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The number of people severely sickened after consuming mushroom edibles sold as Diamond Shruumz-brand Chocolate Bars, Cones or Gummies has risen, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday. As of Monday, “a total of 12 illnesses have been reported from eight states,” the FDA noted in an updated advisory. “All 12 people have reported seeking medical care; 10 have been hospitalized.” No deaths have been reported. Symptoms have included “seizures, central nervous system depression [loss of consciousness, confusion, sleepiness], agitation, abnormal heart rates, hyper/hypotension, nausea and vomiting,” the agency added. The Diamond Shruumz-brand mushroom edible products are being marketed online and at smoke/vape shops, legal CBD/THC shops and other retail outlets nationwide. The FDA is asking retailers to stop selling the products. The edibles pose a special danger to kids, the agency added. “This product may appeal to children and teenagers as it is marketed as a candy,” the FDA noted. “Parents and caregivers should consider discussing the information in this advisory with their children and take extra care to avoid this product being consumed by younger people.” Anyone who does become ill after consuming Diamond Shruumz-brand products should call the Poison Help Line at 800-222-1222 and let them know the product was consumed. More information Find out more about the dangers of edibles at the American Academy of Pediatrics. SOURCE: U.S. Food and… read on > read on >

Nearly 1 in every 6 U.S. adults have engaged in the ancient practice of yoga over the past year, new government data shows. In fact, as Americans increasingly turn to alternative or complementary health approaches, “the largest increases [have been] in the practice of yoga,” noted researchers Nazik Elgaddal and Julie Weeks. They’re with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which is part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their new report is based on 2022 data from the ongoing National Health Interview Survey. According to the data, yoga remains more popular among women (23.3% reporting past-year use) than men (10.3%). It’s also more popular among the young (ages 18 to 44), with 21.3% in that age group saying they practiced yoga, than the middle-aged (14.1%) or those aged 65 or older (8%). The well-off are also more likely to engage in yoga than less affluent folks. Overall, 23% of people in the survey’s highest income bracket said they practiced yoga versus 10.4% of those at the lowest income level. As to why Americans are engaging in the ages-old Indian practice, about 80% of yoga practitioners cited “restoring overall health,” the CDC team found. That was especially true for folks ages 45 to 64. Meditation is often being performed in conjunction with yoga: Just over 57% of all practitioners said they… read on > read on >

Growing public fascination with “magic” psilocybin mushrooms as a trendy treatment for depression had led to increased interest in another type of psychedelic mushroom, a new study reports. Unfortunately, this second sort of shroom — known as Amanita muscaria — can be more toxic than fentanyl, cocaine and PCP, researchers say. Marketing the two types of mushrooms as essentially the same is not only wrong, but potentially dangerous, said senior researcher Eric Leas, an assistant professor in the University of California, San Diego’s Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science. “Companies who are making these products are pushing the limits of our regulations. They are getting away with making a buck until someone tells them they can’t,” Leas said in a university news release. “Given the substantial risks associated with using Amanita muscaria products, it is a buyer-beware marketplace where consumers are at risk and are not accurately informed,” Leas added. “The time for a public health first response is now.” Google searches for Amanita muscaria mushrooms skyrocketed 114% between 2022 and 2023, researchers reported June 10 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Gummies and chocolates containing compounds derived from Amanita muscaria mushrooms — muscimol and ibotenic acid — are being marketed as aids to reduce anxiety, depression and other conditions, researchers say. Amanita muscaria mushrooms have psychedelic effects similar to… read on > read on >

