Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

Ozempic and Wegovy can prevent heart problems in overweight and obese people, particularly if they also suffer from kidney disease, a new clinical trial shows. The drugs’ active ingredient, semaglutide, reduced heart health risk by 20% in heavyset people who took it for more than three years, researchers reported Wednesday at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting in Madrid. The study “found a similar percentage reduction in cardiovascular disease with semaglutide in those with and without poor kidney function,” said lead researcher Helen Colhoun, chair of medical informatics and life course epidemiology with the University of Edinburgh in the U.K. That’s especially good news for people with kidney troubles, Colhoun explained. “Because those with poor kidney function have higher background risk of cardiovascular disease, the absolute benefit is greatest in this group,” Colhoun said in a meeting news release. “People with impaired kidney function have increased risks of cardiovascular disease and the results show that semaglutide is safe and effective in reducing this risk substantially.” Semaglutide mimics the hormone GLP-1, which plays a role in hunger, digestion and insulin control. For the clinical trial, researchers randomly assigned more than 17,600 overweight or obese people around the world to take either semaglutide or a placebo for an average of 40 months. The participants had all previously suffered a heart attack or stroke… read on > read on >

The weight-loss drug liraglutide helped obese children lower their BMI and reach a healthier weight, researchers report. The findings, published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented simultaneously at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting in Madrid, are the first to demonstrate the effects of liraglutide (Saxenda) on children ages 6 to 11. “The results of this study offer considerable promise to children living with obesity,” study author Dr. Claudia Fox, co-director of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota, said in a meeting news release. “To date, children have had virtually no options for treating obesity. They have been told to ‘try harder’ with diet and exercise. Now, with the possibility of a medication that addresses the underlying physiology of obesity, there is hope that children living with obesity can live healthier, more productive lives.” Most adults and children 12 and older can take newer weight-loss medicines like the GLP-1 drugs Wegovy and Zepbound, experts say, but younger children must rely on diet, exercise and counseling alone to lose weight. “Obesity is the most common chronic disease of childhood,” Fox noted. “Left untreated, obesity in childhood almost universally persists into adulthood and is associated with significant ill health, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and for some, premature death. Early intervention is therefore critical.” “However,… read on > read on >

An experimental weight-loss pill appears to help people quickly shed pounds, a new study says. People who took the drug amycretin lost up to 13% of their body weight over three months, according to early clinical trial results presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting in Madrid. Amycretin mimics the action of two different hunger-related hormones at once, says Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharma company developing the drug. The drug mimics glucagon, which is the hormone also imitated by the cutting-edge GLP-1 diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, which are given via weekly injection. On top of that, amycretin also mimics amylin, another hormone implicated in hunger and insulin control. “A single molecule that targets both amylin and GLP-1 biology in a tablet form could offer a more convenient approach to achieving better outcomes for individuals with overweight or obesity,” Novo Nordisk researchers wrote in a company news release. For the study, researchers tested amycretin on overweight and obese people who didn’t have diabetes. They found that amycretin outperformed placebo in helping people lose weight, and that higher doses of amycretin caused more weight loss. Participants taking a single daily 50-milligram dose of amycretin lost a little more than 10% of their body weight, on average, within 12 weeks, researchers found. Those taking the 50-mg pill twice a day… read on > read on >

Widespread and easy access to guns is the reason behind the shockingly high rate of firearm deaths in the United States, and not any rise in mental health problems suffered by perpetrators, a new study shows. The United States has the same burden of mental health disorders as 40 other countries with comparable populations, researchers reported recently in the journal PLOS One. However, the U.S. rate of death by firearms is 20 times greater than those other countries, results show. “We have the same degree of mental health issues as other countries, but our firearm death rate is far greater and continuing to increase,” said lead investigator Dr. Archie Bleyer, a clinical research professor with Oregon Health & Science University. “In most of the countries, firearms deaths are decreasing.” Polling has shown that most of the public believes that mental health disorders are to blame for the high U.S. firearm death rate, Bleyer said. But the latest findings indicate that firearm availability is the true cause of America’s gun death epidemic, Bleyer said. For the study, researchers compared the United States to 40 other countries with similar demographics between 2000 and 2019 using data drawn from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Global Health Burden. The research team looked specifically at firearm deaths and the burden of mental health issues in the countries. Since… read on > read on >

New research uncovers a possible reason why teenaged girls struggled so mightily with their mental health during the pandemic: Scans showed their brains aged far faster than expected during that stressful time, even faster than the brains of their male peers. In the study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists measured cortical thinning, a process where redundant brain synapses are pruned and the outer layer of the cortex is thinned. While some experts believe this process is simply the brain rewiring itself for efficiency as it matures, it is known to accelerate in stressful conditions. That speeded thinning is also linked to depression and anxiety. How did the researchers discover that unusual thinning? After pandemic shutdowns started to lift, scans taken in 2021 showed that both boys and girls had experienced rapid cortical thinning during that period. But the thinning was far more pronounced in girls, whose thinning had accelerated, on average, by 4.2 years ahead of what was expected. Meanwhile, the thinning in boys’ brains had accelerated only 1.4 years ahead of what was expected. The greater impact on female brains could have been be due to differences in the importance of social interaction for girls versus boys, said senior study author Patricia Kuhl, director of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington. Teenaged girls rely… read on > read on >

