Eats « Weekly Gravy

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 >

A plant-based eating regimen designed to save the Earth also saves people’s lives, a large study confirms. “Shifting how we eat can help slow the process of climate change,” said corresponding author Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “And what’s healthiest for the planet is also healthiest for humans.” Known as the Planetary Health Diet (PHD), the regimen emphasizes minimally processed plant foods, while modest intake of meat and dairy foods are allowed. While other studies have shown that plant-based diets have benefits for the planet and people alike, most have looked at one point in time. The new study drew on health data from more than 200,000 men and women who were followed for up to 34 years. Researchers found those whose diets most closely hewed to the PHD regimen had a 30% lower risk of early death compared to those whose diets were the least like it. That was true for every major cause of death — cancer, heart disease and lung disease, the study found. None of the participants had major chronic illnesses at the outset. They completed dietary questionnaires every four years and were scored based on intake of 15 food groups, including veggies, poultry, whole grains and nuts. Those whose eating habits were closest to the PHD had a… read on > read on >

A ban on Juul e-cigarettes has been reversed, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday. Why? The agency said it needs to review both new court decisions and updated data from the vape maker. While the company’s e-cigarettes are back under review, they have not been fully cleared for sale in this country, the FDA said in its announcement. Juul was first banned from selling its vaping devices in the U.S. market back in June 2022, but the firm’s products have remained on store shelves while the company appealed the ban. Reaction to the news was swift. “The FDA’s continuing delays in reviewing Juul’s marketing applications are unacceptable and harmful to America’s kids as Juul remains one of the most commonly used e-cigarette brands among youth [according to the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey],” Yolonda Richardson, president and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a statement. “It is inexplicable that Juul’s applications remain pending nearly four years after they were first filed and nearly two years after the FDA initially denied them.” “The FDA should swiftly finish its review and again deny marketing applications for all Juul products, given Juul’s primary role in causing the youth e-cigarette epidemic and the continuing popularity of Juul’s products among youth,” Richardson added. “There is no question that Juul fueled this epidemic by introducing a sleek,… read on > read on >

Vigorous exercise more than once a week can lower the risk of dementia for people with high blood pressure, a new clinical trial shows. People who engaged each week in vigorous physical activity had lower rates of mild cognitive impairment and dementia despite their high blood pressure, according to results published June 6 in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, Examples of vigorous activity include hiking uphill, running, fast bicycling, swimming laps, aerobic dancing, jumping rope and heavy yardwork, according to the American Heart Association. “We know that physical exercise offers many benefits, including lowering blood pressure, improving heart health and potentially delaying cognitive decline,” said lead researcher Dr. Richard Kazibwe, an assistant professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. This new study offers an idea of how much exercise is needed to reap these benefits, Kazibwe added. The clinical trial involved more than 9,300 participants with high blood pressure aged 50 and older, recruited from about 100 hospitals and clinics throughout the United States. Early results published in 2019 showed that tight control of blood pressure significantly reduced the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, a precursor of early dementia, researchers said. For this new report, researchers analyzed the effect of exercise on brain health in these folks. Nearly 60% of study participants reported… read on > read on >

Common drugs used to control cholesterol, blood sugar and high blood pressure might also lower a person’s risk of stroke, a new study finds. The researchers evaluated the risk of brain aneurysms that cause bleeding strokes in patients. For the study, they looked at the medical records for nearly 4,900 patients who had a bleeding stroke, and compared them against nearly 44,000 people who never had a brain aneurysm. They identified four specific drugs that appeared to lower the risk of a brain aneurysm, after accounting for other risk factors: The high blood pressure drug lisinopril reduced risk by 37%. The cholesterol drug simvastatin decreased risk by 22%. The diabetes drug metformin lowered risk by 42%. The prostate drug tamsulosin reduced risk by 45%. “We urgently need new ways to prevent this type of stroke, which occurs at younger ages and with a higher death rate than other types of stroke,” said researcher Jos Peter Kanning, with the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands. “Our current surgical treatments for brain aneurysms have a risk of permanent disability and death that often outweighs the potential benefits, so preventing rupture with a noninvasive drug would be very beneficial,” Kanning added in a university news release. On the other hand, four drugs increased the risk of a bleeding stroke: the blood thinner warfarin, the antidepressant venlafaxine, the… read on > read on >

Doctors already warn folks off salt due to its heart risks, but new research suggests sodium isn’t helping your skin either. Researchers found that as daily salt intake rose, so did the odds for the skin disorder eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis. “Restriction of dietary sodium intake may be a cost-effective and low-risk intervention for atopic dermatitis,” concluded a team led by Dr. Katrina Abuabara, associate professor of dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The data came from on an ongoing British research database called the UK Biobank, involving almost 216,000 people aged 37 and older at the time they were recruited into the study. As part of the Biobank effort, people were asked to provide a urine sample, which could then be used to gauge a person’s sodium intake. About 5% of the people in the Biobank had a diagnosis of eczema. The average person’s 24-hour “urine sodium excretion” was about 3 grams, but the study found that folks’ daily excretion of sodium went up by just 1 gram, their odds for a flare-up of their eczema rose by 22%. The effect seemed stronger among women than men. People whose urine sample suggested high salt intake faced an 11% higher odds of severe eczema, the researchers said. On the other hand, folks who stuck to health guidelines when it came… read on > read on >

