Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

Astronauts spending six months or longer in space should stretch their time between trips to three years, warns new research on the impact of space travel on the brain. To study this, researchers examined the brain scans of 30 astronauts, looking at scans that depicted their brains both before and after their missions. The research team included missions that were two weeks long, six months long and a full year. Eight of the astronauts were on the shortest missions, four on the longest and the remaining 18 were gone for six months. “We found that the more time people spent in space, the larger their ventricles became,” said study author Rachael Seidler, a professor of applied physiology and kinesiology at the University of Florida (UF). “Many astronauts travel to space more than one time, and our study shows it takes about three years between flights for the ventricles to fully recover.” The ventricles are cavities in the brain filled with cerebrospinal fluid. This offers protection, nourishment and waste removal for the brain. While fluids typically are distributed throughout the body, without gravity that fluid shifts upward. This pushes the brain higher within the skull and causes the ventricles to expand, the researchers explained. This ventricular expansion is the most enduring change seen in the brain resulting from spaceflight, said Seidler, who is also a member… read on > read on >

Gymnasts make it look easy, but mastering those floor exercises and balance beam moves can take a toll on the brain. Researchers studying preseason and regular season concussion rates in college sports found that women’s gymnastics led all others for its concussion rate in the preseason. The rate was 50% higher even than that for college football players. Unlike soccer and football, gymnastics hasn’t historically been considered a high concussion risk, said lead researcher Steven Broglio, director of the University of Michigan Concussion Center. “Everybody worries about football, ice hockey and men’s and women’s soccer, but gymnastics is out there by themselves with a preseason injury risk that we didn’t expect to see,” Broglio said in a university news release. “We now need to look at how to improve the health and safety of the athletes.” Researchers studied sport-related concussion rates for NCAA sports during the preseason practice period and regular season from the 2013-2014 year through the 2018-2019 year. In the preseason, roughly nine gymnasts for every 10,000 athlete participations experienced concussion, while about six football players per 10,000 athlete participations experienced concussion during the preseason. While the preseason sessions are practices only, the regular season includes practice and competition. The findings were presented June 2 at the American College of Sports Medicine annual meeting in Denver. Such research is considered preliminary until published… read on > read on >

Some might think masturbation is all about self-pleasure, but scientists now claim it’s far more significant than that. Their new findings suggest it could serve an important role in evolution. An ancient trait in primates, masturbation — at least for the males of the species — increases their reproductive success while also helping them avoid catching sexually transmitted infections (STIs), investigators from University College London discovered by using a huge set of data on primate masturbation. Information came from nearly 400 sources, including 246 published academic papers, as well as 150 questionnaires and personal communications from primatologists and zookeepers. The investigators used this data to track masturbation habits among primates, to better understand it. They discovered that masturbation has a long evolutionary history in primates. It was even most likely present in the ancestor that all monkeys and apes, including humans, share. The research team came up with several ideas for why evolution would involve something that seems as non-functional as masturbation. They proposed that masturbation helps with successful fertilization, increasing arousal before sex, which could be helpful for low-ranking males who might be interrupted quickly. The study authors also suggested that masturbation with ejaculation could help shed substandard semen, leaving the better swimmers for when they actually have something to fertilize. The researchers found support for this hypothesis, showing that male masturbation evolved along… read on > read on >

Kids with poor impulse control — a common characteristic of ADHD — may be at higher risk for health, social and criminal problems as adults, a new study indicates. Researchers found that having attention and behavior problems in childhood was linked to less money, lower educational achievement and poorer health in adulthood when compared to those who could regulate their behavior as kids. “The ability to control one’s attention and behavior is a fundamental life skill, which supports well-being and adjustment in a range of areas,” said lead researcher Andrew Koepp, from the human development and family sciences department at the University of Texas at Austin. “These findings reinforce the idea that characteristics and experiences of individuals in childhood affect them well into adulthood, and that skills learned in childhood are foundational for success in life,” Koepp added. The study is a “conceptual replication” of a New Zealand study published in 2011 that obtained similar results. For the new study, Koepp and his colleagues collected data on over 15,000 people who took part in the U.K. National Child Development Study. Participants lived in England, Scotland or Wales, and were born during one week in 1958 and followed through age 42. The researchers also collected data on nearly 1,200 participants in the U.S. Study of Early Childcare and Youth Development, who were born in 1991 at… read on > read on >

When people regained weight after obesity surgery, it wasn’t entirely clear what to do next. Now, it appears the weight-loss medications Wegovy and Saxenda can help. Both work by controlling appetite and satiety. Wegovy (semaglutide), however, may be superior to Saxenda (liraglutide), a new study finds. “Our research found that newer anti-obesity medications are effective for treating weight regain and optimizing body weight after bariatric [weight-loss] surgery,” said study co-author Dr. Jaime Almandoz, an associate professor in the division of endocrinology at UT Southwestern (UTSW) in Dallas. “Our study also found that weight management medication regimens containing semaglutide worked better than those containing liraglutide, even when the dose of semaglutide was lower than what is currently approved to treat obesity,” Almandoz said in a university news release. More than 40% of American adults are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Weight gain after bariatric surgery is common and can make type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease worse. To see if medication might help this group of post-surgery patients, the new study compared glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists Wegovy, which is given as a weekly injection, and Saxenda, a daily injection. The researchers analyzed health records for 207 adults who previously had bariatric surgery and were then treated for obesity at UTSW’s Weight Wellness Program between 2015 and 2021. The… read on > read on >

