Teens who vape frequently are exposing themselves to harmful metals like lead and uranium, a new study finds. Lead levels in urine are 40% higher among intermittent vapers and 30% higher among frequent vapers, compared to occasional vapers, results show. And urinary levels of uranium were twice as high among frequent vapers as occasional vapers, researchers reported April 29 in the journal Tobacco Control. Exposure to these sort of heavy metals could harm the developing brains of teenagers, resulting in thinking problems and behavioral disorders, researchers said. These metals also increase the risk of breathing problems, cancer and heart disease. “E-cigarette use during adolescence may increase the likelihood of metal exposure, which could adversely affect brain and organ development,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Hongying Dai, associate dean of research with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, in Omaha. “These findings call for further research, vaping regulation and targeted public health interventions to mitigate the potential harms of e-cigarette use, particularly among adolescents,” the researchers added in a journal news release. An estimated 14% of high school students, more than 2 million, used an e-cigarette in 2022, along with more than 3% of middle school students, around 380,000, researchers said in background notes. Heavy metals like nickel, tin and lead have been found in e-cigarette vapor previously, along with many other potentially harmful…  read on >  read on >

A middle-aged Seattle man collapsed in his Portland, Ore.-area hotel room, where he was staying during a business trip. He’d just tried fentanyl for the first time, and it very nearly killed him by literally destroying his brain. Inhaling fentanyl caused terrible inflammation throughout large sections of white matter in the patient’s brain, his doctors at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) deduced. White matter serves as the network of neural highways that connect various parts of the brain to each other and to the spinal cord. As a result, he lost consciousness and came perilously close to irreversible loss of brain function — either killing him or leaving him a vegetable. The patient is the first documented case of this phenomenon involving fentanyl, although previous cases have been noted involving heroin, researchers noted. “This is a case of a middle-class man, in his late 40s, with kids, who used fentanyl for the first time,” said lead researcher Dr. Chris Eden, a second-year internal medicine resident at the OHSU School of Medicine. “It demonstrates that fentanyl can affect everyone in our society.” Fentanyl is cheap, readily available and 50 times more potent than heroin, Eden noted. Illicit drug manufacturers frequently cut fentanyl into other substances like heroin, often without the knowledge of the user. “We know very well the classic opiate side effects: respiratory depression,…  read on >  read on >

A blood test could help doctors spot the signs of knee osteoarthritis at least eight years before it shows up on X-rays, a new study claims. After analyzing the blood of 200 white British women, half diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis and half without, researchers discovered a small number of biomarkers distinguished the women with osteoarthritis from those without it. “We found we were able to identify people who are at risk for knee osteoarthritis, but what was exciting was that we were able to identify it eight years before they had any X-ray changes,” said senior study author Dr. Virginia Byers Kraus, a professor in the departments of Medicine, Pathology and Orthopedic Surgery at Duke University School of Medicine, in Durham, N.C. The study, published April 26 in the journal Science Advances, builds on previous research where the blood test demonstrated 74% accuracy in predicting knee arthritis progression and 85% accuracy in diagnosing knee arthritis. Knee arthritis strikes approximately 35 million adults in the United States. While there are no cures, the success of new therapies could hinge on identifying the disease early and slowing its progression. The researchers emphasized that just like heart disease, osteoporosis or Alzheimer’s disease, knee osteoarthritis is a chronic disorder that is typically diagnosed late in the game. By identifying it earlier, doctors could potentially stop the disease before it…  read on >  read on >

Researchers have conclusively identified the genetic cause of a rare, progressive movement disorder. A rare extra-long version of a gene appears to cause nerve cells to become poisoned by toxic proteins in people with spinocerebellar ataxia 4 (SCA4), researchers report. SCA4 causes muscle weakness and difficulty coordinating body movement, most notably resulting in a jerky and unsteady walking style and difficulty speaking, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The disease also causes a progressive loss of feeling in the hands and feet and a loss of reflexes, the NIH says. There’s no known cure for SCA4, and up to now there was no known cause, researchers said. SCA4’s pattern of inheritance had long made it clear the disease was genetic, but researchers have struggled for 25 years to figure out the exact genetics behind the disorder. Now, using a recently developed advanced sequencing technology to analyze the genetics of several Utah families, researchers found a section in a gene called ZFHX3 that’s much longer than it should be, containing an extra-long string of repetitive DNA. Human cells that have the extra-long version of ZFHX3 appear to be sick. They aren’t able to recycle proteins as well as they should, and some contain clumps of stuck-together protein. “This mutation is a toxic expanded repeat and we think that it actually jams up how a…  read on >  read on >