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A new study on veterans, gun storage and suicidal thoughts points to an urgent need for mental health and substance-related services, according to researchers. The study from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that about 1 in 7 veterans with a firearm at home in California had thought about suicide. “Suicide by firearm is the leading cause of suicide death among veterans,” said the center’s director, Ninez Ponce, principal investigator of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). “Creating programs that would facilitate the secure storage of guns is a critical first step toward ensuring the safety of those struggling with thoughts of suicide, especially California veterans,” she said in a center news release. Researchers used data from the 2021 CHIS survey to better understand the issue. They found that 38% of vets in California lived in a home with a firearm, and about 36% of them stored at least one gun unlocked. About 14% reported that at least one gun was stored loaded and unlocked — about double the number among nonveterans. About 14% of California vets said they had seriously considered suicide at some point. In all, just over 18% of veterans who had had suicidal thoughts currently had at least one firearm that was stored loaded and unlocked. About 18% of vets with a firearm said they had needed professional help… read on > read on >

Older drivers using alcohol or drugs are much more likely to be at fault in a car crash. Researchers studying the issue say that calls for sober-driving campaigns aimed at seniors. “Our research shows just how much aging increases the risk of being at fault for injury or fatality in a drug- or alcohol-related traffic accident,” said lead author Dr. Satish Kedia. He’s a professor in the division of social and behavioral sciences at the University of Memphis School of Public Health in Tennessee. His team’s analysis of nine years of U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data revealed that substance use in older drivers increased the likelihood of being at fault in a crash by two to four times. The researchers looked at alcohol, marijuana, stimulants, narcotics, depressants and hallucinogens. Overall, older drivers are less likely to report using such substances, according to the study. But in a sample of more than 87,000 drivers involved in crashes between two moving vehicles, more than one-third were drivers over 70 who tested positive for substances, the investigators found. “In general, older drivers are at an elevated risk for being at fault in a fatal car crash, this is especially the case when they are under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” Kedia said. In the more than 43,000 pairs involved in two moving-vehicle crashes, substance use… read on > read on >

America’s teens are still not alright. Instead, many continue to engage in risky behaviors, U.S. health officials reported Thursday. Top among these is an increase in suicidal thoughts and suicide planning and attempts among teen girls, according to a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, rates among teen boys stayed stable. Meanwhile, LGBQ+ students had particularly high increases in suicidal thoughts and behavior when compared with heterosexual students, and the same went for minorities when compared with white students, the researchers found. “The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated mental health issues amongst children and teenagers,” said Dr. Scott Krakower, an adolescent psychiatrist at Zucker Hillside Medical Center in Great Neck, N.Y., who was not involved in the report. “These issues continue to be problematic, with increasing disparities amongst minority groups.” Access to mental health care is key, the researchers noted. “A substantial number of students rely on school-based mental health care, especially youth in racial and ethnic minority groups from under-resourced families,” said Karin Mack, associate director for science in the CDC’s Division of Injury Prevention. “While lack of access to mental health services may have contributed to increased suicide risk, many other factors, including substance misuse, family or relationship problems, community violence, discrimination, among others, may have also contributed to the increased risk,” Mack added. But the pandemic definitely had… read on > read on >

Selfie shots might seem shallow but they’re actually serving a deeper psychological purpose, a new study suggests. So-called “third-person” photos — shots taken to include the photographer, such as selfies or group shots — are better at depicting the deeper meaning of an event in a person’s life, by showing them actively participating in that moment, according to researchers. On the other hand, “first-person” photos — the photographer’s eye view of a scene — best represent the physical experience of an event, the authors explained. These results counter the view that people post selfies on sites like Instagram just to promote themselves, said study co-author Lisa Libby, professor of psychology at Ohio State University. “These photos with you in it can document the bigger meaning of a moment,” Libby said in a university news release. “It doesn’t have to be vanity.” Previous studies have suggested that two important motivations for taking photos could be to either capture the physical experience of an event or portray the event’s broader meaning. Researchers provided two examples involving a trip to the beach. A photo of the ocean would capture the physical experience of a beautiful day, but a selfie with a friend would capture time spent with a loved one. The researchers teased out these differences in a series of six studies involving just over 2,100 participants. In… read on > read on >

Fewer U.S. adults are smoking cigarettes, as rates dropped again last year, according to federal health officials. In all, 1 in 9 American adults smoked cigarettes last year, an all-time low, and a significant change from the 1960s when 42% smoked. The results weren’t all positive, the Associated Press reported, as vaping rose to about 1 in 17 adults. For 2022, use of electronic cigarettes was about 6% compared to 4.5% the year before. These preliminary findings are from a survey of more than 27,000 adults by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings are sometimes revised after further analysis. “I think that smoking will continue to ebb downwards, but whether the prevalence of nicotine addiction will drop, given the rise of electronic products, is not clear,” Dr. Jonathan Samet, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health in Aurora, told the AP. For nearly 40 years, Samet has been a contributing author to the U.S. Surgeon General’s reports on smoking and health. The preliminary findings for 2022 pegged the percentage of adult smokers in the United States at 11%, down from about 12.5% the year before, the AP reported. While more adults smoke cigarettes than vape, the opposite is true for minors. About 14% of high schoolers used e-cigarettes last year, compared to about 2% who smoked traditional cigarettes, according to… read on > read on >

