Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

Autopsy is currently the only way to definitively diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease often seen in athletes who’ve suffered repeated blows to the head. But there may be a way to predict which athletes are likely to develop CTE, researchers report June 28 in the journal Neurology. They outline criteria for a condition called traumatic encephalopathy syndrome, where CTE is suspected based on cognitive impairment, behavior changes and other factors. “These findings suggest that this new diagnosis of traumatic encephalopathy syndrome may be useful in professional sports such as boxing and mixed martial arts and may be helpful in predicting who may experience cognitive decline,” study co-author Brooke Conway Kleven said in a journal news release. She is with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Public Health. CTE was originally studied in boxers as “punch-drunk syndrome.” The progressive and fatal brain disease is linked to the development of dementia. For the new study, researchers studied 130 active and retired professional fighters in boxing, martial arts and mixed martial arts. They were a part of a brain health study run by the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Participants had brain scans and took cognitive tests when the study began. Researchers found that those who met the criteria for traumatic encephalopathy syndrome had greater declines in brain volume. These participants also had… read on > read on >

Obesity is a known contributor to a host of health risks ranging from diabetes to cancer, but new research suggests it may also delay recovery from a mild traumatic brain injury. Why? The systemic inflammation that being obese can cause in the body may be a driving factor, according to researchers. “This is a very understudied population related to obesity impacting outcomes,” said lead study author Shawn Eagle, a research assistant professor in University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Department of Neurological Surgery. “But knowing that a person with excess body fat may have a worse time can serve as a starting point for finding certain targeted treatments that may be useful to help that individual person get better.” It’s well known that severe obesity impairs thinking abilities, Eagle noted. And Eagle had observed that patients who were carrying excess body fat were having a more difficult time recovering from mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) while he was working in a concussion specialty clinic. “The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. It’s very well known that higher inflammation after a TBI is related to worse outcomes, and obesity is essentially an inflammatory condition,” Eagle said. Though they are called “mild,” these head injuries can cause serious symptoms. Some patients even have functional limitations a full year later. Cognitive behavioral and physical… read on > read on >

Growing up in poverty may harm the structural wiring of a child’s brain, a new study claims. Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found a link between both neighborhood and household poverty and the brain’s white matter tracts. These let the brain communicate between its regions and are important for processing information. “White matter integrity is very important in brain development,” said first study author Zhaolong (Adrian) Li, a neuro-imaging research technician in the university’s department of psychiatry. “For example, weaknesses in white matter are linked to visuospatial and mental health challenges in children. If we can capture how socioeconomic status affects white matter early on in a child’s life, the hope is we can, one day, translate these findings to preventive measures.” Some of these white matter differences can be attributed to childhood obesity and lower thinking function, both of which are higher risks in children who grow up in poverty. The lower thinking function may be due partly to limited access to enriching sensory, social and cognitive (mental) stimulation. “Our finding that obesity and cognitive enrichment may be relevant mediators, if confirmed, would provide strong support for managing healthy weight and encouraging cognitively stimulating activities to support brain health in disadvantaged children,” co-corresponding author Tamara Hershey said in a university news release. She is a professor of cognitive neuroscience,… read on > read on >

An experimental drug appears to outperform the trendy medications Wegovy and Ozempic for both weight loss and diabetes control, a pair of early clinical trials shows. Retatrutide helped people with obesity drop about one-quarter of their starting weight, on average, during 48 weeks taking the drug, according to phase 2 trial results published online June 26 in the New England Journal of Medicine. “What is clear is that 24% weight loss from a single drug has not been seen before,” said co-researcher Dr. Lee Kaplan, an associate professor with Harvard Medical School. “And the subjects in the trial were still losing weight at the end.” The best comparable results come from last year’s clinical trial results for the diabetes drug Mounjaro (tirzepatide), which after 72 weeks had produced an average weight loss of more than 22%, Kaplan said. Retatrutide also helped patients establish better control over their blood sugar levels, according to a second phase 2 trial published online June 26 in The Lancet. Retatrutide works by targeting three different gut hormones that are stimulated by food intake, explained Dr. Ania Jastreboff, director of the Yale Obesity Research Center, in New Haven, Conn. Jastreboff led the obesity trial and was a co-author for the diabetes management trial. The hormones include one targeted by Ozempic and two targeted by Mounjaro, Jastreboff and Kaplan said. “These are… read on > read on >

Gastric bypass surgery is a potential long-term cure for type 2 diabetes, especially if the procedure is performed before the disease progresses, a new study argues. Among a large group of obese people with type 2 diabetes, about half achieved remission for an average seven years after undergoing gastric bypass surgery — the longest follow-up ever for such a group, researchers said. “That’s a very big deal,” said senior researcher Dr. Omar Ghanem, a metabolic surgeon with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “After a one-time treatment, you’re going to have a 51% chance that you won’t have diabetes and you won’t have to take any medications for seven years.” The chances of diabetes remission were even better if the disease wasn’t advanced, researchers reported Tuesday at the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery’s annual meeting, in Las Vegas. For instance, you stood a better chance of remission if you weren’t taking insulin or multiple diabetes medications, had better blood sugar control, or hadn’t had diabetes for long, researchers found. Also, you didn’t have to lose a lot of weight to stand a good chance of going into remission, researchers said. About 41% of patients who lost the least — less than 18% of their initial weight — following gastric bypass surgery went into remission from their diabetes, results show. By comparison, 56% of… read on > read on >

