Obese kids are more likely to develop immune-based skin problems like eczema or psoriasis, a new study says. Analysis of more than 2.1 million Korean children between 2009 and 2020 revealed that children who became overweight had a higher risk of developing eczema. At the same time, overweight kids who shed pounds and reached a healthy weight had a lower risk of eczema, researchers reported Aug. 21 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. “Our findings support the importance of promoting weight maintenance among children who are already within the normal weight range because it may help reduce the risk of developing atopic dermatitis [eczema],” said researcher Dr. Seong-Joon Koh, an associate professor of internal medicine with the Seoul National University College of Medicine in South Korea. “In addition, prevention of excessive weight gain and purposeful weight loss, including adopting healthy diet strategies in children with obesity to prevent atopic dermatitis, particularly before school age, should be promoted,” Koh added. Approximately 1 in 5 U.S. children and teens (20%) are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Previous studies have looked at the link between childhood obesity and skin diseases, said researcher Dr. Seong Rae Kim, with the Seoul National University College of Medicine in South Korea. However, those studies haven’t tracked children over time to see whether changes in body weight…  read on >  read on >

A meditation technique called mindful breathing can help cancer patients manage their pain and anxiety, a new study finds. Cancer patients who engaged in 20 minutes of mindful breathing experienced a greater reduction in pain than those who weren’t taught the technique. “Twenty-minute mindful breathing effectively and rapidly reduces pain intensity, pain unpleasantness and anxiety in patients with cancer,” wrote the research team led by Dr. Tan Seng Beng, a palliative medicine consultant with the Subang Jaya Medical Center in Selangor, Malaysia. “This brief and accessible intervention offers a complementary approach to traditional pharmacological strategies,” the team concluded. Mindful breathing requires that people focus their attention on their breath as they inhale and exhale, researchers noted.  However, prior research on the potential pain relief from mindful breathing has focused on short meditation sessions lasting just 5 to 10 minutes, researchers noted. For this study, researchers randomly assigned 40 cancer patients to one of two groups. In one group, the patients were taught how to do mindful breathing in a 20-minute session. In the other, doctors listened for 20 minutes as patients talked about their cancer journey. Pain assessment scales showed that all patients who performed mindful breathing experienced a reduction in their cancer pain, compared to the control group. The new study was published Aug. 20 in the journal BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care. “The…  read on >  read on >

Perdue Foods has recalled over 167,000 pounds of chicken nuggets and tenders after consumers complained of finding bits of metal in the products. The recall covers select lots of Perdue Breaded Chicken Tenders, Butcher Box Organic Chicken Breast Nuggets and Perdue Simply Smart Organics Breaded Chicken Breast Nuggets. No injuries or adverse reactions tied to eating these foods have been reported, according to Perdue and the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), but the agency noted in a news release that it is concerned some of the products may still be in consumers’ freezers. The problem first came to light after consumers discovered metal wire bits in chicken they bought. Following an investigation, “we determined the material to be a very thin strand of metal wire that was inadvertently introduced into the manufacturing process,” Jeff Shaw, senior vice president of food safety and quality for Perdue, said in a company statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, we decided to voluntarily recall all of these packages of products.” The affected tenders and nuggets can be identified by product codes listed in the FSIS notice. All three products have a best if used by date of March 23, 2025, and establishment number “P-33944” on the back of the package. They were sold at retailers nationwide and online. What should consumers do? Anyone who has…  read on >  read on >

Iron deficiency isn’t being effectively treated in the United States, with low iron levels persisting for years in most patients, a new study finds. Almost 3 of 5 (58%) patients with iron deficiency still had low iron levels three years after their diagnosis, researchers found. Further, it took nearly two years to resolve iron deficiencies in most of the 42% of patients who did recover, results showed. Only 7% of patients had their iron levels return to normal within a year of diagnosis, the study added. “Two years is too long and well beyond the timeframe within which iron deficiency should be able to be sufficiently treated and resolved [with oral or IV treatments],” said lead researcher Dr. Jacob Cogan, an assistant professor of medicine with the University of Minnesota. “The numbers are pretty striking and suggest a need to put systems in place to better identify patients and treat them more efficiently.” Iron deficiency affects nearly 40% of teenagers and young women, but as many as 70% of cases go undiagnosed in these groups, researchers said. Most iron deficiency cases don’t involve full-blown anemia, researchers said. Anemia occurs when the body doesn’t have enough iron to make hemoglobin, the substance in red blood cells that allows them to transport oxygen throughout the body. Cases of non-anemic iron deficiency can cause symptoms like fatigue and…  read on >  read on >

