Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

Love doesn’t fade when one member of a family develops Alzheimer’s disease, but times of intimacy like Valentine’s Day can become tougher. Experts at the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) acknowledge that a loved one living with dementia can have trouble expressing their feelings or remembering things as they did in the past. However, if partners and families follow the AFA’s H.E.A.R.T guidelines, navigating Valentine’s Day can be a bit easier. Those guidelines are: Help a loved one reminisce. Trying going through old photos together, describing them and reminding your loved one who individuals are and what events they partook in. Don’t ask “Do you remember this?”, but do talk over fun vacations, parties or other events you’ve shared. Enjoy flowers. Smells are one of the most fixed memory-triggers in the brain, and bringing a bouquet of Valentine’s blooms into the home can be joyful while helping to stimulate the brain, the AFA says. Adapt intimacy. Dementia can rob people of the ability to verbalize emotions as they once did, but simple, shared activities can help. Sharing a meal, watching a favorite movie or taking a walk together can foster feelings of closeness. Nonverbal forms of communication — touching, smiles, eye contact — also enhance those feelings. Reaffirm feelings. An act such as reading a Valentine’s card aloud can communicate love and connection to… read on > read on >

Yet another study is supporting the notion that the blockbuster GLP-1 drug Ozempic can help problems drinkers curb their intake. The research found that, compared to placebo, weekly injections of semaglutide (also marketed for weight loss as Wegovy) helped reduce cravings in people with alcohol use disorders. The drug also seemed to reduce the quantity and frequency of alcohol intake, researchers said. There’s a real need for new approaches to treat alcoholism, said study lead author Christian Hendershot. He directs clinical research at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Addiction Research. “Two drugs currently approved to reduce alcohol consumption aren’t widely used,” Hendershot said in a university news release. “The popularity of Ozempic and other GLP-1 receptor agonists increases the chances of broad adoption of these treatments for alcohol use disorder.” His team published its findings Feb. 12 in JAMA Psychiatry. Links between GLP-1 meds and reductions in alcohol dependence aren’t new: Patients taking GLP-1s for diabetes or weight loss quickly realized their appetite for booze fell after commencing the therapy. However, Hendershot called the new study the first randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial to investigate this effect. The trial involved 48 adult problem drinkers who were otherwise not actively seeking treatment to cut down on their drinking. Female participants drank more than seven drinks per week, while men drank 14 or more weekly.… read on > read on >

It was a bit safer to go into the water last year: Unprovoked shark attacks worldwide fell by about a third in 2024 compared to the year before, new data show. The United States continues to be the most likely country in which to get bitten by a shark, according to the annual International Shark Attack File from the Florida Museum of Natural History. Twenty-eight of the 47 unprovoked shark attacks recorded in 2024 occurred in U.S. waters. Shark attacks typically average about 70 per year over a 10-year period, so 2024 numbers were unusually low. Australia ranked second on the list, with multiple bites reported, followed by reports of one attack each from Egypt, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, The Bahamas, the Republic of Maldives, Mozambique, French Polynesia, Thailand, and Turks and Caicos. Four of the 47 attacks recorded worldwide in 2024 proved fatal, which is also a marked decline, the Florida team said. Unprovoked attacks do not include injuries that arise after a person intentionally or unintentionally initiates contact with a shark, including spearfishing and releasing sharks from nets or hooks. Within the U.S., Florida had the most shark bites on record last year, at 14, and eight of those occurred in Volusia County, where Daytona Beach is located. Volusia County has long been dubbed the “shark bite capital of the world.” “Many of… read on > read on >

Yes, rare cases of vision issues have arisen in people taking popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs, but the jury’s out on whether the medications caused the eye trouble, according to a new small study. The study reviewed the cases of nine people who developed sight-robbing issues, such as dysfunction in blood vessels around the eye’s optic nerve, after taking a GLP-1. “We’re trying to elucidate if being on these drugs can increase your risk,” said study co-author Dr. Norah Lincoff. She’s a neuro-ophthalmologist and professor of neurology at the University at Buffalo. The study, published recently in JAMA Opthalmology, focused on nine patients, all in their 50s or 60s, who were taking GLP-1s such as semaglutide (Wegovy/Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound). Seven of the nine patients developed a condition known as nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION). This occurs when blood vessels fail to supply enough blood to the optic nerve, which is crucial for sight. In NAION, damage to the nerve can lead to a sudden and permanent partial loss of vision. Lead study author Dr. Bradley Katz, of the John A. Moran Eye Center at University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City, first noted the issue in a patient who experienced a sudden and painless loss of vision in one eye after starting seamglutide. The patient briefly halted use of the drug, but when… read on > read on >

