There’s a “loneliness epidemic” in the United States, and feelings of isolation have been linked to heart disease, stroke and other health conditions. Now, new research suggests that cancer survivors who feel lonely may be more likely to die than survivors who have more social support. “Loneliness may be linked to worse survival following a cancer diagnosis through multiple mechanisms, such as the increased risk of experiencing negative emotions such as hostility, stress and anxiety, increased unhealthy behaviors including smoking, alcohol abuse and less physical activity, or through physiological pathways such as immune system disorders,” explained study author Jingxuan Zhao. She is a senior associate scientist at the American Cancer Society. “It is also possible that cancer survivors who feel lonelier might not receive the practical and emotional support they need for their symptoms,” Zhao added. For the study, Zhao and her colleagues looked at data on nearly 3,450 cancer survivors aged 50 and older who were part of the 2008-2018 Health and Retirement Study. These folks were followed through the end of 2020. The researchers assessed loneliness every four years and grouped folks into four categories: low/no loneliness; mild loneliness; moderate loneliness; and high loneliness. Cancer survivors who reported any loneliness were more like to die during the follow-up period than their counterparts who were not lonely. The more lonely a person was, the…  read on >  read on >

U.S. gun deaths and injuries in children have risen at astronomical rates. Yet, among kids on Medicaid, only about two of every five children who get shot receive mental health care within six months of these traumatic incidents, researchers say. The need is great, given that more than 11,250 U.S. kids experienced nonfatal firearm injuries in 2020. “There are many things that can happen after a traumatic accident like this from a mental health perspective. One, there are very frequently people who experience chronic pain associated with it, and chronic pain has a high rate of developing substance use disorders and addiction,” said study co-author Dr. Eric Fleegler. These patients may have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and could be dealing with depression. Without proper therapy and medication, this may lead to worse school performance, trouble retaining work, issues in relationships, suicidal ideation and premature death, added Fleegler, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Boston Children’s Hospital. He’s also an associate professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School. Those most likely to receive care already had sought mental health care or they received a mental health diagnosis at the time of the firearm injury, the study found. They were also more likely to be white. “There should be nothing different between somebody who is Black versus somebody white versus somebody who’s Hispanic in…  read on >  read on >

No man wants to hear that he has prostate cancer, but if he is diagnosed he will need to learn about the disease and how it is treated. Prostate cancer affects one in seven men. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), it is the second most common type of cancer among men after skin cancer. With an estimated 288,300 new cases in the United States in 2023, it is important to know more about prostate cancer and what you can expect if you are the one in seven. What is prostate cancer? The prostate, a walnut-shaped organ, is part of men’s reproductive organs, providing some of the seminal fluid. Living below the bladder, it surrounds the urethra through which urine drains and the seminal tube through which semen flows. As with other cancers, it begins when cells mutate, grow out of control and eventually damage and steal nutrients from the surrounding healthy cells, according to the ACS. Prostate cancer causes While specific prostate cancer causes have not been identified, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists several prostate cancer risk factors. These include: Age : The most common risk factor. The older you are, the more likely you are to develop prostate cancer Race: Black men are more likely to get prostate cancer, get it at a younger age, have advanced disease…  read on >  read on >

Ticks are extremely resilient even when temperatures vary wildly, according to scientists who are working to better understand the spread of Lyme disease. In their new study, black-legged ticks, notorious for carrying pathogens, were very good at surviving both extreme cold and high heat, the scientists found. This was true both for nymph and adult ticks. Only larval ticks were more affected by weather conditions. “We thought we would see some evidence that if there was like a very dry period, all the ticks might be at a greater risk of dying,” said lead study author Jesse Brunner, an associate professor of biological sciences at Washington State University, in Pullman. “However, just the larvae were impacted by heat and dry conditions. Cold weather had even less of an impact. Somehow, they hunker down and survive great.” For the study, Brunner and a team of collaborators from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies set up a large field study at three military bases along the U.S. East Coast using funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. The researchers placed more than 9,000 ticks in soil core enclosures, monitoring their survival over a three-year period and collecting data on the ticks’ response to climate conditions. The extreme weather did make ticks go through their food more quickly. This means that the window for ticks looking for a…  read on >  read on >

