Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

In a new study, yoga appears to have bolstered the brain health of older women who had risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. The study can’t prove that the ancient practice will slow or prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s, but it did seem to reverse some forms of neurological decline, researchers said. “That is what yoga is good for — to reduce stress, to improve brain health, subjective memory performance and reduce inflammation and improve neuroplasticity,” said study lead author Dr. Helen Lavretsky. She’s a health psychiatrist at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, part of UCLA Health. The researchers noted that, because they live longer and are affected by changes in estrogen levels as they age, women have about twice the odds of developing Alzheimer’s compared to men. The new study involved more than 60 women ages 50 or older. All were patients at a UCLA cardiology clinic and already had reported memory issues and risk factors indicating poorer brain blood flow. Lavretsky’s team divided the women into two groups. One joined weekly sessions of Kundalini yoga (focusing on meditation and breathing work rather than physical poses) for 12 weeks; while the other took memory enhancement training, where stories or lists are used to help boost memory powers. The researchers tracked each woman’s neurological health using blood samples that tracked… read on > read on >

Pesticides and herbicides used in farming appear to increase people’s risk of Parkinson’s disease, a new, preliminary study finds. People exposed to pesticides and herbicides are 25% to 36% more likely to develop Parkinson’s, according to a study to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s upcoming annual meeting in April. The Parkinson’s risk was specifically higher in the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains region of the country, researchers said. “Our methods enabled us to identify parts of the nation where there was a relationship between most pesticides and Parkinson’s disease and subsequently pinpoint where the relationship was strongest, so we could explore specific pesticides in that region,” said researcher Brittany Krzyzanowski of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. The region where farm chemicals are most strongly linked to Parkinson’s includes parts of Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. Parkinson’s disease is a progressive degenerative disease of the nervous system. Patients become less and less able to control their body, suffering from tremors, leg stiffness and gait and balance problems. For the study, researchers reviewed records of 21.5 million people enrolled in Medicare in 2009 to determine the rate of Parkinson’s disease in various parts of the country. The team then looked for a possible relationship between those rates of Parkinson’s and the… read on > read on >

Tattoos are a trendy way to decorate your body, but a new study reveals that the inks used in the process often contain unlisted substances that could cause health problems. An analysis of tattoo inks from nine manufacturers in the United States found the contents rarely matched the label of the product. Of 54 inks analyzed, nine out of 10 (90%) had major discrepancies with the labeled contents, such as different pigments or unlisted additives, researchers report. The study comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration prepares to regulate tattoo inks as part of new powers granted by Congress in 2022’s Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act (MoCRA), the researchers noted. “The FDA is still figuring out what that is going to look like, and we think this study will influence the discussions around MoCRA,” said senior researcher John Swierk, an assistant professor of chemistry at Binghamton University-SUNY. “This is also the first study to explicitly look at inks sold in the United States and is probably the most comprehensive because it looks at the pigments, which nominally stay in the skin, and the carrier package, which is what the pigment is suspended in,” Swierk added in a university news release. Health experts typically are focused on skin cancer or the pigments in tattoo ink when it comes to the potential risks of tattoos, the… read on > read on >

Eye ointment products made in India and sold in the United States at Walmart, CVS and other retailers are being recalled due to a danger of infection. Brassica Pharma Pvt. Ltd., of Maharastra, India, said it is recalling various eye lubricant products labeled Equate, CVS Health and AACE. Recalled products will have expiration dates ranging from February 2024 to September 2025. “For those patients who use these products, there is a potential risk of eye infections or related harm. These products are intended to be sterile,” the company said in a statement posted Monday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Ophthalmic drug products pose a potential heightened risk of harm to users because drugs applied to the eyes bypass some of the body’s natural defenses.” A full list of the recalled products, including photos, can be found here. The recall comes on the heels of a large recall in 2023 of tainted eye drops tied to serious infections, vision loss and even deaths. Brassica Pharma says that, so far, no reports of “adverse events” tied to the ointments have been reported. “These products were distributed nationwide to wholesalers, retailers and via the product distributor, Walmart, CVS and AACE Pharmaceuticals Inc.,” Brassica Pharma said. “Consumers, distributors and retailers that have any product which is being recalled should cease distribution of the product,” the company added.… read on > read on >

Comedian Amy Schumer has disclosed that she has been diagnosed with Cushing’s syndrome, a condition that arises when there is too much cortisol in the body. In an interview published Friday in the News Not Noise newsletter, Schumer revealed she has exogenous Cushing syndrome, brought on by getting steroid injections. The condition can trigger weight gain, fatigue, “moon face,” headaches and other symptoms. Schumer said she felt “reborn” after finally getting a diagnosis. “While I was doing press on camera for my Hulu show, I was also in MRI machines four hours at a time, having my veins shut down from the amount of blood drawn and thinking I may not be around to see my son grow up,” Schumer recalled. “So, finding out I have the kind of Cushing that will just work itself out and I’m healthy was the greatest news imaginable. It has been a crazy couple weeks for me and my family.” Schumer said she shared her diagnosis to encourage women’s health and body positivity. “The shaming and criticism of our ever-changing bodies is something I have dealt with and witnessed for a long time,” Schumer explained. ”I want so much for women to love themselves and be relentless when fighting for their own health in a system that usually doesn’t believe them.” Schumer, who had faced criticism for her puffy appearance on social media,… read on > read on >

