Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

Skiiers and snowboarders, take note: You’re less likely to get hurt if you ease back into the winter sports season. “We see a lot of patients in the After-Hours Clinic (of the department of orthopaedic surgery) on their way back from skiing and snowboarding,” said Dr. Sabrina Sawlani, a sports medicine physician at UCLA Health, in Los Angeles. Sawlani, whose UCLA sports medicine fellowship included training at the urgent care ski clinic at Northstar Resort in Lake Tahoe, offered some tips for those who want to hit the slopes without getting hurt. Before downhill skiing, she recommended six weeks of cardiovascular conditioning through running, biking, stair-climbing or using an elliptical machine. Target muscles involved in skiing, such as your core, hamstrings, quadriceps and glutes. “Those are the areas I’d really try to focus on — really stretching out those areas, and your low back and shoulders,” she said in a UCLA Health news release. “There’s no perfect routine, but really incorporating strength, endurance, stability and your overall fitness and flexibility to keep your body safe from injury is important.” Have your equipment checked by a professional if you haven’t used it in a couple of years, she urged. “Retest that release mechanism with a certified shop every year,” said Sawlani, who is a skier and snowboarder. “You want to test that self-release each day while… read on > read on >

From burns to cuts, kitchen accidents happen, and they may be more likely as you cook for holiday gatherings. Treating those injuries quickly and effectively can help begin the healing process and may reduce scarring, according to a skin expert at the American Academy of Dermatology. “Whenever your skin is injured — whether by accident or from surgery — your body works to repair the wound. As your skin heals, a scar may form, as this is a natural part of the healing process,” said Dr. Lindsay Strowd, associate professor and interim chair of dermatology at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. “The appearance of a scar often depends on how well the wound heals,” she said in an academy news release. “If you have minor cuts or scrapes, you can help reduce the appearance of a scar by properly treating the injury at home.” First-degree burns can occur after accidentally touching a hot stove or oven or from a mishap with holiday decorations. This only involves the top layer of skin, unlike the more severe second- or third-degree burns. You may experience mild swelling and your skin may be red and painful. “If you get a minor, first-degree burn, it’s important to treat it right away,” Strowd said. “Not only can a first-degree burn be very painful, but it can leave a… read on > read on >

Black patients with brain tumors may be less likely to have surgery recommended to them than white patients are, according to a large U.S. study. The research, which looked at two national databases, found that on average, Black patients were less likely to have surgery recommended for any of four types of brain tumor. That included three considered benign (non-cancerous) and one that is a deadly type of brain cancer. Experts said the reasons for the disparity are unclear. But the nature of patients’ tumors — the size, stage or location in the brain — did not explain the gap. Nor did differences in health insurance coverage or any of the other factors the researchers were able to assess. The findings are being published Dec. 10 in The Lancet, as part of a special issue on racial disparities in health care globally. And they add to a body of research documenting gaps in U.S. health care, across medical specialties. Black people and Hispanic Americans often face more obstacles to accessing care, and often fare more poorly when they are diagnosed with a health condition, versus white Americans. When it comes to cancerous brain tumors, like glioblastoma, surgery is the standard of care, said Dr. Andrew Venteicher, one of the senior researchers on the study. Surgery may also be done to remove benign tumors, in order… read on > read on >

Former elite football players may age faster than their more average peers, a new study suggests. NFL players, especially former linemen, had fewer disease-free years and earlier high blood pressure and diabetes diagnoses. Two age-related diseases, arthritis and dementia, were also more commonly found in former football players than in other men of the same age. This research was part of the ongoing Football Players Health Study at Harvard University. “We wanted to know: Are professional football players being robbed of their middle age? Our findings suggest that football prematurely weathers them and puts them on an alternate aging trajectory, increasing the prevalence of a variety of diseases of old age,” said senior investigator Rachel Grashow, director of epidemiological research initiatives for the Football Players Health Study. “We need to look not just at the length of life but the quality of life,” she said in a university news release. “Professional football players might live as long as men in the general population, but those years could be filled with disability and infirmity.” For this research, nearly 3,000 former NFL players completed a survey for investigators at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School. “Our analysis raises important biological and physiological questions about underlying causes but, just as importantly, the results should serve as an alarm bell telling clinicians… read on > read on >

The updated bivalent COVID-19 boosters are now approved for use in children as young as 6 months of age, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today. Children can receive either a Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent booster shot, although the rules differ depending on their age and what type of vaccine they got as their primary series, the FDA said. Kids 6 months to 5 years who received the original Moderna vaccine can receive the Moderna booster at least two months after completing their first round of shots. Children 5 and older also can receive the Pfizer-BioNTech booster at least two months after they’ve completed their first series of COVID shots. The new Pfizer-BioNTech booster will replace the third dose of the primary series of shots for that vaccine for children 6 months through 4 years of age, the FDA said. But children 4 and younger who already completed the three-dose Pfizer-BioNTech primary series will not be eligible for the bivalent booster at this time, the agency said. The FDA will decide on the updated booster for this group of kids after January, when fresh data is expected. The updated boosters contain two components to protect against both the original strain of COVID and widely circulating Omicron variants. “More children now have the opportunity to update their protection against COVID-19 with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine,… read on > read on >