The most common screening test for prostate cancer so often returns a false positive result that it’s no longer recommended for men older than 70, and it’s offered as a personal choice for younger men. But researchers think they’ve found a way to make the blood test for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) accurate enough to significantly reduce overdiagnosis and better predict dangerous cancers. By calibrating PSA levels to each man’s genetics, doctors could control for other factors that might cause levels to be elevated, according to researchers at Stanford Medicine, in California. The researchers envisioned combining the regular blood-based PSA test with an additional genetic analysis that detects inherited genetic variants that can affect PSA levels. Elevated PSA levels can be a sign of prostate cancer, but levels can also be high due to other issues like inflammation, infection, an enlarged prostate or just old age, the study authors said in background notes. “Some men have higher PSA levels due to their genetics,” senior researcher John Witte, a Stanford professor of epidemiology and population health, said in a university news release. “They don’t have cancer, but the higher PSA level leads to a cascade of unnecessary medical interventions like biopsy.” By one estimate, less than one-third of men with elevated PSA levels were confirmed by a biopsy to have prostate cancer, the researchers reported. Moreover, 15%…  read on >  read on >

Erectile dysfunction (ED) has been tied to an increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Now, research suggests that erectile woes during late middle age may also be linked to a man’s chances of developing memory issues later on. “Because subtle changes in erectile function were related to memory decline, our results suggest that neglecting this aspect of sexual health may contribute to cases of cognitive impairment and dementia in men,” said study author Tyler Reed Bell. He’s a post-doctoral scholar at the University of California, San Diego. “An ounce of erectile function treatment may be worth pounds in the number of years lived without cognitive impairment or dementia,” Bell reasoned. Researchers don’t know precisely how the two conditions are linked, but they have a theory. “It is likely related to microvascular changes [in the walls of the small blood vessels] that are important to both penile and cognitive health,” Bell suggested. For the study, the researchers tracked associations between erectile function, sexual satisfaction, and memory and thinking skills (“cognition”) in more than 800 men, about age 56 on average at the study’s start. The men underwent tests of their memory and processing speed and completed questionnaires about erectile function and sexual satisfaction when they were 56, 61 and 68. Those men who had reduced erectile function at age 56 were more…  read on >  read on >

A potentially deadly germ has made its way to the U.S. Gulf Coast, health officials warned this week. So far, three cases of infection from the bacteria Burkholderia pseudomallei have been reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bacteria causes melioidosis, which can be fatal if left untreated. “It is an environmental organism that lives naturally in the soil, and typically freshwater in certain areas around the world. Mostly in subtropical and tropical climates,” said Julia Petras, an epidemic intelligence service officer with CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. The most recent case was reported in Mississippi in January, following two previous cases in the same county in Mississippi in July 2020 and May 2022. Melioidosis is now considered endemic to the U.S. Gulf Coast and infections may be seen from Texas to Florida, Petras said. But because most people exposed to B. mallei don’t have symptoms of the infection and develop antibodies against it, many more people have most likely been infected, she said. All three patients who were infected responded to treatment and recovered, Petras said. The most common ways the bacterium infects people is through open wounds or by being inhaled during a severe storm with high winds. It can also be ingested by drinking contaminated water, she noted. Those most at risk for a…  read on >  read on >

Kids who devote some of their free time to volunteer work may not only help others, but also themselves. That’s according to a new study that found U.S. kids who spend time in community service are often thriving, physically and mentally. Overall, kids who’d volunteered in the past year were in better physical health, had a more positive outlook on life, and were less likely to have anxiety, depression or behavioral problems than their peers who did not do volunteer work. The findings, published May 30 in the journal JAMA Network Open, do not answer the chicken-and-egg question, researchers noted: Kids who were already high on the well-being scale may have been more apt to volunteer. “We can’t say this is cause-and-effect,” said lead researcher Kevin Lanza, an assistant professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. That said, Lanza thinks the findings set the stage for a study that follows kids over time, to see whether volunteerism promotes better physical and mental well-being down the road. There are, of course, already plenty of reasons to encourage volunteerism, Lanza pointed out. But if it also benefits young volunteers’ well-being, then it would be a “win-win,” he said. “There could be a great opportunity to promote volunteering as a public health measure,” Lanza said. Many studies over the years have linked volunteerism to better physical and…  read on >  read on >