It’s tempting to treat little skin bumps on your own, but that delays proper diagnosis and treatment that may work better, federal regulators cautioned. Among the many types of skin conditions a person can contract are a virus called molluscum, which look like white, pink or flesh-colored bumps. Products marketed as treatments for molluscum have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency warned. There are no approved treatments in either prescription or over-the-counter form for the condition, which will typically go away on its own in six to 12 months but could last up to five years. Molluscum are sometimes called water warts. They can grow alone or in groups almost anywhere on the skin, including the face, neck, arms, legs, abdomen and genital area. They are rarely on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet. Sometimes these bumps itch and get irritated. People with a weakened immune system may have larger or more bumps. They’re more common in children, but can happen in teens and adults. Without seeing a doctor, you won’t know if what you have is actually molluscum or something else. Molluscum is spread by skin-to-skin contact, including sexual contact, and by sharing clothes or infected objects such as sports equipment. Staying clean, including washing your hands, is the best way to prevent them.… read on > read on >

There is no cure for nearsightedness, but medicated eye drops can slow down its progression in children, a new trial finds. The study tested the effects of eye drops containing a very low dose of the drug atropine — the same medication used to dilate the pupils during an eye exam. Researchers found that when children with nearsightedness used the drops every day for three years, their vision worsened more slowly — and was more likely to stabilize — versus kids given placebo drops. That does not mean the drops will reverse vision problems or liberate kids from glasses, experts stressed. “The real point here is the longer term,” said lead researcher Karla Zadnik, dean of Ohio State University’s College of Optometry, in Columbus. Nearsightedness, she explained, arises when at some point during childhood, the eyeball “grows too long” and becomes more oval-shaped than round. That alters how light hits the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye — turning far vision into a “big, blurry mess,” Zadnik explained. Glasses or contact lenses can clear up that mess, but the underlying nearsightedness typically keeps progressing until at least the mid-teens. That matters, Zadnik said, because more severe nearsightedness can lead to problems for some people in adulthood. That elongated eyeball can raise the risk of conditions like retinal detachment, glaucoma and cataracts.… read on > read on >

Many men have likely never heard of Peyronie’s disease, but they might want to brush up on this condition because it causes the penis to curve abnormally during an erection. Peyronie’s disease typically affects men over 30, and it appears to be caused by the build-up of plaque in the tunica albuginea. The tunica albuginea is the inner lining of the penis, and it helps the penis remain stiff during an erection. Here, experts will explore what Peyronie’s disease is, its causes, symptoms and how it can be treated. What is Peyronie’s disease According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Peyronie’s disease can develop when there is a physical injury to the penis, scar tissue forms, and the hard plaque that can build on scar tissue pulls on the surrounding tissue of the penis and causes a curve, usually when the penis is erect. In a patient page provided by the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Christopher Gaffney and Dr. James Kashanian, both urologists at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, state that “Peyronie’s disease can cause pain (with or without erections), inability to engage in penetrative sexual intercourse, erectile dysfunction, emotional distress, depression and relationship difficulties. It develops in up to 5% to 10% of men.” Peyronie’s disease versus normal curvature The Cleveland Clinic uses the analogy of a clock… read on > read on >

Quitting smoking after a cancer diagnosis can deliver a big payoff for another major health concern: the risk of heart attack or stroke. Cancer patients who kept smoking had a nearly doubled risk of either of those emergencies, as well as death from cardiovascular disease, new research showed. “A cancer diagnosis is an extremely stressful life event, which often leads to significant changes in a person’s lifestyle. Smoking, in particular, is a health-related behavior that can be heavily influenced by mental distress,” said study author Dr. Hyeok-Hee Lee, of Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea. For the study, published May 30 in the European Heart Journal, researchers analyzed data from a Korean national health claims database for more than 309,000 cancer survivors who had never had a heart attack or stroke. Participants had each answered questions about smoking and had health exams. The research team split participants into groups based on their change in smoking habits after receiving a cancer diagnosis. Groups were sustained nonsmokers, quitters, initiators/relapsers and continuing smokers. About 250,000 (80.9%) were sustained nonsmokers; just over 10% quit smoking; 1.5% initiated or relapsed to smoking, and 7.5% continued smoking after their cancer diagnosis. Then the researchers assessed the risk of cardiovascular events for each group during a median of 5.5 years, adjusting for other characteristics that could influence these risks.… read on > read on >

When the late Brown University researcher Catherine Kerr had cancer, she benefited from an ancient Chinese practice known as qigong and began looking into its impact on others. Now, her colleagues are building on Kerr’s work, studying how practicing qigong affects a person’s perception of fatigue in a small group of 24 female cancer patients just out of treatment. They found that qigong was as effective at reducing fatigue as an energy-intensive exercise and nutrition program. It might also be easier for someone tired after weeks or months of treatment to begin. Stephanie Jones, an associate professor of neuroscience who led the study for Brown University’s Cancer Institute for Brain Science, called the results remarkable. “Fatigue in cancer survivors is extremely debilitating, which Cathy knew well because she lived it and she had undergone a number of types of treatment. And exercise can be really challenging,” Jones explained. “Physical exercise we know is good for fatigue, but it can be really difficult when you’re tired,” Jones noted. “This is a very gentle, slow movement, meditation-based practice that is showing clinically relevant improvement.” Fatigue is a common experience for cancer survivors, 45% of whom experience it at a moderate to severe level, according to the study. It can be an even bigger burden than pain, nausea and depression, the authors said. Exercise can help. This is… read on > read on >