Lifestyle « Weekly Gravy

The way you view aging can affect how well you manage stress. Older people who see aging negatively have stronger (negative) emotional reactions to day-to-day stresses, while such events have little effect on the moods of adults who are more positive about getting older. Their sunny outlook acts as a buffer against little annoyances. That’s not all. People who carry negative views also have lower levels of satisfaction and well-being. And they’re more likely to be hospitalized or die young, according to research published in the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences. Surveys by the nonprofit West Health Institute and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago found that the time to gain a positive perspective on aging is early in life — your 30s and 40s. This is when many people start to have general concerns about the future, such as facing health and financial issues, developing memory problems and losing their independence. The survey found increasing worry among younger people that government programs don’t — and won’t — do enough for seniors. What can you do to ward off such worries? Stay on top of lifestyle habits that help you avoid serious health threats, like diabetes and heart disease, and that maintain mental sharpness. These include eating a healthful diet, doing regular exercise and getting enough sleep. But beyond activities… read on >

Significant but uneven improvements in air quality have greatly reduced U.S. deaths related to air pollution over the past decade, a new study shows. But researchers are concerned that climate change and regulatory rollbacks under the Trump administration will wipe out those advances and put thousands more lives at risk from bad air every year. “If you look at the trend, it’s already been slowing down in recent years,” said lead researcher Kevin Cromar. He is an associate professor of population health and environmental medicine at New York University in New York City. “If we want to continue these improvements, these rollbacks are pushing us in the wrong direction.” Overall, deaths tied to air pollution have decreased by about 43% — from about 12,600 deaths in 2010 to 7,140 in 2017, Cromar and his colleagues reported. But the story gets more complicated when you zero in on the two main causes of air pollution: soot and ozone. Deaths due to airborne soot, or fine particle pollution, declined by more than half between 2010 and 2017 — from 8,330 down to 3,260, the findings showed. “We really have seen some great improvement in terms of the health impacts of particle pollution,” Cromar said. “That’s real progress.” But deaths due to smog — also known as ozone pollution — have remained relatively level over the years. There… read on >

The rise in colon cases among younger adults that’s been seen in the United States is also occurring in wealthier nations worldwide, new research shows. In the decade leading up to 2014, the number of cases of colon cancer among people under 50 increased by 3% a year in Denmark, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, and by 1% per year in Britain. The increase was most pronounced among those aged 20 to 29, noted a team led by Dr. Marzieh Araghi, from International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France. Among twenty-somethings, colon cancer cases rose by 18% a year in Denmark and 11% in Norway, according to the study published May 16 in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hematology. “Although the incidence of colorectal cancer in adults younger than 50 years remains much lower compared with that in older age groups, our findings are of concern and highlight the need for action to counteract the rising burden of the disease in younger people,” Araghi said in a journal news release. The increase in cases among the young runs counter to declines in colon cancer among people over 50, the researchers pointed out. For example, between 2004 and 2014 cases of colon cancer fell each year among people over 50 — by 2% in Australia and Canada, 3% in New Zealand, and 1% annually in… read on >

Athletes are supposed to be strong and self-assured, so many don’t seek help for mental health issues, a new study finds. It’s not just the stigma of mental illness that prompts many to tough it out alone, but also busy schedules, gender stereotyping and lack of understanding about mental health issues. That’s the consensus of researchers from Brazil, the Netherlands and the United States, who looked at 52 studies covering more than 13,000 elite athletes in 71 sports. The findings were published May 16 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. “Athletes fear, possibly rightly so, that disclosing mental health symptoms or disorders would reduce their chances of maintaining or signing a professional team contract or an advertising campaign,” the researchers said in a journal news release. It’s up to coaches and sport-governing bodies to help remove the stigma of mental illness and encourage mental well-being, the study authors added. As many as one in three elite athletes suffers from mental illness. The demands of training to improve performance heighten the risk, the researchers noted. Stigma was the most common factor in not seeking help, the investigators found. Mental illness was seen as a sign of weakness rather than the “hallmark of a winner,” according to the report. “Coaches could be important agents for supporting positive mental health attitudes within the elite athlete environment, including… read on >

