Not all babies born prematurely will suffer long-term developmental problems, a new study finds. Preemies tend to fall into three risk categories, with about one in five (20%) scoring above average on standard cognitive tests, researchers reported Aug. 13 in the journal Child Development. A second profile representing 41% of preemies scored above normal on tests of memory, vocabulary and reading, but below average on tests of pattern recognition and working memory, researchers said. And a third profile representing nearly 40% of preemies scored below normal on all tests, suffering both cognitive and attention deficits. “Our study dispels the notion that every preterm child is born with cognitive and behavioral deficits,” said lead researcher Iris Menu, a post-doctoral scholar of child and adolescent psychiatry with the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. About 13 million babies are born prematurely each year, and preterm birth has been linked to a higher risk of ADHD, problems with social development and lower grades, researchers said in background notes. But the tendency to lump preemies into a single group hinders efforts to tailor care for any one child, they added. For the study, researchers analyzed cognitive and behavioral data for nearly 1,900 boys and girls born prematurely who had reached 9 to 11 years of age. The team found that children who fell within the first…  read on >  read on >

Eating a healthy diet that dampens inflammation in the body could lower your odds for dementia, especially if you already have heart risk factors, a new Swedish study shows. So-called anti-inflammatory diets focus on foods like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish and beans and include heart-healthy regimens such as the Mediterranean diet. In a study involving more than 84,000 older adults tracked for more than 12 years, those who adhered to an anti-inflammatory diet had a 21% lower odds of developing dementia, compared to people who ate an unhealthy pro-inflammatory diet rich in red meats, eggs, dairy and processed foods. When looking specifically at older adults with ailments such as heart disease or diabetes, the risk of dementia fell by 31% when they stuck to an anti-inflammatory diet, reported a team led by Abigail Dove. She’s an investigator at the Aging Research Center at the Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm. MRI brain scans of a subset of more than 9,000 of the participants also showed neurological benefits linked to the healthier diet. There were “positive changes within the brain,” noted Dr. Liron Sinvani, director of geriatric hospital services for North Shore University Hospital, in Manhasset, N.Y. “Larger gray matter volume — gray matter is good — and lower burden of ‘white matter hyperintensities’ was seen among those who ate an anti-inflammatory diet, said Sinvani, who wasn’t…  read on >  read on >

An experimental drug based on ancient Chinese herbal medicine can help ease the toxic side effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy in cancer patients, the results of a small new trial results suggest. A small group of 24 patients experienced fewer GI side effects from their treatment for rectal cancer after they took YIV-906, researchers reported recently in the Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology. YIV-906 is based on an 1,800-year-old treatment for stomach ailments that combined licorice, dates, peonies and skullcap, researchers said. “This study is the first demonstration of YIV-906’s effectiveness in reducing GI toxicity caused by chemotherapy and radiation, showing the medicine’s potential of improving the patient’s quality of life while increasing treatment effectiveness,” said co-researcher Yung-Chi Cheng, a professor of pharmacology at Yale School of Medicine who helped develop the drug. For the four-year, phase 2 study, the patients were given capsules of YIV-906 along with chemo and radiation prior to surgery. At the time of surgery, about 17% of patients had a complete or near-complete response to their cancer treatment, while the overall survival rate at five years was 82%, results show. Only two cases of severe diarrhea were reported among the patients. YIV-906 is meant to ease side effects like diarrhea, fatigue and nausea. “We didn’t have any serious toxicity associated with the drug and patients found taking the drug in…  read on >  read on >

At least 20 million hernia surgeries are performed globally each year, making it one of the most common medical procedures in the world. But does gender matter when it comes to hernia risk? New Australian research says yes: Half of the nearly 436,000 hernia repair procedures performed in adults in that country between 2017 and 2021 were for inguinal (groin) hernias, with men accounting for 89.6% of those operations. And the age-standardized prevalence in men was more than seven times that of women. Inguinal hernias were the most common type of hernia seen in the study. Why are men more susceptible? Researchers say the gender difference is due to higher rates of smoking, heavy exercise, bladder issues, chronic airway disorders, hypertension and heart disease. It’s important that doctors know “those patients who have higher risks of hernia repair, so we can develop health campaigns and policies to improve their quality of life and lower their risks of developing hernias,” study co-author Dr. Marianne Gillam, from the University of South Australia, said in a university news release. A hernia occurs when one of your organs pushes through the muscle or tissue that contains it. This can trigger discomfort and abdominal pain and in severe cases can strangulate the bowel, which requires emergency surgery. In the study, the team turned to data from the Australian Institute of Health &…  read on >  read on >

