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Wildfire Smoke Flooded ERs With Asthma Cases

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Asthma attacks caused emergency room surges during the 2023 Canadian wildfires, with smoke-filled air sending hundreds to the hospital daily, a new study says. Daily asthma-related visits to Ontario hospitals increased nearly 24% during an early-June 2023 wildfire that blanketed the area with smoke, researchers reported today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. “The unprecedented wildfires of 2023 are a wake-up call that wildfires — a persistent feature of Canada’s landscape — are becoming more intense and prolonged in a changing climate, affecting millions of people,” concluded the research team led by Hong Chen, an assistant professor with the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health. However, a second wave of wildfire smoke that descended on Ontario later that same month did not result in an increase in asthma-related ER visits, researchers found. It’s likely that asthma patients caught unprepared for the first smoke event had taken precautions to help them get through future episodes, researchers speculated. “Ontario’s population was unaccustomed to heavy wildfire smoke episodes and was therefore unlikely to have adopted anticipatory measures or behaviors” prior to the first episode, researchers wrote. The second time around, they likely had access to asthma medications and had taken steps to avoid the smoky air, such as staying indoors and using air filters, researchers said. For the study, researchers analyzed data on ER visits…  read on >  read on >

Body Mass Index (BMI): What It Tells You — And What It Doesn’t

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Body Mass Index, or BMI, is a number that reflects the relationship between your height and weight. It’s widely used in healthcare and public health to categorize body size and estimate potential risk for weight-related diseases. While it isn’t perfect, BMI can be a helpful first step in identifying whether someone might be at higher risk of chronic conditions like heart disease, type 2 diabetes or certain cancers. However, it doesn’t always give you the full picture of a person’s health. How is BMI calculated?The formula for BMI is simple: Metric: BMI = weight (kg) ÷ height (m²) Imperial: BMI = (weight in pounds ÷ height in inches²) × 703 So, for example, if someone weighs 180 lbs and is 5 feet 6 inches (66 inches) tall: BMI = (180 ÷ 66²) × 703 = 29.0 This puts them in the overweight category. What does your BMI tell you?BMI is divided into the following categories: Underweight: Less than 18.5 Normal (healthy) weight: 18.5 – 24.9 Overweight: 25.0 – 29.9 Obesity class 1 (mild obesity): 30.0 – 34.9 Obesity class 2 (moderate obesity): 35.0 – 39.9 Obesity class 3 (severe obesity): 40.0 or higher These categories give a rough estimate of body fat and health risk. In general, as BMI increases above the normal range, so does the risk of chronic diseases such as high blood…  read on >  read on >

Body Mass Index (BMI): What It Tells You — And What It Doesn’t

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Body Mass Index, or BMI, is a number that reflects the relationship between your height and weight. It’s widely used in healthcare and public health to categorize body size and estimate potential risk for weight-related diseases. While it isn’t perfect, BMI can be a helpful first step in identifying whether someone might be at higher risk of chronic conditions like heart disease, type 2 diabetes or certain cancers. However, it doesn’t always give you the full picture of a person’s health. How is BMI calculated?The formula for BMI is simple: Metric: BMI = weight (kg) ÷ height (m²) Imperial: BMI = (weight in pounds ÷ height in inches²) × 703 So, for example, if someone weighs 180 lbs and is 5 feet 6 inches (66 inches) tall: BMI = (180 ÷ 66²) × 703 = 29.0 This puts them in the overweight category. What does your BMI tell you?BMI is divided into the following categories: Underweight: Less than 18.5 Normal (healthy) weight: 18.5 – 24.9 Overweight: 25.0 – 29.9 Obesity class 1 (mild obesity): 30.0 – 34.9 Obesity class 2 (moderate obesity): 35.0 – 39.9 Obesity class 3 (severe obesity): 40.0 or higher These categories give a rough estimate of body fat and health risk. In general, as BMI increases above the normal range, so does the risk of chronic diseases such as high blood…  read on >  read on >

What You Should Know About ALS, Also Known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease

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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease based on the iconic 1930s New York Yankee baseball player – is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects thousands of Americans every year. ALS remains one of the most complex and challenging disorders known to science. May is ALS Awareness Month, making it an ideal time to take a closer look at this condition — who it affects, how it progresses and what efforts are underway to advance care, accelerate research and provide support to families across the country. What is ALS? ALS, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is a disease that targets the motor neurons, nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that coordinate voluntary muscle movement. As these neurons degenerate and die, the signals from the brain are unable to transmit messages to muscles, leading to muscle atrophy, weakness, paralysis and ultimately, respiratory failure. People with ALS lose the ability to walk, speak, eat and breathe independently, though most ALS patients retain their cognitive abilities. ALS is a progressive disease and most people live two to five years after their diagnosis. Its clinical presentation varies widely, and its progression can differ widely from person to person, making every individual’s experience with ALS unique. With expanding treatment options, there is growing hope for improving both quality of life and survival.…  read on >  read on >

What You Should Know About ALS, Also Known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease

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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease based on the iconic 1930s New York Yankee baseball player – is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects thousands of Americans every year. ALS remains one of the most complex and challenging disorders known to science. May is ALS Awareness Month, making it an ideal time to take a closer look at this condition — who it affects, how it progresses and what efforts are underway to advance care, accelerate research and provide support to families across the country. What is ALS? ALS, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is a disease that targets the motor neurons, nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that coordinate voluntary muscle movement. As these neurons degenerate and die, the signals from the brain are unable to transmit messages to muscles, leading to muscle atrophy, weakness, paralysis and ultimately, respiratory failure. People with ALS lose the ability to walk, speak, eat and breathe independently, though most ALS patients retain their cognitive abilities. ALS is a progressive disease and most people live two to five years after their diagnosis. Its clinical presentation varies widely, and its progression can differ widely from person to person, making every individual’s experience with ALS unique. With expanding treatment options, there is growing hope for improving both quality of life and survival.…  read on >  read on >

Common Diabetes Drug Effective Against Knee Arthritis Pain

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A common diabetes drug can be repurposed to help overweight and obese people with knee arthritis, a new study says. Metformin reduced knee arthritis pain during a six-month treatment period, potentially delaying the need for knee replacement surgery, researchers reported recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Metformin works in a number of ways on the knee, including affecting low-grade inflammation and other metabolic pathways that are important in knee osteoarthritis,” senior researcher Flavia Cicuttini, a professor of health systems services and policy at Monash University in Australia, said in a news release. “It is a different way to treat knee osteoarthritis pain.” Metformin is commonly prescribed to help lower blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes. It reduces sugar absorption from the intestines, lowers glucose production in the liver, and improves insulin sensitivity, according to Drugs.com. For this study, researchers recruited 107 overweight or obese people with knee pain and randomly assigned about half to take metformin pills and the rest a placebo. The metformin group reported a 31-point reduction in pain after six months, compared with a 19-point reduction for the placebo group. The results show that metformin is a potentially new and affordable way to improve knee pain from arthritis, Cicuttini said. Today, people are asked to exercise and lose weight to reduce knee pain, which many find…  read on >  read on >

Common Diabetes Drug Effective Against Knee Arthritis Pain

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A common diabetes drug can be repurposed to help overweight and obese people with knee arthritis, a new study says. Metformin reduced knee arthritis pain during a six-month treatment period, potentially delaying the need for knee replacement surgery, researchers reported recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Metformin works in a number of ways on the knee, including affecting low-grade inflammation and other metabolic pathways that are important in knee osteoarthritis,” senior researcher Flavia Cicuttini, a professor of health systems services and policy at Monash University in Australia, said in a news release. “It is a different way to treat knee osteoarthritis pain.” Metformin is commonly prescribed to help lower blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes. It reduces sugar absorption from the intestines, lowers glucose production in the liver, and improves insulin sensitivity, according to Drugs.com. For this study, researchers recruited 107 overweight or obese people with knee pain and randomly assigned about half to take metformin pills and the rest a placebo. The metformin group reported a 31-point reduction in pain after six months, compared with a 19-point reduction for the placebo group. The results show that metformin is a potentially new and affordable way to improve knee pain from arthritis, Cicuttini said. Today, people are asked to exercise and lose weight to reduce knee pain, which many find…  read on >  read on >

