A junk-food lifestyle might contribute to embarrassing little leaks in middle-aged women, a new study suggests. Women who often munch fast food or packaged eats appear more likely to develop urinary incontinence, researchers recently reported in the journal Women’s Health. Frequently eating either processed or fast food is associated with a 50% increased risk of a leaky bladder, results show. “Higher consumption of highly processed ready-made foods and fast food increased the risk for experiencing the symptoms of stress and urgency urinary incontinence,” lead investigator Mari Kuutti, a doctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, said in a news release. On the other hand, “higher consumption of fruits and overall higher quality diet decreased the risk for stress urinary incontinence,” Kuutti added. As many as 45% of women worldwide are affected by urinary incontinence, researchers said in background notes. Women become more likely to develop incontinence as aging affects the ability of the pelvic floor muscles to control urination, researchers said. But they suspected that a poor diet might also influence the pelvic floor, as key nutrients like protein, vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids are important for proper muscle function. For their study, researchers tracked the health of nearly 1,100 Finnish women 47 to 55 years old. More than half already had symptoms of pelvic floor problems like urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence…  read on >  read on >

Society says that without access to shared federal data, cancer research is compromised  read on >

Direct-to-consumer telehealth company advertisement that aired during the Super Bowl failed to mention side effects of the drugs  read on >

A major recall of canned tuna sold in dozens of states has been issued amid concerns that a packaging defect could cause “a potentially fatal form of food poisoning,” the manufacturer said in a statement. California-based Tri-Union Seafoods announced a voluntary recall for certain tuna products sold under the Genova®, Van Camp’s®, H-E-B and Trader Joe’s brand names, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The affected cans may have a faulty pull-tab lid, which could allow them to become contaminated with the Clostridium botulinum bacterium, which causes botulism. While Tri-Union Seafoods has said no illnesses linked to the recalled products had been reported, the company warned consumers not to use the product, “even if it does not look or smell spoiled.” The recalled tuna was distributed to stores in dozens of states across the U.S., including: H-E-B label: Stores in Texas. Trader Joe’s label: Stores in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin. Genova 7-ounce cans: Costco stores in Florida and Georgia. Genova 5-ounce cans: Harris Teeter, Publix, H-E-B, Kroger, Safeway, Walmart and independent retailers in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, Tennessee and Texas. Van Camp’s label: Walmart and independent retailers in Pennsylvania, Florida and New Jersey. Botulism poisoning is…  read on >  read on >

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to restore access to public health websites that were removed or modified in response to a Trump administration executive order on gender. The order, issued Feb. 11 by U.S. District Judge John Bates, grants a temporary restraining order requested by Doctors for America, a nonprofit group that sued the administration over the website removals. The affected sites, some of which have been online for decades, contain public health information on HIV prevention, youth health risks, fertility treatments and more. The ruling states that the two health agencies removed the sites without explanation and likely violated federal law. “By removing long relied upon medical resources without explanation, it is likely that … each agency failed to ‘examine the relevant data and articulate a satisfactory explanation for its action,’ ” Bates wrote. He ordered the CDC and FDA to restore access by the day’s end Tuesday, a process that staff members were scrambling to complete. “It was a double waste for us because we took them offline, put some of them back, edited others and now are putting it back again,” a federal health official who wanted to remain anonymous told The Washington Post. The removed sites included: The CDC’s guidelines for HIV and PrEP, a medication…  read on >  read on >

More than 800,000 U.S. children have what’s called “high threshold” peanut allergy, meaning they can tolerate about half a peanut daily before symptoms arise. New research suggests that exposing these kids to tiny but gradually increasing levels of store-bought peanut butter might help ease the allergy for good.  “Our study results suggest a safe, inexpensive and effective pathway for allergists to treat children with peanut allergy who can already tolerate the equivalent of at least half a peanut, considered a high-threshold peanut allergy,”  said study lead author Dr. Scott Sicherer, chief of allergy and immunology at Mount Sinai in New York City. He believes the findings could have implications for food allergies in general. “Our findings open the gateway to personalized threshold-based treatments of food allergy,” Sicherer said in a Mount Sinai news release, adding that the approach could “be a game-changer for the majority of people with food allergies.” The new trial was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and published Feb. 10 in NEJM Evidence. For some children and adults, even minuscule amounts of peanut can trigger severe reactions, including life-threatening anaphylaxis. These cases — in which the amount of exposure needed is under half a peanut — are deemed to be “low-threshold” allergies.   The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved treatments, such as an injected…  read on >  read on >

It’s long been known that certain complications of pregnancy can raise a woman’s risk for heart trouble years later. But new research shows that even the sisters of these women can be at higher heart risk — suggesting risks may be genetically shared within families. “It may be important to identify [all of] these women early to offer preventive treatment for pregnancy complications as well as lifestyle counseling and follow-up for cardiovascular disease risk,” study lead author Ängla Mantel said. She’s an associate professor in clinical epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute in Solna, Sweden. Conditions such as premature delivery and preeclampsia — spikes in blood pressure — are common but dangerous complications of pregnancy. And numerous studies have shown that experiencing these issues places a woman at higher risk of heart disease later in life. Mantel’s team wondered what the role of genetics might be in this predisposition. To find out, they looked at the medical records of more than 1.2 million Swedish women, all of who were free of heart disease when the study began.   Most had never had any complication of pregnancy, but the study also included nearly 166,000 women who did have a history of such issues, as well as about 61,000 of their sisters who had never had pregnancy complications. The team looked at medical records for a median 14…  read on >  read on >