Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

The discovery of a gene variant that rids the brain of toxic plaques linked to Alzheimer’s might lead to new treatments for the disease, researchers report. The variant arises naturally in people who don’t seem to get Alzheimer’s disease despite having another gene, called APOEe4, that strongly promotes the illness. “These resilient people can tell us a lot about the disease and what genetic and non-genetic factors might provide protection,” explained study co-lead author Badri Vardarajan, an assistant professor of neurological science at Columbia University in New York City. “We hypothesized that these resilient people may have genetic variants that protect them from APOEe4,” Vardarajan added in a university news release. The researchers believe the newly discovered gene variant may reduce the risk for Alzheimer’s by more than 70% in folks lucky enough to carry it. Breaking the blood-brain barrier In their research, Vardarajan and colleagues conducted genomic screening on hundreds of individuals who carried the APOEe4 gene variant, which greatly raises the risk for Alzheimer’s, but who had gone into old age without developing the disease. The found a common variant shared by many of these people. It occurred in a gene charged with making fibronectin, a component used to make the “blood-brain barrier.” That’s the lining that surrounds the brain and helps police which substances can get in and out. People who develop Alzheimer’s tend… read on > read on >

Early-onset arthritis may hit as many as one in every four young people who undergo anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction surgeries, new research warns. The arthritic pain emerges within 6 to 12 months post-surgery, according to Michigan State University (MSU) researchers. Many of these cases occur in people under 40 and go unrecognized and untreated. “We’re trying to change the narrative,” said study lead author Matthew Harkey, an assistant professor of kinesiology at MSU. “We see fairly young, active individuals experiencing extensive symptoms, but these symptoms are not interpreted by clinicians as something that may be related to osteoarthritis. Ignoring these symptoms might be setting them up to experience long-term decline and function.” Tears to the ACL ligament within the knee are common, and often corrected with a surgery that replaces the ligament with a graft. Over 400,000 ACL reconstructions are performed in the United States annually, according to the National Institutes of Health. In the new study, Harkey’s team examined outcomes for 82 people, ages 13 to 35, who underwent ACL reconstructive surgeries. Almost a quarter of the patients reported “persistent early arthritis symptoms from 6 to 12 months after knee surgery,” according to a university news release. In another Harkey-led study, data from 3,200 individuals supplied by the New Zealand ACL Registry showed that almost a third of patients developed arthritic pain within… read on > read on >

Wegovy, Ozempic and other drugs known as GLP-1 analogues have become wildly popular for controlling diabetes and helping folks lose weight. There were concerns that longer term use of the drugs might raise users’ odds for thyroid cancer, but a Swedish study of more than 435,000 people finds no evidence to support that notion. “Many people take these medicines, so it is important to study potential risks associated with them,” said study lead author Björn Pasternak. He’s principal researcher at the department of medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. “Our study covers a broad group of patients and provides strong support that GLP-1 analogues are not associated with an increased risk of thyroid cancer,” he said in an institute news release. The findings were published April 9 in the BMJ. In the analysis, Pasternak’s team used data from a major Scandinavian database involving 145,000 people who were taking GLP-1 analogues such as liraglutide (Victoza) or semaglutide (Ozempic), and 290,000 people who were taking one of another class of diabetes drugs called DPP4 inhibitors. The study found no higher odds for thyroid cancer among folks taking GLP-1 analogues compared to those on DPP4 inhibitors. That finding was repeated when GLP-1 analogue users were compared to patients taking a third class of diabetes meds, called SGLT2 inhibitors. Study co-author Peter Ueda, an assistant professor of medicine… read on > read on >

There’s no evidence that acetaminophen use during pregnancy increases the risk of childhood autism, ADHD or intellectual disability, the largest study to date on the subject has concluded. The analysis of more than 2.4 million children born in Sweden included siblings not exposed to the drug before birth, researchers said. Siblings share genetics and upbringing, allowing researchers to weed out other factors that might contribute to autism, ADHD and developmental delays. In this study, researchers found no increased risk when they compared siblings exposed to acetaminophen in the womb to brothers or sisters who weren’t, according to results published April 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “This study’s findings may be welcome news for birthing people who use acetaminophen as a pain or fever management option, since there are few safe alternatives for relief available,” said co-senior author Renee Gardner, a principal researcher with Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. “We hope that our results provide reassurance to expectant parents when faced with the sometimes fraught decision of whether to take these medications during pregnancy when suffering from pain or fever,” Gardner added. Acetaminophen is the active ingredient in Tylenol, and is also an ingredient in cold and flu remedies like Theraflu, Excedrin and Mucinex, researchers said in background notes. Concerns regarding the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy have grown in recent years. In 2021,… read on > read on >

Today is your last chance until 2044 to see a total eclipse of the sun in the continental United States. But be sure to protect your eyes if you plan to watch the moon block the sun’s rays, briefly plunging Earth into temporary darkness. “The eclipse will last a few minutes,” said Dr. David Hinkle, who chairs the Department of Opthalmology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. “Eye damage can last a lifetime.” There is no time — none at all — when it’s safe to look at the eclipse without proper eye protection, he emphasized. That’s true whether you are in the path of totality or in a broader swath of the nation where the sun will only be partially blocked. Thirteen states from Texas to Maine are in the path of totality. Starting shortly after 1 p.m. Eastern time (ET), the moon will completely block the sun for one to four minutes. Looking directly at the sun is never a good idea. It can burn your retina, Hinkle warned. “The sun’s rays are powerful and can burn your retina very quickly,” Hinkle said in a Tulane news release. That’s because the eye’s cornea and lens focuses the sun’s light directly onto this thin layer of tissue inside the back of eye, causing a burn called solar retinopathy. This damage, which may… read on > read on >