Drinking can increase a senior’s risk of a brain bleed following a fall, even if they only occasionally imbibe, a new study finds. In fact, the risk of a brain bleed increases with a senior’s level of drinking, researchers found. Occasional or weekly drinking doubled a person’s risk of a brain bleed following a fall, while daily drinking made it 2.5 times more likely that falling would cause a bleed, results show. “One of the unexpected findings in our study was the strong dose‒response relationship between reported alcohol use and intracranial hemorrhage,” said senior researcher Dr. Richard Shih, a professor of emergency medicine with the Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine. Nationally, falls are the leading cause of both fatal and non-fatal injuries in seniors, researchers said in background notes. In 2021, falls led to the deaths of 36,500 older adults in the United States. For the study, researchers analyzed data for more than 3,100 seniors ages 65 and older who were treated at two Palm Beach County trauma centers for a head injury sustained during a fall. About 18% of the patients said they drink alcohol, with 6% indicating daily consumption, results show. Nearly 14% of all the Palm Beach fall victims were diagnosed with a brain bleed, formally known as an intracranial hemorrhage, researchers found. Brain bleeds occurred in nearly 20% of those…  read on >  read on >

Most folks know that a good sunscreen can guard against the sun’s harmful rays, but many might not realize that some medications and creams can undo some of that protection. “There are multiple reasons we should be mindful of excessive sun exposure aside from skin cancer, although that’s certainly important,” said Dr. Kaveh Nezafati, an assistant professor of dermatology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “There may also be some external factors that can make us more sensitive to sunlight.” Nezafati explained that certain medications can render your skin more vulnerable to the sun’s harmful rays and offered some advice on how to protect yourself. Certain drugs contain ingredients that can trigger a physical reaction when the skin is exposed to UV light, according to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. The severity of the reaction depends on the drug dosage and the amount of time spent outdoors or in the tanning booth. Blood pressure medications such as hydrochlorothiazide are a common example. “Basically, what happens is the ultraviolet radiation reacts with the medicine circulating in the patient’s blood, converting that drug into a chemical byproduct that can directly damage skin cells and cause sunburns,” Nezafati said in a UT Southwestern news release. Some antibiotics like ciprofloxacin and doxycycline, which treat a wide assortment of infections, work the same way, he added. “The most…  read on >  read on >

Deaths among Americans dropped by a significant 6.1% between 2022 and 2023, a new government tally finds. Much of this was due to COVID-19’s ebbing effect on deaths. During the pandemic, over a million Americans lost their lives, and in 2021 it was the third leading cause of death. However, new data shows that as vaccinations and natural immunity levels rose, the illness had dropped to 10th position in terms of lethality by 2023. Still, more than 76,000 people lost their lives either directly or indirectly from COVID last year, so it remains a dire threat, concluded a team of researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nevertheless, that’s a nearly 69% decline compared to the nearly 246,000 lives lost to COVID in 2022. The pandemic’s impact on U.S. mortality has changed, concluded a team led by Farida Bhuiya Ahmad, of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. “In 2020, COVID-19 altered the rankings of leading causes of death substantially. The mortality burden of COVID-19 has decreased since then,” the researchers said. Her team looked at U.S. death data for the years 2019 through 2023, compiled by the U.S. National Vital Statistics System. The leading cause of death by far during all those years was heart disease, which in 2019 killed nearly 2.85 million Americans. That number rose during the pandemic, to…  read on >  read on >

Newly developed battery-powered electric bandages could help wounds heal more quickly, a new study reports. In animal testing, wounds treated with electric bandages healed 30% faster than wounds treated with conventional bandages, researchers reported Aug. 7 in the journal Science Advances. The bandages could be a game-changer in treating slow-healing wounds caused by diabetes and other chronic illnesses, researchers say. Those sorts of wounds significantly increase a person’s risk of amputation and death. “Our goal here was to develop a far less expensive technology that accelerates healing in patients with chronic wounds,” said researcher Amay Bandodkar, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University. “We also wanted to make sure that the technology is easy enough for people to use at home, rather than something that patients can only receive in clinical settings,” Bandodkar noted in a university news release. The study is part of a larger Defense Department-funded effort to accelerate wound healing through different types of innovative dressings, researchers said. These electric bandages have electrodes on one side and a small water-powered battery on the other, researchers said. The dressing is applied so that the electrodes contact the wound, and the battery is activated with a drop of water. The bandage then produces an electric field for several hours. “That electric field is critical, because it’s well established…  read on >  read on >