A temporary “mini-stroke” can have a lasting effect on the victim’s life for as much as a year, a new study says. Prolonged fatigue is common in people who’ve suffered a transient ischemic attack (TIA), researchers reported May 14 in the journal Neurology. More than half of the people who suffered a TIA reported significant fatigue that lasted up to a year, the duration of the study, researchers said. Transient ischemic attacks are referred to as “mini-strokes” because they involve a temporary blockage of blood flow to the brain that does not result in permanent brain damage, as does a full-fledged stroke, researchers said. “People with a transient ischemic attack can have symptoms such as face drooping, arm weakness or slurred speech and these resolve within a day,” said senior researcher Dr. Boris Modrau, a clinical associate professor at Aalborg University Hospital in Denmark. “However, some have reported continued challenges including reduced quality of life, thinking problems, depression, anxiety and fatigue,” Modrau said in a news release. “Our study found that for some people, fatigue was a common symptom that lasted up to one year after the transient ischemic attack.” For the new study, researchers followed for a year 354 people with an average age of 70 who suffered a mini-stroke. Patients completed questionnaires about their fatigue levels within the first two weeks of their…  read on >  read on >

A temporary “mini-stroke” can have a lasting effect on the victim’s life for as much as a year, a new study says. Prolonged fatigue is common in people who’ve suffered a transient ischemic attack (TIA), researchers reported May 14 in the journal Neurology. More than half of the people who suffered a TIA reported significant fatigue that lasted up to a year, the duration of the study, researchers said. Transient ischemic attacks are referred to as “mini-strokes” because they involve a temporary blockage of blood flow to the brain that does not result in permanent brain damage, as does a full-fledged stroke, researchers said. “People with a transient ischemic attack can have symptoms such as face drooping, arm weakness or slurred speech and these resolve within a day,” said senior researcher Dr. Boris Modrau, a clinical associate professor at Aalborg University Hospital in Denmark. “However, some have reported continued challenges including reduced quality of life, thinking problems, depression, anxiety and fatigue,” Modrau said in a news release. “Our study found that for some people, fatigue was a common symptom that lasted up to one year after the transient ischemic attack.” For the new study, researchers followed for a year 354 people with an average age of 70 who suffered a mini-stroke. Patients completed questionnaires about their fatigue levels within the first two weeks of their…  read on >  read on >

Migraines don’t just cause headaches. These attacks often are accompanied by symptoms like light and sound sensitivity, nausea, neck pain and dizziness. What’s more, those non-headache symptoms tend to crop up before a full-fledged migraine headache takes root. But now, researchers say they’ve discovered an already approved migraine drug that can stop these other symptoms hours before a headache starts. Ubrogepant successfully warded off early migraine symptoms in patients who took the drug one to six hours before a headache, causing a: 72% increased likelihood a person wouldn’t experience light sensitivity. 85% increased likelihood they wouldn’t have fatigue. Doubled likelihood they wouldn’t experience neck pain or sound sensitivity. The drug also helped people think and concentrate better despite their oncoming migraine, researchers reported May 12 in Nature Medicine. The results suggest that ubrogepant could “free patients from a disabling part of migraine,” study co-author Dr. Peter Goadsby, a neuroscientist at King’s College London, told Nature. Ubrogepant gained approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2019 after studies showed that it reduced headache pain and other migraine symptoms within two hours of taking the pill, according to Drugs.com. The drug works by blocking a protein involved in pain and migraines called calcitonin gene-related peptide, or CGRP. Ubrogepant prevents the CGRP protein from attaching to nerve endings. Symptoms that occur prior to a migraine…  read on >  read on >

