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Botanicals like turmeric, green tea and black cohosh may seem benign, but their overuse is being increasingly linked to liver injury. New research suggests that 7% of U.S. adults are using at least one of the six leading botanicals, the equivalent of 15.6 million people. Many are ending up in hospitals for liver toxicity, researchers report. Because there’s almost no regulatory oversight over botanicals, chemical tests of products linked to liver crises “show frequent discrepancies between product labels and detected ingredients,” noted a team led by Dr. Alisa Likhitsup. She’s an assistant professor of gastroenterology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The researchers focused on the use of six of the most popular botanicals: Turmeric, green tea extract, the Garcinia cambodgia plant, black cohosh, red yeast rice and ashwagandha. Perusing 2017-2021 data on almost 9,700 adults in a federal health database, they found high rates of botanical use. For example, Likhitsup’s group estimated that more than 11 million adults regularly take turmeric supplements, often with the notion that it can ease pain or arthritis. That’s not too far below the approximately 14.8 million who take an NSAID pain reliever for much the same reasons. Unfortunately, “multiple randomized clinical trials have failed to demonstrate any efficacy of turmeric-containing products in osteoarthritis,” and overdoing it on turmeric has been linked to serious liver toxicity, the… read on > read on >

Folks who rub their forehead and complain that a complex problem is making their brain hurt aren’t overstating things, a new review suggests. Mental exertion appears to be associated with unpleasant feelings in many situations, researchers reported Aug. 5 in the journal Psychological Bulletin. In fact, the greater a person’s mental effort, the more they experience feelings like frustration, irritation, stress or annoyance, results showed. “Our findings show that mental effort feels unpleasant across a wide range of populations and tasks,” said senior researcher Erik Bijleveld, an associate professor of psychology with Radboud University in the Netherlands. “This is important for professionals, such as engineers and educators, to keep in mind when designing tasks, tools, interfaces, apps, materials or instructions,” Bijleveld added in a university news release. “When people are required to exert substantial mental effort, you need to make sure to support or reward them for their effort.” For the review, researchers analyzed 170 studies published between 2019 and 2020 involving 4,670 people. The participants included people from a wide range of backgrounds, including health care workers, military employees, amateur athletes and college students. They represented 29 countries. The studies involved more than 350 different brain tasks that ranged from learning new technology and finding one’s way around an unfamiliar environment to practicing golf swings or playing a virtual reality game. The combined results… read on > read on >

Millions of Americans use the opioid-like herbal supplement known as kratom, but evidence of its dangers continue to mount. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued another alert for consumers to stay away from one brand of kratom in particular, OPMS Black Liquid Kratom. “The FDA recently received an adverse event report of a person who died after using OPMS Black Liquid Kratom,” the agency noted. “This is one of many reports of serious adverse events individuals have reported” after using the supplement, the FDA added. Kratom is an herbal supplement derived from the dried leaves of a tropical evergreen tree in the coffee family. A chemical called mitragynine, found in kratom, tweaks some of the same brain receptors that respond to opioids. However, overdoses of mitragynine are toxic to the liver and can prove fatal. Kratom has been used for centuries in its native Southeast Asia to produce increased energy and relaxation, according to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. The drug is largely unregulated: Anyone can buy kratom online, and it can be found in convenience stores, gas stations and vape shops. Some bars serving botanical drinks offer kratom tea. About 1.7 million people 12 and older used kratom in the United States in 2021, according to the National Survey on Drug Use. The new alert from the FDA noted that… read on > read on >

Depression can lower a woman’s chances of surviving breast cancer, a new study reports. Women with breast cancer and depression are more than three times as likely to die as women without either condition, researchers found. By comparison, breast cancer patients who aren’t also suffering from depression are only 45% more likely to die than healthy women. “The combination is what makes the risk of death increase tremendously and leads to thousands of years of life lost,” said lead researcher Jagdish Khubchandani, a professor of public health sciences at New Mexico State University. “We found in our study that the co-occurrence of depression further reduces survival among women with breast cancer,” Khubchandani added in a university news release. “Unfortunately, many women with breast cancer do not get timely or quality care for mental health issues such as depression.” For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 4,700 women aged 45 and older, about 5% of whom had breast cancer while nearly 13% had depression. They were followed for about eight years. “More than 4 million American women are living with breast cancer today, and more than a quarter-million American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year,” Khubchandani said. “Unfortunately, a large proportion of women with breast cancer suffer from depression, poor mental health and lower quality of life.” Results show that certain… read on > read on >

Many people with disabilities aren’t getting the exercise they need because fitness centers don’t offer adaptive equipment or staff trained in helping the disabled, a new review finds. There are few efforts by most commercial gyms to promote fitness for people with disabilities, said review author Alexandra Jamieson, a research scientist at The University of Texas at Arlington Research Institute. “The biggest barriers to fitness are accessibility and cost,” Jamieson said in a university news release. “Standard gyms are not legally required to have adaptive machines for users of differing abilities. Plus, there is generally a lack of data about the demand for these adaptive machines that would help gyms justify the higher costs of adding them.” About one in every six people (16%) live with a significant disability that affects their daily life, researchers wrote. But only about 40% of the disabled engage in regular physical activity, the review noted. As a result, they’re more likely to suffer from chronic illnesses like heart disease, stroke, diabetes or cancer, and are at higher risk for mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. “Many people with disabilities struggle with psychological issues such as low self-esteem and negative body image, which can further reduce their motivation to participate in exercise activities, especially in public places like gyms,” Jamieson said. On top of not having the proper equipment and… read on > read on >

