Lifestyle « Weekly Gravy

Do your liver a favor and steer clear of fast food, new research urges. People with obesity or diabetes who consumed 20% or more of their daily calories from fast food had severely elevated levels of fat in their liver compared to those who ate less fast food or none. Even the general U.S. population had moderate increases in liver fat when fast food made up one-fifth or more of their diet, the study found. “Healthy livers contain a small amount of fat, usually less than 5%, and even a moderate increase in fat can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,” said lead study author Dr. Ani Kardashian. She is a hepatologist with University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, in Los Angeles. “The severe rise in liver fat in those with obesity or diabetes is especially striking, and probably due to the fact that these conditions cause a greater susceptibility for fat to build up in the liver,” Kardashian said in a university news release. Kardashian said this is one of the first studies to demonstrate the negative impact of fast food on liver health. Even a relatively modest amount can be harmful, she warned. “If people eat one meal a day at a fast-food restaurant, they may think they aren’t doing harm,” Kardashian said. “However, if that one meal equals at least… read on > read on >

Adults with asthma now have a new rescue medication to turn to after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Airsupra on Wednesday. The drug is the first approved to combine albuterol (a beta-2 adrenergic agonist) and budesonide (a corticosteroid). It’s meant for the as-needed treatment or prevention of bronchoconstriction (narrowed airways) and to reduce the risk of asthma attacks in patients with asthma aged 18 and older. This medication is also the first approved in the United States to contain an inhaled corticosteroid approved as a reliever rather than as a controller of asthma symptoms. Asthma affects 24 million Americans, with symptoms that vary by person and can change over time. A long-term condition, it causes the airways to become inflamed and narrow. Someone having an asthma attack might cough, wheeze, feel chest tightness and be short of breath. Prior to the approval, the FDA evaluated the drug’s effectiveness in reducing severe asthma attacks in a randomized, double-blind, controlled study with patients who had moderate to severe asthma. The patients in the study were randomly assigned to use either Airsupra or just albuterol on its own. Patients received treatment for at least 24 weeks. The researchers looked at the time a patient had to the first severe asthma attack that required systemic corticosteroids for at least three days or an emergency room visit that… read on > read on >

When teenagers feel good about themselves and their lives, it may also do their hearts good in the long run, a new study suggests. Researchers found that teenagers who generally felt happy, optimistic and loved went on to show better cardiovascular health in their 20s and 30s, versus kids who lacked that level of mental well-being. Overall, they were more likely to maintain a healthy weight, as well as normal blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels. And having such positive feelings appeared particularly important for Black teenagers’ future health. The idea that kids’ well-being can affect their health well into adulthood is not new. Studies have shown that childhood obesity, for example, is tied to increased risks of various health conditions — including type 2 diabetes and heart disease — later in life. And the links go beyond physical factors: Adults who went through childhood hardships like abuse and neglect are at heightened risk of heart disease and other ills, as well. Experts said the new study asked a different question: Are there positive psychological “assets” that might help protect kids’ physical health in the long run? “One thing I’m struck by is, we really don’t have a handle on the ‘good things’ that kids need to support their cardiometabolic health,” said lead researcher Farah Qureshi, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg… read on > read on >

While U.S. policymakers have attempted to lower lead exposure among children since the 1970s, new research finds that kids living near airports are still being exposed to dangerous levels of the heavy metal. “Across an ensemble of tests, we find consistent evidence that the blood lead levels of children residing near the airport are pushed upward by the deposition of leaded aviation gasoline,” said study author Sammy Zahran, associate chair of economics at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. “This indicates we should support policy efforts to limit aviation lead emissions to safeguard the welfare of at-risk children,” Zahran said. When analyzing the blood lead levels of children under the age of 6 from 2011 to 2020, the researchers discovered that the closer a child lived to the Reid-Hillview Airport in Santa Clara County, Calif., the more likely that child had a blood lead level that exceeded California’s safety threshold. That safety threshold is 4.5 micrograms per deciliter. Blood lead levels were much higher when children lived East — or downwind — of the airport. Blood lead levels also increased with piston-engine aircraft traffic and quantities of leaded aviation gasoline sold at the airport. The report was published online Jan. 10 in PNAS Nexus. Leaded gasoline is still a standard part of aviation gasoline. It is used by an estimated 170,000 piston-engine aircraft nationwide, accounting… read on > read on >

Gas stoves could face new emissions standards or even be banned because of their link to indoor air pollutants and childhood asthma, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The federal agency will open public comment on gas cooking stoves and their hazards sometime this winter, Bloomberg News reported. “This is a hidden hazard,” agency commissioner Richard Trumka Jr., said in an interview. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.” About 12% of childhood asthma cases can be linked to gas stove use, according to a recent study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. “There is about 50 years of health studies showing that gas stoves are bad for our health, and the strongest evidence is on children and children’s asthma,” said study co-author Brady Seals, a manager in the carbon-free buildings program at RMI, a nonprofit clean energy group. “By having a gas connection, we are polluting the insides of our homes.” About 40% of Americans have natural gas stoves in their homes. The stoves emit nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter at levels deemed unsafe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), according to Bloomberg News. In October, Consumer Reports urged readers to buy electric after tests on gas ranges found… read on > read on >

