Lifestyle « Weekly Gravy

Half of young Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 spend at least four hours each day on their smartphones, computers or televisions, a new survey shows. “As technology has become more integrated into teenagers’ lives, the time spent in front of screens has continued to rise in the United States,” noted a team of researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All of that screen time might not be great for teens’ psyches: The research found that while about 27% of teens who had four or more hours per day of screen time said they’d had anxiety over the past two weeks, that was true for only 12.3% of teen with fewer hours spent looking at screens. Self-reported depression levels were also much higher (about 26%) among teens who consumed four hours or more of screen time than those who didn’t (9.5%). The new data comes from answers given by U.S. teens to a federal survey conducted between mid-2021 and the end of 2023. The survey found little difference in screen use by gender — just over 48% of boys watched TV or stared at their phones or computers for four or more hours per day, as did 52.5% of girls. Screen time did seem to rise with age, however: While 45.6% of kids ages 12 to 14 spent four… read on > read on >

Women who enter menopause at a later age have a greater risk of asthma, a new study says. Meanwhile, early menopause is associated with a reduced risk of developing asthma, researchers found. The results run counter to other studies suggesting that early menopause, defined as ages 40 to 44, is more detrimental to a woman’s health, increasing her risk of heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and depression, the researchers noted. They also provide additional evidence for a link between female hormones and asthma, the team led by Durmalouk Kesibi, from York University in Toronto, found. Childhood asthma is more prevalent in boys than girls, but adult-onset asthma is more common in women than men. Women also tend to have more severe asthma, and they are less likely to have their asthma go into remission, researchers noted. “This study highlights sex-based differences in asthma, with women at a greater risk for asthma than men in adulthood,” said Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director for The Menopause Society. “It also showed that women with later onset of menopause are at greater risk than those with early onset of menopause,” Faubion added in a society news release. “Clinicians should be aware of this link and should monitor women with later age at natural menopause for asthma symptoms.” For this study, researchers reviewed data on more than 14,000 postmenopausal women with… read on > read on >

Pancreatic cancer rates are rising in adults younger than 50, but many continue to believe it’s a disease that only affects the elderly, a new survey shows. Folks in that age range also say they wouldn’t be able to identify early signs and symptoms of pancreatic cancer, and that there’s nothing to do to reduce their risk. “Pancreatic cancer rates have been rising by about 1% annually, and we are seeing this disease in people who are in their 40s much more regularly,” said researcher Zobeida Cruz-Monserrate, co-leader of Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Program. “This is a concerning trend, and one for which research is needed to learn why.” The survey involved 1,004 people polled in early October. A third (33%) of adults under 50 believed that only seniors are at risk of developing the cancer, the poll results showed. And more than half (53%) said they wouldn’t recognize symptoms of pancreatic cancer, the survey found. About 37% said there’s nothing they can do to change their risk of pancreatic cancer — which isn’t true, Cruz-Monserrate said. Dropping some pounds can lower one’s risk, for a start. Obesity increases a person’s lifetime risk of pancreatic cancer by 20%, the researchers noted. At the same time, only 1 in 10 pancreatic cancers are linked to genetics. “You can’t change… read on > read on >

Most kids with attention issues won’t go on to develop serious psychiatric conditions like psychosis or schizophrenia. However, a new study finds poor attention spans in childhood, plus certain genes, could play a role in raising the risk for these conditions. Of course, much more research is needed to pinpoint precursors to psychotic symptoms in a person’s teens or 20s, said a team from the University of California, Los Angeles. Even if children have certain risk factors, that’s still not a guarantee of psychiatric illness in adulthood, they stressed. “If you have this strong liability based on your genetics and early attentional span, we don’t know what the longer-term trajectories are and who are the people who are going to be more resilient to their underlying risk,” explained study lead author Dr. Carrie Bearden. “That’s going to be really important to look at when those [better] data become available,” said Bearden, a professor at the UCLA Health Semel Institute and the UCLA Health Brain Research Institute. Her team published its findings Oct. 28 in the journal Nature Mental Health. The study looked at cognitive, brain and genetic data for more than 10,000 children tracked for an average of six years, from about age 9 into adolescence. Bearden’s team sought to compare rates of attentional issues in childhood, plus certain genetics, against the likelihood of a… read on > read on >

Repeated concussions dramatically increase a hockey player’s risk of depression and burnout, a new study warns. Hockey players who’d suffered three or more concussions had twice the risk of depression symptoms than whose who’d never had a concussion, researchers found. They also faced three and a half times the risk of burnout symptoms, results showed. Concussion caused these effects in both male and female players, the researchers noted. “Other studies have shown that women experience more short-term symptoms after a concussion than men, but it was interesting that the link between concussion and heightened prevalence of symptoms of depression, anxiety and burnout was equally strong for both sexes,” said lead researcher Mitchell Andersson, a doctoral student in psychiatry at Lund University in Sweden. “This might indicate that the long-term neuropsychiatric recovery process is more similar in men and women than the short-term process,” Andersson added in a university news release. For the study, researchers surveyed nearly 650 active hockey players in Sweden’s top hockey divisions. They found that more than 1 in 4 men and nearly 1 in 5 women reported having suffered three or more concussions. Both men and women had a higher risk of depression if they’d suffered repeated concussions, researchers found. Athletes with at least three concussions were also 3.5 times more likely to develop burnout as those with none, and twice… read on > read on >