As kids and teens prepare to head back to school, parents might not have protecting their child’s lung health on the top of their to-do lists. But experts say it should be. “A new school year often means a new environment for students and staff, including new asthma triggers, exposure to new viruses, peer pressure to smoke or vape and other stressors that can impact the health of students,” said Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association (ALA). “Students and staff spend a significant amount of time in school, so it is critical to their well-being and education that they are in the healthiest environment and are making the healthiest choices possible.” To that end, the ALA has created a youth initiative to help schools and caregivers address chronic lung issues like asthma, air quality and tobacco-free policies. The initiative offers information, guides and sample policies that can be implemented in schools to protect students and staff. The group is also working to educate parents, students and school officials in four key areas of lung health: Asthma: There are 6.1 million kids under the age of 18 living with asthma, a leading cause of missed school days. The ALA has in-depth resources for parents, young adults and schools on managing asthma, including a free online course for school personnel who administer asthma… read on > read on >

Two new studies show how eager Americans are to obtain either safe, legitimate versions of Ozempic or counterfeit and potentially dangerous forms of the diabetes/weight-loss drug. One study found U.S. prescriptions and refills of Ozempic (semaglutide) soaring over the past three years, jumping almost five-fold (392%) between early 2021 and the end of 2023. Ozempic’s reformulated-for-weight-loss cousin, Wegovy (also semaglutide), saw sales soar soon after its launch as well. According to researchers led by Dr. Dima Qato, an associate professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Southern California, sales of Wegovy climbed more than 14-fold between July 2021 and the end of 2023. “The number of prescriptions filled for semaglutide has increased substantially, reaching 2.6 millon prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies by December 2023,” Qatos’s team reported Aug. 2 in the journal JAMA Health Forum. It’s all led to U.S. shortages of both Ozempic and Wegovy, first announced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March of 2022, the researchers noted. Consumers who either can’t find semaglutide because of shortages, or who cannot afford the drugs (Wegovy is about $1,349 per month), are increasingly turning to black market vendors online, a second study found. That’s a dicey move, warned researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). They found many online counterfeit semaglutide products either contaminated with toxins or containing hazardous doses… read on > read on >

People can offset hours spent sitting around with minutes of active exercise each week, a new study claims. Folks who are sedentary for eight or more hours daily can lower their overall risk of death – and especially their risk of dying from heart disease – if they perform 140 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity every week, results show. These results show the importance of encouraging people to work out every week, “particularly for individuals whose life circumstances necessitate prolonged sitting in particular, such as drivers or office workers,” said senior researcher Sandra Albrecht, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. For the study, researchers examined data on more than 6,300 people with diabetes who participated in the annual National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2007 and 2018. “Managing the elevated mortality risk in this high-risk population is particularly pressing given the widespread diabetes epidemic and the tendency among adults with diabetes to sit more and move less,” said lead researcher Wen Dai, a doctoral student in epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School in New York City. As part of the survey, people were asked to estimate the amount of time they spent each week performing moderate to vigorous physical activities, as well as their time spent sitting. Federal guidelines recommend that people get at least… read on > read on >

Fish oil supplements might help high-risk seniors stave off Alzheimer’s disease, a new study finds. Older people with a higher genetic risk of Alzheimer’s experienced slower breakdown of their brain’s nerve cells if they took fish oil capsules, researchers reported Aug. 1 in the journal JAMA Network Open. These people carry the APOE4 gene variant, which increases risk of Alzheimer’s and is associated with an earlier age of onset, according to the National Institute on Aging. “The fact that neuronal integrity breakdown was slowed in people randomized to omega-3 treatment who are also at high risk for Alzheimer’s disease is remarkable, and warrants a larger clinical trial in more diverse populations in the future,” said researcher Gene Bowman, a neurology instructor with the McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. However, fish oil supplements did not benefit all seniors in general, researchers noted. “Our findings showed that over three years, there was not a statistically significant difference between placebo and the group that took fish oil,” said researcher Dr. Lynne Shinto, a professor of neurology with the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine. “I don’t think it would be harmful, but I wouldn’t say you need to take fish oil to prevent dementia.” For the study, researchers recruited 102 people ages 75 and older who had relatively low levels… read on > read on >

Experts have long suspected it, but a new study confirms that folks who vape and smoke tobacco face higher risks for lung cancer than if they’d done either alone. “From a public health perspective, we have always been concerned about dual-use of both traditional and e-cig products,” said study lead author Marisa Bittoni, an oncology researcher at Ohio State University in Columbus. “This study presents clear evidence showing that vaping in addition to smoking can increase your risk for lung cancer,” said Bittoni, who works at the university’s Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. Her team tracked rates of both vaping and smoking among nearly 5,000 Columbus-area people diagnosed with lung cancer, and compared them to a group of almost 27,300 people without cancer. The results: Folks who had both smoked and vaped were eight times more likely to be in the lung cancer group than the group that was cancer-free. Moreover, people who both vaped and smoked were four times more likely to go on to develop lung cancer compared to people who had only smoked, Bittoni’s group found. The findings were published recently in the Journal of Oncology Research and Therapy. “Our findings provide the first evidence that smoking in combination with vaping significantly increases the risk of lung cancer compared to smoking alone,” said study co-author Dr.… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Botanicals Like Turmeric, Green Tea Are Harming Americans’ Livers

Thinking Hard Really Can Make Your ‘Brain Hurt’

Brand of Kratom Tied to One Death, Many Severe Illnesses, FDA Warns

Depression May Lower Breast Cancer Survival

Here Are the Barriers Keeping People With Disabilities From Exercise

Back-to-School Tips to Helping Your Kids Breathe Easier

Legit Ozempic Sales Soar While Counterfeits Put Patients in Danger

Sit a Lot? Exercise Might Offset the Damage to Your Health

Fish Oil Might Help High-Risk Older Adults Avoid Alzheimer’s

Smoking & Vaping Together Raise Lung Cancer Risks Even Higher