Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

The influence of Neanderthals is evident right in the center of the faces of modern humans. New research finds that genetic material inherited from Neanderthals affects nose shape. A particular gene made the nose taller from top to bottom. This may have been necessary as ancient humans adapted to colder climates. “In the last 15 years since the Neanderthal genome has been sequenced, we have been able to learn that our own ancestors apparently interbred with Neanderthals, leaving us with little bits of their DNA,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Kaustubh Adhikari. He is from the University College London (UCL) Genetics, Evolution & Environment and The Open University, in England. “Here, we find that some DNA inherited from Neanderthals influences the shape of our faces. This could have been helpful to our ancestors, as it has been passed down for thousands of generations,” Adhikari said in a UCL news release. For the study, the researchers worked with data from more than 6,000 volunteers across Latin America of mixed European, Native American and African ancestry. Those participants are part of the UCL-led CANDELA study, which recruited from Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru. To study how different facial traits were associated with the presence of different genetic markers, the scientists compared genetic information from the participants to photographs of their faces. They looked at distances between points… read on > read on >

When Ann Alexander underwent chemotherapy to treat breast cancer a decade ago, she was warned about potential hair loss, nausea and vomiting. The 73-year-old wasn’t, however, told about the potential side effects of radiation therapy, namely acute radiation dermatitis. Symptoms can range from mild to severe, and they include itchy skin, swelling, blistering and open sores. “It was painful, and it was scary,” the Bronx, N.Y., resident said. “I did everything I was supposed to do and ended up with really bad burns on my skin. I would have liked a heads up that this could occur.” Now 10 years cancer-free, Alexander routinely counsels other women on what to expect and how to deal with this side effect as a Bronx Oncology Living Daily (BOLD) buddy. Each year, 95% of people undergoing radiation to treat cancer will develop acute radiation dermatitis. Until recently, this condition was poorly understood and there wasn’t much to do to prevent it. This may all change due to the results of two new studies that implicate a common bacterium as the culprit and suggest that a simple antibacterial treatment may be the solution. “I absolutely believe these findings should change practice,” said study author Dr. Beth McLellan, director of supportive oncodermatology at Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center and chief of the division of dermatology at Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein… read on > read on >

Here’s one more reason to watch your weight: Obesity can increase your odds for serious complications after surgery. Compared with patients of normal weight, those who are obese are at greater risk for developing blood clots, infections and kidney failure after surgery, a new study reports. Patients with obesity were also more likely to be hospitalized for these complications. “This is indicative of the obesity epidemic in this country,” said senior researcher Dr. Robert Meguid, a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Colorado in Aurora. The increase in complications owes to a variety of factors. These include body inflammation, which is more common with obesity. It can also be more difficult for patients who are overweight or obese to get up and move around after surgery, increasing their risk for blood clots in the legs. “With infection, there’s an issue of fatty tissue in the body which doesn’t heal as well and doesn’t have as good blood flow as muscular tissue,” Meguid said. “With the blood clots it’s a combination of inability for walking easily and readily, and also the body’s inflammatory state in obesity.” Changes in blood flow in patients who are obese probably contribute to the risk for kidney failure, he added. It’s also more difficult doing surgery on someone who is obese, Meguid said, which may boost complication rates. “In… read on > read on >

Quitting smoking will have benefits, even for those who are later diagnosed with lung cancer, new research indicates. While often studies compare outcomes for smokers vs. never smokers, investigators found that quitting smoking earlier also was beneficial. Among people diagnosed with the most common type of lung cancer, called non-small cell lung cancer, current smokers had 68% higher numbers of deaths compared to never smokers, while former smokers had only 26% higher numbers of deaths. And the longer a patient had quit smoking before being diagnosed with lung cancer, the better the odds of survival. “Our participants’ smoking histories varied, with some having stopped smoking a few years before their diagnosis and others having stopped several decades before,” said senior study author David Christiani, a professor of environmental genetics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. “This wide range gave us confidence in our results — that the benefit of pre-diagnosis smoking cessation persists even after lung cancer is diagnosed,” he said in a university news release. The researchers studied nearly 5,600 patients with this common lung cancer who were enrolled in the Boston Lung Cancer Survival Cohort at Massachusetts General Hospital between 1992 and 2022. Among them, 795 had never smoked, 3,308 were former smokers and 1,491 were current smokers. Each participant answered questions about their smoking habits and other health… read on > read on >

Researchers think they’ve figured out why the COVID vaccine causes heart inflammation in an extremely small number of teenage boys — and what might be done to avoid it. The second dose of COVID vaccine appears to promote a severe inflammatory response in these teens, setting off a cascade of events that causes myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle), the researchers reported. Such a reaction probably can be avoided by allowing more time between the first and second doses, noted senior researcher Carrie Lucas, an associate professor of immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine, in New Haven, Conn. “Our results fit with what others have found in clinical data thinking about the timing of the vaccine,” Lucas said. “When you space out the second dose of the vaccine, you will reduce that amount of cytokine and bystander immune activation, and potentially reduce the risk of myocarditis.” The study also rules out two other possible reasons why the second shot might cause myocarditis. Neither vaccine-induced antibodies nor an allergic reaction to the vaccine seems to be causing the heart inflammation, based on the evidence found in the blood samples studied, said co-researcher Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine. “This study really sheds light on which of these three hypotheses is likely going on, which is the inflammation-induced myocarditis,” Iwasaki… read on > read on >

