Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

Cutting-edge drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound are all the rage for dropping excess pounds, but weight-loss surgery might have a better impact on people’s health, a new study says. People who had weight-loss surgery lost more weight, lived longer and faced fewer serious health problems compared to those prescribed GLP-1 drugs, researchers reported Sept. 16 in the journal Nature Medicine. “Even with today’s best medicines, metabolic surgery offers unique and lasting benefits for people with obesity and diabetes,” senior researcher Dr. Ali Aminian, director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Bariatric & Metabolic Institute, said in a news release. “The benefits we observed went beyond weight loss,” he said. “Surgery was linked to fewer heart problems, less kidney disease and even lower rates of diabetes-related eye damage.” For the study, researchers tracked nearly 4,000 people with diabetes and obesity treated at the Cleveland Clinic between 2010 and 2017. Participants included more than 1,600 who underwent bariatric procedures like gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy, and nearly 2,300 treated with GLP-1 drugs. After around six years of follow-up, people who got weight-loss surgery had a: 32% lower risk of death. 35% lower risk of major heart problems. 47% lower risk of serious kidney disease. 54% lower risk of diabetes-related vision loss. Surgery patients also lost more weight — nearly 22% over 10 years, compared with just under 7% for… read on > read on >

A simple shunt can restore walking ability and independence in elderly people with a rare brain condition, a major new clinical trial has found. Implanting a shunt to drain excess cerebrospinal fluid significantly improved walking and mobility among seniors with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), researchers reported Sept. 16 in The New England Journal of Medicine. The condition is caused by a buildup of fluid in between the brain and spine and a person’s skull, researchers said. Left untreated, it leads to walking and balance problems, memory decline and bladder control issues. Doctors have known about normal pressure hydrocephalus since 1965, and for decades have been using surgically implanted shunts to relieve pressure on patients’ brains. Shunts are thin, surgically implanted tubes that allow excess fluid to drain off. However, there’s been ongoing debate regarding the use of shunts, and even the existence of NPH, researchers said. “If there’s one thing this study does, it resolves a controversy that’s been around for many, many years,” said co-lead researcher Dr. Michael Willams, a professor of neurology and neurological surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. “There’ve been a lot of physicians who doubt that the disorder exists or that treatment with the surgical implantation of a shunt is either effective or safe.” This trial puts that to rest, he said in a… read on > read on >

A popular weight-loss drug may do more than help patients shed pounds. It could also help quiet the nonstop food cravings many people struggle with. New results from a U.S. survey of 550 Wegovy users found that patients reported a major drop in “food noise,” or intrusive thoughts about food, after starting the drug. The findings were announced by Novo Nordisk, the Danish firm that makes Wegovy. The number of people surveyed who said they think about food all the time fell by 46%. Additionally, 64% reported better mental health and 80% said they developed healthier lifestyle habits while on the drug. “It is very encouraging to see these new data from people using Wegovy that, in addition to weight loss, Wegovy may help quiet disruptive thoughts about food, support improved mental well-being and help enable people to live healthier lives,” Filip Knop, incoming chief medical officer at Novo Nordisk, said in a company statement. The findings come from the Inform study, presented in Vienna this week at a meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. Research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published. The study was not peer-reviewed and was conducted using a U.S.-based survey of Wegovy users. Participants answered a 22-item “Food Noise Questionnaire,” a tool designed to measure the impact of food-related thoughts on daily life, as… read on > read on >