Java junkies can sniff out even tiny amounts of coffee, and the more they drink, the better they can smell it, British researchers say. It’s a discovery with powerful implications for treating people addicted to substances with a distinct smell. “The higher the caffeine use, the quicker a person recognized the odor of coffee,” said study leader Lorenzo Stafford. He is an olfactory expert at the University of Portsmouth, in England. Not only could the regular coffee drinkers among the more than 90 volunteers quickly detect the aroma of a heavily diluted coffee chemical, their ability to do so increased with their level of craving, the findings showed. “The more they desired caffeine, the better their sense of smell for coffee,” Stafford said in a university news release. It’s the first evidence that java junkies are more sensitive to the smell of coffee, according to the study published recently in the journal Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology. Researchers had wondered if coffee drinkers and non-drinkers responded differently to the smell, and whether cravings might be related to an increased ability to detect it. Describing caffeine as the “most widely consumed psychoactive drug,” Stafford said the findings suggest that changes in the ability to detect smells could be a useful index of drug dependency. The study authors said their work could lead to new methods of aversion… read on >

Suicide rates are on the rise among American children, but the increase is greatest among girls, a new study finds. “Overall, we found a disproportionate increase in female youth suicide rates compared to males, resulting in a narrowing of the gap between male and female suicide rates,” said study author Donna Ruch. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among Americans aged 10 to 19, with rates historically higher in boys than girls. However, recent reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a greater increase in suicide rates among girls than boys. In this study, the researchers examined data on youth suicides from 1975 through 2016. The findings showed that youth suicide rates for both sexes fell in the early 1990s. But they have increased for both sexes since 2007, with larger increases among girls than boys, particularly among girls aged 10 to 14. Rates of female suicides by hanging or suffocation are approaching those of males, which is troubling considering the “gender paradox” in suicidal behavior, according to study co-author Jeff Bridge, director of the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research. Females have higher rates of nonfatal suicidal behavior, such as thinking about and attempting suicide, but more males die by… read on >

Coupons, samples, branded hats and T-shirts: When teens use or wear promotional items from companies that make alternative tobacco products like electronic cigarettes, they are more likely to try those products, new research shows. The study included 757 California teens, aged 13 to 19, who were followed for a year. At the beginning of the year, none of them had ever used alternative tobacco products such as e-cigarettes, chewing tobacco, cigars, cigarillos, pipes and hookahs. However, 81 owned items that promoted tobacco products, including 52 who owned promotional items for e-cigarettes. During the next year, 129 participants (17%) started using alternative tobacco products but not traditional cigarettes, and 12 began using traditional cigarettes alone or in combination with alternative tobacco products, the findings showed. Before adjusting for other factors, the researchers found that teens who owned promotional items were 2.3 times more likely to try alternative tobacco products than those who did not. After adjusting for age, gender, race/ethnicity, maternal education level and baseline alcohol and cigarette use, teens who owned promotional materials were 2.1 times more likely to begin using alternative tobacco products. Among teens who tried both alternative tobacco products and cigarettes, the influence of owning promotional materials was not statistically significant, the researchers said. The findings were published online May 17 in JAMA Network Open. “The increase in use of alternative tobacco… read on >

Parents often fret when their teen drivers get behind the wheel, but parents of teens with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may now have added worries. A new study found that teens with ADHD are significantly more likely to get into a car crash than their peers. During the first month a teen with ADHD is driving, the risk of an auto accident is 62% higher than for other teens. And over four years, the risk of an alcohol-related crash is roughly two times higher for drivers with ADHD. Teens with ADHD are also more likely to get traffic tickets and engage in risky behaviors, such as not wearing a seatbelt, using electronics behind the wheel and driving too fast, the new research found. “Teen drivers with ADHD are at an elevated risk for motor vehicle crashes, and the risk is particularly elevated in the first month of licensure, regardless of when they got licensed. Parents shouldn’t assume that delaying licensure will lower their teen’s risk,” said study author Allison Curry. She’s a senior scientist at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. ADHD is common in childhood and usually persists into adolescence, the study authors said. Symptoms include hyperactive behavior, inattention and impulsivity. Many of the skills needed for driving are impaired in teens with ADHD. The study included nearly 15,000… read on >