Middle-Age Exercise Protects Brain Against Alzheimer’s

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Want to protect your aging brain? Get off the couch and get moving, researchers urge. Boosting exercise in middle age might help people prevent Alzheimer’s disease, a new study says. People who increased their physical activity to meet recommended guidelines between ages 45 and 65 had less accumulation of amyloid beta, a toxic protein that forms plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, researchers reported April 30 in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia. The link was dose-dependent, researchers added — the more people increased their activity, the greater the reduction in amyloid beta in their brains. Active people also showed less age-related shrinkage in brain regions associated with memory and Alzheimer’s, researchers noted. “Even those who did less physical activity than recommended had greater cortical thickness than sedentary people, suggesting that any amount of exercise, no matter how minimal, has health benefits,” lead investigator Müge Akinci, a researcher with the Barcelona Institute for Global Health in Spain, said in a news release. It’s estimated that 13% of Alzheimer’s disease cases worldwide can be attributed to physical inactivity, researchers said in background notes. For the study, researchers tracked the brain health of 337 people in Catalonia, Spain, who were participating in a long-term study of Alzheimer’s disease. “We used physical activity questionnaires to assess changes in activity over a four-year period and neuroimaging tests to analyze…  read on >  read on >

Middle-Age Exercise Protects Brain Against Alzheimer’s

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Want to protect your aging brain? Get off the couch and get moving, researchers urge. Boosting exercise in middle age might help people prevent Alzheimer’s disease, a new study says. People who increased their physical activity to meet recommended guidelines between ages 45 and 65 had less accumulation of amyloid beta, a toxic protein that forms plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, researchers reported April 30 in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia. The link was dose-dependent, researchers added — the more people increased their activity, the greater the reduction in amyloid beta in their brains. Active people also showed less age-related shrinkage in brain regions associated with memory and Alzheimer’s, researchers noted. “Even those who did less physical activity than recommended had greater cortical thickness than sedentary people, suggesting that any amount of exercise, no matter how minimal, has health benefits,” lead investigator Müge Akinci, a researcher with the Barcelona Institute for Global Health in Spain, said in a news release. It’s estimated that 13% of Alzheimer’s disease cases worldwide can be attributed to physical inactivity, researchers said in background notes. For the study, researchers tracked the brain health of 337 people in Catalonia, Spain, who were participating in a long-term study of Alzheimer’s disease. “We used physical activity questionnaires to assess changes in activity over a four-year period and neuroimaging tests to analyze…  read on >  read on >

Your Loving Partner Can Protect You From Chemo Brain

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A cancer patient’s bond with their partner can be a key factor in helping them ward off chemotherapy-related “brain fog,” a new study says Patients in a satisfying intimate relationship were more likely to resist chemo brain, the cognitive impairment that can occur during or after chemotherapy treatment, researchers report. Couples therapy aimed at enhancing a patient’s relationship quality might help folks better handle chemo’s effects on thinking and memory, researchers concluded. “Before this study, we didn’t understand that bolstering the intimate partnership before the patient undergoes chemo might attenuate their cognitive side effects,” senior researcher Leah Pyter, director of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State University, said in a news release. For the study, researchers tracked 48 breast cancer patients participating in a study examining links between chemo and disruptions of the gut microbiome and brain function. The patients all completed tests assessing verbal skills, attention levels and short-term memory. They also completed questionnaires reporting changes to their concentration, memory, word retrieval and mental clarity. “It was nice to be able to test these patients before they had chemo and then again after, because people can be affected by chemo and still be within normal ranges – but for them, it’s not normal,” Pyter said. Researchers also asked patients to assess their relationship satisfaction with their partners, as well as the…  read on >  read on >