There’s nothing like the feeling of years of hard work paying off — when you can finally transition to a life of non-work activities, whether it’s traveling, diving into personal projects or even learning a new language.  But retirement in a warm, affordable country may come with an unexpected downside: loneliness. A new study suggests that retirees who move abroad often experience greater social isolation than those who stay in their home state. The research, published recently in Psychology and Aging, compared nearly 5,000 Dutch retirees living abroad to more than 1,300 who stayed in the Netherlands.  It found that retirees who moved overseas were more socially isolated, even though they were often healthier and wealthier than those who stayed. “Although these retirement migrants generally report being happy, they may still face struggles adapting to a new country,” lead author Esma Betül Savaş, a doctoral researcher at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographics Institute, said in a news release. Social loneliness comes from a lack of a broad circle of friends, while emotional loneliness is tied to a lack of close friends or partner. The study found that, overall, retirees who moved abroad had higher levels of social loneliness.  But those who stayed connected with friends and family back home or built strong relationships in their new country felt less isolated. Researchers also found that those who…  read on >  read on >

Night owls — people who stay up late — have been shown to have an increased risk of depression. And now a new study says why that might be. Dusk dwellers tend to be less mindful — that is, less engaged in the present moment, researchers found. That, along with poor sleep quality and higher alcohol consumption, are likely explanations for their increased depression risk, researchers reported in the journal PLOS One. “Importantly, we considered the different facets of mindfulness as factors,” concluded the team led by senior researcher Simon Evans, a lecturer in neuroscience of the University of Surrey in the U.K.  “Results pointed specifically to a protective role of the ‘acting with awareness’ facet,” in which people engage fully in the present moment and carry out actions with deliberate attention rather than on autopilot, researchers wrote. For the study, researchers surveyed nearly 550 university students using an online questionnaire. Students reported information on their sleep patterns, mindfulness, alcohol use and levels of depression and anxiety. The responses revealed that night owls were indeed more likely to report symptoms of depression compared to average sleepers, researchers report. Night owls also had worse sleep quality than average sleepers or morning birds, and they tended to consume more alcohol. These results jibe with earlier studies linking bad sleep and alcohol to depression, researchers noted. But this…  read on >  read on >

Microplastics that invade and burrow deep within the human body are becoming an increasing concern among doctors and health experts. Now, a new study shows that even medical care is causing increased exposure to the tiny plastic particles. Microplastics can be found in the solutions administered through plastic IV bags, researchers recently reported in the journal Environment & Health. In fact, thousands of plastic particles could be delivered directly to a person’s bloodstream from a single standard 8.4-ounce bag of IV fluid, researchers said. “Our findings highlight an aspect of plastic pollution that affects humans most directly, as microplastics are being injected into the bloodstream,” concluded the research team led by senior researcher Liwu Zhang, a professor with the Fudan University Department of Environmental Science & Engineering in Shanghai, China. Studies have tied microplastics to a range of health problems, a recent Forbes article noted. These include dementia and brain health, heart disease, stroke, reproductive issues and infant illnesses. Microplastics have been found in human blood, and they tend to accumulate in organs like the lungs, liver, kidneys and spleen, researchers said in background notes. A study published earlier this year in Nature found that the amount of microplastics found in human brains has increased by about 50% — the equivalent of a plastic spoon in weight. For the new study, researchers purchased two different…  read on >  read on >

Nearly 1 in 3 children live with a chronic condition that could significantly affect their health for the rest of their lives, a new study says. Chronic illnesses affected more than 30% of children ages 5 to 17 by 2018, up from around 23% in 1999, researchers report in the journal Academic Pediatrics. This adds up to about 130,000 more children each year being diagnosed with a chronic illness. This increase has been driven by diagnoses of ADHD/ADD, autism, asthma, prediabetes and mood disorders like depression or anxiety, lead researcher Lauren Wisk, an assistant professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said in a news release. “The prevalence of childhood conditions is currently higher than previous estimates suggest,” she said. “Youth who are subject to socioeconomic vulnerability such as having less education, lower income, are on public insurance, or unemployed are all more likely to live with a chronic condition than youth with socioeconomic advantages.” For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 236,000 people between 5 and 25 years of age who participated in the National Health Interview Survey between 1999 and 2018. The results also showed that chronic illness increased among 18- to 25-year-olds, rising from about 19% to 29% between 1999 and 2018 — an additional 80,000 young adults per year. Nearly all these conditions are…  read on >  read on >

The blues and the jitters are very common among people battling chronic pain, a new evidence review says. About 40% of adults with chronic pain have symptoms of depression or anxiety, researchers report in JAMA Network Open. Women, younger adults and people suffering from fibromyalgia are particularly vulnerable to mood disorders caused by chronic pain, researchers found. “People who have chronic pain are more likely than those who don’t to have depression and anxiety,” lead researcher Rachel Aaron, an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a news release. “This is a significant public health problem that should be addressed with routine screening of depression and anxiety in clinical settings and the development of novel treatments that target their (mood disorder),” Aaron said. At the same time, she added, this is also a story of resilience.  “Most people with chronic pain do not have depression or anxiety,” Aaron said. “These results challenge the ableist narrative that chronic pain is inherently depressing and remind us that people with chronic pain can and do lead psychologically healthy, fulfilling, lives.” About 21% of U.S. adults have a condition that causes chronic pain, researchers said in background notes. For the study, researchers pooled data from 376 studies conducted in 50 countries involving nearly 350,000 people. The average age of…  read on >  read on >