Many adults with epilepsy have agoraphobia, or a fear of public places, new research suggests. That impacts quality of life and is something doctors should include in other screening that looks for anxiety or depression, the investigators said. “We know that agoraphobia can lead to delays in patient care because of a reluctance to go out in public, which includes appointments with health care providers,” said lead study author Dr. Heidi Munger Clary, an associate professor of neurology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. “So, this is an area that needs more attention in clinical practice.” Her team used data from a neuropsychology registry study to analyze a diverse sample of 420 adults, ages 18 to 75. The patients had epilepsy and underwent neuropsychological evaluation over a 14-year period at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. “More than one-third of the participants reported significant phobic/agoraphobic symptoms,” Munger Clary said in a Wake Forest news release. “We also found that phobic/agoraphobic symptoms, along with depression symptoms, were independently associated with poor quality of life, but generalized anxiety symptoms were not.” The findings suggest a need for future studies, to develop more comprehensive screening for these types of psychiatric disorders in epilepsy, Munger Clary said. “Symptoms of agoraphobia do not fully overlap with generalized anxiety or depression symptoms that are often…  read on >  read on >

Carbon monoxide is a silent, odorless killer, but even during winter heating season, it’s possible to stay safe. This dangerous gas is produced when fuels burn incompletely. This can happen in furnaces, both gas- and wood-burning fireplaces, space heaters and vehicles that burn fossil fuel. It’s also possible in water heaters, gas clothes dryers and stoves, as well as other equipment, including grills, generators and power tools. The Nebraska Regional Poison Center offers some tips on staying safe, recognizing carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning and treating a person who has been poisoned with the gas: Start by installing carbon monoxide detectors on every level of your home. Replace batteries every six months. Have all fuel-burning appliances inspected regularly. Ventilate fuel- and gas-burning heaters to the outside. Do not use a gas range or an oven to heat a room. Never use a charcoal grill or hibachi inside, the center advises. Run generators at a safe distance from the home. Don’t run them next to a window or a door, which can be dangerous. Avoid sitting in a car with the engine running if deep snow or mud is blocking the exhaust pipe. Never leave a car running in an attached garage, even with the garage door open. Have your vehicle’s muffler and tailpipes checked regularly. CO poisoning can be mistaken for flu. Symptoms include headache, nausea,…  read on >  read on >

Natural gas stoves have become the latest flashpoint in America’s increasingly volatile political culture, after a top federal regulator publicly mulled over banning the appliances. “This is a hidden hazard,” the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) commissioner, Richard Trumka Jr., said in an interview. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.” Trumka quickly walked back that statement, saying that the agency wants to assess the hazards posed by indoor gas stove emissions but has no plans to ban gas stoves. But the question now is on the front burner — to what extent do gas stoves pose a health hazard to the average American? A growing body of evidence shows that gas stoves do indeed emit a wide variety of harmful pollutants into a home’s air, including nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, benzene, formaldehyde, and even the sort of particulate matter that contributes to smog, experts say. “All of those are known to have negative impacts on human health,” said Dr. MeiLan Han, chief of pulmonary and critical care at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Some of these pollutants are emitted through microscopic leaks that occur even when a stove is off, said Eric Lebel, a senior scientist with PSE Healthy Energy in Oakland, Calif. Others are generated by the stove’s blue flame. However, researchers…  read on >  read on >

A mother-to-be’s exposure to air pollution during pregnancy may have a lasting impact on her baby’s brain development, new research indicates. Toddlers scored lower on assessments for thinking, motor and language skills when their mothers had more exposure to pollutants during pregnancy, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Our findings suggest that pollution exposure, particularly during mid-to-late pregnancy, may negatively impact neurodevelopment in early life,” co-author Tanya Alderete, an assistant professor of integrative physiology, said in a university news release. To study this, the researchers followed 161 healthy, Hispanic mother-infant pairs who lived in Southern California and were enrolled in the Mother’s Milk Study. The moms provided information about where they had lived. This made it possible for researchers to calculate their exposure to pollutants from roadside traffic, industry, wildfire smoke and other sources using data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The researchers assessed the children of these mothers for thinking (“cognitive”), motor and language skills at age 2 years. The team found that the toddlers who were exposed prenatally to more inhalable particulate matter (PM 10 and PM 2.5) scored significantly lower on cognitive tests. (Cognitive tests assess abilities such as problem-solving). About 16% of the children had a composite cognitive score that indicated impairment. If all participants had been exposed to as much pollution as the 75th percentile, the…  read on >  read on >