Brain changes that signal Alzheimer’s disease even before symptoms appear are linked to an increased vulnerability to financial scams, new research shows. “Assessing financial vulnerability in older adults could help identify those who are in the early stages of mild cognitive impairment or dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease,” said study lead author Duke Han. He’s a professor of psychology and family medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Unscrupulous con artists can reach out to seniors via phone or email with various scams that, in some instances, can wipe out retirement savings. In many cases, early-onset dementia has rendered these seniors more vulnerable, Han’s group said. The USC team conducted two types of tests in a group of 97 people over the age of 50. None had obvious signs of cognitive troubles when they joined the study. In one test, all participants underwent high powered MRIs to look at the thickness of a brain area called the entorhinal cortex. This region helps foster communication between the hippocampus (a center for learning and memory) and the the medial prefrontal cortex, which regulates emotion, motivation and other cognitive functions. Prior research has shown that pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease often manifests as a “thinning out” of the entorhinal cortex, which progresses as the disease becomes more apparent. All of the 97 participants also took a test gauging… read on > read on >

A form of psychotherapy can help women whose libidos have suffered as they go through menopause, a new study finds. Cognitive behavioral therapy significantly improved sexual desire and satisfaction in a small group of middle-aged and older women, researchers said. “To our knowledge, this is the first study that has examined the efficacy of a cognitive behavioral therapy protocol specifically aimed to improve sexual concerns experienced during peri- and postmenopause,” said lead researcher Sheryl Green. She’s associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences with McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. Declining estrogen levels cause sexual concerns in 68% to 87% of women in the midst of menopause or postmenopause, researchers explained in background notes. Treatment options for sexual problems like a loss of desire or pain during sex are limited, researchers said. For this study, researchers asked women to participate in four sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy aimed at managing sexual issues that accompany menopause. Cognitive behavioral therapy works by helping people recognize ways of thinking or patterns of behavior that are causing them problems with their mental and physical health. The therapist helps people come up with new thoughts or behaviors to replace the ones that are causing harm, as well as methods of meditation and problem-solving. Following the therapy, study participants experienced significant improvement in multiple areas of sexual function, body image and sexual… read on > read on >

Key Takeaways A man who received the world’s first combined whole-eye and partial face transplant is doing well His body has not rejected either his new face of his new left eye However, vision has not returned in the donated eye The recipient of the world’s first combined whole-eye and partial face transplant is doing well more than a year out from his groundbreaking surgery, NYU Langone doctors report. Aaron James, a 46-year-old military veteran from Arkansas, says over the past year his new face has allowed him to enjoy things others take for granted. No more stares from strangers. The ability to taste and enjoy solid foods again. The simple pleasure of smelling. Trading in his old driver’s license, which displayed his injured face, for a new one. James is now back to daily life in Arkansas and focused on sending his daughter, Allie, off to college. “I’m pretty much back to being a normal guy, doing normal things,” James said in an NYU Langone news release. “All in all, though, this has been the most transformative year of my life. I’ve been given the gift of a second chance, and I don’t take a single moment for granted. James was maimed in June 2021 when his face touched a live wire on the job as a high-voltage lineman in Arkansas. The deadly 7,200-volt… read on > read on >

Losing weight can help a person with obesity — especially those with diabetes — fend off serious infections, new data shows. It’s an important finding, since “up to one in three hospitalizations in people with diabetes are for infections and people with diabetes are twice as likely to be hospitalized with infections than the general population. They are also at high risk of readmission,” said study co-lead author Rhian Hopkins. She’s at the University of Exeter Medical School in the U.K. Hopkins presented the research Saturday in Madrid at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). The new study used data from the ongoing UK Biobank, a database that includes health info on almost 500,000 Britons. According to the data, about 64,000 had been hospitalized for a bacterial infection (such as a urinary tract infection or pneumonia); almost 15,000 had been hospitalized with a viral infection (such as the flu), and about 408,000 had never been hospitalized for infection. Obesity seemed linked to a higher risk for severe infection, the team found. Every 5-point increase in BMI — for example, from a BMI of 30 (the threshold for obesity) to 35 — incurred a 30% rise in the risk of a serious bacterial infection and a 32% rise for severe viral infection. These associations were for all people, regardless… read on > read on >

A slow-release form of semaglutide could allow people who use Wegovy or Ozempic to get shots once a month, instead of the weekly injections they now take, a new study demonstrates. The new formulation encases semaglutide in a hydrogel that slowly releases the drug as the gel dissolves, researchers said. “A small dollop of gel, known as a ‘depot,’ of the semaglutide-laden hydrogel is injected under the skin,” said lead researcher Dr. Claire Megret, director of clinical and preclinical development for the French biotech company ADOCIA, which developed the gel. The hydrogel successfully released a smooth, steady stream of semaglutide to six lab rats, researchers said in a presentation at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes’ annual meeting in Madrid. “Next we will be testing the hydrogel platform in pigs, whose skin and endocrine systems are most similar to those in humans,” Megret said in a meeting news release. “If that goes well, we will move forward the platform development by expecting clinical trials within the next few years.” Semaglutide promotes weight loss and helps control diabetes by mimicking the GLP-1 hormone, which is released in the gut in response to eating. The drug helps suppress appetite, slows down digestion and prompts the body to produce more insulin in response to elevated blood sugar levels. Unfortunately, semaglutide now must be given in weekly… read on > read on >