In trying to untangle the mysteries of long COVID, researchers have found anxiety and depression may play a role for some of those with the lingering condition. In the study from researchers at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), patients who perceived that they had thinking difficulties during COVID infection were also more likely to have lingering physical symptoms than those who did not report thinking issues. About one-third of people with long COVID symptoms perceived they had thinking deficits, which have been found to be related to anxiety and depression. These findings suggest that psychological issues such as anxiety or depressive disorders play a part in some people experiencing long COVID. “This perception of cognitive [thinking] deficits suggests that affective issues — in this case anxiety and depression — appear to carry over into the long COVID period,” said senior study author Dr. Neil Wenger. He is a professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “This is not to say that long COVID is all in one’s head, but that it is likely not a single condition and that for some proportion of patients there is likely a component of anxiety or depression that is exacerbated by the disease,” Wenger explained in a university news release. To study… read on > read on >

Chronic tendon issues are a frequent source of pain and can limit activity. They become more common with age, weight and certain activities, and early and appropriate diagnosis by a doctor is critical to get the best outcomes. The Achilles tendon is the biggest tendon in the human body. It connects the calf to the foot, and it is responsible for push-off power. The tendon is critical for stability during standing, walking, running and other activities. During muscle contraction, the tendon functions as a rope. It has elasticity to generate the tension required to handle the force of six times a person’s body weight. What is Achilles tendinitis? Over time, the tendon can become strained, injured or inflamed. On a day-to-day basis, people put stress on their Achilles tendon. A healthy tendon will handle this stress, repair any “microtears,” and a patient will have no symptoms. But over time, for various reasons, the Achilles tendon will develop inflammation and microtearing that will outpace the body’s ability to repair and heal the damage, and the patient will develop symptoms including pain, discomfort, soreness and swelling. This is Achilles tendinitis, and I often treat such cases here at Yale Medicine Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation. In reality, Achilles tendinitis is not just inflammation of the tendon, as the name implies. Achilles tendinitis is the accumulation of degenerative changes in… read on > read on >

Hundreds of thousands of people are jumping on the Ozempic bandwagon and taking prescription medications to slim down, while others swear by intermittent fasting and other diet fads, but new research shows that they’re all likely barking up the wrong trees. There isn’t any shortcut or magic bullet to losing weight, keeping it off, and improving your health, a new study of more than 20,000 people affirms. “Most adults slowly gain weight over decades of their life but turn to drastic, often dangerous, means to decrease body weight,” said study author Colleen Spees, an associate professor of medical dietetics at Ohio State University in Columbus. “Indeed, non-evidence-based diet practices are on the rise in large part due to social media influencers and popular actors.” Take the craze surrounding the injectable type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic, she said. “Although it is not U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved for weight loss, individuals without diabetes are now taking Ozempic in hopes of rapid weight loss,” Spees said. Does it work? Yes, at least in the short term, she said. “Once individuals discontinue the use of this medication, their appetite returns along with the weight they lost while using it,” Spees added. For the study, researchers compared behaviors of more than 20,300 U.S. adults who were part of a national health and nutrition survey from 2007 to 2016. They… read on > read on >

Quitting smoking may leave you with more money for food. Having a tobacco smoker quit is not just a boon to lung health. In poorer families, it can also help prevent hunger, according to new research from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. “We aimed to explore if tobacco cessation could improve food security,” said lead author Kaitlyn Berry, a PhD candidate. “Tobacco is expensive and addictive; in the U.S., on average, a pack of cigarettes currently costs about $8 — $240 per month for a pack-a-day smoker. “This means that when someone quits smoking, they can save a lot of money that could instead be used for other expenses,” Berry added in a school news release. Tobacco use and hunger are major threats to U.S. public health, according to the study. They inequitably affect low-income households and people of color. About 10% of all U.S. households don’t have enough food. Roughly one-third of households below the poverty line had hunger issues in 2021, the researchers reported. At the same time, people who are socially disadvantaged are more likely to smoke cigarettes, partly because of aggressive marketing by the tobacco industry to low-income groups. Uneven access to smoking-cessation programs is another contributor. The research team noted that 20% of adults with a household income under $35,000 smoke cigarettes. Yet only 6% of adults… read on > read on >

“Mindfulness” practices may help parents of young children with autism manage their daily stressors, and it could benefit their kids in the process, a preliminary study suggests. Parenting is stressful, and studies show that parents of kids with autism often have particularly high stress levels. Autism is a developmental brain disorder that, to varying degrees, impairs communication and social skills. Some kids have milder difficulties, but others are profoundly affected — speaking little, if at all, and getting wrapped up in repetitive, obsessive behaviors. Some children have intellectual disabilities, while others have average or above-average IQs. There are various therapies and services to help improve daily functioning and quality of life for kids with autism. But they typically do not address parents’ stress and coping skills, said Rachel Fenning, the lead researcher on the new study. Traditionally, she noted, there’s been something of an assumption that services that benefit children with autism will also help ease parents’ stress. But that is not necessarily true, since parents can be dealing with all kinds of challenges, said Fenning, who directs the Claremont Autism Center at Claremont McKenna College, in Claremont, Calif. The stressors can range from problems accessing autism services or learning how to implement a child’s therapy strategies at home, to the bigger-picture issues of balancing work and home life, paying the bills and more. So… read on > read on >