Sperm donation is apparently a grueling and exacting process through which not many men emerge. Fewer than four out of every 100 men who apply to be sperm donors actually wind up providing a sample that’s used in fertility treatment, a new study reports. The rest either give up or wash out, according to findings reported Jan. 9 in the journal Human Reproduction. For the study, researchers tracked the outcomes of more than 11,700 Danish and American men who applied to be donors to Cryos International, one of the world’s largest sperm banks. “The study with Cryos highlights how hard it is to become a sperm donor,” said lead researcher Allan Pacey, head of oncology and metabolism with the University of Sheffield in the UK. “It’s not like blood donation, where once it’s done you can have a cup of tea and go home. Sperm donation is a regular commitment with lots of screening and regular testing as well as lifelong implications for the donor if any children are born from their sample.” Nearly 55% of potential donors were lost during recruitment, researchers found. They either withdrew their application, failed to respond, or stopped showing up to appointments. Nearly a fifth (17%) were rejected on medical grounds. They either had a health issue, carried a genetic disease or had an infectious disease that could not… read on > read on >

Older women who don’t stick to a set sleep and wake schedule may be more likely to struggle with feelings of depression and anxiety — even if they get a normal amount of zzzs. What’s more, a postmenopausal woman who goes to bed very early and wakes up very early (an “early bird”) or goes to bed late and wakes up later (a “night owl”) is 70% more likely to experience significant depressive symptoms — even with a normal amount of sleep, a new study suggests. The study wasn’t designed to say whether sleep is the chicken, the egg, or both when it comes to mood. “It could definitely be the case that the women in our study who had depressive symptoms had a different type of sleep schedule because they were depressed, or that their depression was causing them to have more irregular sleep-wake patterns,” said study co-author Leslie Swanson. She is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. More research is needed to tease out the cause and effect between sleep and mood, particularly in postmenopausal women, Swanson said. “Women might be more prone to more irregular sleep patterns as they get older due to factors such as retirement from work or aging of the parts of the brain that control the timing of sleep,” she suggested.… read on > read on >

A leading pediatricians’ group has issued new guidelines on treating obesity in children and teens that, for the first time, call for early, aggressive intervention that can include weight-loss drugs and surgery. “There is no evidence that ‘watchful waiting’ or delayed treatment is appropriate for children with obesity,” Dr. Sandra Hassink, an author of the new American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines and vice chair of the Clinical Practice Guideline Subcommittee on Obesity, said in a statement. About 20% of U.S. children now live with obesity, about 15 million children altogether, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new guidelines recommend against watching and waiting, instead suggesting families of children aged 6 and up should work with their pediatricians on behavior and lifestyle changes. In some cases, families of children aged 2 to 5 should, too, the guidelines recommend. This should include at least 26 hours of counseling over about a year. The new guidelines also suggest that pediatricians should offer obese children aged 12 and up new weight-loss drugs that include Orlistat, Saxenda, Qsymia and Wegovy. Phentermine is approved for kids over 16 years of age, the guidelines said. “The breakthrough that happened in the last few years was people started realizing that there are hormones made in the gut that have multiple roles related to obesity. By targeting these,… read on > read on >

Military service members who conceal their suicidal thoughts are also more likely to store their guns unsafely, a new study reveals. “These findings highlight a real problem with our suicide prevention system,” said Michael Anestis, lead author of the study and executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “We know that firearms account for the large majority of suicide deaths within the military and that unsecured firearms at home dramatically increase the risk for suicide,” Anestis said in a Rutgers news release. “Here, we found that suicidal service members less likely to be seen as high risk — those that hide their thoughts from others and avoid behavioral health care — tend to be the service members with the most ready access to their firearms,” he added. For the study, the researchers surveyed more than 700 gun-owning service members. These included active-duty service members throughout all military branches and those in the National Guard and Reserves. The investigators focused on 180 service members who had experienced suicidal thoughts within the past year and another group of 85 service members who had experienced suicidal thoughts in the past month. Surveys asked whether they had ever told anyone about their suicidal thoughts, if they had attended any behavioral health sessions within the past three months and the specific… read on > read on >

For the first time in a decade, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed strengthening standards on fine soot in the air, a known contributor to serious health issues. Under the new proposal, standards for fine particulate pollution, known as PM 2.5, would change from a level of 12 micrograms per cubic meter to a level between nine and 10 micrograms per cubic meter. The standards haven’t been altered since 2012. The EPA estimates that with a standard of 9 micrograms per cubic meter, there would be up to 4,200 fewer premature deaths a year, 270,000 fewer lost workdays and as much as $43 billion in net health benefits in 2032. The agency will take comment on the full range of recommendations on soot standards included in the latest report from the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, which is between eight and 11 micrograms per cubic meter. These fine pollution particles can penetrate deep into the lungs, triggering asthma attacks, heart attacks and premature death. Children, older adults, those with heart and lung conditions, and minority communities are most affected, the EPA said. “Our work to deliver clean, breathable air for everyone is a top priority at EPA, and this proposal will help ensure that all communities, especially the most vulnerable among us, are protected from exposure to harmful pollution,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said… read on > read on >