People who use a Peloton exercise bike at home should check their model number immediately. A recall of 2 million bikes with the model number PL01 was issued Thursday. People should stop using them immediately because of fall and injury hazards, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said. The new recall follows reports of seat posts that break and detach from the bike during use. Peloton has received 35 reports of this problem, including 13 involving injuries. The reported injuries include a fractured wrist, cuts and bruises from falling off the bike. Customers who have the recalled bike can contact Peloton for a free seat post and instructions on installing it. The PL01 model number is displayed on the bike’s inside front fork, near the flywheel. The recalled bikes were sold at Dick’s Sporting Goods stores nationwide and online at Onepeloton.com, Amazon.com and Dickssportinggoods.com from January 2018 through May 2023. They retailed for about $1,400. For recall information, contact Peloton toll-free at 866-679-9129 from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. ET, seven days a week or online. For information on how to request the free seat post and installation instructions, visit onepeloton.com and click “Product Recalls” at the bottom of the page. More information The U.S. National Library of Medicine has tips for avoiding exercise injuries. SOURCE: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, May 11, 2023  read on >

Poor sleep brought on by sleep apnea may ultimately undermine the brain health of older men and women, new research suggests. The concern stems from a new brain scan investigation that involved 140 sleep apnea patients. “Sleep apnea is a medical condition in which patients … stop breathing during sleep, which can affect their sleep quality by causing multiple arousals and dropping oxygen levels,” said lead study author Dr. Diego Carvalho. He is an assistant professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic Center for Sleep Medicine in Rochester, Minn. Sleep apnea “has been associated with increased risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, stroke, cognitive impairment and dementia,” Carvalho said. And, he noted, it is known to “cause a range of harmful effects in the brain,” as blood pressure and heart rate rise, oxygen levels drop and sleep is disrupted. Importantly, sleep apnea can limit a person’s ability to get and maintain “deep sleep.” Deep sleep, which begins about an hour after falling asleep, is essential to the body’s ability to repair and regenerate tissue, bolster the immune system, and build bone and muscle, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Getting enough of it is, therefore, considered a key indicator of good quality shut-eye. With that in mind, Carvalho and his team set out to see whether the impact of sleep apnea on deep sleep…  read on >  read on >

Understanding what causes asthma can help you better manage its causes and triggers. Whether you, your child or another loved one has asthma, you can feel more in control by knowing your options for reducing asthma symptoms and managing its underlying causes. What is asthma? Asthma is a chronic condition that causes swelling and inflammation in the airway tissues. This leads to a narrowing of your airways, making it more difficult to breathe, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA). About 1 in 13 people in the United States have asthma. It affects people who are seniors, low-income, Hispanic, Black and Native Americans more than other groups, and can start either in childhood or adulthood. The symptoms of asthma include wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath and chest tightening. Different people have different triggers for these symptoms. What are the causes of asthma? Figuring out what causes asthma can be tricky because there are several reasons why it develops. According to the American Lung Association (ALA) and the AAFA, the main causes of asthma include: Allergies Obesity Smoking Air pollution Health conditions Family history of asthma Here, you can learn about each cause, plus some ways to manage them so that asthma isn’t triggered as easily. Allergies Certain substances can cause you to develop allergic asthma. The AAFA says the most common include:…  read on >  read on >

Finding out that you or a loved one has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can be alarming and may leave you with a lot of questions. Though COPD has no cure, it’s a condition that can be managed with the right treatments and medications, according to the American Lung Association (ALA). Here’s what you need to know about COPD, including what it is, its causes, symptoms, stages and risk factors, plus the many treatment options available to those living with the condition. What is COPD? COPD is a group of progressive, chronic diseases that constrict airflow in and out of the lungs so that less oxygen moves through the body. “It’s three different illnesses, all of which create the same fundamental problem, which is you can’t blow out as fast as you should,” explained Dr. Scott Eisman, a pulmonary disease and critical care medicine specialist at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas in California. “And those three illnesses are asthma and chronic bronchitis and emphysema — and they’re all different,” he noted. Causes and risk factors According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the cause of most cases of COPD is smoking. However, as many as 25% of people in the United States with the disease have never smoked cigarettes. “If you talk about chronic bronchitis and emphysema, the most common cause is cigarette…  read on >  read on >

Men who were overweight as boys may have infertility issues in adulthood, according to new research. Researchers studying the issue of male infertility, often a mystery, looked at health data from 268 young people between 2 and 18 years of age. They had been referred to the University of Catania in Sicily for weight control. “Although the prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing worldwide, the impact of obesity and associated metabolic disorders on testicular growth is not well known,” said study co-author Dr. Rossella Cannarella, a research fellow at the Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute in Cleveland. For the study, published May 10 in the European Journal of Endocrinology, the researchers collected data on testicular volume, body mass index and insulin resistance. They found that boys with normal weight had testicular volume that was 1.5 times higher than those who were overweight or obese before puberty. Young people in the study with normal insulin levels had 1.5 to 2 times higher testicular volume compared to those with hyperinsulinemia, which is often associated with type 2 diabetes. Lower testicular volume is a predictor of poorer sperm production in adulthood, the researchers said. About 48 million couples struggled with infertility in 2010, according to the World Health Organization. Male infertility is a contributor in about half of all infertility cases, researchers said, but its cause is often…  read on >  read on >

Does where you live affect your risk for lung cancer? Just possibly, experts warn. Although cigarette smoking is the principal cause of most lung cancers, new research has found evidence that Americans who live in areas where air quality is poor may be at greater risk for the most common cancer killer in the United States. The finding is based on mapping that zeroed in on Detroit and surrounding Wayne County, Michigan, to see how lung cancer incidence over nearly 40 years stacked up against air quality in different areas. “The main takeaway is that there is a relationship between incidence of lung cancer and specific environmental pollutants,” said lead author Dr. Hollis Hutchings, a thoracic surgery research resident at Detroit’s Henry Ford Health. Hutchings and her team reviewed data gathered between 1985 and 2018 by the Michigan Cancer Registry. Over that period, nearly 59,000 new cases of lung cancer were diagnosed in Wayne County. Thirty-seven percent of patients identified as members of a racial minority (average age, 67.8 years). The air pollution status of different areas of the county was then gleaned from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data collected between 1980 and 2018. On the positive side, most markers of air pollution (though not all) across Wayne County did improve over that time. But the three areas with the highest rates of lung…  read on >  read on >