Fluorescent light can be used to highlight bacteria that hides in wounds, causing infections and slowing down the healing process, a new evidence review says. A handheld fluorescent device can light up bacteria in 9 out of 10 wounds that traditional clinical treatment would overlook, according to a study in the journal Advances in Wound Care. “We’re hopeful this new technology can help surgeons improve their accuracy when pinpointing and consequently removing bacteria from wounds and therefore improve patient outcomes, particularly for those with diabetic foot wounds,” said senior researcher Dr. David Armstrong, a podiatric surgeon and limb preservation specialist with the University of Southern California. “The early detection and removal of bacteria from a wound is vital to preventing avoidable amputations,” he added in a university news release. More than 6.5 million Americans experience chronic wounds that don’t heal within a few months, researchers said in background notes. Nearly all such wounds contain bacteria, and if not detected and removed, these germs can cause a severe infection that might end in amputation or death. Doctors cleaning out a wound do their best to remove as much bacteria as possible, but these bugs can’t be seen by the human eye and can be missed, researchers said. That’s why the research team decided to investigate autofluorescence imaging, in which violet light is used to illuminate bacteria.…  read on >  read on >

More than half of people around the world aren’t getting enough micronutrients essential to human health, including calcium, iron and vitamins C and E, a new study says. These deficiencies are contributing to global malnutrition, as well as health problems like blindness, increased vulnerability to infections, and pregnancy complications, researchers said in The Lancet Global Health. “These results are alarming,” researcher Ty Beal, a senior technical specialist at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, said in a news release. “Most people — even more than previously thought, across all regions and countries of all incomes — are not consuming enough of multiple essential micronutrients,” Beal said. “These gaps compromise health outcomes and limit human potential on a global scale.” For the study, researchers combined data from several sources to compare the nutritional intake of people in 185 countries. The team specifically assessed intake of 15 vitamins and minerals — calcium, iodine, iron, riboflavin, folate, zinc, magnesium, selenium, thiamin, niacin, and vitamins A, B6, B12, C and E. Researchers found widespread inadequate intake of iodine (68% of the world’s population); vitamin E (67%); calcium (66%); and iron (65%). More than half of people consume inadequate levels of riboflavin, folate, and vitamins C and B6, researchers added. Intake of niacin was closest to sufficient, with 22% of people worldwide consuming too little, followed by thiamin (30%) and…  read on >  read on >

Breastfeeding helps women shed those extra pounds of “pregnancy weight,” a new study finds, and the effect is even more pronounced for moms who were overweight before their pregnancy. Among women who exclusively breastfed their baby during its first year, women who were normal weight prior to pregnancy lost weight, but still retained about three extra pounds of their pregnancy weight, reported a team of researchers in Singapore. However, breastfeeding new moms who were already obese or overweight before their pregnancy lost all their added pregnancy weight, plus an average of another half-pound on top of that, the same team found. Women who chose not to breastfeed or had a mix of formula plus breastfeeding retained much more pregnancy weight, with average weight gains at 12 months post-delivery of about 6 and 8 pounds, respectively. “In this year-long study, we made an interesting discovery — an additional benefit [of breastfeeding] for women with high BMI,” said study lead author Dr. Loy See Ling, of the department of reproductive medicine at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Singapore. “Due to hormonal factors, there is a re-distribution and management of their body fat to the extent that there is an opportunity for them to lose more than the postnatal weight gain,” Ling explained in a hospital news release. Her team published its findings recently in the journal Nutrients.…  read on >  read on >

