Weekly Gravy « Weekly Gravy

All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Trendy weight-loss drugs appear to increase the risk of a rare and potentially blinding eye condition, a new study warns. People with diabetes prescribed semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) were more than four times more likely to be diagnosed with NAION, researchers reported July 3 in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology. Further, those who were overweight were more than seven times more likely to be diagnosed with NAION, results showed. “The use of these drugs has exploded throughout industrialized countries and they have provided very significant benefits in many ways, but future discussions between a patient and their physician should include NAION as a potential risk,” said lead researcher Dr. Joseph Rizzo, director of the Neuro-Ophthalmology Service at Mass Eye and Ear in Boston. “It is important to appreciate, however, that the increased risk relates to a disorder that is relatively uncommon,” he added in a hospital news release. NAION typically causes sudden vision loss in one eye, without any pain, Rizzo said. It’s thought to be caused by reduced blood flow to the front of the optic nerve, where the nerve meets the eye. NAION is the most common cause of sudden blindness due to damage of the optic nerve, and is second only to glaucoma as an overall cause of optic nerve blindness, researchers said. There currently are no effective treatments for NAION, and vision loss… read on > read on >

People who are grateful for what they have tend to live longer, a new study reports. Older women who scored highest on a questionnaire measuring gratitude had a 9% lower risk of premature death from any cause, compared to those with the least gratitude, according to findings published July 3 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. The results suggest that feelings of gratitude “may increase longevity among older adults,” lead author Ying Chen, a research scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a news release. For the study, researchers analyzed data gathered from the long-term Nurse’s Health Study. In 2016, more than 49,000 women in the study with an average age of 79 completed a six-question gratitude test. They had to agree or disagree with statements like “I have so much in life to be thankful for” and “If I had to list everything that I felt grateful for, it would be a very long list.” Three years later, researchers followed up to identify deaths among those women. They found that more than 4,600 participants had died, most commonly of heart disease. Those with the highest levels of gratitude had a lower risk of death from any cause, compared to those with the lowest, results show. Gratitude appeared to protect against every specific cause of death included in the study, and… read on > read on >

A regulation allowing the use of brominated vegetable oil in food was revoked Tuesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after the agency concluded the additive was unsafe for human consumption. Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) contains bromine, which is found in fire retardants. Small quantities of BVO have been used legally in some citrus-flavored drinks in the United States to keep the flavor evenly distributed, the FDA explained in a news release announcing the ban, which takes effect Aug. 2. The agency first proposed the ban in November. But BVO was banned in the U.K. in 1970, followed by India in 1990, the E.U. in 2008 and Japan in 2010, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. In 1970, the FDA concluded that its use in food was not generally recognized as safe because of toxicity concerns. Following that decision, the agency began regulating BVO as a food additive while also conducting safety studies, Reuters reported. The results of that research prompted the ban. Some experts said the ban was long overdue. “The FDA’s decision to ban brominated vegetable oil [BVO] in food is a victory for public health. But it’s disgraceful that it took decades of regulatory inaction to protect consumers from this dangerous chemical,” Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, said in a statement. … read on > read on >

Weight gain is a common side effect of antidepressants, but some types cause people to pack on pounds more than others, a new study says. Bupropion users are 15% to 20% less likely to gain a significant amount of weight than those taking the most common antidepressant, sertraline, researchers reported July 2 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. At the same time, escitalopram and paroxetine had a 15% higher risk of gaining weight compared to sertraline, even though all are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), researchers found. “Our study found that some antidepressants, like bupropion, are associated with less weight gain than others,” said senior researcher Dr. Jason Block, a general internal medicine physician at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute in Boston. About 14% of U.S. adults use antidepressants, researchers said in background notes. For the study, researchers analyzed data for more than 183,000 people ages 18 to 80 who were newly prescribed antidepressants. The team checked the patients’ weight at six months, one year and two years after they started taking one of eight common antidepressants. Overall, bupropion users gained the least amount of weight compared to users of other antidepressants, researchers said. A weight gain of about 5% or more was considered clinically significant. “Although there are several reasons why patients and their clinicians might choose one antidepressant over another, weight gain is… read on > read on >