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 25, 2023 (HealthDay News) – It’s well known that obesity fuels an increase in a person’s risk for other chronic health conditions. Now, a new study shows that weight-loss surgery could set that person’s health, and longevity, on a different path. Utah researchers who followed patients for up to 40 years after they had one of four types of weight-loss (bariatric) surgery found they had significant reductions in death rates from all causes compared to obese patients who did not have surgery. All-cause death for both men and women was 16% lower. For heart disease, it was 29% lower. For cancer, deaths dropped by 43%, and it was down a full 72% for diabetes. “The take-home message is that people are generally long-term going to have improved health in those areas,” said lead study author Ted Adams. He’s an adjunct professor in internal medicine and an adjunct associate professor in nutrition and integrative physiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Unfortunately, his team also unearthed some important negative outcomes. Death rates from chronic liver disease in patients who had bariatric surgery were 83% higher, when compared to patients who didn’t have the surgery. Patients who had the surgery also had a 2.4 times higher risk for suicide, though that effect was seen primarily in younger people, ages 18 to 34. Although…  read on >  read on >

One-third of public health workers have endured threats, anger and aggression from the public during the pandemic, and that has come at a steep cost to their mental health, a new study finds. “The negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on workers have been documented and the research on psychological impacts is building,” said lead study author Hope Tiesman. She is a research epidemiologist with the division of safety research at the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), in Morgantown, W.Va. “Public health workers do the important work of disseminating information and services to the public; making sure their health and well-being are addressed in the face of workplace violence is important for their mental health and for the health of the nation in future public health crises,” Tiesman added. For the study, more than 26,000 state, tribal, local and territorial public health workers responded to an online survey developed by a team of researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including Tiesman. The survey’s aim was also to understand the prevalence of nonphysical workplace violence on public health workers between March 2020 and April 2021. It included questions on demographics, level of workplace violence, other workplace factors, and mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicidal ideation. The survey found that nearly one…  read on >  read on >

Nearly 20% of American adults use a drug to help them sleep, either occasionally or regularly, health officials reported Wednesday. Sleep medications, sold both over-the-counter and by prescription, are a common treatment for sleep problems, said senior report author Lindsey Black, a health statistician at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). “Our report details patterns of use of medication to inform patterns of use among subgroups of the U.S. population,” Black said. “We do hope by dissemination of this report it can lay the groundwork for more work in this area and our understanding of sleep health among adults.” Using data from the 2020 National Health Interview Survey, Black and colleagues found that among adults ages 18 and older, 8.4% used medication to help them fall or stay asleep on most nights or every night. Another 10% said they used medication on some nights. Women were more likely than men to take medication for sleep and the percentage doing it generally increased with increasing age. Specifically, 10% of women used sleep medication, compared with 6.6% of men. White adults were more likely to use sleep medications, and Asian adults were least likely to do so. Also, the percentage of men who used medication for sleep dropped as family income increased, Black’s team found. The findings were published…  read on >  read on >

Any ‘middle-age spread’ of excess weight around your tummy could raise your risk of becoming frail decades later, a new study suggests. Obese folks who’ve packed on pounds around their waist are more likely to develop symptoms of frailty, including exhaustion, weak grip strength, slow walking speed and reduced physical activity levels, researchers say. Those symptoms can make a person more likely to hurt themselves in a fall, suffer disability, require hospitalization, have a lower quality of life and die prematurely. Frailty affects as many as 17% of older adults, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. The new study, published Jan. 23 in BMJ Open, tracked more than 4,500 people in Norway for an average 21 years, starting at an average age of 51. Measurements of body mass index (an estimate of body fat based on height and weight) and waist circumference were taken at the start. Waistlines were categorized as “normal” if they were 37 inches or less for men and 31 inches or less for women; “moderately high” as 37-40 inches for men and 32-35 inches for women, and “high” if above 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women. People who were obese at the outset were nearly 2.5 times more likely to be frail or on the edge of frailty by the study’s end, said lead researcher Shreeshti…  read on >  read on >