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A virus-linked cancer killing California sea lions is sounding a chilling alarm for mankind. Exposure to environmental toxins significantly boosts risk for the herpes-like cancer, which was discovered in sea lions in 1979. Since then, between 18% and 23% of adult sea lions admitted to a California animal rescue-and-research center have died of the disease. That’s the highest rate for a single type of cancer in any mammal, including humans, the researchers said. “The decades of research looking into this deadly disease clearly shows the ocean environment we all share is in trouble, and that we need to find solutions to protect our collective health,” said study co-author Pádraig Duignan, chief pathologist at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif. The study — based on more than 20 years of research and examination of nearly 400 California sea lions — was recently published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. The researchers said more must be done to stop ecosystem pollution in order to prevent virus-caused cancer in both wildlife and humans. The study found that the blubber of California sea lions has among the highest levels of some organic pollutants found in any marine mammal. “Even though some of the pollutants we’re finding in the blubber have been out of use for years, these cancer-causing elements remain in the environment for a very long… read on > read on >

Combining drugs with driving is a potentially deadly but all too common combination in the United States, according to a new report. University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers found that almost 9% of adults reported driving under the influence of alcohol. Marijuana use among drivers was more than 4%, while many adults also use both pot and other drugs in combination with alcohol. The most commonly reported drugs used while driving were marijuana and opioids, the study found. “We need to focus our efforts on drugged driving, in addition to drunk driving, because drugged driving causes such a high level of fatalities,” said study lead author Andrew Yockey. He’s a doctoral student in UC’s College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services. With lawful marijuana use rising in the United States, there are concerns about road safety, the researchers said in a university news release. Keith King, director of the UC Center for Prevention Science, said, “There is serious concern as to how legalization will affect driving behaviors among adults.” King called for more research to evaluate the impact of legalization. The team also emphasized education at an early age and identifying culturally relevant prevention strategies. For the study, the researchers used sample data from the 2016 to 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The investigators found that men were significantly more likely than… read on > read on >

Being rushed into hospital care can be an emotional experience. So, what a surgeon says to trauma or emergency surgery patients plays a role in how satisfied they are after their operations, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed data from nearly 187,000 patients discharged from 168 HCA Healthcare hospitals in the United States in 2018 and 2019. HCA Healthcare is a publicly traded company based in Nashville, Tenn. The goal was to determine how several factors — including interactions with nurses and doctors — contributed to satisfaction ratings in five patient categories: trauma; elective surgery; emergency surgery; emergency medical; and elective medical. “Nurses uniformly come out as the most highly ranked, and that’s because they provide wonderful bedside care and have so much contact with the patients,” said study author Dr. Samir Fakhry, vice president of HCA Healthcare’s Center for Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Research. “But in the case of the trauma patients, and to a lesser degree the emergency surgical patients, physician communication ranked as the number two factor,” Fakhry added. Among trauma and emergency surgery patients, physician communication had a significant impact on overall satisfaction after nursing factors were accounted for, representing a 12% increase in the former and an 8.6% increase in the latter group, the researchers found. Among elective surgery and medical admission patients, physician communication didn’t even rank as… read on > read on >

Racial segregation may help explain why Black Americans with lung cancer do more poorly than their white counterparts, a new study suggests. For years, U.S. studies have documented racial disparities in lung cancer. Black Americans are less likely to receive surgery for early-stage lung cancer — the standard of care — and they typically die sooner. The reasons, however, are not fully clear. Researchers said the new study implicates residential segregation — a manifestation of structural racism — in the disparities. It found that Black lung cancer patients living in the most segregated U.S. counties were 49% more likely to be diagnosed at an advanced stage, compared to those living in the least segregated counties. And among those with early-stage lung cancer, Black patients in highly segregated areas were 47% less likely to receive surgery. In the past, racial disparities in health outcomes were often attributed to genetics, according to Dr. Michael Poulson, a resident physician at Boston Medical Center who worked on the study. “But we all know race is a social construct,” Poulson said. These findings, he said, highlight the role of historical policies, including “redlining,” that devalued areas with large Black populations. Lack of investment in those areas meant fewer businesses, fewer job opportunities, more poverty, poorer housing and fewer health care facilities. And the health effects are still being felt, the… read on > read on >

Many young Americans are prescribed psychiatric drugs to treat medical conditions, but nearly one-third of them wind up misusing the medications, a new study finds. “Misuse of prescription substances is alarmingly high among U.S. youth and young adults,” said lead researcher Israel Agaku, a part-time lecturer in oral health policy and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, in Boston. The study found that, overall, 35% of young people (aged 12 to 25) said they had taken a prescribed psychoactive drug in the past year, and 31% of those said they had misused that drug. While opioids were the most commonly prescribed drug, misuse of stimulants and tranquilizers was higher. Psychotropic drugs change a person’s mental state and can have intoxicating effects. “This study draws attention to the silent epidemic of prescription stimulant use among youth,” Agaku said. “With increasing popularity of performance-enhancing stimulants in schools, it is imperative for policymakers, school administrators, health care professionals and parents to become more aware of this emerging danger and take appropriate steps, similar to what has been done for the opioid epidemic.” Dr. Scott Krakower, an attending psychiatrist in child and adolescent psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y., said, “It is very alarming to see so many young people having access to controlled substances.” It is important for doctors to screen for illicit… read on > read on >