The weight-loss drug Ozempic can guard against kidney disease in obese people, a new study shows. Patients taking semaglutide — the active agent in Ozempic and Wegovy — had as much as a 52% reduction in kidney damage, as measured by urine testing, researchers reported Oct. 25 in the journal Nature Medicine. The results will also be presented simultaneously at the American Society of Nephrology’s annual meeting. Semaglutide patients also had a 30% reduction in kidney inflammation, researchers found. “The great thing is that the drug has both direct and indirect effects on the kidneys,” said lead researcher Hiddo Heerspink, a clinical pharmacologist with the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands. “The drug has direct effects on inflammation parameters in the kidney, and lowers fat tissue around the kidneys, lowering the amount of protein in the urine,” Heerspink said. “And indirectly because it reduces participants‘ weight and blood pressure.” For the study, researchers recruited 101 obese people with chronic kidney disease in Canada, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, starting in 2022. Half received injections of semaglutide for 24 weeks, while the other half received a placebo. Participants taking the drug lost about 10% of their weight, and they also experienced a decrease in high blood pressure similar to that from taking a blood pressure medication, researchers found. The results also show that the drug… read on > read on >

Anxiety is driving more children with potentially dangerous food allergies to seek out psychological care, a new study finds. Focusing on one Ohio hospital, the researchers found a more than 50% jump in psychology referrals for kids with food allergies between 2018 and 2023. “Our center has devoted significant resources to address the psychosocial support needed by many families who have children with food allergies,” said study lead author Dr. Andriana La Mantia, a pediatrician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “Our goal in this study was to characterize use of these services for food allergy-related anxiety,” La Mantia said in a news release from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). Her team presented its findings Thursday at the ACAAI annual meeting in Boston. Food allergies can bring the specter of analphylaxis: A sudden, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction to even small amounts of the food allergen. Anxiety around preventing these incidents and trauma resulting from anaphylactic episodes can harm a child’s mental health. “Food allergy patients, particularly children, often suffer from anxiety related to potential accidental ingestion and anaphylaxis,” said study co-author Dr. David Stukus, director of the Food Allergy Treatment Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. In the new study, the Columbus team reviewed the cases of 250 kids with food allergies, who averaged 9.5 years of age. Many were allergic to… read on > read on >

In a move that further toughens safety standards for lead paint dust, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced the finalization of a rule that declares any detectable amount of the toxin in a home or child care center to be hazardous. “Too often our children, the most vulnerable residents of already overburdened communities, are the most profoundly impacted by the toxic legacy of lead-based paint,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a news release announcing the new rule. “EPA is getting the lead out of communities nationwide. These protections will reduce lead exposures for hundreds of thousands of people every year, helping kids grow up healthy and meet their full potential.” How will the tougher standard accomplish that? The new rule would trigger extensive cleanup by a property owner once a doctor, public health official or other expert identifies signs of lead exposure, depending on state and local laws. It also establishes an aggressive new standard for cleanup that would reduce lead to be at the lowest detectable levels that can be measured in a lab. Lead dust can be created when lead paint crumbles or is disturbed. The EPA estimated that the rule will reduce lead exposure for up to 1.2 million people every year, including up to 326,000 children under the age of 6. “We can all breathe a little easier now that… read on > read on >

A “case of the Mondays” is more perilous than just the return-to-work blues, a new study warns. Suicide risk is highest on Monday in the United States and around the world, an international team of researchers has discovered. “Mondays and New Year’s Day were both associated with increased suicide risk in most countries,” concluded the team led by Yoonhee Kim, an associate professor with the University of Tokyo’s Department of Global Environmental Health. Mondays constitute 15% to 18% of total suicides, compared with other days, researchers found. Results also show that weekend suicide risk varies greatly between countries. Suicide risk is lowest on Saturdays or Sundays in many countries across North America, Asia and Europe. However, suicide risk increases during the weekend in South and Central American Countries, Finland and South Africa. For the study, researchers analyzed suicide data for 740 locations in 26 countries and territories from 1971 to 2019, including more than 1.7 million suicides. Previous studies have shown that suicide risk differs by day of the week, but results have been inconsistent, researchers said in background notes. Suicide risk increased on New Year’s Day in all countries, especially in men, the results showed. The researchers said there are several potential explanations for the increased suicide risk on Mondays and New Year’s Day. One is the “broken-promise effect theory,” which holds that people… read on > read on >

Expanding access to cutting-edge diabetes and weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound could prevent more than 42,000 deaths a year in the United States, a new study claims. Obesity and all its attendant ills — type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer among them — have had a dramatic impact on American health, researchers said. More than 40% of U.S. adults are obese, and the research team estimates that about half of all annual deaths in the nation occur among the obese. Helping more people shed their excess weight could save a fair portion of those lives, researchers argue. “Expanding access to these medications is not just a matter of improving treatment options but also a crucial public health intervention,” said senior researcher Alison Galvani, a professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs mimic the GLP-1 hormone, which helps control insulin and blood sugar levels, decreases appetite and slows digestion of food. However, the drugs are costly — people without insurance face paying more than $1,000 a month to take them. What’s more, people often must have some sort of health problem occurring alongside their obesity to get insurance coverage for GLP-1 drugs. Medicare, for example, doesn’t cover the drugs solely for weight loss, researchers noted. For this study, published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academies… read on > read on >