A migraine drug can help stop the devastating headaches in their tracks, allowing sufferers to go about their daily lives with little to no symptoms, a new clinical trial has found. People who took ubrogepant (Ubrelvy) were 73% more likely to say they had no disability and were able to function normally within a couple of hours, compared to those who took a placebo, researchers reported Aug. 28 in the journal Neurology. “Based on our findings, treatment with ubrogepant may allow people with migraine who experience early warning signs before a migraine occurs to quickly treat migraine attacks in their earliest stages and go about their daily lives with little discomfort and disruption,” said researcher Dr. Richard Lipton, vice chair of neurology with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y. “This could lead to an improved quality of life for those living with migraine,” Lipton added. The clinical trial, funded by the drug’s maker AbbVie, involved 518 patients who’d been suffering two to eight migraine attacks a month. All of the participants regularly experienced signs that a migraine would be starting within the next few hours, such as sensitivity to light and sound, fatigue, neck pain or stiffness, dizziness or a visual aura, researchers said. Ubrogepant is a calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonist, or CGRP inhibitor. These drugs work by blocking a small…  read on >  read on >

Classroom cellphone bans should help improve learning environments in schools, a child development expert says. Keeping the devices out of classrooms would help focus attention, improve problem-solving and — by allowing kids to occasionally lapse into boredom — spur creativity, says Jon Piacentini, a child and adolescent psychologist at UCLA Health. “There are more harms associated with cellphone use in school than the benefits,” Piacentini, a father of three, said in a UCLA news release. As a new school year kicks in, school district officials across the United States are weighing cellphone restrictions, experts said. Nearly 84% of teens ages 16 to 19 have a cellphone, making the devices as ubiquitous as backpacks, highlighters and three-ring binders, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). What’s more, U.S. children ages 8 to 12 spend about six hours a day on screens, sometimes while in class, the NIH said. “We know that a lot of kids are spending time on their phone during class or during recess,” Piacentini said. Dividing attention between class and a smartphone can make it tough for students to concentrate or problem-solve, he noted. Students who can’t concentrate “do not have the ability to take multiple perspectives or see problems from multiple approaches,” Piacentini said. Cellphones can also harm kids’ imagination and critical thinking skills by never allowing their minds to wander,…  read on >  read on >

Diabetes can age the brain by up to four years, a new study based on MRI scans shows. There was one silver lining: Healthy lifestyle changes could help prevent that neurological aging, the Swedish researchers said. “Having an older-appearing brain for one’s chronological age can indicate deviation from the normal aging process and may constitute an early warning sign for dementia,” warned study lead author Abigail Dove. “On the positive side, it seems that people with diabetes may be able to influence their brain health through healthy living,” added Dove, a graduate student of neurobiology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Her team published its findings Aug. 28 in the journal Diabetes Care. As Dove’s group noted, type 2 diabetes has long been acknowledged to be a risk factor for dementia. However, the impact of prediabetes and diabetes on the brain health of people without dementia wasn’t known. The new study sought to remedy that, analyzing MRI brain scans of over 31,000 people ages 40 to 70 who were all enrolled in a British database called the U.K. Biobank. Dove and her colleagues used AI technology to gauge the relative “brain age” for each individual. They found that folks whose medical records showed them to be in a prediabetic state had an average brain age that was half a year older than people without the…  read on >  read on >

The trees and shrubs in your neighborhood could be giving you a big health boost, a new study finds. People have lower levels of inflammation in neighborhoods where the number of trees and shrubs is more than doubled compared to other nearby locales, University of Louisville researchers reported this week at the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology annual meeting in Santiago, Chile. “Trees are beautiful, but these results show that the trees around us are also beneficial to individual and community health,” said University of Louisville President Kim Schatzel. For the study, researchers added more than 8,000 large trees and shrubs to some neighborhoods in Louisville, Ken., but not others. The plantings occurred from 2019 through 2022 within a four-square-mile section of south Louisville, in low- to middle-income neighborhoods. The team then compared 745 residents’ health data, to see how more greenery might have improved their overall well-being. Results show that residents in the greener neighborhoods had 13% to 20% lower levels of a biomarker associated with inflammation called high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP). Higher levels of this marker are strongly associated with heart risks, and can be an even stronger indicator of an impending heart attack than cholesterol levels, researchers noted. It also indicated a higher risk of diabetes and some cancers. The reduction in hsCRP found in greener neighborhoods corresponds to a 10% to…  read on >  read on >