Over the last decade, more and more Americans with early-stage prostate cancer have put off radiation and surgery, the standard treatment options, new research indicates. Instead, many U.S. men with low- or intermediate-risk prostate cancer have embraced “active surveillance,” in which their disease is carefully monitored for any sign of progression that might eventually require intervention. In the new study, the investigators found that since 2010 the number of low-risk prostate cancer patients who have chosen active surveillance over immediate treatment has shot up from 16% to roughly 60%. In the same timeframe, surveillance has also risen among intermediate-risk patients, jumping from about 8% to 22%. The trend appears to reflect the fact that “professional societies have advocated for active surveillance of low-risk cancers for over a decade now,” said study lead author Dr. Bashir Al Hussein Al Awamlh, a urologic oncology fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. “The theory behind active surveillance is that some cancers have a low potential to spread outside of the prostate and are non-lethal,” Al Hussein Al Awamlh noted. In such cases, immediate treatment is not necessary. Studies indicate that over 10 years, about half of all low- and intermediate-risk patients who choose surveillance over treatment will eventually need to undergo treatment, he said. But “active surveillance allows us to watch these cancers closely, using blood…  read on >  read on >

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often develops following a traumatic event in someone’s life, leaving the sufferer to struggle with vivid flashbacks, nightmares and panic attacks. The U.S. National Center for PTSD estimates that about 6% of Americans will experience PTSD at some point in their lives. Women are twice as likely to experience the condition as men, and veterans and children may also be more susceptible. To help you better understand PTSD, let’s examine what the condition is, plus learn its main symptoms, causes, risk factors and treatments, including medications and therapies that are backed by science. What is PTSD? “Clinically when we think about PTSD, it is a reaction to a traumatic event,” Cleveland Clinic staff psychologist Dr. Chivonna Childs said in a podcast. “That reaction can be flashbacks, nightmares about the event, feeling as if we’re reliving the events, being triggered by people, places, things, situations that remind us of the event. That can send us into what we would normally feel like is a panic attack,” she explained. According to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), people can develop PTSD from: Experiencing a traumatic event firsthand Witnessing a trauma happening to others Learning about traumatic events after the fact. The condition may also manifest as complex PTSD (C-PTSD). The CPTSD Foundation states that C-PTSD is the result of trauma that’s…  read on >  read on >

Imagine a perfect week at work. Everything runs smoothly, and you love your job. Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? While those days are possible, work can also be a source of frequent and intense stress. Let’s face it, work stress is unavoidable. In 2022, 83% of U.S. workers suffered from work-related stress and about 1 million Americans missed work each day because of stress, according to the American Institute of Stress (AIS). But what exactly is work-related stress and what can you do about it? Causes of work stress There are a variety of reasons why work is stressful. “A leader who isn’t empathetic to what’s going on or not connected to the problems in the workplace can result in a stressful work environment,” says Dr. Jessica Gold, a psychiatrist and member of the Council on Communications for the American Psychiatric Association. Gold also identifies a lack of control over responsibilities and time as a common reason workers battle job-related stress. Other causes of work stress include tight deadlines, job insecurity and a toxic work environment (bullying, manipulation). Symptoms of work-related stress The American Psychological Association identifies physical and emotional symptoms of work stress including: Headaches Stomachaches High blood pressure A weakened immune system Insomnia Depression Anxiety Panic attacks Poor concentration Mood swings How to manage work stress There are specific ways to manage…  read on >  read on >

Monoclonal antibodies have been an effective tool in the battle against COVID-19, reducing the risk of hospitalization or death by 39% for people who started the treatment within two days of a positive test, a new study finds. These treatments were even more effective for immunocompromised people, regardless of age, according to the University of Pittsburgh researchers. “The virus was a moving target, and, for two years, monoclonal antibodies were approved, revoked, sometimes reauthorized and sometimes scarce,” said Kevin Kip, lead author of a new analysis and vice president of clinical analytics at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). “Using UPMC’s database of patients treated with monoclonal antibodies — one of the largest in the U.S. — we are finally able to conclude that pushing through all these challenges unequivocally saved lives and prevented hospitalizations,” Kip said in a university news release. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization to five monoclonal antibodies between 2020 and 2022. These human-made antibodies were designed to prevent the virus from entering human cells where they could replicate and cause serious illness. Those used for COVID-19 were administered intravenously or through an injection. They were restricted to people aged 12 and older with risk factors that made them more susceptible to bad outcomes from the virus. As the virus evolved, so did the antibodies, with new…  read on >  read on >