Just a little exposure to secondhand smoke may increase your risk for the heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation (A-Fib), a new, large study suggests. People who have A-Fib, the world’s most common heart rhythm disorder, are five times more likely to have a stroke than their healthy peers. While passive smoking has been linked to heart disease and early death, links between secondhand smoke and A-Fib have been unclear, researchers said in a European Society of Cardiology news release. This large study appears to make a direct connection. “The dangers of secondhand smoke were significant regardless of whether individuals were at home, outdoors or at work, indicating that exposure universally elevates the risk of atrial fibrillation,” said study author Dr. Kyung-Yeon Lee, of Seoul National University Hospital in South Korea. The study included more than 400,000 people between the ages of 40 and 69 who were part of the UK Biobank, a large biomedical and research database. Current smokers and those who already had A-Fib were excluded. Participants answered questions about their exposure to other people’s smoke at home and elsewhere in the past year. One in five (86,000) said they had been exposed to secondhand smoke, with an average exposure of 2.2 hours. In all, 6% of participants developed A-Fib over a median followup of 12.5 years. (Median means half were followed longer, half… read on > read on >

People preparing to watch Monday’s total eclipse of the sun need to protect their vision during the event, eye doctors say. Powerful ultraviolet rays can do permanent damage to the eyes if people look directly at the sun as the moon is sliding into place before it, said Starr Schroeder, an emergency department nurse at Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center. Special solar viewing glasses are required to watch the solar eclipse progress, Schroeder said. “At no point during a partial eclipse is it safe to look at the sun without special eye protection,” Schroeder said in a Penn State news release. “Not even the darkest sunglasses are safe.” Observing a solar eclipse without proper protection can damage both the cornea and the retina, said Dr. Ajay Soni, a pediatric ophthalmologist at Penn State Health Children’s Lancaster Pediatric Center. One potential condition is photo-keratitis, which is damage to the cornea from UV rays. The cornea is the clear, dome-shaped covering at the front of the eye. “It’s a sunburn on the cornea, and is quite painful because the cornea is so sensitive,” Soni said. Soni added that patients typically recover on their own within a few days. A more serious risk is solar retinopathy, which can cause permanent eye damage. There’s no pain associated with solar retinopathy, which causes scarring on the retina, which is… read on > read on >

People with Long COVID might be able to exercise to improve their health, something that up to now has been discouraged, a new study suggests. “The World Health Organization [WHO] and other major bodies have said that people with post-COVID should avoid intense exercise,” said lead researcher Andrea Tryfonos, a postdoctoral investigator with the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. But the new findings show that Long COVID patients do just as well after exercise as healthy people, “even though they had more symptoms to begin with,” Tryfonos said in an institute news release. “By equally well, I mean that they did not worsen their symptoms or negatively affect their body during the 48 hours we observed them.” Early observations suggested that exercising with Long COVID could be harmful, researchers noted. Folks with Long COVID often experience symptoms like extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, elevated heart rate and muscle weakness, and these are often exacerbated by exertion. To see whether exercise helps or harms, researchers recruited 31 people with Long COVID and matched them to 31 healthy people. All participants completed three different exercise sessions consisting of high-intensity interval training and moderate-intensity aerobic exercise — both on an exercise bike – as well as strength training. The sessions happened in random order a few weeks apart, researchers said. All participants underwent a battery of medical exams before,… read on > read on >

Women who enter menopause before their 50s and who also have heart disease risk factors may be at especially high risk for thinking declines and later dementia, new research shows. “While cardiovascular risk factors are known to increase a person’s risk for dementia, what is lesser known is why women have a greater risk for Alzheimer’s disease than men,” said study lead author Jennifer Rabin, of the University of Toronto. “We examined if the hormonal change of menopause, specifically the timing of menopause, may play a role in this increased risk.” Rabin’s team found that it did. “We found that going through this hormonal change earlier in life while also having cardiovascular risk factors is linked to greater cognitive problems when compared to men of the same age,” she explained in a news release from the American Neurological Association. Maintaining good blood flow to and within the brain is a known factor in neurological health. High blood pressure, smoking and diabetes can all impair brain blood flow. In the new study, Rabin’s team tracked the cognitive health of 16,720 people, averaging 65 years of age, evenly divided as to gender. They further divided the female participants into three subgroups: Those who experienced earlier menopause between the ages of 35 and 48; those who entered menopause between ages 49 and 52 (which is typical); and those… read on > read on >

Desks that require folks to stand or move as they work also might help them produce better results on the job, a new study suggests. People’s brains became sharper when working at a desk that made them stand, step or walk rather than sit, results show. Reasoning scores in particular improved when at an active workstation, researchers said. “It is feasible to blend movement with office work that previously would have been done during long periods of sitting,” said senior study author Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, a preventive cardiologist with the Mayo Clinic. “Active workstations may offer a way to potentially improve cognitive performance and overall health, simply by moving at work.” For the study, researchers recruited 44 participants to test four different office settings during four consecutive days. The first day, people sat at a typical desk for work. The next three days, they worked at an elevated desk, either standing, walking on a treadmill or using a stepper. Typing speed slowed down slightly at active workstations, but the accuracy of their typing was not affected, researchers found. On the other hand, tests revealed that their brain function either improved or stayed the same when they were active while working. The participants scored better on reasoning tests when standing, stepping or walking, compared to sitting, results show. The new study was published April 4 in… read on > read on >