A child at the dinner table talks about trouble at school or an argument with a friend, but parents aren’t listening: They’re checking their smartphones instead. It’s a scenario that plays out millions of times per day across America, and it could be harming the mental health of children, a new study suggests. Kids ages 9 to 11 who said their parents spent way too much on their smartphones were more prone to anxiety, attention issues and hyperactivity later on compared to the youngsters of parents who weren’t phone-obsessed, Canadian researchers report. “When children’s emotional and physical needs are consistently ignored or inappropriately responded to, they are at risk of developing mental health difficulties,” explained a team led by Sheri Madigan, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Calgary in Alberta. Her team published their findings Aug. 16 in the journal JAMA Network Open. According to background data from the study, one recent study found that parents of infants now spend an average of more than five hours on their smartphones daily, including looking at a smartphone 27% of the time they are engaging with their baby. Another study found 68% of parents admitting they are often distracted by their smartphones as they interact with their kids. Research has shown that this kind of “technoference” while parenting means less attention paid to children,…  read on >  read on >

A good night’s sleep is crucial for helping people make new memories, a new study says. Neurons that capture new memories during the day reset while you sleep, researchers reported Aug. 15 in the journal Science. “This mechanism could allow the brain to reuse the same resources, the same neurons, for new learning the next day,” said researcher Azahara Oliva, an assistant professor of neurobiology and behavior at Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y. The process revolves around the hippocampus, a brain region vital to humans’ ability to create memories. Learning something or engaging in a new experience activate neurons in the hippocampus, storing those events as memories. The same neurons later repeat the same pattern of activity while you sleep, transferring the day’s memories in a larger brain region called the cortex. But what keeps the neurons of the hippocampus from filling up, thus preventing new learning, the researchers wondered. Electrodes implanted into the hippocampi of mice provided a potential explanation. It turns out that those neurons that captured the day’s memories undergo a reset after feeding the latest memories into the cortex, researchers found. Two regions of the hippocampus that capture memories, CA1 and CA3, appear to reset during sleep under the direction of a third region called CA2, researchers said. “We realized there are other hippocampal states that happen during sleep where everything…  read on >  read on >

Casey Harrell was losing his ability to speak due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. “Not being able to communicate is so frustrating and demoralizing. It is like you are trapped,” said Harrell, 45. But a new brain-computer interface is allowing Harrell to speak to others once more, with his brain providing the words and a computer giving them voice. Four microelectrode arrays implanted into a brain region responsible for coordinating speech detect the words that Harrell wants to say and sends that information to a computer program. During Harrell’s first session, the system took 30 minutes to achieve more than 90% word accuracy with a 50-word vocabulary, researchers said. The decoded words appear on a screen and are read aloud in a voice that sounds like Harrell’s did before he developed ALS. “The first time we tried the system, he cried with joy as the words he was trying to say correctly appeared on screen. We all did,” said researcher Sergey Stavisky, co-director of the University of California, Davis Neuroprosthetics Lab. ALS affects the nerve cells that control movement throughout the body, researchers said. It causes a gradual loss of the ability to stand, walk, use hands and even speak. By the time Harrell entered the study, he had developed weakness in his arms and legs and his speech…  read on >  read on >

Some comatose patients with severe brain injury might be paying closer attention to their surroundings than previously thought, a new study says. About 1 in 4 patients respond to instructions covertly, with their brains showing activity even though their bodies aren’t moving, researchers found. When asked to imagine opening and closing their hand, those comatose patients displayed brain activity showing that they were repeatedly following this instruction, MRI and EEG brain scans revealed. This shows that some patients with severe brain injury are paying attention to the world around them, said lead researcher Yelena Bodien, an investigator for Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery. “These results bring up critical ethical, clinical and scientific questions — such as how can we harness that unseen cognitive capacity to establish a system of communication and promote further recovery?” Bodien said in a hospital news release. For the study, researchers scanned 241 people with brain injury who showed no outward signs of consciousness, such as being able to respond to simple instructions. The study included data from participants in six different sites in the United States, the U.K. and Europe, collected over about 15 years. The patients all had sustained severe brain injuries, often from either a stroke, cardiac arrest or a traumatic event like a car crash. MRI and EEG brain responses showed that 60 of…  read on >  read on >

When it comes to Medicaid and vision care, how much coverage people get depends on the state in which they live, a new study finds. Most Medicaid enrollees have at least some routine vision coverage, but an estimated 6.5 million adults live in states without comprehensive coverage for routine eye exams, researchers found. Likewise, about 14.6 million adults didn’t have comprehensive coverage for glasses. In all, 20 states do not cover glasses and 35 states do not cover low vision aids. That means even if a person’s eye exam is covered, they often can’t afford the glasses they need to correct their vision, the researchers noted. Medicaid provides health coverage to low-income people and families, and its policies can greatly influence access to vision care. “The positive finding from our study is that most fee-for-service Medicaid programs across the states covered routine eye exams, which are vital for detecting and addressing vision issues early,” said lead researcher Brandy Lipton, an associate professor of health, society and behavior at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). “However, the substantial gaps highlight opportunities for policy changes to enhance coverage and access,” Lipton added in a UCI news release. “Providing comprehensive vision care could have big benefits in terms of health, quality of life and even employment and productivity.”  About two-thirds of states with routine vision exam coverage require…  read on >  read on >