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AI Virtual Therapists Could Improve Mental Health Care, Studies Find

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Could a virtual avatar be the future of mental health care?   New research shows that artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) goggles could revolutionize therapy — helping patients overcome addiction and receive unbiased care. A recent study in the Journal of Medical Extended Reality focused on patients with alcohol-associated cirrhosis, a serious liver condition linked to long-term alcohol use. Using a VR app developed at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, patients had counseling sessions with AI-powered avatars programmed for motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy. After 30-minute sessions, 85% of participants said they found the experience to be helpful, and 90% expressed interest in doing it again.  “For individuals awaiting liver transplants for cirrhosis, alcohol addiction remains a high-risk factor,” corresponding author Dr. Brennan Spiegel, a professor of medicine and director of health services research at Cedars-Sinai, said in a news release. “We see VR as a way to augment traditional interventions, which often fall short due to a shortage of mental health professionals, societal stigmatizing of alcoholism and other factors.” A second study, published earlier this month in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, explored whether AI-driven virtual therapists could provide care to a varied selection of patients. Researchers simulated more than 400 conversations between AI-powered therapists and virtual patients, assigning each patient a unique profile based on characteristics such as race,…  read on >  read on >

How To Fight Common Wintertime Respiratory Viruses

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In the throes of winter’s yearly round of respiratory virus outbreaks, it pays to remember what Grandma told you. Wash your hands often, cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you sneeze or cough and stay away from folks who may be infected. And, of course, wearing a mask won’t hurt. Respiratory viruses that cause the common cold, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), COVID-19 and flu peak at this time of year. Vaccines can help head off RSV, COVID and flu, but there’s no vaccine to protect against the common cold. While Grandma’s advice on prevention is still sound, experts at Johns Hopkins Medicine dismiss some old-school misconceptions about these diseases.  For example, colds are not caused by exposure to cold weather or getting wet in winter. Having COVID once does not provide lifetime immunity. The flu vaccine won’t give you flu. And the RSV virus only affects young kids.  Most important, Johns Hopkins doctors advise, if you do get sick, see your doctor for a diagnosis and, if appropriate, treatment for your particular illness. Getting plenty of rest, keeping warm, increasing fluid intake and using over-the-counter medications for congestion, sinus woes and aches and pains can help.  Here’s what else Johns Hopkins doctors want you to know: Common cold: It’s caused by one of more than 200 viruses and spread through coughing, sneezing…  read on >  read on >

Does Sleep Apnea Contribute to Car Crashes?

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Many major maladies have been linked to disturbed slumber caused by sleep apnea, high blood pressure, heart problems and diabetes. Add car wrecks to that list, a study published Jan. 21 in the journal Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, says. People with untreated sleep apnea are more likely to wind up in a vehicle crash, researchers reported. “Our findings underscore the profound impact that inadequately managed obstructive sleep apnea can have on individual health and public safety,” lead researcher Elliott Sina, a student at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said in a news release. Sleep apnea occurs when a person’s breathing repeatedly stops and starts during the night, causing them to wake again and again. It’s most commonly caused by throat muscles relaxing during sleep and blocking the flow of air into the lungs. This form of sleep apnea can be treated using a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, which maintains enough air pressure to keep upper airway passages open. Surgery to remove or shrink the tissue that’s sagging into the airways, or to reposition the jaw, can also effectively treat sleep apnea. Another surgical method involves inserting an implant to stimulate the hypoglossal nerve, which controls tongue movement. For the new study, researchers analyzed data on more than 2.8 million people with sleep apnea, including more than 700,000…  read on >  read on >

Eating Right, Exercising Before Surgery Improves Outcomes

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Patients can improve their odds for a successful surgery by actively preparing for the procedure through diet and exercise, a tactic called “prehabilitation,” a new evidence review shows. Surgical patients who prehabbed had fewer complications and shorter hospital stays, also recovered better and had a higher quality of life, researchers reported Jan. 22 in The BMJ. “If you are going to be having surgery, it is always a good idea to ask about prehabilitation,” said lead researcher Dr. Daniel McIsaac, an anesthesiologist and senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and clinical research chair in perioperative innovation at the University of Ottawa in Canada. “If you are willing and able to regularly increase your activity levels and protein intake for a few weeks before surgery, you are likely to experience a noticeably shorter recovery time after surgery,” he added in a news release. The term “prehabilitation” dates to World War II and the British Army’s efforts to improve the general health and fitness of military recruits, researchers said in background notes. The medical community later adopted the term, making prehabilitation a major area of research for the past three decades, researchers said. “We know that people who are more physically fit tend to recover faster from surgery and suffer fewer complications,” McIsaac said. “While many patients, with encouragement from their doctors, want to improve their fitness…  read on >  read on >

