Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

Carrying excess pounds can be painful, literally. A new study finds that being overweight or obese ups the risk of pain in people with musculoskeletal disorders. “Pain, osteoarthritis and weight share a complicated relationship,” said study author Dr. Diana Higgins. She’s a researcher with the VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston University School of Medicine. “Overall, the more weight a patient with a musculoskeletal disorder carries, the more likely they are to report experiencing pain, which may affect functioning and quality of life,” Higgins said in a VA news release. Researchers analyzed data on nearly 2 million U.S. veterans with musculoskeletal disorders, such as non-traumatic joint disorder; arthritis; low back, back or neck pain. Overall, 58% said they had pain. Nearly eight in 10 patients were overweight or obese. The higher a patient’s body mass index (BMI), the more likely they were to report pain. BMI is an estimate of body fat based on weight and height. Compared to those of normal weight, those with moderate obesity (BMI of 35 to 39) were 9% more likely to report pain. And those with severe obesity (BMI of 40 or higher) were 23% more likely. The connection between excess weight and increased risk of pain was strongest in patients with arthritis, with 40% of overweight patients and 55% of severely obese patients reporting pain. The association between… read on >

People with physically demanding jobs take more sick leave. They also have higher unemployment rates and shorter work lives, a new Danish study finds. “This study showed that high physical work demands are a marked risk factor for a shortened expected working life and increased years of sickness absence and unemployment,” study co-author Lars Andersen and colleagues wrote. Andersen is with the National Research Center for the Working Environment in Copenhagen. For the study, the researchers looked at people ages 30, 40 and 50 in Denmark who had a job as of November 2013. The investigators examined their periods of sick leave, unemployment and disability pension payments until 2017. More men than women had physically demanding jobs, such as carpentry, masonry, painting, plumbing, cleaning and manufacturing. Men with such jobs were an average of nearly three years younger than men in physically undemanding jobs, while women in physically demanding jobs were about 10 months older than those in physically undemanding jobs. For both men and women, physically demanding jobs were strongly associated with shorter work life (years worked until retirement), and more sick leave and unemployment, compared with physically undemanding jobs. For men age 30, working life would be expected to last almost 32 years for those with physically demanding jobs and nearly 34 years for those with physically undemanding jobs. Among women, the figures… read on >

With many beaches and parks opening in time for Memorial Day, the American Cancer Society is reminding people to practice sun safety. Overexposing yourself to the sun increases your risk for skin cancer, which is the most common cancer in the United States, with almost 5.5 million cases each year. That’s more than breast, colon, lung and prostate cancers combined. “COVID-19 has forced Americans to remain indoors, and many people are anxious to get back to outdoor activities with some stay-at-home orders being lifted,” said Dr. Laura Makaroff, senior vice president of prevention and early detection at the American Cancer Society (ACS). “As more people get outside, practicing social distancing and avoiding crowded areas is still very important to reduce the risk of COVID transmission, and it is also important to not forget the risks of sun exposure and sunburn and take appropriate steps to protect your skin,” Makaroff said in an ACS news release. One of every 5 Americans will have some type of skin cancer in their lifetime. Melanoma, the deadliest type accounts for about 1% of all skin cancer cases, the ACS said. But skin cancer is very preventable. More than 90% of skin cancers are caused by exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun or indoor tanning. You can reduce the risk of skin cancer by: Not intentionally getting a sunburn… read on >

Mindfulness training may help counter the thinking and emotional difficulties caused by multiple sclerosis. In a small test study, people with multiple sclerosis (MS) who had four weeks of mindfulness training emerged with better emotional control and faster thinking. Multiple sclerosis is a disease in which the immune system attacks the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. This interferes with communication in the brain and between the brain and body, leading to worsening mental and physical problems. An estimated one million people in the United States are affected. “Emotional upheaval is part and parcel of living with multiple sclerosis — there’s no cure, per se,” said Nicholas Larocca, a National Multiple Sclerosis Society consultant. “You can look at someone who has mild multiple sclerosis. They can have cognitive problems much more than physical problems,” he added. In a pilot study, Ohio State University researchers tested 47 women and 14 men with MS on emotional control, mental speed and short-term memory. For four weeks, the study participants were divided into three groups. One group received mindfulness training; a second received computerized “adaptive cognitive” training aimed at focusing their attention; and a control group received no training until the study ended. Mindfulness training teaches people to stay focused in the present, helping them look at problems objectively and accept without judgment, said study leader Ruchika Prakash, director… read on >