After states legalize the sale of weed for recreational use, on-the-job injuries rise among younger workers, new research shows. U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics for 2006 through 2020 show that legal “recreational marijuana sales were associated with a 10% increase in workplace injuries among individuals aged 20 to 34 years,” the study authors concluded. They note that prior research involving older workers did not show this effect. In fact, older workers’ injury rates typically decline after recreational weed is made legal in their state, perhaps because older folk are only using their marijuana to ease pain. In contrast, the rise in injury among younger workers may be because “marijuana use diminishes workers’ cognitive functioning or acts as a gateway to harder drugs,” the researchers theorized. The study was published Feb. 23 in the journal JAMA Health Forum and co-led by Dr. Joseph Sabia, chair of the economics department at San Diego State University. As the researchers noted, “since 2012, 24 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized the possession and sale of small quantities of marijuana for recreational purposes.” Would such moves encourage young workers to get high on the job, putting their performance at risk? To find out, Sabia’s group used Bureau of Labor statistics to track changes in the rate of workplace injuries among young employees, before and after laws allowing recreational marijuana sales… read on > read on >

An open question for weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound has been whether folks will keep the pounds off when they stop taking them. Regular exercise could be the key to quitting the drugs without regaining weight, a new Danish study says. “It is actually possible to stop taking the medication without large weight regain, if you follow a structured exercise regime,” said senior researcher Signe Sorensen Torekov, of the University of Copenhagen. As little as a couple hours a week of exercise maintained the weight lost with the drugs, researchers found. “Our study offers new hope, as we have shown that the majority of those who take weight-loss medication and exercise regularly are able to maintain the beneficial effects a year after treatment termination,” Torekov said in a university news release. For the study, researchers recruited four groups of test participants. One group was given a weight-loss drug, a second group was asked to exercise regularly and a third group was given the drug and asked to work out. The fourth group received a placebo. The results showed that the exercise groups experienced an improvement in their quality of life. And those taking the drug while exercising kept the weight off once they quit the medication. The new study was published Feb. 19 in the journal Lancet eClinical Medicine. “All it takes is… read on > read on >

FRIDAY, Feb. 23, 2024 (HealthDay news) — Artificial intelligence can match and even outperform human eye doctors in diagnosing and treating glaucoma, a new study finds. The GPT-4 system from OpenAI did as well or better than ophthalmologists in assessing 20 different patients for glaucoma and retinal disease, researchers report Feb. 22 in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology. “AI was particularly surprising in its proficiency in handling both glaucoma and retina patient cases, matching the accuracy and completeness of diagnoses and treatment suggestions made by human doctors in a clinical note format,” said senior study author Dr. Louis Pasquale, deputy chair for ophthalmology research at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai. The results suggest that AI could play an important support role for ophthalmologists as they try to manage patients’ glaucoma. “Just as the AI application Grammarly can teach us how to be better writers, GPT-4 can give us valuable guidance on how to be better clinicians, especially in terms of how we document findings of patient exams,” Pasquale said in an infirmary news release. Glaucoma is notoriously difficult to diagnose. About half of the 3 million Americans with glaucoma don’t know they have it, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). Glaucoma occurs when fluid pressure builds up inside the eye, damaging the optic nerve and creating blind spots in… read on > read on >

Infection with the COVID-19 virus triggers the production of an immune system protein that’s long been associated with fatigue, muscle ache and depression. Trouble is, for folks suffering from Long COVID this protein overproduction does not stop, researchers at the University of Cambridge report. “We have found a potential mechanism underlying Long COVID which could represent a biomarker — that is, a tell-tale signature of the condition. We hope that this could help to pave the way to develop therapies and give some patients a firm diagnosis,” said study co-author Dr. Benjamin Krishna. There was another silver lining from the research: Vaccination against SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, appears to lower production of the culprit protein, called interferon gamma (IFN-γ). “If SARS-CoV-2 continues to persist in people with Long COVID, triggering an IFN-γ response, then vaccination may be helping to clear this,” said Krishna, who works at the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease. According to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 7% of Americans say they have experienced Long COVID. Most cite persistent fatigue as the major symptom, but Long COVID can also bring brain fog, chronic cough and other issues. The exact causes of the illness have remained unclear. In the latest study, Krishna’s team tracked outcomes for 111 COVID patients admitted to… read on > read on >

A ban on menthol cigarettes would likely lead to a meaningful reduction in smoking rates, a new review argues. Almost a quarter of menthol smokers quit smoking altogether after menthol cigarettes were banned in their country or community, researchers report Feb. 21 in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research. “This review provides compelling evidence for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes,” said lead researcher Sarah Mills, an assistant professor of health behavior at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. In December, the White House in December announced that it would postpone until March a ban on menthol cigarettes that has been in the works for years. “Our review of the evidence suggests this delay is causing harm to the health of the public, especially among Black communities,” Mills said in a journal news release. Menthol cigarettes have been targeted by public health officials because studies show the cooling effects of menthol masks the harshness of tobacco, making it easier for young people to start smoking. For this study, researchers conducted an evidence review, pooling data from studies that have examined the effects of menthol cigarette bans. More than 170 U.S. cities, two U.S. states, the European Union and several other countries have already banned the sale of menthol cigarettes, researchers said. About 50% of menthol smokers switched to non-menthol cigarettes… read on > read on >