As more Americans try to get their hands on the prescription medication Wegovy while they try to shed significant amounts of weight, an even more powerful obesity drug is poised to enter the fray. On Thursday, drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. announced that its type 2 diabetes drug tirzepatide (Mounjaro) helped people with diabetes who were overweight or obese lose nearly 16% of their body weight, or more than 34 pounds, over 17 months. This late-stage study of the drug adds to earlier evidence published last summer in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed overweight or obese people without diabetes lost up to 22% of their body weight over that period with weekly injections of the drug. For a typical patient on the highest dose, that meant shedding more than 50 pounds. Results from both studies will now be part of the company’s application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for fast-track approval of the drug for weight loss. “We have not hit 15% in any other phase 3 trial for weight management in this type 2 diabetes population,” Dr. Nadia Ahmad, an associate vice president at Eli Lilly and medical director of obesity clinical development for the company, told CNN. Importantly, this data has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal. “In the last year, [it] has… read on > read on >

Exercise might help people who are battling addiction stay on the straight and narrow, a new research review finds. Investigators who analyzed 43 studies from around the world found a link between physical activity and reduced substance use among people in treatment for alcohol and drug abuse. The idea for the study review “came to me when I was working as a kinesiologist in a therapy house for people with substance use disorders, and realized that physical health was not considered at all in these treatments, although the need was enormous,” explained study lead author Florence Piché. She is a doctoral candidate in sciences and physical activity at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières and the University of Montreal, in Canada. “We can assume that the mechanisms are multiple and multifactorial,” Piché said of the findings. The amount of exercise involved wasn’t overwhelming. Most of the studies focused on the potential benefit of “moderately intense” activity, conducted for about an hour three times a week over the course of approximately three months. Would more exercise confer greater benefits? Piché noted that none of the studies assessed that. Collectively, the studies included just over 3,100 participants. They looked at the relationship between exercise and the risk of using heroin, opioids, cocaine and crack cocaine, methadone, marijuana, alcohol or methamphetamines. None involved cigarette smoking. Half of the… read on > read on >

Those TV ads for juicy burgers may trigger your emotions, making you believe you’ll be happier if you run out and get one for yourself. Unfortunately, a similar ad for salad does not appear to have the same emotional impact, according to new research from the University of Michigan. “Many people think that eating highly processed foods like cheeseburgers and french fries will make them happier, and these beliefs are especially strong in people struggling to control their intake of highly processed foods,” said study author Jenna Cummings, a former University of Michigan research fellow. “Regulating fast-food advertisements and changing beliefs about how highly processed foods affect emotions could help people eat more nutritious foods,” she said in a university news release. The study found that adults who did not already hold strong beliefs about how foods affect their emotions had increases in belief that they would feel good eating these types of foods. The same was not true for salads and yogurt parfaits. The aim of the study was to test how food ads affected food-related emotional expectations and whether these effects were different depending on individual “food addiction” symptoms. Past research has found that someone with food addiction can have strong cravings for highly processed foods. Other symptoms include diminished control over their intake, eating too much despite negative consequences, including distress and… read on > read on >

If you’re longing for a nap, try to keep it short. Researchers found that siestas of 30 minutes or more in Murcia, a region of Spain, where it’s common to nap, were linked to a higher risk of obesity, a group of conditions called metabolic syndrome and high blood pressure. “Not all siestas are the same. The length of time, position of sleep and other specific factors can affect the health outcomes of a nap,” said study co-author Marta Garaulet, a visiting professor in the division of sleep and circadian disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “A previous study that we conducted in a large study population in the U.K. had found that siestas were associated with an increased risk of obesity,” Garaulet said in a hospital news release. “We wanted to determine whether this would hold true in a country where siestas are more culturally embedded, in this case Spain, as well as how the length of time for siestas is related to metabolic health.” Investigators examined the relationship between daytime sleep and its duration with obesity and metabolic syndrome in more than 3,200 adults. Folks who napped 30 minutes or longer were more likely to have a higher body mass index (BMI), higher blood pressure and a cluster of other conditions associated with heart disease and diabetes compared to those without… read on > read on >

Dealing with discrimination at work — from bosses or coworkers — may be enough to send your blood pressure through the roof, a new study suggests. Researchers found that among more than 1,200 U.S. workers, those who felt they often faced on-the-job discrimination were 54% more likely to develop high blood pressure, versus workers with little exposure to such bias. Over eight years, people who’d often experienced workplace discrimination developed high blood pressure at a rate of about 4% each year. That compared with 2.5% per year among people who rarely or never had those experiences. Experts said the study, published April 26 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, cannot prove cause and effect. “But our findings suggest workplace discrimination as a potential risk factor for high blood pressure,” said lead researcher Dr. Jian Li, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. For one, he said, the study followed workers over time, showing that their experiences of discrimination preceded their high blood pressure diagnosis. Plus, Li said, there are “biologically plausible” reasons that the stressful situation could contribute to rising blood pressure. During times of stress, the body responds in various ways, which includes a release of hormones that “activate” the cardiovascular system. Over time, chronic stress may add to the wear and tear on the body, and impede its ability… read on > read on >