A new process that combines 3D printing, stem cells and lab-grown tissues could prove a groundbreaking innovation for spinal cord injury recovery, a new study says. The process uses 3D printing to form stem cells into scaffolds containing microscopic channels that guide the growth of new nerve cells along the site of the spinal cord injury, researchers reported in Advanced Healthcare Materials. “We use the 3D printed channels of the scaffold to direct the growth of the stem cells, which ensures the new nerve fibers grow in the desired way,” lead researcher Guebum Han, a former University of Minnesota postdoctoral researcher, said in a news release. “This method creates a relay system that when placed in the spinal cord bypasses the damaged area,” said Han, now a mechanical engineer with Intel Corp. More than 300,000 Americans suffer from spinal cord injuries, and as yet there are no treatments to fully reverse damage and paralysis from the injury, researchers said in background notes. One problem is that nerve cells are unable to spontaneously regrow across the injury site, making these injuries permanent – for now. In their new study, researchers transplanted these 3D-printed scaffolds into rats with spinal cords that had been completely severed. The cells successfully turned into neurons and began growing nerve fibers in both directions along the spine, seeking to form new connections… read on > read on >

Instead of searching for reading glasses, could middle-aged folks and seniors soon find themselves rummaging around for a misplaced eye dropper? Special eye drops used two to three times daily might one day replace reading glasses as a means of coping with age-related vision loss, researchers reported in Copenhagen Sunday at a meeting of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS). Researchers said most people using the drops could read an extra two, three or more lines on an eye chart. What’s more, their vision improvement lasted up to two years, results show. “Nearly all patients experienced positive improvements in near visual acuity, although the magnitude of the improvement depended on the status of their vision before treatment,” lead researcher Dr. Giovanna Benozzi, director of the Center for Advanced Research in Presbyopia in Buenos Aires, said in a news release. People naturally become nearsighted as they grow older, a condition called age-related presbyopia, researchers said in background notes. The eye drops contain a combination of two active ingredients: pilocarpine, a drug that constricts the pupils and contracts the muscle responsible for controlling near-vision focus, and diclofenac, an NSAID that reduces inflammation and discomfort associated with pilocarpine. Researchers tested the drops on 766 patients divided into three groups, with each group receiving a different strength of eye drop – 1%, 2% or 3% concentrations… read on > read on >

Instead of searching for reading glasses, could middle-aged folks and seniors soon find themselves rummaging around for a misplaced eye dropper? Special eye drops used two to three times daily might one day replace reading glasses as a means of coping with age-related vision loss, researchers reported in Copenhagen Sunday at a meeting of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS). Researchers said most people using the drops could read an extra two, three or more lines on an eye chart. What’s more, their vision improvement lasted up to two years, results show. “Nearly all patients experienced positive improvements in near visual acuity, although the magnitude of the improvement depended on the status of their vision before treatment,” lead researcher Dr. Giovanna Benozzi, director of the Center for Advanced Research in Presbyopia in Buenos Aires, said in a news release. People naturally become farsighted as they grow older, a condition called age-related presbyopia, researchers said in background notes. The eye drops contain a combination of two active ingredients: pilocarpine, a drug that constricts the pupils and contracts the muscle responsible for controlling near-vision focus, and diclofenac, an NSAID that reduces inflammation and discomfort associated with pilocarpine. Researchers tested the drops on 766 patients divided into three groups, with each group receiving a different strength of eye drop – 1%, 2% or 3% concentrations… read on > read on >

Nicotine pouches might be helping tobacco users quit smoking and vaping, a new study says. The pouches — sold under brand names like Velo and Zyn — can’t be marketed as smoking cessation aids like nicotine patches, gums or lozenges, researchers said. But it appears that some are using the pouches to get their nicotine fix without resorting to smoking, researchers recently reported in JAMA Network Open. People were nearly four times more likely to use nicotine pouches daily if they’d recently quit smoking, researchers found. “Our results suggest that adults may be using nicotine pouches for harm reduction given that use is highest among those that have recently quit another tobacco product or e-cigarettes,” lead researcher Cristine Delnevo said in a news release. She’s director of the Rutgers University Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies in New Brunswick, N.J. Nicotine pouches contain a powder made of nicotine, flavorings and other ingredients, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). People typically place the pouches between their lip and gum, where the nicotine is absorbed. For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 110,000 Americans surveyed by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2022 and 2023 about their tobacco use. Few had ever used nicotine pouches, with about 2.6% saying they’d given them a try. Use among people who’d never tried any… read on > read on >