An analysis of where suicides are occurring in the United States shows that, tragically, location matters. People living in poorer areas with fewer resources are significantly more likely to fall victim to suicide versus those living in more affluent areas, new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. “Improving the conditions where people are born, grow, live, work and age is an often-overlooked aspect of suicide prevention,” said the report’s lead author, CDC health scientist Alison Cammack. Her team published its CDC Vital Signs report on Sept 10. The analysis looked at factors such as insurance coverage, broadband internet access and household income in counties across the United States. They then compared those statistics to rates of suicide in each county. The results show that income, education and access to resources do matter. Compared to those counties scoring lowest when it comes to income, internet access and insurance coverage, suicide rates were: 26% lower in counties with the highest health insurance coverage 44% lower in counties where most homes have broadband internet access 13% lower in counties with the greatest average household income Initiatives that reduce these disparities might help bring suicide rates down, Cammack said in a CDC news release. “Public health programs that improve conditions in communities, such as those funded by CDC’s Comprehensive Suicide Prevention Program, can help…  read on >  read on >

Having asthma appears linked to raised odds for miscarriage and troubles with fertility among women, new Danish research shows. “We found that women fulfilling the definition of asthma had a higher rate of fetal loss and an increased use of fertility treatment. The more severe the asthma and the more flare-ups the women experienced, the more likely they were to need fertility treatment,” said study lead author Dr. Anne Vejen Hansen. She works in the department of respiratory medicine at Copenhagen University Hospital. Her team presented its findings Tuesday in Vienna at the annual meeting of the European Respiratory Society (ERS). The new study focused on data from almost 770,000 Danish women born from 1976 to 1999 and then tracked from 1994 to 2017, during their prime reproductive years. Women who had asthma were more likely to experience a miscarriage than women without the respiratory illness, with rates of 17% and 15.7%, respectively. They were also more likely to have a medical record showing that they’d had to try a fertility treatment: 5.6% of women with asthma did so, compared to 5% of women without asthma. However, it seems that most women with asthma did end up overcoming these hurdles and went on to bear a child: 77% of women, regardless of their asthma status, became mothers, the study found. “It’s reassuring that women seem…  read on >  read on >

Taking steroids more than doubles a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a new study warns. Patients taking steroid pills, injections or infusions are 2.6 times more likely to develop diabetes than those not on steroids, researchers reported Sunday in a presentation at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Madrid. The results of this large-scale study confirm suspicions that the effects of steroids on blood sugar levels can boost diabetes risk, researchers said. “Existing information on how much more common new diabetes is in patients treated with glucocorticoids is based on small studies including patients with one or a few conditions,” said lead researcher Dr. Rajna Golubic, a lecturer in diabetes and endocrinology with the University of Oxford. “We wanted to expand the data to get a more accurate idea of how likely it is that people could develop diabetes while being treated with these drugs.” Steroids are used to treat a wide range of medical problems by helping quell inflammation. These include asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and cancer. Unfortunately, the drugs also increase blood sugar levels by reducing insulin sensitivity and interfering with cells’ ability to absorb glucose, according to Diabetes UK. To see whether this effect on blood sugar could cause diabetes, the research team analyzed data on more than 450,000 people treated…  read on >  read on >

People with type 2 diabetes are nearly twice as likely to develop asthma, a new review has concluded. Type 2 diabetics are 83% more likely to develop asthma, compared to those without diabetes, researchers found. The relationship also works the other way around — people with asthma are 28% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, researchers report. “This relationship emphasizes the need for greater awareness among patients with type 2 diabetes or asthma and their healthcare providers,” said lead researcher Dr. Nam Nguyen with Taipei Medical University in Taiwan. For the study, researchers pooled data on 17 million people from 14 prior studies examining the link between asthma and type 2 diabetes. The results also showed that the more severe a person’s asthma is, the higher their risk of type 2 diabetes, researchers report. These findings suggest that asthma and diabetes might have some of the same underlying causes, or have other factors in common, researchers said. Nguyen said future studies should look into the potential links between asthma and type 2 diabetes. Researchers presented the study Monday at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting in Madrid. Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. “Preventive strategies should be considered to lower the risk of type 2 diabetes in individuals with asthma,” Nguyen…  read on >  read on >

Beginning Jan. 1, Americans with private health insurance coverage should gain better access to mental health care, as well as care to help ease substance abuse, federal officials announced Monday. “Like medical care, mental health care is vital to the well-being of America’s workers,” U.S. Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su said in a statement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “The final rules issued today make it easier for people living with mental health conditions and substance use disorders to get the lifesaving care they often need,” Su said. The bottom line is that, beginning in 2025, private insurers must offer coverage for mental health ills just as they would for issues of physical health, “without imposing greater restrictions on mental health or substance use disorder benefits as compared to medical and surgical benefits,” the HHS said in its statement. The new rules are aimed at easing restrictions on care that insurers often subject policyholders to, including high out-of-pocket costs. Other restrictions include requirements that limit the scope or duration of mental health care benefits (such as prior authorization requirements), the use of “step” therapy, as well as standards that might keep providers from being admitted to a particular network. The changes have been a long time coming: Congress passed the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act back in 2008.…  read on >  read on >

Folks who like to stay up late are nearly 50% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who go to bed earlier, a new study finds. However, it’s not just because they have an unhealthy lifestyle, according to findings presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Madrid. An increased risk of type 2 diabetes among night owls remained even after researchers accounted for other unhealthy lifestyle factors like poor diet, lack of exercise, drinking, smoking and poor sleep, researchers said. “A likely explanation is that the circadian rhythm or body clock in late chronotypes is out of sync with the work and social schedules followed by society,” said lead investigator Jeroen van der Velde, a postdoctoral researcher with Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. “This can lead to circadian misalignment, which we know can lead to metabolic disturbances and ultimately type 2 diabetes.” For the study, researchers analyzed health data on more than 5,000 people participating in an ongoing study on the influence of body fat on disease. The data included typical bed and waking times for each person, as well as lifestyle factors that could increase a person’s risk of diabetes, researchers said. “Previous studies have indicated that a late chronotype — preferring to go to bed late and wake up later…  read on >  read on >

PFAS “forever chemicals” could cause pregnant women to experience long-term weight gain, increasing their risk of obesity in middle age, a new study warns. Women with higher levels of PFAS in their blood during early pregnancy weighed more at the age of 50 than those with low levels, researchers reported Sept. 5 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. These women also carried more body fat at age 50, potentially making them more susceptible to obesity and heart problems later in life, researchers found. “Our study supports the idea that pregnancy may be a sensitive period of PFAS exposure as it may be associated with long-term weight gain and subsequent adverse cardio-metabolic health outcomes in women,” said lead investigator Jordan Burdeau, a graduate research assistant with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. “Our findings may improve understanding of the effects of PFAS on cardio-metabolic health during pregnancy, which in turn may improve early prevention or detection of adverse cardio-metabolic health outcomes in women,” Burdeau added in a journal news release. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) can be found in 99% of Americans, according to the Environmental Working Group. There are thousands of different PFAS chemicals, the Environmental Protection Agency says. They can be found in drinking water as well as a wide range of consumer products including paper fast food…  read on >  read on >