Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

People with a genetic predisposition for high cholesterol can lower their levels by taking fish oil supplements, a new study shows. The results indicate that lifestyle can be a powerful influence on artery-clogging cholesterol, even if a person’s genetics tends to make those levels higher, researchers said. “Recent advances in genetic studies have allowed us to predict someone’s genetic risk of high cholesterol,” said lead researcher Yitang Sun, a doctoral graduate from the University of Georgia’s Department of Genetics. “But the current prediction has room for improvement because it does not consider individual differences in lifestyles, such as taking fish oil supplements,” Sun added in a university news release. About 1 in 4 Americans — more than 86 million — have high cholesterol, the researchers said in background notes. Millions more are at risk for high cholesterol because of their genetics, the researchers added. For the study, researchers used genetic data on more than 441,000 British residents to calculate each person’s genetic likelihood of high levels of cholesterol. The study participants are taking part in a large-scale research project called the UK Biobank. As part of that project, the people also reported in a questionnaire whether they take fish oil supplements and provided a blood sample for a cholesterol check. Results show that participants taking fish oil had lower blood cholesterol levels than would be… read on > read on >

Many people with Parkinson’s disease may fear dementia as a common consequence of the disease. But new research suggests dementia is not inevitable with Parkinson’s, and in fact is less common than presumed. If dementia does occur, it typically does so much later in life than was previously assumed, the study also found. “These results provide more hopeful estimates of the long-term risk of dementia for people with Parkinson’s disease, suggesting that there is a longer window to intervene to prevent or delay cognitive decline,” said study lead author Dr. Daniel Weintraub, of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) in Philadelphia. The findings were published Aug. 7 in the journal Neurology. As Weintraub noted in a journal news release, “the development of dementia is feared by people with Parkinson’s, and the combination of both a movement disorder and a cognitive disorder can be devastating to them and their loved ones.” Prior studies had suggested that 80% of Parkinson’s patients might develop dementia within 15 to 20 years of being diagnosed with Parkinson’s. “While these studies were important in highlighting the issue of cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease, the studies were conducted many years ago, were relatively small and had other limitations, so we wanted to re-evaluate these findings,” noted Weintraub, an assistant professor of psychiatry at UPenn. To get a clearer picture of the incidence of… read on > read on >

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 7, 2024 (HealthDay news) — Medicare and Medicaid patients are less likely to get cutting-edge weight-loss drugs than people with private insurance are, a new study finds. Medicaid accounted for less than 10% of semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) prescription fills in 2023, researchers found. Similarly, Medicare Part D accounted for less than 29% of Ozempic fills and a little more than 1% of Wegovy fills. “If only certain patient populations get access to these medications — those primarily with private insurance, more generous health plans — then there’s a huge percentage of the U.S. population that isn’t getting access to these medications. And that brings up a very significant equity issue,” said lead researcher Dr. Christopher Scannell, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Center for Health Policy & Economics. For the study, researchers reviewed a pharmaceutical database that captures about 92% of prescriptions filled and dispensed at retail pharmacies in the United States. Ozempic is a once-weekly semaglutide injection approved for use in treating type 2 diabetes in 2017. A higher-dose version called Wegovy was approved in 2021 specifically for weight loss. Ozempic costs about $1,000 a month, while Wegovy is $1,350 a month, researchers noted. Prescription fills for semaglutide drugs skyrocketed by more than 400% between 2021 and 2023, reaching 2.6 million by December 2023, researchers found. However, most… read on > read on >

Wildfire smoke could interfere with the safety of surgeries, a new study warns. Inhaling the smoke could complicate the effects of anesthesia on surgical patients, and it also might hamper their recovery, researchers reported Aug. 6 in the journal Anesthesiology. “Wildfire smoke poses significant health risks, particularly in people with preexisting heart and lung disease, obese patients, infants and young children, and other vulnerable groups,” said senior researcher Dr. Vijay Krishnamoorthy, chief of critical care medicine at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C. “At a time of rising global exposure, anesthesiologists need to be equipped to manage the potential adverse effects of wildfire smoke exposure” on patient outcomes, Krishnamoorthy added in a journal news release. Nearly 100 wildfires are currently raging across the United States, burning more than 2 million acres, researchers noted. Wildfire smoke contains a complex mix of fine particles and chemicals that, when inhaled, enter the circulatory system. Organs like the heart and lungs can be damaged as a result, researchers said. The inhaled particles produce inflammation, damage the lining of blood vessels and cause clotting abnormalities in smaller blood vessels, they added. Exposure to such particle pollution also increases the risk of heart attack, heart rhythm problems, heart failure and stroke, they noted. All these factors lead to increased rates of complications among patients undergoing surgery, the researchers concluded.… read on > read on >

