Eats « Weekly Gravy

The holiday season can give you real headaches, but you can take action to prevent them, an expert says. To reduce stress, make plans well in advance and know your limits, advised Dr. Bing Liao, a neurologist at Houston Methodist. “The nature of the holiday season already increases stress levels, so finding small ways to reduce schedule stress can help ward off a headache,” Liao said in a hospital news release. “This can mean planning well in advance to avoid the hassle of making last minute travel plans, or deciding not to attend a party at the end of a long day.” Be sure you have an adequate supply or a refill of your prescription medications before the holidays, she advised. Missing doses or cutting back could trigger a headache or even serious side effects. “Don’t binge anything during the holidays — food, alcohol, or television,” Liao said. “We all know how a hangover can affect the brain, but most don’t realize that overeating can also trigger a headache. And having the next day off from work doesn’t mean you should stay up late watching holiday movies. The brain needs the same amount of sleep during the holidays as it does the rest of the year, so stick with your usual bedtime.” Running holiday errands can lead to skipped meals and dehydration, which can trigger… read on >

Bad eating habits begin at a young age in American children, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed data from more than 1,200 babies (aged 6 to 11 months) and toddlers (12 to 23 months) between 2011 and 2016. They found that 61% of babies and 98% of toddlers consumed added sugars in their typical daily diet, mainly in flavored yogurt and fruit drinks. Infants consumed about 1 teaspoon of added sugars daily (about 2% of their daily calorie intake); toddlers consumed about 6 teaspoons (about 8% of their daily calories). The main sources of added sugar for infants were yogurt, snacks and sweet bakery products. For toddlers, the top sources were fruit drinks, sweet baked products and candy. Asian toddlers consumed the fewest added sugars (3.7 teaspoons); blacks, the most (8.2 teaspoons). The study was published online Nov. 14 in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “This has important public health implications since previous research has shown that eating patterns established early in life shape later eating patterns,” lead investigator Kirsten Herrick said in a journal news release. She’s a researcher with the Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings did bring some good news: The percentage of babies and toddlers whose daily diets include added sugars declined, as did the… read on >

Label warns higher mortality found in critically ill patients with multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections read on >

(HealthDay News) — Sustainable eating practices — knowing where food comes from and how to sustain the sources — helps us plan for now and the future, says the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Looking past the supermarket shelf and learning how your food is produced is a first step. The school suggests: Plan your meals around vegetables and fruit. Minimize the amount of meat you eat. Choose seafood that isn’t at risk of being overfished. Look for local produce at farmer’s markets.

Emergency room visits for high blood pressure surged following last year’s recall of the popular heart drug valsartan, Canadian researchers report. Within the first month of the recall, there was a 55% increase of people coming to Ontario-area emergency departments complaining of high blood pressure, said lead researcher Cynthia Jackevicius. She is a senior scientist with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, in Toronto. Some of these patients likely were valsartan users who stopped taking the blood pressure med after seeing scary recall news citing a potential carcinogen found in some lots of the drug, Jackevicius said. “Nine out of 10 did have an alternative replacement” for valsartan within three months. “However, that means that one out of 10 did not,” Jackevicius said. “That’s a little bit concerning, that some of these patients may have either been confused or concerned, and decided not to switch to another medication,” she added. The recall occurred in July 2018 in both Canada and the United States, after generics maker Mylan Pharmaceuticals detected trace amounts of a probable cancer-causing chemical called N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) in valsartan meds. It was an unusually large recall that involved intense media interest, and Jackevicius and her colleagues wondered how it might have affected the drug’s users. So they turned to Canadian prescription and medical records to track how valsartan users responded to the crisis.… read on >

(HealthDay News) — Though Thanksgiving dinner is treasured by many Americans, the meal typically isn’t heart-healthy. Including holiday staples such as mashed potatoes and stuffing, the traditional feast is full of fatty, high-cholesterol foods, says the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For a healthier holiday meal, the school suggests: Devote most of your plate to vegetables, such as green beans, carrots and squash. Don’t drench everything in gravy. Use as little as you can. Limit turkey skin and dark meat. Have a small slice of pie for dessert. Resist a second helping. The school says after all is said and done, one meal won’t ruin your heart and arteries. It urges you to eat healthy during the holiday season overall.

People with peanut allergy must be constantly vigilant to avoid a life-threatening allergic reaction. But researchers report that a new drug injection might offer at least temporary protection against the most severe reactions. Just one shot of an experimental antibody treatment allowed people with severe peanut allergy to eat about one peanut’s worth of peanut protein two weeks later, the study found. The drug is like “a protective blanket” shielding people from accidental peanut exposure, said study senior author Dr. Kari Nadeau, director of the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University in California. Peanut allergy affects an estimated 2.5% of American children, and that number has risen sharply over the past decade, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). Children and adults with a peanut allergy are at risk of having a sudden and severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) that can be life-threatening if they consume even small amounts of peanuts. The problem is that peanuts are in many foods, such as candy, cereal, baked goods, sauces, marinades and even in ice cream, according to the ACAAI. That means people with peanut allergies have to be extra-careful about what they eat at home, and often have to limit the places they’ll eat at away from home. For example, many Asian foods are made with peanuts or… read on >

Children will face more food shortages and infections if climate change continues unchecked, researchers from the World Health Organization and 34 other institutions warn. Climate change is already harming children’s health. And they’re at risk for lifelong health threats unless the world meets Paris Agreement targets to limit warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, the scientists reported in the Nov. 14 issue of The Lancet. “This year, the accelerating impacts of climate change have become clearer than ever,” said Hugh Montgomery, co-chair of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change. “The highest recorded temperatures in Western Europe and wildfires in Siberia, Queensland and California triggered asthma, respiratory infections and heat stroke. Sea levels are now rising at an ever-concerning rate. Our children recognize this climate emergency and demand action to protect them. We must listen, and respond,” Montgomery said in a journal news release. Montgomery is director of University College London’s Institute for Human Health and Performance, in the United Kingdom. The health impact of climate change needs to be at the top of the agenda at the UN Climate Conference (COP25) next month in Madrid, the scientists urged. Without action, children born today will live in a world that’s an average of more than 4 degrees Celsius warmer by age 71, posing a risk to their health at every stage of their… read on >

Imagine that your doctor could predict your risk of kidney disease in the next five years with a simple calculation. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore report they have done just that. “With the risk equations that we’ve developed, physicians should be able to determine with high accuracy who will or won’t develop chronic kidney disease in the next few years — and our analyses suggest that they can maintain that accuracy in a variety of clinical settings globally,” researcher Dr. Josef Coresh said in a university news release. He’s a professor in the department of epidemiology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Hopkins. This new calculation uses a mix of factors that include age, high blood pressure and diabetes to predict if someone is likely to develop chronic kidney disease. The calculator should help doctors identify patients who are most at risk for kidney disease and would benefit the most from early treatment, they said. Although chronic kidney disease is a progressive condition, its progression can be slowed or stopped if caught early, the researchers noted. In the study, Coresh’s team used data on more than 5 million people from 28 countries. Using that data, they developed an equation using known chronic kidney disease risk factors that doctors could use to predict which patients are likely to develop chronic kidney disease.… read on >