In state after state, doors are quickly slamming shut on the ability of doctors to provide gender-affirming care for transgender minors. The newest restriction is set to take effect Thursday in Florida, where that state’s Board of Medicine decided last month to ban the use of all puberty blockers, hormone therapies and/or surgeries for any patient under 18, whether or not those minors have parental approval for such care. The ban stems from an effort first launched by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Surgeon General back in April 2022, when the pair issued a joint call for the ban. That was followed in August 2022 by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration’s rewriting of Medicaid coverage rules that disallowed reimbursements for any gender-affirming treatments involving both minors and adults. Minors who were already receiving puberty blockers before the new ban may continue taking them. Otherwise, the ban is complete: Florida transgender minors are no longer allowed access to gender-affirming medical care, even in a clinical trial. As a board ruling — rather than a new state law — Florida doctors who violate the ban will not face criminal charges, though they will be subject to censure, fines and the potential loss of their right to practice medicine in the state. Last week, Republican state lawmakers tabled a bill that would have gone a…  read on >  read on >

Like humans, some dogs suffer from anxiety. They might show fear or excitability toward strangers. Loud noises might result in “accidents.” They may get destructive when you leave home. The cause of their distress could lie in their brain makeup, researchers from Ghent University in Belgium say. For the study, published March 15 in PLOS ONE, researchers Yangfeng Xu and Emma Christiaen recruited 25 healthy dogs and 13 anxious dogs. They then used a type of noninvasive brain imaging called fMRI. The researchers discovered the anxious dogs had different features in their brains, with stronger connections between a component of the brain known as the amygdala and other regions of the anxiety network. The amygdala is responsible for emotions and behavior, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Although animals, including rodents, are often studied to aid in understanding anxiety disorders, the investigators said the dogs’ larger brain and bigger cortex could aid research into neural networks associated with anxiety. The researchers looked at the resting state of dogs with and without anxiety, comparing network metrics and connectivity between the groups. With the resting-state fMRI, the study team could see that functional connections between the amygdala and other parts of the anxiety circuit, particularly the hippocampus, were stronger than normal in anxious dogs. Certain other measurements known as global and local efficiency were also…  read on >  read on >

Your eyes close and your mind shuts down the second your head hits the pillow, but you wake up 10 hours later still feeling tired. Many people complain about sleeping too little, but some struggle with the opposite problem: oversleeping. Oversleeping, or hypersomnia, is a sleep disorder characterized by complaints of excessive daytime sleepiness occurring regularly or often, even after sleeping 10 or more hours a night. “Healthy sleep encompasses three major things,” Marishka Brown, a sleep expert at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), said recently. “One is how much sleep you get. Another is sleep quality — that you get uninterrupted and refreshing sleep. The last is a consistent sleep schedule. If you’re sleeping more than nine hours a night and you don’t feel refreshed, there may be some underlying medical issue.” If you are asking yourself, “Why do I need so much sleep,” here are the most common reasons for that and some tips on how to revamp your sleeping routine. While individual sleep needs may vary depending on age and conditions such as illness, stress or physical activity levels, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine notes that experts recommend that schoolchildren get nine hours of sleep per night and teens get eight to 10 hours, while adults may only need seven hours or more. Some adults, known as long sleepers,…  read on >  read on >

Don’t rely on TikTok for accurate health information about mpox, the virus once known as monkeypox, a new study says. An international group of researchers who watched and analyzed videos about mpox on the social media site found them to be often inaccurate, incomplete and of poor quality. Study findings were published May 14 in BMJ Global Health. A global outbreak of mpox made headlines last year. It’s usually spread by close contact and involves fever, swollen lymph glands and painful skin pustules all over the body that last several weeks. “Overall, the material on the recent mpox outbreak shared through TikTok videos was frequently unreliable and incomplete, hindering public health efforts to share accurate information on mpox,” the authors said in a journal news release. They include Dr. Ao Shi from St. George’s University of London. Researchers determined overall quality was higher when the videos were made by doctors and science communicators rather than institutional users, nurses and the general public. Still, the overall average score for the videos was 39.56 out of 80 using DISCERN, a tool used to help consumers gauge the reliability of health information; and 1.93 out of 4 using criteria from the Journal of the American Medical Association. No video met all the JAMA criteria. “Our quality-of-information results emphasize the need for developing instructions on health information videos on…  read on >  read on >

Black patients are dying of pulmonary fibrosis, a devastating disease marked by progressive scarring of the lungs, at significantly younger ages than white patients. A new study probes factors contributing to earlier onset of disease, hospitalization and death in Black patients. The disease involves a thickening and scarring of lung tissue, making it hard to breathe. It could come from exposure to toxins, medications or autoimmune disorders. About half of patients die within five years of a pulmonary fibrosis diagnosis. “Pulmonary fibrosis is a deadly disease, and people are often diagnosed right around the time they retire,” said lead author Dr. Ayodeji Adegunsoye, assistant professor of medicine at University of Chicago Medical Center. “You can imagine how devastating it would be, to work diligently all your life and then as you are about to retire, you’re diagnosed with a disease with a life expectancy of around three years,” he said in a center news release. The researchers looked at data from four U.S. hospitals, following outcomes of more than 4,500 patients between January 2003 and April 2021. On average, Black patients were diagnosed at 57.9 years of age, white patients at 68.6. Black patients were more likely to be female and more likely to be hospitalized than white and Hispanic patients, researchers found. Black patients were consistently younger at the time of their first hospitalization,…  read on >  read on >