Screening for chronic illnesses like diabetes or fatty liver disease could one day be as simple as checking the temperature of your nose, eyes or cheeks. The temperature of different parts of the face are associated with various chronic diseases, researchers reported July 2 in the journal Cell Metabolism. Armed with an AI-driven thermal camera, doctors could one day use this simple approach to detect diseases earlier in humans, researchers said. “Aging is a natural process,” researcher Jing-Dong Jackie Han with Peking University in Beijing, China, said in a news release. “But our tool has the potential to promote healthy aging and help people live disease-free.” The research team had previously used facial structure to estimate how slowly or quickly a person’s body is aging, relative to their actual age. For this effort, they analyzed facial temperatures of more than 2,800 Chinese people ages 21 to 88 to see if those readings could be used to judge their health. Researchers fed the people’s data into an AI program, which identified key facial regions where temperatures were significantly related to age and health. Metabolic disorders like diabetes and fatty liver disease cause higher eye area temperatures relative to healthy people, results show. Likewise, high blood pressure causes elevated cheek temperatures, researchers said. Researchers suspect this increase in temperature around the eyes and cheeks is caused by… read on > read on >

In a case that will test the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s authority to approve or reject new vaping products, the U.S. Supreme Court said Tuesday it will weigh whether the agency was legally allowed to ban flavored e-cigarettes. In recent years, the FDA has declined to approve flavored vapes, saying they pose a health risk because they encourage young people to use e-cigarettes. But they remain widely available on the U.S. market. Meanwhile, vaping companies claim the agency got it wrong, arguing that their products can be used to help people stop smoking traditional cigarettes. E-cigarette makers have filed lawsuits around the country challenging the FDA’s decisions, NBC News reported. While the FDA has won most of those cases, it appealed to the Supreme Court after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a January ruling in favor of two vape companies seeking to have their products approved. That appeals court concluded that the FDA failed to correctly assess the companies’ requests in violation of a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act, NBC News reported. “The Supreme Court should overturn the Fifth Circuit decision because it is misguided and, if left to stand, would cause significant harm to public health and especially to the health of our kids,” Yolonda Richardson, president and CEO of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a statement.… read on > read on >

As millions of Americans grapple with blistering heat this summer, the Biden Administration on Tuesday proposed a new rule to address excessive heat in the workplace. If the first major federal safety standard of its kind becomes final, the measure would aim to protect an estimated 36 million U.S. workers from injuries related to heat exposure on the job. That includes delivery and construction workers, landscapers and workers in warehouses, factories and kitchens. “From the record-shattering heat wave across the Midwest and Northeast, to devastating flooding in Iowa and Minnesota, to raging wildfires in New Mexico, Oregon and California, communities in every corner of the country are being directly impacted by the compounding effects of extreme weather,” the White House said in a statement announcing the proposal. “Today, the President is receiving an operational briefing on extreme weather forecasts for this summer, and he will announce new actions to protect workers and families from the impacts of extreme weather.” Under the proposed rule, employers would be required to identify heat dangers, develop emergency response plans related to heat illness and train employees and supervisors on the signs of heat illnesses. They would also have to provide rest breaks, provide shade and water and allow new workers to build their tolerance for heat on the job. Penalties for heat-related violations in workplaces would also increase significantly,… read on > read on >

