Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

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 >

A high number of preteens and teens in the United States have viewed pornography and many have also sent or received nude or seminude photos — sexting — over their smartphones, a new study reveals. “The prevalence rates we found in this study suggest that school counselors must be prepared to talk about sexting and pornography use with students, and to change the narrative about these behaviors,” said Amanda Giordano, lead author of the study and an associate professor in the University of Georgia Early College of Education, in Athens. “It’s important that students know that sending a sext is not a new requirement for romantic relationships and that pornography does not reflect expectations for sexual activity,” Giordano added in a university news release. For the study, the researchers questioned 350 students, aged 12 to 17 years. The investigators found that 15% had sent a sext to someone. About 25% had ever received a sext. About 25% had ever been asked to send a sext. About 12% said they had felt pressure by someone to send a sext in the past year. This pressure was concerning because of the unintended consequences of sexting, such as having the picture forwarded to others, put online or used as a form of blackmail to get the person to meet other demands, the researchers said. “If your boyfriend, girlfriend… read on > read on >

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 7, 2022 (HealthDay News) – How singers use their voices, including the genre of music they perform, has an impact on vocal injury, new research finds. Dr. Lesley Childs, medical director of the Voice Center at University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, led a two-part study of more than 1,000 patient records. The study looked at phonotraumatic lesions in patients’ vocal folds, including benign nodules, pseudocysts and hemorrhagic polyps. All of these can lead to hoarseness and are typically caused by overuse or straining of the voice. Researchers found that nodules were almost equally found across all singing genres. Opera singers had a significantly higher proportion of pseudocysts. People who sang in the praise/worship genre had significantly more hemorrhagic polyps. “These findings, combined with clinical observations, suggest that nodules may be related more to the speaking voice than the singing voice since they were more or less equally distributed across genres,” Childs said in a news release. “At the same time, the style of singing, acoustic environment and vocal demands unique to each genre clearly impact both the frequency and type of injuries that develop, with opera singers presenting with more chronic injury patterns and praise/worship singers presenting with more acute injuries.” In the first part of the study, researchers looked at 712 singers who had voice disorders between June 2017 and December… read on > read on >

Researchers may have sniffed out why colds are more likely in wintertime: The answer may lie within the nose. A previously unidentified immune response inside the nose is responsible for fighting off the viruses that cause upper respiratory infections, according to researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Northeastern University in Boston. Unfortunately, cold weather inhibits this protective response, making it more likely that a person will come down with anything from a cold to COVID-19. The new study offers the first biological explanation why respiratory virus infections are more likely to spike in colder seasons, researchers said. “Conventionally, it was thought that cold and flu season occurred in cooler months because people are stuck indoors more where airborne viruses could spread more easily,” said senior researcher Dr. Benjamin Bleier, director of Otolaryngology Translational Research at Mass Eye and Ear. “Our study, however, points to a biological root cause for the seasonal variation in upper respiratory viral infections we see each year, most recently demonstrated throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said in a hospital news release. The nose is a prime entry point for viruses or bacteria, which can either be inhaled or directly deposited if a person does something like rub their nose. Once inside the nose, germs work their way backward up the airway and into the body, infecting the cells along the… read on > read on >

Shehzin Tietjen was 27 years old when she felt a lump in one of her breasts while in the shower. That discovery led to a confirmation of breast cancer, an unexpected jolt at her age. “I was really shocked,” said Tietjen, who lives in Atlanta. Though breast cancer is more common in postmenopausal women, about 9% of new breast cancer cases occur in women under 45. Many breast cancer treatments, including chemotherapy, can affect fertility. While Tietjen soon began talking with doctors about preserving her fertility, that’s not a conversation all young women with a similar diagnosis have, according to a survey of more than 700 breast cancer patients by Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC), a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit. Only 49% of survey respondents reported discussing fertility issues with their health care providers, just slightly higher than eight years earlier. Two-thirds of women whose breast cancer was diagnosed before age 45 said it had significant impacts on their sexual health. But 86% said their health care provider was unable to address these issues. Study leader Arin Ahlum Hanson, director of outreach for LBBC, said addressing these fertility and sexual health issues is a critical need. “What is really important is that those conversations are had early on at that point of diagnosis to help young women make those decisions to pursue fertility preservation or just be… read on > read on >