U.S. water utilities will be required to remove certain “forever chemicals” from drinking water as the Biden administration sets first-ever limits on perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl compounds, better known as known as PFAS. Nearly all Americans have PFAS in their bloodstream. The toxic chemicals are found in an enormous range of goods from dental floss to waterproof clothing. The chemicals are also a threat to wildlife. “EPA’s proposal to establish a national standard for PFAS in drinking water is informed by the best available science,” Michael Regan, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said in an agency news release. It “would help provide states with the guidance they need to make decisions that best protect their communities,” he added. “This action has the potential to prevent tens of thousands of PFAS-related illnesses and marks a major step toward safeguarding all our communities from these dangerous contaminants.” The EPA aims to limit these chemicals in water to near-zero levels. About 200 million Americans may now be exposed to PFAS in their water, according to a 2020 study. No level of exposure to the chemicals is considered safe as it was found last year that they cause harm at levels much lower than once understood. Previously, advice was that drinking water contain no more than 70 parts per trillion of PFAS chemicals. Now, that advice has been…  read on >  read on >

When Americans have medical debt, it’s typically to a hospital, according to new research. The Urban Institute found that more than 15% of non-elderly adults in the United States have past-due medical debt. Nearly 73% owe some or all of that money to hospitals. “These findings highlight the persistent challenge of medical debt in America, and the role of hospitals as a key source of that debt,” said Michael Karpman, Urban Institute principal research associate. “Understanding the experiences of people with past-due medical bills can inform discussions around new consumer protections to alleviate debt burdens,” he added in an institute news release. Data came from the Urban Institute’s Health Reform Monitoring Survey of adults aged 18 to 64 in June 2022. Although federal regulations stipulate that nonprofit hospitals must provide charity care and other community benefits, these organizations determine their own charity eligibility criteria. Financial assistance policies are often difficult to find and understand, the investigators noted. About 60% of U.S. hospitals are nonprofit organizations. For-profit hospitals are exempt from these consumer protections. The survey also found that about 28% of adults with past-due medical debt owe all of their debt to hospitals. About 45% owe their debt to hospitals and other providers. More than 20% owe at least $5,000 and most owe at least $1,000. Adults with past-due hospital bills were more likely to…  read on >  read on >

On the third anniversary of the pandemic, a new poll shows fewer older adults are experiencing loneliness and isolation though the numbers are still high. About one-third of adults aged 50 to 80 still sometimes or often experience isolation and loneliness, according to the University of Michigan researchers. They may go a week or longer without social contact from someone outside the home. Still, that’s fewer than the half of older adults who reported this in June 2020. “Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, we see reason for hope, but also a real cause for concern,” said Dr. Preeti Malani, senior advisor and former director of the University of Michigan (U-M) National Poll on Healthy Aging. “If anything, the pandemic has shown us just how important social interaction is for overall mental and physical health, and how much more attention we need to pay to this from a clinical, policy and personal perspective.” More than 2,500 older adults answered survey questions in January. The sample was weighted to reflect the population of U.S. adults aged 50 to 80. The poll is based at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and supported by AARP and Michigan Medicine. “Loneliness and isolation were too high before the pandemic, and it will take a concerted effort to bring these rates down further,” poll director Dr. Jeffrey Kullgren,…  read on >  read on >

It might seem like a move to rural living could bring calm and even happiness, but new research suggests that isn’t always so. A study from the University of Houston found that those living in the country were not more satisfied with their lives than people who lived in urban areas. Rural U.S. residents didn’t feel like their lives were more meaningful, and they also tended to be more anxious, depressed and neurotic. Among the reasons for this are a shortage of mental health professionals, and the researchers noted a surge in rural hospital closures since 2010. Almost 85% of all rural counties have a mental health professional shortage, even though rural residents appear to need more psychological services, according to the study. “It will be critical to improve access to psychological services in remote areas, and to identify how characteristics and values of rural communities can be leveraged to promote positive psychological health,” said researcher Olivia Atherton, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Houston. Atherton and her colleagues analyzed data from two large longitudinal studies of Americans, the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). They looked at whether there were different levels and changes in extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness and neuroticism. They also examined whether there were differences or change in psychological well-being and…  read on >  read on >

Kids and teens are struggling with their mental health in America, and one new report suggests the overinvolvement of parents may be partly to blame. Kids don’t get to roam any more. They’ve lost time for free play and risk-taking amid parents’ fears about the dangers of the world, said report co-author David Bjorklund. While people think the lack of independence and the growth in mental health issues is new, it’s been a lot more gradual, said Bjorklund, a professor in the psychology department at Florida Atlantic University College of Science, in Boca Raton. “It’s not a really new phenomenon. It’s a growing one. And it’s been growing for decades,” Bjorklund said. The trend emerged in the 1960s and really accelerated in the 1980s, the authors said. Some eventually dubbed the trend “helicopter parenting.” Adults were well-intentioned in wanting to protect children, according to the paper, but this has deprived kids of the independence they need for mental health. And now young people are experiencing high levels of anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. In 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association issued a joint statement to the White House that child and adolescent mental health be declared a “national emergency.” Last month, the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention reported on the…  read on >  read on >