Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

College students who use drugs like Adderall to help them focus on their studies may be setting themselves up for trouble. Researchers asked 700 undergraduates across the United States about drugs commonly used by students — including ADHD medications like Adderall, cannabis, nicotine, alcohol, MDMA and ecstasy. They also asked about students’ academic performance and physical and mental distress. They found that using one substance appears to prime the brain for using others. Lead author Lina Begdache, an associate professor of health and wellness studies at Binghamton University, State University of New York, said the finding is important because many students use these so-called “study drugs” without understanding how they affect the brain. Adderall is a medication prescribed to help people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) focus. “Since these are prescribed medications to promote focus in individuals who actually have ADHD, students may think that they are safe to use and that the drug may give them an academic edge,” she said in a university news release. Instead of an edge, students may find one substance leads to another, Begdache warned. Researchers linked use of one substance to generally poorer mental health and lower ability to fight off stress. And less frequent use led to mental distress — potentially promoting continued use. The findings were published recently in the International Journal of Psychological and Behavioral… read on > read on >

Nurses who specialize in anesthesia have issued new guidelines to reduce the risk that patients taking weight-loss drugs like Ozempic or Wegovy throw up during surgery. “These medications have exploded in popularity,” said Micah Walden, of the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA) Practice Committee. “This means additional preparation for patients, anesthesia providers and the surgical team to help minimize risks of complications during a procedure.” Because general anesthesia can cause nausea, patients are usually asked to fast before surgery. But a study published last week in the journal JAMA Surgery found these weight-loss drugs — called GLP-1 receptor agonists — slow digestion, so it takes longer for food to leave the stomach. That increases a patient’s risk of vomiting or aspiration while under anesthesia. GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic, Wegovy (semaglutide), Saxenda (liraglutide) or Zepbound (tirzepatide) were originally designed to manage type 2 diabetes, but they have become a popular way to lose weight. They make patients feel full sooner, so they eat less. As a precaution, the AANA committee said providers may need to do extra screenings such as an ultrasound of the patient’s stomach before surgery. If the examination indicates that the stomach is not empty or the imaging is inconclusive, the surgical team may consider delaying an elective surgery or proceeding as “full stomach” to reduce the risk of vomiting and aspiration while… read on > read on >

People diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show a marked decline in their two-year risk for death once they start taking medication, new research shows. That was particularly true for deaths due to accidents and drug overdose. People taking ADHD drugs also showed no higher risk of dying from natural causes — suggesting the meds are safe for users’ heart health. Medications like Ritalin, Concerta and others probably lower users’ odds for an early death “by alleviating the core symptoms of ADHD and other psychiatric co-morbidities [illnesses], leading to improved impulse control and decision-making,” concluded a team led by Zheng Chang, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Better impulse control and healthier decisions help people with ADHD avoid tragedies like fatal accidents and drug overdoses, the researchers said. As Chang’s team noted, prior research has shown that people with ADHD face double the odds for deaths from “unnatural causes” — events such as accidents, suicide and unintended drug overdoses. Many people struggle with the decision to start ADHD medications, however, so the new study wanted to see if the drugs might lower death risks. Chang’s team gathered data from multiple Swedish health registries. In all, they amassed medical histories on almost 149,000 Swedes who’d been diagnosed with ADHD between the ages of 6 and 64. Within three months of their diagnosis, about 57% of… read on > read on >

Women who’ve gone through menopause and hope that supplemental vitamin D plus calcium might shield them from disease may be disappointed by new data. A follow-up analysis of data from the landmark Women’s Health Initiative trial found the supplement combo lowered a woman’s long-term odds of dying from cancer by 7%. However, it also raised her odds of fatal heart disease by 6%. The bottom line: there was “no net effect on all-cause mortality” among older women who took the supplement combo, the study authors said. It’s possible “that calcium supplements may increase calcification of coronary arteries, thus increasing cardiovascular disease mortality,” said a team led by Cynthia Thomson, a professor of health promotion sciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The findings were published March 11 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. For years, many older women have popped a combination of calcium plus vitamin D to help strengthen their bones. Many may also wonder if the supplements cut their odds for two major killers, heart disease and cancer. The Women’s Health Initiative began enrolling tens of thousands of women as far back as 1991, and has tracked their health outcomes over subsequent decades. In 2006, the first (seven-year) findings on the effects of calcium/vitamin D supplementation on women’s health were announced; the results were “largely null,” Thomson’s group noted. Could that result… read on > read on >

Gay and bisexual people, as well as those undergoing gender transition, could face unique dermatological issues, an expert says. Board-certified dermatologist Dr. John Zampella, who runs a clinic in New York City that caters to many LGBTQ+ patients, said the risk for sexually transmitted infections is higher among this group and can sometimes lead to skin complications. “Dermatologists are the experts in the diagnosis and treatment of many sexually transmitted infections like syphilis, HPV and herpes that often have skin-related symptoms,” Zampella explained at the American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting in San Diego. There are recent reports on the emergence of fungal infections, such as ringworm, that could also be sexually transmitted among gay and bisexual men. These typically appear as a spreading rash in the groin or buttocks area, and should be examined by a physician such as a dermatologist, Zampella said. Strains of these infections often prove resistant to traditional antifungal meds and may take longer to treat. The best way to stop many STIs is prevention, of course. As Zampella noted, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) antivirals are now available as injections that can provide users with two months of protection against HIV. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also approved the antibiotic doxycycline, taken within 72 hours of having sex, as a preventive measure against syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea.… read on > read on >

