Lifestyle « Weekly Gravy

Roses are red, violets are blue, sleep experts have a Valentine’s Day gift idea for you. A box of chocolates and a candlelight dinner might seem romantic, but your partner might also embrace a lifestyle change: no more snoring. “While snoring is disruptive to bed partners and can cause frustration in a relationship, it can also be an indicator of a serious health problem,” said Dr. Kelly Carden, president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). “Snoring is a common symptom of obstructive sleep apnea, a chronic disease that involves the repeated collapse of the upper airway during sleep,” she explained in an AASM news release. “When sleep apnea is untreated, it can increase the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke and other health problems.” For occasional snorers, the AASM offers this advice: Lose weight. Weight gain can worsen snoring and lead to obstructive sleep apnea. Shedding a couple of pounds might eliminate your snoring. Change positions. Some people find that they snore while sleeping on their back. If this is the case, try sleeping on your side instead. Avoid alcohol, muscle relaxants and certain medications. Substances like these can relax your throat or tongue muscles, leading to snoring. Get a diagnosis. If you’re snoring loudly each night, talk to your doctor about it or consult a sleep specialist.… read on >

Suicidal behavior is declining among U.S. teenagers who identify as LGBT, but the problem remains pervasive. That’s the conclusion of two new studies that tracked trends among U.S. teenagers over the past couple of decades. Over the years, more kids have been identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) — and their likelihood of reporting suicidal thoughts and behavior has gone down. The bad news is they remain at much higher risk of suicide than their heterosexual peers, the researchers said. In one study, LGBT teenagers were over three times more likely than heterosexual teens to report a suicide attempt. The other study charted a similar pattern, with LGBT kids still reporting a high prevalence of suicidal thoughts in 2017 — and roughly a quarter saying they’d attempted suicide in the past year. The studies, published online Feb. 10 in Pediatrics, could not dig into the reasons. But past research has suggested that bullying plays a role, according to Brian Mustanski, director of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Northwestern University in Chicago. LGBT students are more likely to be targeted by bullies than their heterosexual peers are. But in school districts with strong anti-bullying policies, Mustanski said, LGBT students typically report less suicidal behavior. So efforts to combat bullying could be part of the solution, according to Mustanski.… read on >

Before you throw any leftovers away, heed new research that suggests the choice could hit you right in your pocketbook. It turns out that almost one-third of food in American households goes to waste, costing each household thousands of dollars a year, researchers report. “Our findings are consistent with previous studies, which have shown that 30% to 40% of the total food supply in the United States goes uneaten — and that means that resources used to produce the uneaten food, including land, energy, water and labor, are wasted as well,” said study author Edward Jaenicke. He’s a professor of agricultural economics in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. Jaenicke and his team analyzed data from 4,000 households that participated in a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey and found that, on average, about one-third of the food they obtained was wasted. Nationwide, the cost of wasted food could total $240 billion a year. Divided by the nearly 128.6 million households in the United States, that works out to about $1,866 for the average household. “Based on our estimation, the average American household wastes 31.9% of the food it acquires,” Jaenicke said in a university news release. “More than two-thirds of households in our study have food-waste estimates of between 20% and 50%. However, even the least wasteful household wastes 8.7% of the food it acquires.”… read on >

The coronavirus that has rapidly infected nearly 6,000 people in China is spreading across the globe, with five cases confirmed in the United States. The death toll in China so far has topped 130. Here’s what else you should know about the new coronavirus, called 2019-nCoV, which originated in the city of Wuhan: “This is a new virus that has not been previously identified in humans,” said Debra Chew, a former epidemic officer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “It belongs to a large family of viruses called coronaviruses. These viruses can cause respiratory illnesses such as the common cold, and more severe illnesses such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS),” Chew said. “Currently, a lot is unknown about the Wuhan coronavirus, but the CDC and the World Health Organization are actively investigating to learn more about this virus, the way it spreads and its severity of illness,” added Chew, a professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School Should Americans be concerned? “While any new virus is a serious public health concern, the immediate health risk to the American public is deemed low at this point,” said Chew. “The virus is thought to have some limited person-to-person spread, and the CDC and WHO are conducting ongoing investigations to learn more about the degree of… read on >

Mothers who smoke during pregnancy put their infants at increased risk of fractures in their first year of life, researchers warn. The study looked at more than 1.6 million people who were born in Sweden between 1983 and 2000, and followed for an average of 21 years. Over that time, nearly 378,000 fractures were recorded. But the rate among those whose moms smoked during pregnancy was higher than among those whose mothers didn’t smoke. And the more a woman smoked while pregnant, the greater her child’s fracture risk, the findings showed. Those whose mothers smoked one to nine cigarettes a day had a 20% higher risk, while 10 cigarettes or more per day brought a 41% higher risk. While smoking during pregnancy increased fracture risk during an infant’s first year, it was not associated with a higher risk later in life. This suggests that smoking during pregnancy has only a short-term impact on bone health, according to the authors of the study published Jan. 29 in the BMJ. Epidemiologists Judith Brand and Scott Montgomery, of the School of Medical Sciences at Orebro University in Sweden, led the study. They pointed out that their observational study doesn’t prove cause and effect. In addition, they noted that the findings also have some limitations, including the possibility that some women would not admit to smoking during pregnancy or… read on >

