’t know. I saw on TikTok and I can’t remember what the… read on > read on >

Smoking is an incredibly hard habit to break. Anne Levine of Baltimore can attest to that. But Levine, 58, is getting help from a potential new tool: psychedelics. The four-decade smoker has tried to quit a dozen times. But once she became part of a research trial testing a psychedelic drug, quitting became easier. Researchers think they may have found the answer to quitting in a compound called psilocybin, a drug also found in “magic mushrooms.” “There’s several existing treatments, both medications and other therapies, but they all have lots of room for improvement,” Matthew Johnson, a psychedelic researcher at Johns Hopkins Medicine, told NBC News. “None of the medications help a majority of the people long-term. Even six months down the road, it’s pretty small success rates.” Johnson is leading a randomized controlled trial supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. This is the first time in 50 years the federal government has given a grant to study a psychedelic drug as a treatment, NBC News reported. “The fact that the NIH is now interested in these types of studies is a great thing,” said Dr. Charles Nemeroff, chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Texas Medical School at Austin. “It’ll provide us with funding to be able to do these controlled studies,” Nemeroff told NBC. He is not involved… read on > read on >

Controlling high blood pressure in older adults may be one of the “best bets” for reducing the risk of developing dementia, Australian researchers report. “Given population aging and the substantial costs of caring for people with dementia, even a small reduction could have considerable global impact,” said researcher Ruth Peters, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney and program lead for dementia in the George Institute’s Global Brain Health Initiative. In the study of more than 28,000 people, her team found strong evidence that lowering blood pressure could cut dementia risk. Five double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trials were analyzed that included individuals from 20 countries. The trials used different treatments to lower blood pressure. The researchers followed patients until the development of dementia. Patients were an average age of 69 and mid-range follow-up was about four years. “We found there was a significant effect of treatment in lowering the odds of dementia associated with a sustained reduction in blood pressure in this older population,” Peters said in a George Institute news release. “Our results imply a broadly linear relationship between blood pressure reduction and lower risk of dementia, regardless of which type of treatment was used.” Without significant dementia treatment breakthroughs, reducing risks may help. An estimated 50 million people live with dementia worldwide, and the numbers could triple by 2050.… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Scientists Use Sound to Ease Patients’ Chronic Nightmares

Brain Waves Could Help Guide Concussion Diagnosis, Treatment

Cutting Carbs Could Cut Your Risk for Diabetes

Exercise Is Key to Recovery After Breast Cancer Surgery

Stress-Relief Programs Often Rely on Dogs. What About Cats?

Who’s Got the Strongest Sex Drive, Men or Women?

400-Year-Old Mummy Reveals a Nobleman’s Child, Kept From the Sun

New TikTok Trend of Mouth Taping During Sleep Carries Dangers

Could Psychedelics Help You Kick the Habit?

Keeping Blood Pressure in Check Could Cut Your Odds for Dementia