A good night’s sleep is important for everyone, and it may be especially sage advice for adults with a genetic susceptibility to asthma, a new study says. Someone with poor sleep quality and a genetic link to asthma may double their chances of being diagnosed with the respiratory condition, researchers said. But they found a healthy sleep pattern was linked to lower risk, according to a report based on U.K. participants in the journal BMJ Open Respiratory Research. “Previous studies have demonstrated that sleep disorders, such as unfavorable sleep duration and insomnia, are associated with chronic inflammation,” said the authors, including Fuzhong Xue, of the National Institute of Health Data Science of China at Shandong University in Jinan. “In theory, the immune response to inflammation could generate pro-inflammatory cytokines that result in cellular infiltration and airway inflammation, further increasing the risk of asthma,” they said in a journal news release. Spotting and treating sleep disorders early on might lessen the risks, regardless of genetic predisposition, the study noted. People with asthma often report broken or short sleep and insomnia. For the study, the researchers used U.K. Biobank data on more than 455,000 adults enrolled between 2006 and 2010. Participants were asked about their sleep patterns, based on whether they were a “morning lark” or “night owl,” sleep duration, insomnia, snoring and excessive daytime sleepiness. A…  read on >  read on >

Some furniture fabrics are coated with questionable PFAS compounds — often called ‘forever chemicals’ — to repel stains, but a new study suggests they may not even do the job they’re supposed to. The chemicals, widely believed to have a negative impact on human health, don’t seem to keep furniture any more or less stain-resistant than untreated fabric, according to a new study. “It was surprising that these harmful but supposedly indispensable chemicals had no practical benefit,” said lead author Jonas LaPier, a PhD candidate in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. “It makes you wonder what other uses of PFAS are also unnecessary and could be easily eliminated from products without noticeable change in performance,” he said in a news release from the Green Science Policy Institute. PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. These ubiquitous chemicals have been associated with cancer, obesity and more severe COVID-19 outcomes. Only a small fraction of the thousands of PFAS have been tested for toxicity, the study noted. All are either extremely persistent in the environment or break down into persistent PFAS. For the new study, investigators released droplets of coffee and oil-based salad dressing on indoor commercial furniture with six fabrics finished with PFAS and three that had no finish. They found that for the water-based coffee stains, none of the PFAS-finished fabrics performed better…  read on >  read on >

There’s no single known cause for autism, but researchers now point the finger at higher lithium levels in drinking water. Their new study found that pregnant women in Denmark whose household tap water had higher levels of lithium were more likely to have kids with autism, compared to pregnant women living in areas where tap water had lower levels of this element. Autism is characterized by problems with social interaction, communication and behavior. About 1 in 36 children in the United States have the disorder, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. April is Autism Awareness Month. “Maternal prenatal exposure to lithium from naturally occurring drinking water sources in Denmark was associated with an increased autism spectrum disorder risk in the offspring,’ said study author Dr. Beate Ritz, a professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “This suggests a potential fetal neurotoxicity of lithium exposure from drinking water that needs to be further investigated.” Lithium leaches into drinking water from soil and rocks, but these levels could rise in the future from waste in lithium batteries that are not disposed of properly. “Lithium interferes with neurodevelopment during pregnancy and early infancy,” Ritz said. A biological pathway called WNT signaling plays a role in brain development and autism, and the pathway is also affected by lithium in animal…  read on >  read on >

An experimental targeted drug could provide a fresh chance for people with recurring head and neck cancer that has grown resistant to other treatments, a new clinical trial says. Ficlatuzumab used in combination with the already approved targeted drug cetuximab (Erbitux) significantly improved progression-free survival in relapsed head and neck cancer patients, according to results from a phase II trial. The results are particularly encouraging because the ficlatuzumab/cetuximab combo only worked in patients whose cancers aren’t driven by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, said lead researcher Dr. Julie Bauman, director of the GW Cancer Center at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. “People with HPV-positive virally driven cancer have a better prognosis. They usually respond better to just about any therapy that’s put in front of them,” Bauman said. Patients with “the worst of the worst prognosis, with HPV-negative disease, was the group that appeared to disproportionately benefit, which was unexpected and quite gratifying,” Bauman said. HPV-negative head and neck cancers are typically driven by alcohol or tobacco use or exposure to occupational pollutants. The combo therapy had a 38% response rate in HPV-negative head and neck cancer patients. In those patients, tumors shrank by at least 30%. “This was a very sick patient population, because these were patients who had had their cancer come back after initial treatment, and they were all resistant to chemotherapy,…  read on >  read on >