Many women may opt for a breast reduction if they encounter issues such as recurrent neck, back and shoulder pain. However, a new study suggests a link between these procedures in teens and young adult women and later weight gain. “These patients should be targeted for healthy lifestyle changes to prevent weight gain,” said study lead author William Doyle Jr., a medical student at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He and his colleagues published their findings in the February issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Excess weight can raise risks for complications after breast-reduction surgeries (mammaplasty), especially among teens, according to background information from the researchers. For that reason, overweight patients are advised to lose weight prior to these procedures. But what about weight gain after these surgeries? To learn more, Doyle’s team tracked outcomes for 56 patients under the age of 22 (average age: 18.6 years) who had breast reduction surgeries between 2015 and 2019. Prior to their surgeries, about 29% were determined to be at a healthy weight, while the rest had BMIs in the overweight or obese range. BMI, shorthand for body mass index, is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. The researchers tracked fluctuations in patients’ weight for an average of almost two years post-surgery. They found that 39.3% of patients had any decrease… read on > read on >

Symbravo can rapidly eliminate migraine pain within two hours, with efficacy sustained through 24 and 48 hours, across migraine pain severity read on >

Approval marks the first and only continuous delivery treatment as an alternate to regular eye injections read on >

“Yo-yo” dieting — repeatedly losing and gaining weight — can significantly increase risk of kidney disease among people with type 1 diabetes, a new study warns. Diabetics with greater weight fluctuations experienced a 40% decline in their kidneys’ ability to filter toxins from the blood, researchers reported Feb. 4 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. “We showed that high body-weight variability is associated with increased risk of different outcomes of diabetic kidney disease progressions (DKD) in people with type 1 diabetes, independently of traditional DKD risk factors,” lead researcher Dr. Marion Camoin with the University Hospital Center Bordeaux in France said in a news release. “To our knowledge, this is the first study showing this association,” Camoin added. As many as 35% of men and 55% of women yo-yo diet, and this pattern of weight loss and regain has been shown to increase risk of heart disease in both healthy people and people with diabetes, researchers said in background notes. Type 1 diabetes has long been considered a disease of lean people, but obesity is becoming more common in that group as well as the general public, researchers said. For the study, researchers examined six years of body weight data for more than 1,400 people participating in a long-term diabetes health study. The team compared weight fluctuation with six criteria that show how… read on > read on >

Tiny microplastics are making their way into the human brain, and new research suggests the problem is getting worse. The new study, published Feb. 3 in the journal Nature, found that brain samples collected in 2024 contained significantly more microplastics than those taken eight years earlier. Researchers say the amount of plastic in the brain has increased by about 50% — the equivalent of an entire plastic spoon in weight. “Compared to autopsy brain samples from 2016, that’s about 50% higher,” he said. “That would mean that our brains today are 99.5% brain and the rest is plastic,” co-lead author Matthew Campen, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, told CNN. Researchers also found that people with dementia had even higher levels of microplasticsplastic fragments in their brains — three to five times more than those without dementia. “It’s a little bit alarming, but remember that dementia is a disease where the blood brain barrier and clearance mechanisms are impaired,” Campen said. Microplastics — tiny fragments of plastic that come from products like water bottles, food packaging and synthetic fabrics — have been found in major organs, including the lungs, heart, liver and even the placenta. But scientists are still trying to understand how they affect the body. “The biggest question is, ‘OK, what are these particles doing to… read on > read on >

Cold showers or ice baths have become a trendy way to recuperate after a heavy-duty workout, but do they actually help? A new evidence review suggests there’s some science to back up the hype. People report lower stress, improved sleep and better quality of life following cold-water immersion, researchers reported Jan. 29 in the journal PLOS One. However, these benefits often aren’t long-lasting, and in some cases, the body’s response might be bad for chronic health problems like heart disease, the review found. “In this study, we noted a range of time-dependent results,” lead investigator Tara Cain, a research assistant studying health and human performance with the University of South Australia, said in a news release. For example, “we found that cold-water immersion could reduce stress levels, but for only about 12 hours post-exposure,” Cain said. Researchers also noted that participants who took 20-, 60- or 90-second cold showers reported slightly higher quality of life scores. “But again,” Cain added, “After three months these effects had faded.” For the review, researchers pooled data from 11 studies on cold-water immersion involving nearly 3,200 people. Cold-water immersion involves dunking the body partially or fully in chilly water, with temperatures typically ranging from 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, researchers said in background notes. In this review, data was only included if exposure was at or above chest level… read on > read on >