Less than one-quarter of people who survive serious heart conditions receive the dietary counseling needed to protect their future health, a new study finds. Only about 23% of people treated for major illnesses like heart attack and heart failure receive counseling on their diet within three months of hospitalization, researchers reported recently in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “Nutrition counseling may reduce the risk a person has for cardiovascular episodes and disease, yet our research shows that the vast majority of patients, who are all at risk after significant heart events, are not receiving this essential education,” said senior researcher Dr. Brahmajee Nallamothu, a professor of internal medicine-cardiology at the University of Michigan Medical School. For the study, researchers tracked nearly 150,000 patients seen for serious heart problems at hospitals across Michigan between late 2015 and early 2020. Most of the patients who did receive dietary counseling got it as part of a cardiac rehabilitation program. Only 20% to 30% of eligible patients take advantage of such rehab, researchers noted. Outside of cardiac rehab, doctors offered dietary counseling just 5% of the time. It might be that the doctors don’t have the time to offer diet advice, or don’t consider themselves expert enough to provide good counseling, researchers said. “When patients receive this education, we have seen tremendous results — some… read on > read on >

Caffeine has been associated with a reduced risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, but a new study says a coffee jolt might not be good for people already diagnosed with the brain disorder. Consuming caffeine appears to blunt the brain’s ability to use dopamine, the hormone that lies at the heart of Parkinson’s symptoms, researchers reported recently in the journal Annals of Neurology. Patients with high caffeine consumption had an 8% to 15% greater decrease in the ability of dopamine to bind with receptors in the brain, compared to those who took in less caffeine, results show. “While caffeine may offer certain benefits in reducing risk of Parkinson’s disease, our study suggests that high caffeine intake has no benefit on the dopamine systems in already diagnosed patients,” said principal researcher Valtteri Kaasinen, a professor of neurology with the University of Turku in Finland. “A high caffeine intake did not result in reduced symptoms of the disease, such as improved motor function,” Kaasinen added in a university news release. Parkinson’s occurs when nerve cells that produce the brain chemical dopamine start to die. Reduced levels of dopamine wind up causing the movement problems associated with the disease, including tremors, muscle stiffness and impaired balance and coordination. For this study, researchers performed brain scans on 163 early-stage Parkinson’s patients and 40 healthy people. The scans tracked changes in… read on > read on >

Folks typically think of heart disease as a byproduct of modern fast-food living, but a new study shows the condition has plagued humanity for centuries. More than a third (37%) of 237 adult mummies from seven different cultures spanning more than 4,000 years had evidence of clogged arteries, CT scans revealed. Researchers say the results show that humans have an innate risk of atherosclerosis — a build-up of plaque in the arteries that can lead to heart attack and stroke. “We found atherosclerosis in all time periods — dating before 2,500 BCE — in both men and women, in all seven cultures that were studied, and in both elites and non-elites,” said lead researcher Dr. Randall Thompson, a cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Mo. “This further supports our previous observation that it is not just a modern condition caused by our modern lifestyles.” The mummies came from around the world, including ancient Egyptians, lowland ancient Peruvians, ancient highland Andean Bolivians, 19th century Aleutian Islander hunter-gatherers, 16th century Greenlandic Inuits, ancestral Puebloan, and Middle-Ages Gobi Desert pastoralists, researchers said. Most cases were consistent with early heart disease that’s often found on CT scans of modern patients, researchers said. The findings were published May 28 in the European Heart Journal. “This study indicates modern cardiovascular risk factors — such as smoking, sedentary… read on > read on >

Feeding kids peanuts early in childhood can drastically reduce their risk of developing a peanut allergy, a new clinical trial reports. Children regularly fed peanut products from infancy to age 5 had a 71% lower rate of peanut allergies by the time they reached their teen years, researchers reported May 28 in the journal NEJM Evidence. The study “should reinforce parents’ and caregivers’ confidence that feeding their young children peanut products beginning in infancy according to established guidelines can provide lasting protection from peanut allergy,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). “If widely implemented, this safe, simple strategy could prevent tens of thousands of cases of peanut allergy among the 3.6 million children born in the United States each year,” Marrazzo said in a NIAID news release. For the study, researchers tracked more than 500 kids who had earlier participated in a clinical trial to test exposure to peanut as a means of warding off peanut allergy. Half of the kids regularly consumed peanuts from infancy, while the other half avoided peanuts. Early introduction of peanut into their diets reduced kids’ risk of peanut allergy by 81% at age 5, researchers found. This new study followed up on those findings by tracking the kids into adolescence, with an average age of 13. The researchers found that… read on > read on >