From carpal tunnel to a stiff neck, too much time on the computer can cause a slew of health problems. But what if you ditch the keyboard and mouse for virtual reality? New research from Oregon State University in Corvallis showed that even stepping into virtual reality may be bad for the body. Virtual reality isn’t just for playing games. It’s also used for education and industrial training. In most cases, a headset is worn and users are expected to perform full-body movements. But common virtual reality movements can result in muscle strain and discomfort, the study found. “There are no standards and guidelines for virtual and augmented reality interactions,” said study author Jay Kim, assistant professor in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences. “We wanted to evaluate the effects of the target distances, locations and sizes so we can better design these interfaces to reduce the risk for potential musculoskeletal injuries.” For the study, the researchers placed sensors on participants’ joints and muscles during virtual reality sessions, and asked them to point to specific dots around a circle or to color in an area with their finger. The tasks were repeated at varying degrees above and below eye level. At all angles, extending the arm straight out caused shoulder discomfort in under 3 minutes, the study found. Over the long-term, virtual reality… read on >

Turning to Facebook for help is probably the wrong move for depressed college students, new research shows. In a small study of 33 students who posted on Facebook about feelings of depression, not one was advised to reach out to a mental health professional for help. Rather, friends sent supportive and encouraging messages. “It makes me concerned that none of the Facebook friends of students in this study were proactive in helping their friend get help,” said lead author Scottye Cash, an associate professor of social work at Ohio State University, in Columbus. “We need to figure out why.” Study participants reported the posts they made and how their friends reacted. They also completed a questionnaire on depression. Nearly half had symptoms of moderate or severe depression and 33% said they had had recent suicidal thoughts. “There’s no doubt that many of the students in our study needed mental health help,” Cash said. Student posts included feelings of loneliness or having a bad day or feeling things couldn’t get worse. Only one student asked for help and only three mentioned “depression” or related words, Cash said. Most indicated their depression through song lyrics, emoji or quotes that expressed sadness. “They didn’t use words like ‘depressed’ in their Facebook posts,” Cash said. “It may be because of the stigma around mental illness. Or maybe they didn’t… read on >

Most American parents believe their teens spend too much time playing video games, but many underestimate the actual amount, a new survey shows. The poll of nearly 1,000 parents with at least one child aged 13 to 18 found that 86% said their teen spends too much time gaming. Among parents of daily gamers, 54% report their teen plays three or more hours a day, compared with 13% of teens who don’t play every day. Yet, only 13% of parents of daily gamers believe their teen spends more time gaming than other teens, and 78% believe their teen’s gaming is less than or about the same as their peers, according to the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, from the University of Michigan. “Many parents of frequent gamers have a misconception that the amount of time their teenager spends playing video games is in line with their peers,” poll co-director and Mott pediatrician Dr. Gary Freed said in a university news release. Twice as many parents said their teen boy plays video games every day compared to parents of teen girls. Teen boys are also more likely to spend three or more hours gaming. Parents said gaming often gets in the way of other aspects of their teen’s life, such as family activities and interactions (46%), sleep (44%), homework (34%), friendships with… read on >

“Food insecurity” — not having enough money to afford sufficient food — increases the risk of premature death, new research suggests. For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 510,000 adults in Canada between 2005 and 2017. Over the study period, nearly 25,500 people died prematurely. The average life expectancy in Canada between 2008 and 2014 was 82, so deaths at or before that age were considered premature. The study found that, compared with adults who had access to enough food, those with food insecurity were 10% to 37% more likely to die early from any cause other than cancer. Rates of premature death from infectious-parasitic diseases, unintentional injuries and suicides were more than twice as high among those with severe food insecurity compared with others, according to the report. Fei Men, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, led the study, which was published Jan. 20 in the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Among the adults who died prematurely, those with severe food insecurity died an average of nine years younger than those who were food secure (59.5 years old versus 68.9 years old), the findings showed. “The significant correlations of all levels of food insecurity with potentially avoidable deaths imply that food-insecure adults benefit less from public health efforts to prevent and treat diseases and injuries than their food-secure counterparts,” the… read on >

The Harvard-associated lab that created the “CoolSculpting” process of reducing fat says it’s on the trail of the next advance in nonsurgical slimming. CoolSculpting freezes fat cells by applying an ice-cold gel pad to the skin, causing cells to die off and either be flushed away or absorbed by the body, said lead researcher Dr. Lilit Garibyan, an investigator at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Now her lab is trying to make that process even more effective by injecting an icy liquid slurry directly into fat deposits. In tests with pigs, the injectable slurry containing 20% to 40% ice caused fat deposits to melt away over several weeks, researchers reported recently in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The procedure is headed to human clinical trials next, and researchers hope to have it approved and on the market in a few years, Garibyan said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved CoolSculpting in 2008. Garibyan said it remains the only noninvasive technology the FDA has cleared to reduce and reshape fat deposits in the body. The process works using a principle that you observe every time you open your refrigerator — fats freeze at a lower temperature than water, she said. Butter turns to liquid at warmer temperatures, but solidifies in the fridge, Garibyan said. Water remains liquid at… read on >