Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

Teens who use stimulant medication like Ritalin to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) do not have an increased risk of illicit drug use later, a new study finds. This study looked specifically at cocaine and methamphetamine use. High school seniors who used stimulant therapy were no more likely to use cocaine or methamphetamine as young adults (ages 19 to 24) than their peers who didn’t use stimulant therapy, the researchers found. “These findings should be comforting to parents who have teenagers taking stimulants for ADHD, who worry that these medications may lead to use of illicit stimulants like cocaine or methamphetamine as their children enter young adulthood and become more independent,” lead researcher Sean Esteban McCabe said in a University of Michigan news release. He’s a professor of nursing and director of the Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking and Health. Some past research has tied ADHD to an increased risk for illicit drug use, so these findings should reassure concerned parents, the study team stressed. However, the researchers also found that teens who misuse prescription stimulants were significantly more likely to use these illicit drugs as young adults. Moreover, the frequency of misuse matters. About 20% of high school seniors who misused prescription stimulants like Ritalin (methylphenidate) or Adderall started using cocaine or methamphetamine in young adulthood. And 34% of teens who misused… read on > read on >

The European Medicines Agency is investigating concerns that popular weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Saxenda may be linked to suicidal thoughts and thoughts of self-harm. Three case reports from Iceland spurred the agency’s safety committee to conduct a medication review, CNN reported Monday. The EMA is Europe’s equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The Icelandic Medicines Agency reported two cases of suicidal thoughts. One happened after use of Ozempic (semaglutide) and the other after taking Saxenda (liraglutide). The third report was about Saxenda and thoughts of self-injury. Both drugs are made by Novo Nordisk. The company said, “patient safety is a top priority,” adding it takes “all reports about adverse events from use of our medicines very seriously,” CNN reported. Prescribing information in the United States for Saxenda includes a recommendation to monitor patients for depression or suicidal thoughts, but Ozempic does not carry a similar warning. The weight-loss drug Wegovy (semaglutide, the same active ingredient as in Ozempic) includes in its prescribing information that reports of suicidal behavior and ideation have occurred in clinical trials with other weight-management medications, the news report said. Clinical trials in adults for Saxenda found that nine people among 3,300 reported suicidal ideation, while two in 1,900 reported suicidal ideation while on a placebo in those drug trials, CNN reported. One adult taking Saxenda attempted suicide, the… read on > read on >

Depression that arises after a head injury may be its own distinct condition — one that differs from traditional major depressive disorder, a new study suggests. Researchers found that people with post-concussion depression showed a unique pattern of activity in the brain circuitry involved in depression. This “picture” was different from depression unrelated to a head injury, and different from people who’d suffered a concussion but had no depression symptoms. Experts said the findings shed light on the brain basis for post-concussion depression, and underscore an important take-away for patients: Your mental health symptoms are not just “in your head.” While most people recover from concussion, some have lingering symptoms, which can include depression. In fact, traumatic brain injury (which includes concussion) increases the risk of developing depression by about eightfold, studies show. A key question has been whether that depression stems from the brain injury, per se, or from the emotional trauma of the incident that caused the injury — whether a car accident, military combat or blow to the head on the football field. Many experts have believed it’s the brain injury, said Dr. Shan Siddiqi, the lead researcher on the new study and a clinical neuropsychiatrist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. That’s, in part, because the symptoms of post-concussion depression are often somewhat different, explained Siddiqi. People with major depression… read on > read on >

The drugs Wegovy and Ozempic are all the rage for weight loss these days, and now a new study shows these injections may be game-changers for obese teenagers, too. This trial, funded by drug maker Novo Nordisk, found that nearly half of all adolescents on semaglutide (Wegovy/Ozempic) were able to achieve a healthy weight in about 17 months. Semaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist, which slows digestion, decreases hunger, reduces how much people eat and prompts weight loss. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Wegovy for treating obesity in kids and adults aged 12 years and older, while Ozempic has been approved at a lower dose to treat type 2 diabetes. “Semaglutide appears to be highly effective in helping teens reduce their body mass index [BMI] to a level below the clinical cutoff for obesity,” said study author Aaron Kelly, co-director of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School, in Minneapolis. “Pharmacotherapy should be offered to all adolescents with obesity who are medically eligible.” For the study, teens with high BMIs received either 2.4-mg of semaglutide weekly (the maximum dose) or a dummy (placebo) injection for 17 months. Everyone in the study was encouraged to exercise for 60 minutes a day and got advice about healthy eating. Fully 45% of teenagers who took once-weekly semaglutide lost enough… read on > read on >

It might seem like sunshine, vacation and time spent with family and friends will bring you happiness this summer. But sometimes it takes a little more effort, said Lina Begdache, an associate professor of health and wellness studies at Binghamton University, State University of New York. If you’d like to lift your spirits, start by thinking positive thoughts, she said in a university news release. “The way our brains work, the more negative thinking is practiced, the higher your chance of developing a low mood and feeling miserable,” Begdache said. “The good news is that the brain is adjustable, or better known as ‘plastic.’ People can weaken the negative wiring by practicing positive thinking.” Pioneers of positive psychology research have shown that positive thinkers appraise stressful situations as less threatening, Begdache said. They cope well compared to negative thinkers and are happier people. Eating healthy food can also boost your mood, she added. Lifestyle factors, including diet and sleep, have an impact on your mood. A fluctuation in blood sugar can lead to feeling “hangry” (bad-tempered or irritable as a result of hunger). Certain healthy diets, such as the Mediterranean diet, are rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory chemicals that support brain and heart health, Begdache said. In addition, a healthy sleep schedule can help your brain steadily produce the chemicals needed to maintain a positive… read on > read on >

