Drugs already taken by millions of diabetes patients appear to also help slash asthma attacks by up to 70%, new British research shows. The two drugs are metformin, one of the most widely used diabetes medications, and the GLP-1 class of medications that include Ozempic, Mounjaro and Saxenda. A study of nearly 13,000 people with diabetes and asthma found that metformin cut a patient’s odds for asthma attacks by 30%, while adding in a GLP-1 med reduced it by another 40%. The effects appeared to rely on more than just improved in blood sugar control or weight reduction, the authors said, and suggest that metformin and GLP-1s might work directly on airway function to ease asthma. All in all, the findings “suggest potential for repurposing anti-diabetic. drugs to much needed alternative treatments for asthma,” said a team led by Chloe Bloom. She’s a senior lecturer in respiratory epidemiology at Imperial College London. Her team published its findings Nov. 18 in JAMA Internal Medicine. As the researchers explained, there’s long been good reason to suspect that metformin might improve asthmatics’ respiratory health. The drug has anti-inflammatory effects, they said, and it also appears to reverse some of the changes in airways and the “hyper-responsiveness” of airways that asthma brings. The data on GLP-1s shows similar effects: The same cellular receptors that the drugs work on in…  read on >  read on >

Folks who stress-eat fatty foods like cookies, chips and ice cream might be able to protect their health with a nice cup of cocoa or green tea, a new study says. Drinking cocoa that’s high in healthy flavanols along with a fatty meal can counteract some of the impact of fats on the body, particularly the blood vessels, researchers found. “Flavanols are a type of compound that occur in different fruits, vegetables, tea and nuts including berries and unprocessed cocoa,” said lead investigator Rosalind Baynham, a research fellow with the University of Birmingham in the U.K. “Flavanols are known to have health benefits, particularly for regulating blood pressure and protecting cardiovascular health.” For the study, researchers asked young and healthy adults to eat two butter croissants, a slice and a half of cheddar cheese, and half a pint of whole milk for breakfast. The participants also were randomly assigned to drink cocoa either high or low in flavanols. The research team then subjected the participants to a stressful math test, and monitored their blood vessel function and heart activity. “This stress task induced significant increases in heart rate and blood pressure, similar to the stress you may encounter in daily life,” Baynham said in a news releaase. People who ate fatty foods with a low-flavanol drink had reduced blood vessel function when they were placed…  read on >  read on >

A dose of green may be just what school kids with anxiety, depression and other mental health issues need, new research shows. Canadian investigators found that a school program that let 10- to 12-year-olds spend a little time each week in nature paid dividends in improving kids’ mental well-being. “Nature-based programs may offer targeted benefits for children with higher levels of mental health vulnerabilities and potentially act as an equalizer of mental health among school-age children,” said study co-author Sylvana Côté, a professor of public health at the University of Montréal. Her team published its findings Nov. 15 in the journal JAMA Network Open. The new study included about a thousand Quebec kids in grades 5 and 6, enrolled in schools throughout the province. All of the schools were located within a mile of a park or green space, and the study took place in springtime. Over the three months of the study, kids were randomly selected to either stay in school per usual throughout the week or to spend two hours per week with teachers in a park or green space. Schoolwork was done in either environment: Even when outdoors, kids were taking part in regular classes in subjects such as math, languages or science. The children were also asked to engage in a short 10- to 15-minute activity that was focused on some…  read on >  read on >

Four out of five men and women in the United States will be overweight or obese by 2050 if current trends hold, a new study warns. About 213 million Americans aged 25 and older will be carrying around excess weight within 25 years, along with more than 45 million children and young adults between the ages of 5 and 24, researchers reported Nov. 14 in The Lancet journal. Worse, obesity is projected to increase at a more rapid rate than overweight, researchers say. By 2050, two in three adults, one in three teens and one in five children in the United States are expected to be obese, researchers estimate. All these extra pounds will create a crisis of chronic illness in the nation, said lead study author Emmanuela Gakidou, a professor with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. “Overweight and obesity can trigger serious health conditions — many of which are now occurring at younger ages, including diabetes, heart attacks, stroke, cancer, mental health disorders and even premature death,” Gakidou said in a journal news release. “The soaring health system and economic costs will be equally pervasive, with over 260 million people in the USA, including over half of all children and adolescents, expected to be living with overweight or obesity by 2050.” For the study, researchers estimated…  read on >  read on >

Using abbreviations while texting might save some typing time, but it won’t make a good impression, a new study finds. People who use texting abbreviations like IDK or GOAT are perceived as more insincere and are less likely to receive replies, researchers discovered. “Our findings are especially relevant when we want to appear more sincere and strengthen social ties, such as at the beginning of a relationship or when we need to make a good impression,” said lead researcher David Fang, a doctoral student in behavioral marketing at Stanford University. For the study, published Nov. 14 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, researchers conducted a series of eight experiments involving more than 5,300 people. The team analyzed replies to conversations in Discord group chats and dating apps and sites, spanning 37 countries. Other experiments asked participants to rate their texting conversations with people who either were or weren’t using abbreviations. In the experiments, texters who used abbreviations received shorter and fewer responses, and they were less likely to receive contact information from the other texter. Young people tend to use more texting abbreviations, but even they weren’t fans of receiving texts loaded with abbreviations, results show. “While our overall results on age were mixed, it’s clear that younger people are not particularly fond of abbreviations, though the strength of this aversion may vary by…  read on >  read on >