Lead is known to damage young children’s brains, and a new study suggests the effects may still be apparent in old age. Researchers found that among nearly 1,100 older U.S. adults, those who grew up in cities with lead-contaminated drinking water generally scored worse on tests of memory and thinking skills. The findings, experts said, suggest that older adults who were exposed to lead decades ago could be at relatively higher risk of dementia — since their cognitive starting point is typically lower. Lead is a naturally occurring metal that can cause serious health effects if it accumulates in the blood. Children younger than 6 are particularly vulnerable, as lead can damage their developing brains and cause learning or behavioral problems. Yet little has been known about whether early life lead exposure has consequences for the aging brain, said John Robert Warren, a professor at the University of Minnesota who worked on the new study. “You can count on one hand the number of studies,” he said. The new findings — published online Nov. 9 in the journal Science Advances — show only a link between childhood lead exposure and cognition later in life. They do not prove cause and effect. But Warren said there are various ways that childhood exposure could have long-range effects, including indirect means. For example, children with high blood lead…  read on >  read on >

When it comes to pollen allergies, there are not only bad days and bad seasons, experts with the right technology can now break down pollen counts by the hour. Specifically, pollen counts are lower between 4 a.m. and noon, a new study done in Georgia found. They’re higher between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. While experts have been monitoring pollen levels for many years to better understand them and advise patients, they typically measure counts for a 24-hour period, said lead author Dr. Stanley Fineman, an allergist with Atlanta Allergy and Asthma. For the new study, his team and researchers at Emory University in Atlanta used imaging technology to measure pollen in real time. The investigators found that higher counts seemed to align with rising temperatures. “Now we’ve got some real-time data and can tell patients if they’re allergic and they want to do outdoor activities, they should really do it early in the morning,” Fineman said. The research team monitored hourly pollen levels in three areas of Atlanta for a week in March 2021. They averaged pollen concentrations during the week to reduce day-to-day fluctuations caused by weather changes. Warming trends in the United States due to climate change have caused pollen counts to rise earlier in the year than they used to. Plants tend to release more pollen when the temperature is warmer.…  read on >  read on >

Much like intense exercise, vigorous sex can trigger an asthma attack in folks with the chronic lung disease, according to new research. “There is a lack of current literature available on the prevalence of sexual intercourse presenting as exercise-induced asthma,” said study author Dr. Ariel Leung, chief internal medicine resident at Saint Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, Calif. This could be because sex isn’t always the easiest topic to broach with your doctor. “When sexual intercourse-induced asthma is properly identified and treated, allergists are placed in a position where they can improve their patients’ quality of life and even their marriages,” Leung said. When it comes to the risk of having an asthma attack, vigorous sex is akin to walking up two flights of stairs, she noted. The same measures that keep asthma at bay during exercise can also help stave off a sex-induced asthma attack. “We recommend that patients take their short-acting beta agonist inhaler 30 minutes prior to sexual intercourse to prevent an asthma attack,” Leung said. “Some patients might think it takes away from the romance, but nothing is more romantic than taking care of yourself and not having your partner observe an asthma attack.” The wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath and chest tightness that are hallmarks of an asthma attack are caused by inflammation that narrows airways. It can’t be cured…  read on >  read on >

In a finding that challenges the notion that immigrants are freeloaders in the American health care system, a new study shows they are paying a lot more through health care premiums and related taxes than they actually use in care. In fact, the amount that immigrants pay in makes up for some of the amount of health care that non-immigrants use in excess of what they pay. “Some politicians and pundits tell Americans that immigrants are a burden to society, and particularly to our health care system,” senior study author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a distinguished professor at City University of New York’s (CUNY) Hunter College and lecturer at Harvard Medical School, said in a CUNY news release. “But the opposite is true. Immigrants subsidize the care of other Americans, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars each year,” she explained. The study found that immigrants paid about $58.3 billion more in health insurance premiums and taxes than insurers and federal, state and local governments paid for their care in 2017. About 89% of immigrants’ total surplus contributions were made by undocumented immigrants. Conversely, Americans born in the United States received $67.2 billion more in care than they actually paid, according to the study authors. To arrive at that unexpected finding, researchers analyzed detailed data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, the American…  read on >  read on >