Stimulant medications like Ritalin are commonly prescribed to help treat the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but there have been concerns the drugs may lay the groundwork for later substance abuse. New research may now set those worries at ease. Children who take prescription stimulants for ADHD do not have more substance use disorders as teens or young adults than children who didn’t take stimulants, according to researchers. “The concern was whether or not that would, for multiple reasons, train the brains, train the behaviors of the children to use substances to deal with their problems,” said Brooke Molina, a professor of psychiatry, psychology and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “That’s why we launched into this, to see if, in fact, there was a connection.” About 10% of U.S. children ages 3 to 17 get a diagnosis of ADHD at some point, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children with ADHD have problems with inattention, hyperactivity and/or impulsivity. These behaviors can affect how they function socially, academically and at home, in childhood and adulthood. Stimulant drugs — paired with counseling to help build skills and parent training — are a first-line treatment, but they’re also classified as schedule 2 controlled substances by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The drugs include methylphenidate (Ritalin and Concerta) and amphetamine/dextroamphetamine… read on > read on >

Heather Anderson, a star Australian rules football player who died last November, is the first female professional athlete to be diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. “She is the first female athlete diagnosed with CTE, but she will not be the last,” researchers wrote in a paper published Friday. Anderson was 28 when she died from what was believed to be suicide. CTE is a progressive degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head impacts, like those suffered when heading a ball in soccer (football). The finding was made possible after Anderson’s family donated her brain to the Australian Sports Brain Bank, hoping to discover “whether a lifetime of exposure to repetitive head trauma contributed to her death,” according to a report co-written by one of the researchers. It was published on a nonprofit academic news site, The Conversation. Dr. Michael Buckland, director of the Australian Sports Brain Bank, identified low-stage CTE when conducting the postmortem analysis. “There were multiple CTE lesions as well as abnormalities nearly everywhere I looked in her cortex. It was indistinguishable from the dozens of male cases I’ve seen,” said Buckland in a news release from the Concussion Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in the United States. Although women athletes previously had not been diagnosed with CTE, evidence suggests women are more susceptible to concussions in sports than men,… read on > read on >

Dr. Richard Stumacher’s coworker at Northwell Health in New York City used to smoke to curb her severe anxiety, and tried multiple times to stop. “She went through the program and she would quit, and then she would fall off, and we would always support her,” said Stumacher, who specializes in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine. “And I saw her in the hallway just a few months ago and she hugged me out of nowhere. I’m like, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’” She told Stumacher it was her five-year anniversary of not smoking. “It took her a long time, but she got there,” he said. Just 11.5% of Americans currently smoke cigarettes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But within that population, the CDC found that those with feelings of severe psychological distress or those who were diagnosed with depression were far more likely to smoke. Thankfully, a new study found that people with serious mental illness who were offered medication and counseling to quit smoking had a 26% success rate after 18 months, compared to 6% in a control group. This included successful weight management, which is often a reason smokers are hesitant to quit. Dr. Gail Daumit, vice dean of clinical investigation at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, is first author of the study, published recently in the journal… read on > read on >

Older American adults who live in warmer regions are more likely to have serious vision impairment than those who live in cooler places, new research finds. Living with average temperatures of 60 degrees Fahrenheit or above — think South Florida, for example — created much higher odds of blindness or trouble seeing even with glasses, according to a new study of 1.7 million people. “This link between vision impairment and average county temperature is very worrying if future research determines that the association is causal,” said co-author Esme Fuller-Thomson, director of the University of Toronto’s Institute of Life Course and Aging. “With climate change, we are expecting a rise in global temperatures. It will be important to monitor if the prevalence of vision impairment among older adults increases in the future,” she added in a school news release. Compared with those who lived in counties with average temperatures of less than 50 degrees F, the odds of severe vision impairment were 14% higher for those who lived in counties with average temperatures from 50-54.99 degrees, according to the study. The risk was 24% higher for those in places where temps averaged 55-59.99 degrees. For those basking in even warmer territory, the odds of vision loss were 44% higher. Even with differences in age, sex and income, the relationship held. “It was powerful to see that… read on > read on >

People are using “browning lotions” to tan quickly, but experts are questioning the safety of this trend driven by social media influencers. Browning lotions work with the sun’s UV rays to darken skin faster. “It is important to know that a tan is never considered to be healthy and exposure to UVA and UVB radiation can cause skin cancer, that’s the first issue I have,” said dermatologist Dr. Alexis Young of Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. “A tan is a warning flag or a sign of sun damage, and the second problem I see is that products like this might make it seem as though people are somewhat protected from the sun’s UV rays when they are not,” she said in a center news release. The best and only way to protect exposed skin from sun is to use broad spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher, even on cloudy days, experts agree. “Apply a broad spectrum sunscreen containing either titanium dioxide and/or zinc oxide, which provides protection from both UVA and UVB rays, liberally to all uncovered skin, especially your nose, ears, neck, hands, feet and even your lips,” Young advised. Reapply sunscreen every two hours and after going in the water, she urged. In addition, wear photoprotective clothing, wide-brimmed hats and sunglasses to further protect yourself from the sun.… read on > read on >