Simple exercises performed during rounds of chemotherapy can help people avoid nerve damage normally associated with the cancer-killing drugs, a new study suggests. About twice as many cancer patients on chemo wound up with long-lasting nerve damage if they didn’t exercise, compared with two groups assigned different exercise regimens, researchers reported July 1 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. “The potential of physical activity is hugely underestimated,” lead researcher Fiona Streckmann, a research assistant at the University of Basel in Switzerland, said in a news release. About 70% to 90% of people who get chemo complain of pain, balance issues or feelings of numbness, burning or tingling, researchers said in background notes. These nerve symptoms can disappear after cancer treatment, but about half the time they endure. For the study, researchers recruited 158 cancer patients receiving one of two chemo drugs, oxaliplatin or vinca-alkaloids, and divided them into three groups. Two groups completed exercise sessions twice a week during their chemotherapy, each lasting 15 to 30 minutes. One group exercised while balancing on an unstable surface, and the other exercised on a vibration plate. The third group received standard care, with no exercise regimen. Regular exams over the next five years showed that the exercises performed alongside chemo reduced the incidence of nerve damage by 50% to 70%, researchers said. Exercise also improved patients’ quality… read on > read on >

Cutting-edge weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic can help treat alcoholism, a new study says. People taking semaglutide had 50% to 56% decreased odds for either becoming alcoholic or relapsing into alcoholism, researchers reported recently in the journal Nature Communications. Few drugs are now available to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD), so adding semaglutide to their number would provide a much-needed extra option, researchers said. “This is very promising news in that we may have a new therapeutic method to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD),” lead researcher Rong Xu, a professor of biomedical informatics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, said in a news release. Semaglutide helps regulate blood sugar levels, and was first approved as a diabetes treatment. The drug also reduces appetite and slows digestion, which eventually led to its approval as a weight-loss drug as well. For the study, researchers analyzed medical records of nearly 84,000 patients with obesity, as well as about 600,000 patients with type 2 diabetes. In both sets of data, researchers found consistent reductions in alcoholism among people treated with semaglutide. “While the findings are promising and provide preliminary evidence of the potential benefit of semaglutide in real-world populations, further randomized clinical trials are needed to support its use clinically for AUD,” study co-author Dr. Pamela Davis, a research professor at Case Western, said in a… read on > read on >

Benzodiazepines do not appear to increase dementia risk, but could have subtle long-term effects on brain structure, a new study reports. Researchers found no link between use of the sedative drug and a higher risk of dementia in a group of more than 5,400 adults in the Netherlands, according to findings published July 2 in the journal BMC Medicine. That runs counter to two previous meta-analyses reporting increased dementia risk with benzodiazepine use, researchers noted. However, brain MRI scans taken of more than 4,800 participants revealed that benzodiazepine use is associated with accelerated shrinking of some brain regions, results show. The findings “support current guidelines cautioning against long-term benzodiazepine prescription,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Frank Wolters, a senior scientist of epidemiology and radiology and nuclear medicine at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. “Further research is needed to investigate the potential effects of benzodiazepine use on brain health,” the team adds. Benzodiazepines promote the release of a neurotransmitter that makes the nervous system less active, the Cleveland Clinic says. Different types are used as sedatives or to treat anxiety, insomnia and seizures. Analysis of medical records between 2005 and 2020 and pharmacy records between 1991 and 2008 revealed no association between benzodiazepines and increased risk of dementia, regardless of the total quantity of sedatives people took over time. The team also found… read on > read on >

Weekly Gravy

Look Good – Feel Good – Feed Good

A little about: Weekly Gravy

All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

GLP-1 Drugs Ozempic, Wegovy Linked to Rare Blinding Condition

Gratitude May Bring Longer Life

FDA Bans Food Additive Found in Sports Drinks, Sodas

When It Comes to Weight Gain, Not All Antidepressants Are the Same

Facial Temperatures Might Help Docs Diagnose Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease

Supreme Court to Hear Case Challenging FDA’s Ban of Flavored Vapes

Biden Administration Proposes Rule to Tackle Extreme Heat in the Workplace

Exercise May Prevent the Nerve Damage That Comes With Chemotherapy

Another Study Suggests GLP-1 Meds Could Ease Alcoholism

Use of ‘Benzo’ Sedatives Like Valium, Xanax Won’t Raise Dementia Risk: Study