Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

Tobacco remains the leading preventable cause of cancer death in the U.S., despite a dramatic decline in smoking, a new American Cancer Society report says. More than 80% of lung cancer deaths are linked to tobacco, according to data from the inaugural release of the American Heart Association’s U.S. Tobacco Atlas. That’s even though cigarette smoking among adults cratered from 42% in 1965 to just 11% in 2023, researchers said. Quit rates also have skyrocketed, with a record 62% of smokers trying to drop the habit in 2022, the reports says. However, smokers are shunning the low-dose CT chest scans that are recommended for lung cancer screening, results show. Only 18% of eligible current or former smokers were up to date with screening in 2022 — such screening can catch cancers early and improve survival odds. “The U.S. Tobacco Atlas is a powerful tool showcasing not only the toll that tobacco has taken on the U.S., but also the immense progress public health gains have made over the past decades,” lead report editor Nigar Nargis, senior scientific director of tobacco control research at the American Cancer Society, said in a news release. “Since the landmark 1964 U.S. Surgeon General’s report on tobacco, millions of lives have been saved by tobacco control, but the scale of the epidemic demands our continued attention and support,” Nargis added. The… read on > read on >

A new gene test might be able to predict which gout patients will have a bad skin reaction to a common medication for the condition, researchers say. A newly discovered gene combined with an already known genetic factor could explain the risk of skin side effects in more than 80% of U.S. gout patients prescribed allopurinol, researchers reported Oct. 29 in JAMA Dermatology. “We found a new genetic association, HLA-A*34:02, which appears very important as a risk factor in U.S. allopurinol severe cutaneous adverse reactions patients,” lead researcher Dr. Elizabeth Phillips said in a news release. She’s a professor of clinical research, medicine, dermatology, pharmacology and pathology, microbiology and immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Gout occurs when the kidneys are not able to filter out excess levels of uric acid from a person’s bloodstream. The uric acid forms needle-like crystals that lodge in joints, causing sudden and severe pain and swelling among gout patients. Allopurinol reduces the production of uric acid in the body, but it also is associated with severe skin reactions in some patients. One side effect, called Stevens-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis, causes skin to rash, blister and peel. Most who develop this syndrome from allopurinol use are hospitalized, and as many as 30% die, researchers said in background notes. A gene called HLA-B*58:01 already has been associated with… read on > read on >

Home exercises can effectively ease knee pain caused by cartilage tears and arthritis, apparently with or without physical therapy, a new study says. The stretching and strengthening exercises provided about the same amount of pain relief whether or not a person got real or sham physical therapy, researchers reported Oct. 29 in The New England Journal of Medicine. “On average, participants in all groups reported moderately severe pain at the start of the study and much milder pain three, six and 12 months later,” lead researcher Dr. Jeffrey Katz said in a news release. He’s clinical director of the Orthopedic and Arthritis Center for Outcomes Research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. As many as 40% of middle-aged folks and 80% of those with knee arthritis have tears in their knee cartilage, which is called the meniscus, researchers said in background notes. For the study, nearly 900 people with an average age of 59 were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The patients all had knee pain, arthritis and a meniscus tear. One group took part in a 25-minute home exercise program four times a week, guided by a video and pamphlets. The second and third groups got home exercise plus either real or placebo physical therapy. Those who got real or sham PT did have slightly greater pain improvement at six and… read on > read on >

Doctors think they’ve figured out a way to predict who might lose vision due to a high brain pressure disorder. Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) occurs when there’s unexplained pressure buildup in the fluid that cushions the brain in the skull, researchers explain in the journal Neurology. If untreated, IIH can lead to blindness, researchers said. It mainly affects women of childbearing age who are obese. Researchers found that changes in the optic disc – the place inside the eye where the optic nerve connects to the retina – can predict who will develop blind spots in their vision or lose sharpness of vision. “The number of cases of idiopathic intracranial hypertension has been increasing, and it mainly affects young women, so we need more information about who is more likely to develop vision problems and how that process works,” senior researcher Dr. Dagmar Beier, a clinical professor of neurology with the University of Southern Denmark, said in a news release. Symptoms associated with IIH include chronic, disabling headaches, double vision, loss of vision, hearing problems and nausea, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. For the new study, researchers analyzed 154 people with IIH treated at two headache centers in Denmark between January 2018 and September 2022. The patients’ average age was 28. Of those, 147 had papilledema, or swelling of the optic disc due… read on > read on >

An anti-inflammation injectable drug can reduce mucus buildup and improve breathing among asthma patients, a new clinical trial says. The drug dupilumab (Dupixent) effectively clears up airways plugged by mucus during an asthma attack, researchers reported Oct. 27 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Results found half as many patients had mucus-plugged airways following treatment with the drug. “In moderate-to-severe asthma, a buildup of mucus in the lungs can obstruct breathing airways to the point where affected patients suffer limited breathing, severe asthma attacks, and even death,” lead researcher Dr. Celeste Porsbjerg said in a news release. She’s a professor of severe asthma at Bispebjerg Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark. Everyone has some mucus in their system, but it typically isn’t bothersome unless we’re stricken with a cold or the flu, researchers noted. But mucus can be life-threatening to someone with asthma, if inflammation tightens their airway and breathing is cut off by phlegm, researchers said. “For patients who experience increased mucus production with their asthma flares or attacks, it leads to increased stress/distress and anxiety. Sometimes the stuck mucus can cause gagging because it gets stuck and they can’t expel it or cough it out,” De De Gardner, chief research officer for the Allergy & Asthma Network, said in a news release. Gardner was not involved in the study. Dupilumab originally… read on > read on >