Depression and memory declines may be closely linked in older people, new research suggests. “Our study shows that the relationship between depression and poor memory cuts both ways, with depressive symptoms preceding memory decline and memory decline linked to subsequent depressive symptoms,” said senior study author Dr. Dorina Cadar, of University College London. The study suggests that effective depression treatment could help preserve memory function with age, she added in a university news release. The new findings come from an analysis of data from the ongoing English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, where people are tracked by questionnaires every two years. In this sample, 16 years of data were collected from nearly 8,300 adults averaging 64 years of age. In contrast to the finding that memory and depression were closely intertwined, the research did not show a strong relationship between depression and another marker of brain health, verbal fluency. Cadar, who is a research fellow in dementia at UCL, said it’s not surprising that battles with depression could affect memory over time. “Depression can cause changes in brain structures, such as the hippocampus, which is critical for memory formation and retrieval,” she explained. “Chronic stress and high levels of [the stress hormone] cortisol associated with depression can damage neurons in these areas.” The researchers also believe that depression upsets the balance of serotonin and dopamine in… read on > read on >

Folks trying to control their blood sugar levels might do best to work out in the evening, a new study suggests. Exercise performed between 6 p.m. and midnight appeared to be better at controlling blood sugar levels all day long, according to results published June 10 in the journal Obesity. This was particularly true of people with the sort of impaired blood sugar regulation associated with diabetes, researchers said. The results show that doctors “should consider the optimal timing of the day to enhance the effectiveness of the exercise and physical activity programs they prescribe,” said researcher Jonatan Ruiz, a professor of physical activity and health with the University of Granada in Spain. For the study, researchers recruited 186 overweight and obese adults and tracked their activity and blood glucose levels for two weeks using wearable devices. People were categorized based on when they accumulated more than 50% of each day’s moderate to vigorous physical activity – “morning” for 6 a.m. to noon, “afternoon” for noon to 6 p.m. and “evening” for 6 p.m. to midnight. Some were categorized as “mixed” if no defined time window accounted for more than half their day’s exercise, and others were marked as “inactive” if they didn’t get any moderate to vigorous exercise. Those who worked out in the evening were more likely to have lower daytime, nighttime and… read on > read on >

It’s tempting to binge-watch TV, but yet another study finds that when it comes to healthy aging, the less time on your sofa, the better. The study looked at 20 years of data on more than 45,000 people taking part in the Nurses’ Health Study. All were at least age 50 in 1992 and free of chronic disease when they entered the study. Researchers tracked lifestyle habits like time sitting at work, home and watching television, as well as their hours at home or work spent standing or walking at home. All that data was compared to information on how healthily (or not) they had aged over time. What defined “healthy aging”? According to the team from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, it meant living to be 70 plus having no major chronic diseases, no impaired memory, and overall good physical and mental health. One activity — watching TV while sitting — seemed particularly unhealthy, the researchers found. “Replacing television time with light physical activity, moderate to vigorous physical activity, or sleep [in participants with inadequate sleep] were associated with better odds of healthy aging,” wrote a team led by Dr. Molin Wang, an associate professor of medicine in the department of epidemiology at Harvard. More specifically, every hour per day where sedentary TV watching was replaced by even “light” physical activity in… read on > read on >

A test used to gauge whether a college athlete has suffered a concussion is right only half the time and may be useless, new research finds. The test used by the NCAA, which oversees college sports, measures an athlete’s cognitive skills, and is one of three tests (symptoms and balance tests being the other two) that doctors use to identify concussion. “If you don’t do well on the cognitive exam, it suggests you have a concussion. But many people who are concussed do fine on the exam,” said study lead author Dr. Kimberly Harmon. She is a professor of family medicine and section head of sports medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Harmon said she was prompted to conduct the study by firsthand experience working on the sidelines as team physician for the UW Huskies. “Some people were concussed and they did well on the recall tests. Some people weren’t concussed and they didn’t do well. So I thought we should study it,” she explained in a UW news release. The test itself is one part of what’s known as the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT). In the cognitive skills section of SCAT, the patient is asked “orientation” questions (What day is it? What month is it?), then a memory test (recite back a list of words), then a concentration challenge (repeat… read on > read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Monday that it has joined up with the Department of Justice and several other federal agencies to do more to stop the sale of illegal e-cigarettes in this country. In launching the newly created task force, the FDA aims “to coordinate and streamline efforts to bring all available criminal and civil tools to bear against the illegal distribution and sale of e-cigarettes responsible for nicotine addiction among American youth,” the agency said in a news release. “Enforcement against illegal e-cigarettes is a multi-pronged issue that necessitates a multi-pronged response,” Dr. Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, explained in the release. “This ‘All Government’ approach — including the creation of this new task force — will bring the collective resources and experience of the federal government to bear on this pressing public health issue.” Anti-smoking groups welcomed the news. “The creation of this task force can be an important step in preventing youth use of e-cigarettes, which are endangering the health and well-being of young people,” Yolonda Richardson, president and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a statement. “We encourage the Administration to take an aggressive approach in clearing the market of illegal e-cigarette products, which the public health community has been requesting consistently and most recently urged in a letter to… read on > read on >