Adults With ADHD Linked To Shorter Life Expectancy, Study Shows

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Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, otherwise known as ADHD, may face a shorter life expectancy than their peers. On average, men with ADHD died seven years earlier than men without it, while women with ADHD died nine years earlier than their counterparts, according to a study of more than 30,000 people published Thursday in The British Journal of Psychiatry.  “It’s a big number, and it is worrying,” Joshua Stott, lead study author and professor of aging and clinical psychology at University College London, told The New York Times.  The study didn’t identify specific causes of death, but found that people with ADHD were more likely to smoke, abuse alcohol and have other health issues like depression, self-harm or personality disorders. ADHD is often associated with impulsive behaviors and difficulty managing time or health, which can lead to riskier choices, Stott explained. These challenges can lead to higher rates of accidents and chronic health conditions, The Times reported. Previous research supports these findings. A 2022 meta-analysis found that people with ADHD were nearly three times more likely to die from unnatural causes, such as accidents or suicides.  What’s more, a 2019 study linked ADHD to reduced life expectancy due to smoking, alcohol use, poor sleep and lower income. Russell Barkley, lead author of that study, said the data made it clear that ADHD should not…  read on >  read on >

Why Sparkling Water May (Or May Not) Help You Lose Weight

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Chalk up a partial win for health influencers who tout the slimming benefits of sparkling waters. New research out of Japan affirms that carbonated water may, indeed, promote weight loss by lowering blood sugar levels, allowing cells to burn fat between meals for energy more efficiently. But don’t buy a smaller wardrobe just yet. The findings suggest that any benefit is small.  Blood sugar levels dropped only temporarily, and study author Dr. Akira Takahashi said the carbonated water would have only a small impact on calorie consumption. “Carbonated water is not a standalone solution for weight loss,” he wrote in the study, which was published Jan. 20 in the journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health. Seltzers and sparkling or carbonated waters have gained a following among health buffs for their purported effects on body mass.  Some point to a small 2017 study that found carbonated drinks stimulated appetite by increasing levels of the hunger hormone, ghrelin. But findings of that study, which involved only 20 people and male rats, have never been replicated. Takahashi’s new research, expands on a 2004 investigation of hemodialysis by his team at Tesseikai Neurosurgical Hospital in Shijonawate, Japan. He is a physician in the hospital’s kidney dialysis center. Hemodialysis is a process that occurs during kidney dialysis, when CO2 enters the blood, just as it would when carbonated water is…  read on >  read on >

Pregnancy Increases Mental Health Risk in MS Patients

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Pregnancy increases the risk of mental illness among women with multiple sclerosis (MS). Pregnant MS patients have a higher risk of mental illness both during gestation and in the first years after they give birth, researchers reported in a new study published Jan. 22 in the journal Neurology. Overall, women with MS have a 26% increased risk of mental illness during pregnancy and a 33% increased risk after giving birth, compared to women without the degenerative nerve disease. “Mental health struggles can affect both parents and kids, making it important to understand how mental health challenges around pregnancy affect people with MS,” lead researcher Dr. Ruth Ann Marrie, a professor of medicine and community health sciences at the University of Manitoba in Canada, said in a news release. For the study, researchers tracked the health of nearly 900,000 mothers, including more than 1,700 with MS. They looked at records from two years before conception to three years after participants gave birth. The research team then examined how many women had been diagnosed with a mental illness, including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis, suicide attempts or substance abuse. Mental illness affected about 42% of women with MS during pregnancy, and that increased to 50% within the first year after birth, results show. By comparison, 30% of women without MS had mental health problems during pregnancy and…  read on >  read on >

Fitter Folks Have Better Odds Against Cancer

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Pumping iron and hitting the treadmill can improve your odds against cancer, a new evidence review says. People with more muscle strength and better cardio fitness are less likely to die from cancer, researchers reported recently in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. This survival benefit extends even to people with advanced-stage cancers, results show. “Muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness were significant predictors of all-cause mortality, especially in patients with advanced cancer,” concluded the research team led by Robert Newton, a professor of exercise medicine at Edith Cowan University in Australia. The results indicate that hitting the gym might deserve to be part of a person’s cancer treatment, researchers added. “Implementing tailored exercise prescriptions to enhance these physical fitness components throughout the cancer continuum may contribute to reducing cancer-related mortality,” the researchers wrote. Previous studies have linked better physical fitness to an overall lower risk of early death, as well as a lower risk of death by heart or lung disease, researchers said in background notes. But this is the first time a review has attempted to see whether fitness can ward off death from cancer, researchers said. Previous research has mainly focused on whether fitness can prevent cancer from occurring. For their review, researchers pooled data from 42 previous studies involving nearly 47,000 patients with various stages and types of cancer. Results showed that…  read on >  read on >

Fatty Muscles Increase Heart Disease Risk

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A well-marbled steak is highly prized for grilling, but those sort of fat deposits in human muscles can be deadly, a new study says. People with pockets of fat hidden within their muscles have a higher risk of dying from heart-related health problems, researchers reported in a study published Jan. 20 in the European Heart Journal. For every 1% increase in fatty deposits in muscle, there was a 7% increased risk of heart-related death, heart attack or heart failure, researchers found. Even people with a healthy BMI can have these hidden fat deposits within their muscles, researchers said. (BMI is short for body mass index, an estimate of body fat based on height and weight.) In fact, the heart risk associated with fatty muscle was independent of BMI and other known heart risk factors, results show. “Knowing that intermuscular fat raises the risk of heart disease gives us another way to identify people who are at high risk, regardless of their body mass index,” senior researcher Dr. Viviany Taqueti, director of the Cardiac Stress Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said in a news release. For the study, researchers performed imaging scans on nearly 670 patients being evaluated at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for chest pain or shortness of breath. CT scans were used to assess how well the patients’ hearts were functioning.…  read on >  read on >