Migraines don’t just cause headaches. These attacks often are accompanied by symptoms like light and sound sensitivity, nausea, neck pain and dizziness. What’s more, those non-headache symptoms tend to crop up before a full-fledged migraine headache takes root. But now, researchers say they’ve discovered an already approved migraine drug that can stop these other symptoms hours before a headache starts. Ubrogepant successfully warded off early migraine symptoms in patients who took the drug one to six hours before a headache, causing a: 72% increased likelihood a person wouldn’t experience light sensitivity. 85% increased likelihood they wouldn’t have fatigue. Doubled likelihood they wouldn’t experience neck pain or sound sensitivity. The drug also helped people think and concentrate better despite their oncoming migraine, researchers reported May 12 in Nature Medicine. The results suggest that ubrogepant could “free patients from a disabling part of migraine,” study co-author Dr. Peter Goadsby, a neuroscientist at King’s College London, told Nature. Ubrogepant gained approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2019 after studies showed that it reduced headache pain and other migraine symptoms within two hours of taking the pill, according to Drugs.com. The drug works by blocking a protein involved in pain and migraines called calcitonin gene-related peptide, or CGRP. Ubrogepant prevents the CGRP protein from attaching to nerve endings. Symptoms that occur prior to a migraine…  read on >  read on >

Significant weight gain paired with delayed or foregone motherhood nearly triples a young woman’s risk of later breast cancer, a new study says. Women were 2.7 times more likely to develop breast cancer if they: Had a more than 30% increase in weight after age 20. Either delayed their first child until after age 30 or didn’t have children at all. “Our study is the first to establish how weight gain and age of first birth interact to affect a woman’s risk of breast cancer,” lead researcher Lee Malcomson, a research associate at the University of Manchester in the U.K., said in a news release. “It is vital that general practitioners are aware that the combination of gaining a significant amount of weight and having late first birth — or, indeed, not having children — greatly increases a woman’s risk of the disease,” he said. For the study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 48,500 women participating in a large study of breast screening. The women’s average age was 57 and they had an average body mass index (BMI) of 26, which is considered overweight. BMI is an estimate of body fat based on height and weight. Researchers asked them to recall their weight at 20, and calculated their weight gain from then based on their current weight.  The women were followed for about six years…  read on >  read on >

Significant weight gain paired with delayed or foregone motherhood nearly triples a young woman’s risk of later breast cancer, a new study says. Women were 2.7 times more likely to develop breast cancer if they: Had a more than 30% increase in weight after age 20. Either delayed their first child until after age 30 or didn’t have children at all. “Our study is the first to establish how weight gain and age of first birth interact to affect a woman’s risk of breast cancer,” lead researcher Lee Malcomson, a research associate at the University of Manchester in the U.K., said in a news release. “It is vital that general practitioners are aware that the combination of gaining a significant amount of weight and having late first birth — or, indeed, not having children — greatly increases a woman’s risk of the disease,” he said. For the study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 48,500 women participating in a large study of breast screening. The women’s average age was 57 and they had an average body mass index (BMI) of 26, which is considered overweight. BMI is an estimate of body fat based on height and weight. Researchers asked them to recall their weight at 20, and calculated their weight gain from then based on their current weight.  The women were followed for about six years…  read on >  read on >

ADHD stimulant meds don’t increase children’s risk of psychosis, a new study says. Analysis of stimulant prescriptions among nearly 8,400 kids with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder found no evidence that the drugs caused psychosis, researchers reported May 12 in the journal Pediatrics. “Previous observational research has suggested that stimulants may play a causal role in the development of psychotic experiences in young people with ADHD,” wrote the research team led by senior investigator Dr. Ian Kelleher, chair of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh in the U.K. However, this perceived link likely is because kids who are more likely to be treated for ADHD also share factors that place them at higher risk for psychotic episodes, researchers said. These factors include more severe ADHD symptoms and a higher number of other mental health problems researchers found. “Our findings do not support a causal relationship between stimulant prescription and psychotic experiences,” the study concluded. “Rather, the association appears to be confounded by factors that both increase probability of stimulant prescription and lead to psychotic experiences.” For the study, researchers tracked the health of children participating in an adolescent brain development study in the United States. Kids 9 to 10 were recruited into the study between 2016 and 2018. Of those children, just under 6% had been prescribed one or more stimulant prescriptions. At first,…  read on >  read on >