Athletes using ketone supplements to boost their performance may be kidding themselves, researchers say. The literature on the benefit of ketone supplements is mixed. Some studies have shown the supplements improve performance, but others say they have no effect or even worsen performance. Natural ketones fuel the brain and muscles. A ketogenic diet of very low carbs and high fat causes the body to make more ketone compounds and increase their use for energy. Ketone supplements are thought to speed up that process, without the strict diet, the researchers noted. “One of the main perceived benefits is that ketones may serve as an alternative fuel source during exercise or potentially alter the utilization of other major fuel such as carbohydrates and fats, and in turn enhance endurance capacity,” said researcher Martin Gibala, a professor in the kinesiology department at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. “But our findings suggest that isn’t the case,” he added in a university news release. For the study, Gibala and his team tested 23 well-trained endurance athletes who cycled five or more hours a week, selecting them because their athletic performance is consistent from day to day. Each participant completed two trials that differed only in the drink they were given before they completed a 20-minute cycling time trial that closely predicts 40-km race performance. The drinks contained a ketone supplement… read on > read on >

When a child unintentionally shoots and kills another child in the United States, they’ve likely been playing around with an unlocked, loaded gun, new research reveals. Analyzing a decade’s worth of data, researchers also found that 4 out of 10 such gun deaths involve kids 2 to 4 years old. About two-thirds of the unintentional fatal shootings happen at the victim’s home, and both victim and shooter are usually male. Nearly all cases “involve a gun belonging to a parent or other family member that was stored loaded and unlocked,” said study co-author Nichole Michaels. “Often, the child was playing with the gun or thought the gun was a toy,” noted Michaels, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Ohio State University College of Medicine and the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. The critical message is that “these deaths are preventable, and safe storage of firearms is the key,” Michaels said. Guns have surpassed road crashes as the leading cause of death among American children and teens, according to a recent study using data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the new study, investigators used data from the National Violent Death Report System (NVDRS), looking at 279 unintentional fatal shootings that occurred between 2009 and 2018. All the cases involved kids younger than… read on > read on >

The pain and discomfort of a herniated disk can significantly impact the quality of your life. Here is what you should know about having a herniated disk, including what it is, its causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. Plus, learn about the medication, self-care, surgery and lifestyle options that may help relieve pain. What is a herniated disk? The Cleveland Clinic describes a herniated disk as a spinal injury. Your spinal cord is made up of bony parts called vertebrae; between the vertebrae are disks that act as cushions. These make it easier to bend and move. When one tears or leaks, it is called a herniated disk. The injury typically occurs in the lower back or neck region. A herniated disk may also be called a slipped disk, a ruptured disk or a bulging disk. Herniated disk causes and risk factors Disk herniation often results from aging; the disks become less flexible over time. The Mayo Clinic lists the following risk factors: Weight: Excess weight puts a strain on the back. Occupation: People with physically demanding jobs that require repetitive lifting, pulling, pushing and bending are more likely to have a herniated disk. Genetics Smoking: It is believed smoking lessens the oxygen supply to the disks and may cause them to break down more quickly. Frequent driving: Sitting for long periods can put pressure on… read on > read on >

After drugmaker Novo Nordisk tweaked its diabetes drug Ozempic into Wegovy — a formulation expressly designed to help users shed pounds — sales of both drugs skyrocketed. Other pharmaceutical giants took notice, and over the past weekend the results of multiple clinical trials from would-be competitors were unveiled at this year’s annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Published simultaneously in The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, trials of two diabetes drugs from Eli Lilly — Mounjaro, an injected drug which is already available to patients, and orforglipron, still in clinical trial — each showed effectiveness in helping users drop pounds. Also presented at the meeting and published in The Lancet, Novo Nordisk released the results of a trial of its new investigational drug, dubbed CagriSema, which contains semaglutide (Ozempic) plus a newer medication, cagrilintide. In that trial, the drug helped people with type 2 diabetes shed excess weight. Orforglipron Lilly’s experimental drug orforglipron comes from the blockbuster class of diabetes/weight-loss meds called glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists (GLP-1 agonists) that include Ozempic and Wegovy. However, unlike the latter two drugs, orforglipron is administered as a once-a-day pill rather than an injection, which should make it much more attractive to users. In one phase 2 trial, published online June 23 in the New England Journal of Medicine, 272 adults with overweight or obesity… read on > read on >

Smartphones are already handy devices, but researchers have now developed an additional use for them — to check for a fever. An app called FeverPhone is the first ever to transform a smartphone into a personal thermometer without adding new hardware to the device, according to its developers from the University of Washington (UW). The app uses the phone’s touchscreen and repurposes existing battery heat sensors to gather data and estimate a person’s core body temperature, researchers report. The app estimated body temperatures in 37 patients in an emergency room with accuracy comparable to some consumer thermometers. The findings were published recently in the Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies. FeverPhone needs more training data to be widely used, but the technology holds great potential for helping people track their health, the researchers said. “People come to the ER all the time saying, ‘I think I was running a fever.’ And that’s very different than saying ‘I was running a fever,’” said co-researcher Dr. Mastafa Springston, a UW clinical instructor in the Department of Emergency Medicine. “In a wave of influenza, for instance, people running to the ER can take five days, or even a week sometimes. So if people were to share fever results with public health agencies through the app, similar to how we signed up for COVID… read on > read on >