Slicing some fresh limes for that margarita savored in the sun could be a bad combo for some people’s skin, dermatologists warn. Folks can break out in what are nicknamed “margarita rashes” if they are skin-sensitive to certain fruits or vegetables and then get sun exposure soon after. The medical term for these outbreaks is photocontact dermatitis. “Sun sensitivity is a common condition that can negatively impact a person’s quality of life,” said board-certified dermatologist Dr. Brandon Adler, an assistant professor of dermatology at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He spoke about the issue on Friday during the American Academy of Dermatology’s annual meeting. Handling produce such as lime, figs and celery or coming into contact with plants like hogweed and St. John’s wort can set some folks up for photocontact dermatitis. For other people, medicines — taken either by mouth or applied to the skin — can help spur skin reactions, Adler explained. A medicinal cream might only cause a rash where it was applied, but a pill taken by mouth might bring on a rash that breaks out all over the body after sun exposure. Typical photocontact rashes occur in areas most exposed to sun — face, neck, arms or legs, Adler said. “While we will often prescribe anti-inflammatory medications to treat photocontact dermatitis, the… read on > read on >

Kids struggling with mental health problems have a tougher time recovering from a concussion, a new study finds. These troubled kids tend to have more emotional symptoms after concussion and take longer to fully recover, results show. In fact, the more mental health diagnoses a child had, the worse their emotional symptoms and the longer their recovery following a concussion, researchers reported recently in the journal Sports Health. “While research has emphasized the negative mental health effects that persist after a concussion and how they can impact development and recovery, it’s also very important to consider the burden these children and adolescents face prior to their injuries, and how their preexisting mental health status can impact recovery,” said senior researcher Dr. Matthew Grady, a pediatric sports medicine specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Concussions are a common childhood injury, with about 2 million sports- and recreation-related concussions occurring each year in the United States, researchers said in background notes. These mild traumatic brain injuries can cause a variety of problems with brain function, emotions, sleep and vision, researchers said. A child’s physical health prior to concussion is known to influence their symptoms and recovery time. To see whether that held true for mental health as well, researchers analyzed data on more than 3,100 kids who had suffered a concussion. The research team checked the… read on > read on >

Wegovy (semaglutide), the weight-loss version of blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic, was approved on Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help prevent heart attack, stroke and heart death. “Wegovy is now the first weight-loss medication to also be approved to help prevent life-threatening cardiovascular events in adults with cardiovascular disease and either obesity or overweight,” Dr. John Sharretts, director of the Division of Diabetes, Lipid Disorders and Obesity in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in an agency statement. “This patient population has a higher risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke,” Sharretts explained. “Providing a treatment option that is proven to lower this cardiovascular risk is a major advance for public health.” According to the FDA, over 70% of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, putting them at added risk for heart attack or stroke. In one multinational study involving over 17,600 people, participants received either injected Wegovy or a placebo injection. All participants also got standard-of-care management of their blood pressure and cholesterol plus counseling on exercise and healthy eating. “Wegovy significantly reduced the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events [cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke], which occurred in 6.5% of participants who received Wegovy compared to 8% of participants who received placebo,” the FDA said. It’s thought that this expanded approval from the FDA could remove… read on > read on >

Instead of approving the new Alzheimer’s drug donanemab this month, as was expected, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will now require the experimental medication be scrutinized more closely by an expert panel, the drug’s maker said Friday. “The FDA has informed Lilly it wants to further understand topics related to evaluating the safety and efficacy of donanemab, including the safety results in donanemab-treated patients and the efficacy implications of the unique trial design,” the company said in a statement. The move surprised the company, which had believed the agency would give its blessing to the drug during the first quarter of this year. “We were not expecting this,” Anne White, a Lilly executive vice president and president of its neuroscience division, told the Times. While independent FDA advisory committees are often called upon when the agency has questions about drugs, it was unusual to do so “at the end of the review cycle and beyond the action date that the FDA had given us,” White noted. While the FDA did not comment on the news, Lilly officials said they expected it would be a few months before the appropriate advisory committee meets to weigh the benefits of the drug, the Times reported. “The FDA did commit to us to move quickly, so we would hope that they would then take action shortly after the… read on > read on >

Folks worried about becoming flabby in middle age should check out what their parents looked like when they were that age, a new study says. People are six times more likely to become obese in middle age if both their parents were chubby during that time of their lives, according to research to be presented at the European Congress on Obesity in May. Further, having just one obese parent more than triples a person’s odds of middle-aged obesity, researchers found. These findings demonstrate that the established association between childhood obesity and parental weight doesn’t fade as a kid ages, said lead researcher Mari Mikkelsen, a doctoral research fellow of community medicine at the Arctic University of Norway. “Obesity in childhood, and especially in adolescence, tends to follow the individual into early adulthood, and so we suspected it would also follow them into middle age,” Mikkelsen said in a meeting news release. “We found that this is indeed the case — children whose parents lived with obesity are much more likely to be in living with obesity themselves when they are in their 40s and 50s, long after they have left home,” Mikkelsen added. For this study, researchers analyzed health data on more than 2,000 parent-offspring pairs who took both took part in an ongoing health research project called the Tromso Study. All the offspring were… read on > read on >