Equipping offices with “healthier” furnishings could reduce human exposure to risky PFAS chemicals, new research suggests. To look at indoor PFAS levels, a team led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in Boston, analyzed building dust in classrooms and common campus spaces. “Our findings provide desperately needed scientific evidence for the success of healthier materials — which don’t have to be more expensive or perform less well — as a real-world solution to reduce indoor exposure to forever chemicals as a whole,” said Anna Young, lead author of the study. She’s a research associate in the department of environmental health and associate director of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings program. PFAS — or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are called “forever chemicals” because they persist in the environment. Used for stain and water resistance, at least 12,000 types of PFAS are found in products such as furniture, carpet, textiles, food packaging, nonstick cookware, cosmetics and firefighting foam. Linked to thyroid disease, stunted development, weakened immune systems, high cholesterol, testicular cancer, obesity and diabetes, these chemicals have been detected in the blood of more than 98% of Americans. For this study, the researchers wanted to expand on an earlier investigation that looked at 15 types of PFAS in buildings. It’s difficult because most of the thousands of PFAS chemicals are unknown or can’t be measured with…  read on >  read on >

Evaluating a person’s psychological stress can be a good way to gauge their risk of heart and blood vessel disease, new research suggests. And a brief questionnaire could help with the assessment, the study findings showed. “Our study is part of the accumulating evidence that psychological distress is a really important factor in a cardiovascular diagnosis, such as the other health behaviors and risk factors, like physical activity and cholesterol levels, that clinicians monitor,” said co-author Emily Gathright. She is an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School, in Providence, R.I. For the study, the team looked at research published within the past five years that included adults without a psychiatric diagnosis who were screened for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, stress or general mental health symptoms, and followed for more than six months. About 58% were women. In all, Gathright and her colleagues analyzed findings from 28 studies that included more than 658,000 patients. Those reporting high levels of psychological distress had a 28% higher risk of heart disease, the investigators found. According to study co-author Carly Goldstein, an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior, a brief mental health questionnaire can give clinicians a better idea not only of a patient’s mental health risks, but also their associated risk for heart disease. Based on the results…  read on >  read on >

As the daylight hours shrink, people’s moods can wind up in the tank. Rest assured, you’re not alone. It’s the SAD season for those affected by seasonal affective disorder. That’s the depression, fatigue and withdrawal that shorter days and longer nights often bring. “The seasonal mood change can come in different shapes and forms,” said Dr. Dorothy Sit, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago. “It can be a clinical diagnosis of depression, which we call SAD, but some people experience a milder form,” Sit said. “The clinical diagnosis means it is quite intense; it affects people all day for many weeks and can impact their functioning. In milder cases, people can feel a bit blah, but can push through. Still, functioning will feel a bit harder.” Besides feeling sluggish, people may be hungrier, crave carbohydrates, eat more and gain weight. They may also feel less motivated and find less enjoyment in activities. “This is a form of depression that cycles naturally; it starts every fall and winter and remits every spring and summer,” Sit said in a Northwestern Medicine news release. A major remedy for SAD is starting the day with bright light therapy. Sit recommends a unit that produces 10,000 LUX of white light to be used in the 30 minutes after waking up.…  read on >  read on >

Deaths caused by alcohol skyrocketed in the United States between 2019 and 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, according to a just-published government report. The alcohol-induced death rate jumped 26% during that period, claiming more than 49,000 lives, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday. That’s about 13 deaths for every 100,000 people. In 2019, the alcohol-induced death rate stood at 10.4 deaths per 100,000, CNN reported. Americans drank more during the COVID pandemic than before, and a health expert said it’s possible this is just the beginning of a disturbing trend. “We know that in large-scale traumatic events to the population – like 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina – people historically start drinking more. The pandemic has been, as we all know, a major stressor to our lives,” said George Koob, director of the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. “What we’ve been picking up with numerous small studies is that about 25% of the population increased their drinking and these individuals were people who were drinking to cope with stress,” he said. “And many people who drink to cope with stress inevitably go on to have an alcohol use disorder.” More than half of the 2020 deaths caused by alcohol were due to alcoholic liver disease, CNN reported. Other causes included mental health and behavioral disorders due to…  read on >  read on >