Older adults who harbor more vitamin D in their brains may stay mentally sharper, a new study suggests. Researchers found that when older adults had higher levels of vitamin D in their brain tissue, they tended to perform better on standard tests of memory and thinking. They were also less likely to have dementia or milder cognitive impairments. Experts stressed that the study does not prove that vitamin D, itself, protects against dementia — a complex brain disease that has many contributors. And no one should start downing supplements based on the findings, they said. For one, too much vitamin D can be harmful. And the study did not assess how much vitamin D participants were actually getting day to day. “We have no evidence that getting more than the recommended amount of vitamin D is better for the brain,” said senior researcher Sarah Booth, who directs the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. Vitamin D is known to have critical roles such as keeping bones and muscles healthy, as well as supporting immune defenses. But whether it helps shield the aging brain is unclear. The new study — published Dec. 7 in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia — adds to a mixed bag of research on vitamin D and the aging brain. Some studies have found… read on > read on >

THURSDAY, Dec. 8, 2022 (HealthDay News) – Lasik eye surgery is a common vision-correcting procedure that many Americans view as safe and effective, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has now drafted guidance that warns of potential complications. Although many patients are happy with the results after surgery, the recommended new guidance says complications can include dry eyes, double vision, difficulty with night driving and, in rare cases, chronic eye pain. Even after surgery, some patients will still need eyeglasses. The draft also notes that certain types of patients may be at higher risk of problems, including people with chronic conditions such as diabetes and those who take certain medications, the New York Times reported. Since the recommendations were first released this summer, more than 600 people and professional organizations have weighed in on the issue. “All we’re asking for is balance,”said Dr. Vance Thompson, incoming vice president of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, told the Times. “This document mainly emphasizes the dangers and complications of Lasik, with no mention of the advantages, and the tone is negative enough that it will scare patients.” Thompson noted that more than 90% of patients in the FDA’s studies were satisfied because they were “achieving good vision without spectacles, which is the goal of most patients.” Surgeons and device manufacturers have sought to have… read on > read on >

A proposed U.S. federal ban on menthol cigarettes doesn’t go far enough and needs to include other menthol products, from pipe tobacco to cigarette tubes, researchers say. New evidence shows both the appeal and the addiction potential of these substitutes in adults who smoke menthol cigarettes, said scientists from Rutgers University Center for Tobacco Studies in New Brunswick, N.J., and Ohio State University. “Tobacco companies have rebranded their roll-your-own cigarette tobacco as pipe tobacco, to avoid taxes, and rebranded flavored cigarettes as flavored cigars to skirt a federal ban,” said co-lead investigator Andrea Villanti, deputy director of the Rutgers Center. “We have already seen companies advertising pipe tobacco and cigarette tubes alongside cigarettes and filtered cigars,” Villanti said in a Rutgers news release. “The products we tested in our study are likely to be products that tobacco companies will promote following a ban on menthol cigarettes.” The researchers looked at 98 adults who smoke menthol cigarettes in four sessions held over three weeks. Participants first smoked their usual brand of menthol cigarettes, and then they were randomized over three other tests. These were smoking a preassembled roll-your-own cigarette using menthol pipe tobacco and a mentholated cigarette tube; smoking a menthol-filtered little cigar, and smoking a non-menthol cigarette. None of these products are part of the proposed ban by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which… read on > read on >

Manufacturers make all kinds of health claims, but can taking a dietary supplement actually lower your heart disease risk? A comprehensive analysis of prior research suggests that in certain cases the answer is yes. Some types of supplements – such as omega-3 fatty acids, folic acid and coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) — do provide a cardiovascular leg up. But many supplements were found to offer no heart health benefit of any kind, and others were potentially harmful. “We evaluated 27 different types of supplements, and found that there are several that offered cardiovascular benefits,” said study author Dr. Simin Liu, director of the Center for Global Cardiometabolic Health at Brown University in Providence, R.I. These included omega-3 fatty acids, which reduced the risk of early death due to heart disease. Other supplements that were shown to benefit the heart included folic acid, L-arginine, L-citrulline, Vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, alpha-lipoic acid, melatonin, catechin, curcumin, flavanol, genistein and quercetin. But some common supplements had no long-term effect on heart disease outcomes or risk for type 2 diabetes, Liu noted. They included vitamins C, D, E and selenium. Beta carotene supplements, meanwhile, were associated with an increase in early death from all causes. The findings are an outgrowth of a research review prompted by what Liu and his colleagues described as lingering confusion in the heart health community as… read on > read on >

One of the two most common drugs used to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD) appears better than the other, a new, small study suggests. Among 106 patients with “wet” age-related macular degeneration, 50% of those treated with aflibercept (Eylea) could be weaned off the drug after one year, compared with only 17% of those treated with bevacizumab (Avastin), researchers found. “The results from this study point to an additional, previously unappreciated advantage of aflibercept over bevacizumab,” said lead researcher Dr. Akrit Sodhi, an associate professor of ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. “The improved ability to wean patients off therapy will need to be considered when choosing between these two medications.” The findings suggest that aflibercept’s much higher price tag — it costs about $2,000 per treatment while bevacizumab costs only $100 per treatment — might be worth it. The study was funded by the U.S. National Eye Institute. AMD is the most common cause of vision loss among people 50 and older, affecting more than 7 million Americans. Of these, nearly 2 million who suffer from advanced AMD will lose their vision, the researchers noted. These patients include those who have wet AMD, which is characterized by the growth of abnormal blood vessels in the retina that can bleed or leak damaging fluids into light-sensing tissue. Treatment of wet AMD… read on > read on >