Winston Churchill once said, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” It’s one of countless platitudes claiming that failure leads to success. But there’s strong evidence that such a notion is wrongheaded and can lead to terrible real-world consequences, researchers said in a new report. In fact, many people do not learn from their failures, and it’s folly to expect otherwise, according to findings published June 10 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. “People often confuse what is with what ought to be,” lead researcher Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, an assistant professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University, said in a news release. “People ought to pay attention and learn from failure, but often they don’t because failure is demotivating and ego-threatening.” A series of 11 experiments involving more than 1,800 participants found that people often don’t gain wisdom from failure, and that expecting them to do so can have potentially terrible consequences: People vastly overestimated the percentage of prospective nurses, lawyers and teachers who pass licensing exams after previously failing them. Nurses tended to overestimate how much colleagues would learn from a past error. People assumed that heart patients would embrace a healthier lifestyle, when many don’t. “People expect success to follow failure much more often than it actually does,” Eskreis-Winkler said. “People usually assume that past behavior predicts… read on > read on >

Folks using a weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy or Zepbound still have nutritional requirements for good health, even if they’re eating less. A new set of nutritional recommendations are expected to help people remain healthy even as they shed unwanted pounds, researchers say. The guidelines are meant “to equip clinicians with knowledge and tools to help support optimal nutritional and medical outcomes for their patients treated with anti-obesity medications,” researcher Lisa Neff, executive director of global medical affairs for Eli Lilly and Company, said in a news release. Eli Lilly makes Zepbound. The guidelines, crafted following an evidence review, call for women taking a weight-loss drug to eat between 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day. Men using the medication should eat 1,500 to 1,800 calories a day. A day’s food should include: More than 60 to 70 grams of protein. Recommended sources include beans, seafood, lean meat, poultry, low-fat dairy and eggs. Healthy carbohydrates constituting 45% to 65% of overall energy intake, with added sugars limited to less than 10% of intake. Whole grains, nuts and seeds, fruits, vegetables and dairy are recommended. Fats constituting between 20% and 35% of energy intake, with saturated fats limited to less than 10% of intake. Nuts, seeds, avocado, vegetable oil, fatty fish and seafood are recommended; avoid fried and high-fat foods due to gastro-intestinal effects associated with weight-loss… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

More Sickened After Eating Diamond Shruumz Bars, Cones and Gummies

About 1 in 6 U.S. Adults Practice Yoga

There’s Another ‘Magic’ Mushroom Being Sold in Gummies — But It Can Kill

Depression Could Take Toll on Memory With Age

Exercise at One Time of Day Might Be Best for Blood Sugar Control

Moving Off the Couch Brings Healthy Aging: Study Finds Benefit

Study Casts Doubt on Standard Test for Athletes’ Concussion

FDA, DOJ Form Task Force to Fight Illegal Vapes

Failure’s ‘Benefits’ Might Be Overrated

Taking a GLP-1 Medicine? Here’s What Experts Say You Should Eat