A newly developed biomaterial might be able to treat crippling arthritis by prompting the growth of new cartilage, a new animal study suggests. The bioactive material looks like rubbery goo, but it’s actually a complex biological stew designed to mimic natural cartilage in the body, researchers said. The biomaterial successfully regenerated high-quality cartilage in the knee joints of sheep within six months. If successful in humans, the new material could be used to treat osteoarthritis, which occurs when bones rub together after the cartilage separating them wears down, researchers said. That means the biomaterial could make obsolete the total knee replacement surgery now used to treat severe osteoarthritis. In the surgery, the bone ends are cut away and replaced with titanium, and the cartilage with plastic. “Cartilage is a critical component in our joints,” said lead researcher Samuel Stupp, a professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern University. “When cartilage becomes damaged or breaks down over time, it can have a great impact on people’s overall health and mobility.” “The problem is that, in adult humans, cartilage does not have an inherent ability to heal,” Stupp added in a university news release. “Our new therapy can induce repair in a tissue that does not naturally regenerate. We think our treatment could help address a serious, unmet clinical need.” The new biomaterial combines an essential… read on > read on >

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Three out of four police officers have experienced at least one concussion, increasing their risk of mental health issues, a new study suggests. About 74% of Ohio law enforcement officers had suffered one or more head injuries during their lifetimes, researchers found. Around 30% had a head injury that happened on the job. However, fewer than 1 in 4 of the head injuries were diagnosed or treated by a doctor, researchers found. “This is an area where we have to improve awareness, just like we did in the sport concussion world,” said lead researcher Jaclyn Caccese, an assistant professor in the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. For the study, researchers surveyed 381 police in central Ohio about their lifetime head injury history. The participants also completed questionnaires assessing symptoms of PTSD and depression. Prior head injuries had occurred in 282 of the officers. These injuries occurred mostly from sports, but also were caused by falling, being hit by someone or something, car accidents or exposure to a blast, researchers said. More than 50% of participants said they had a head injury severe enough to lose consciousness, feel dazed or confused, or cause a gap in memory — all signs of a concussion. Officers with a prior head injury also were more likely to have symptoms of PTSD and… read on > read on >

Botanicals like turmeric, green tea and black cohosh may seem benign, but their overuse is being increasingly linked to liver injury. New research suggests that 7% of U.S. adults are using at least one of the six leading botanicals, the equivalent of 15.6 million people. Many are ending up in hospitals for liver toxicity, researchers report. Because there’s almost no regulatory oversight over botanicals, chemical tests of products linked to liver crises “show frequent discrepancies between product labels and detected ingredients,” noted a team led by Dr. Alisa Likhitsup. She’s an assistant professor of gastroenterology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The researchers focused on the use of six of the most popular botanicals: Turmeric, green tea extract, the Garcinia cambodgia plant, black cohosh, red yeast rice and ashwagandha. Perusing 2017-2021 data on almost 9,700 adults in a federal health database, they found high rates of botanical use. For example, Likhitsup’s group estimated that more than 11 million adults regularly take turmeric supplements, often with the notion that it can ease pain or arthritis. That’s not too far below the approximately 14.8 million who take an NSAID pain reliever for much the same reasons. Unfortunately, “multiple randomized clinical trials have failed to demonstrate any efficacy of turmeric-containing products in osteoarthritis,” and overdoing it on turmeric has been linked to serious liver toxicity, the… read on > read on >

Folks who rub their forehead and complain that a complex problem is making their brain hurt aren’t overstating things, a new review suggests. Mental exertion appears to be associated with unpleasant feelings in many situations, researchers reported Aug. 5 in the journal Psychological Bulletin. In fact, the greater a person’s mental effort, the more they experience feelings like frustration, irritation, stress or annoyance, results showed. “Our findings show that mental effort feels unpleasant across a wide range of populations and tasks,” said senior researcher Erik Bijleveld, an associate professor of psychology with Radboud University in the Netherlands. “This is important for professionals, such as engineers and educators, to keep in mind when designing tasks, tools, interfaces, apps, materials or instructions,” Bijleveld added in a university news release. “When people are required to exert substantial mental effort, you need to make sure to support or reward them for their effort.” For the review, researchers analyzed 170 studies published between 2019 and 2020 involving 4,670 people. The participants included people from a wide range of backgrounds, including health care workers, military employees, amateur athletes and college students. They represented 29 countries. The studies involved more than 350 different brain tasks that ranged from learning new technology and finding one’s way around an unfamiliar environment to practicing golf swings or playing a virtual reality game. The combined results… read on > read on >

Two new studies show how eager Americans are to obtain either safe, legitimate versions of Ozempic or counterfeit and potentially dangerous forms of the diabetes/weight-loss drug. One study found U.S. prescriptions and refills of Ozempic (semaglutide) soaring over the past three years, jumping almost five-fold (392%) between early 2021 and the end of 2023. Ozempic’s reformulated-for-weight-loss cousin, Wegovy (also semaglutide), saw sales soar soon after its launch as well. According to researchers led by Dr. Dima Qato, an associate professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Southern California, sales of Wegovy climbed more than 14-fold between July 2021 and the end of 2023. “The number of prescriptions filled for semaglutide has increased substantially, reaching 2.6 millon prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies by December 2023,” Qatos’s team reported Aug. 2 in the journal JAMA Health Forum. It’s all led to U.S. shortages of both Ozempic and Wegovy, first announced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March of 2022, the researchers noted. Consumers who either can’t find semaglutide because of shortages, or who cannot afford the drugs (Wegovy is about $1,349 per month), are increasingly turning to black market vendors online, a second study found. That’s a dicey move, warned researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). They found many online counterfeit semaglutide products either contaminated with toxins or containing hazardous doses… read on > read on >