The more pregnancies losses a woman has, the greater her risk of developing diabetes, a new study suggests. Researchers examined data on nearly 25,000 Danish women who were born between 1957 and 1997 and diagnosed with type 2 diabetes between 1977 to 2017. The women were compared with a control group of nearly 248,000 women with the same ages and educational levels who didn’t have diabetes. Compared to women who’d never miscarried, those who had one, two or three lost pregnancies had an 18%, 38% and 71% higher risk, respectively, of developing type 2 diabetes. The study was published May 20 in the journal Diabetologia. “We cannot rule out that the psychological distress related to pregnancy loss can initiate lifestyle changes that increase BMI and thereby the risk of type 2 diabetes,” wrote researcher Pia Egerup, of Copenhagen University Hospital, and colleagues. BMI is short for body mass index, an estimate of body fat based on weight and height. The researchers only had BMI information for 12% of the diabetes group and 17% of the control group. Even so, they said: “Our subgroup analysis in which we adjusted for obesity still showed a significant association between pregnancy loss and type 2 diabetes, with more losses leading to a higher risk. This subgroup analysis indicated that the higher risk for type 2 diabetes in women with… read on >

Roughly 16 million Americans have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but only a fraction have access to a lifesaving treatment called pulmonary rehabilitation. COPD is a family of diseases, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis, that make breathing difficult and worsens over time. The main cause is smoking. Other causes include secondhand smoke and exposure to polluted air, chemical fumes or dusts. There is no cure. But pulmonary rehab can help after a hospital stay, according to Dr. David Mannino, director of the Pulmonary Epidemiology Research Laboratory at the University of Kentucky, in Lexington. Pulmonary rehab teaches patients to exercise, eat well and use medications appropriately in order to regain their strength. Rehab clinics can also foster socialization, as COPD patients often feel isolated, Mannino said. To learn more, a team from the University of Massachusetts studied data from almost 200,000 Medicare patients hospitalized for COPD in 2014. The findings were published May 12 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Of that group, 1.5% (2,721 patients) began pulmonary rehabilitation within 90 days of leaving the hospital. In total, just over 38,300 patients died within one of year of discharge from the hospital. The difference in the outcomes between those who had rehab within 90 days and those who didn’t was striking: Within a year of discharge, 19.6% of the group who did not have… read on >

As New York City officials grapple with the sudden appearance of a rare inflammatory condition in children exposed to COVID-19, a new Italian report describes similar cases that have cropped up in that country. The researchers say their findings provide “the first clear evidence” of a link between the new coronavirus and this inflammatory condition. Between Feb. 18 and April 20, there were 10 cases of young children hospitalized with an inflammatory condition that resembles Kawasaki disease in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. In the five years leading up to the middle of February, only 19 children in the region had ever been diagnosed with the condition. Those recent cases represent a 30-fold increase in the number of cases, but it’s difficult to draw firm conclusions with such small numbers, the scientists noted. Eight of the 10 children hospitalized after Feb. 18 were found to have antibodies to the new coronavirus. All 10 children survived, but they had more severe symptoms than those diagnosed with Kawasaki disease in the previous five years. “We noticed an increase in the number of children being referred to our hospital with an inflammatory condition similar to Kawasaki disease around the time the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak was taking hold in our region,” said study co-author Dr. Lucio Verdoni, from the Hospital Papa Giovanni XXIII in Bergamo, Italy. “Although this complication… read on >

COVID-19 hits smokers much harder than nonsmokers, according to a new review. Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), analyzed 19 studies that included data on smoking and severity of COVID-19 among nearly 11,600 patients in the United States, China and Korea. Most patients were hospitalized, but two studies also included outpatients. Just over 6% of participants had a history of smoking. While COVID-19 symptoms worsened in 18% of all patients, the rate was 29.8% among current or former smokers, compared with 17.6% among nonsmokers. “Smoking is associated with substantially higher risk of COVID-19 progression,” said study co-author Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at UCSF. And when COVID-19 progressed, current or ex-smokers had more acute or critical conditions and a higher risk of death, the researchers found. “This finding suggests that California’s ongoing strong tobacco control measures that have lowered smoking may, together with the state’s other strong public health interventions, be contributing to California’s efforts to thwart the effect of COVID-19,” Glantz said in a university news release. Co-author Dr. Roengrudee Patanavanich, a visiting scholar at UCSF, noted that the fact tobacco use is lower among COVID patients than the general population has been cited as evidence for a protective effect of smoking. “But this low prevalence may actually be due to an under-assessment of… read on >

It’s happened before: Couples stuck at home during blizzards, hurricanes or other natural disasters enjoy some “alone time” — and a baby boom follows. But a new survey from researchers at the University of Florence in Italy suggests the same probably won’t unfold during the COVID-19 pandemic. Why? “What we found the main reasons that led people to not wanting to conceive included worries related to future economic difficulties and consequences on pregnancy,” said study author Elisabetta Micelli, from the university’s Assisted Reproduction Technologies Center. The researchers conducted nearly 1,500 online interviews and found that nearly 82% of those surveyed said they didn’t plan to conceive during the coronavirus pandemic. The survey was conducted in the third week of the lockdown in Italy and included men and women in a stable heterosexual relationship for at least one year. The findings were published May 7 in the Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology. Of the 268 participants who said that, prior to the pandemic, they had plans to have a child, more than one-third abandoned their intentions when the pandemic struck. The main reasons were worries about future economic struggles (58%) and any potential consequences on pregnancy (58%) from the new coronavirus. Even though almost half of those who responded to the survey had not lost their jobs or income, “the fear of imminent and future… read on >