Lifestyle « Weekly Gravy

Only a fraction of Americans are getting recommended lung cancer screenings, new research shows. While rates overall are up slightly, fewer than 1 in 5 people who are eligible for screening are up-to-date with it, according to the American Cancer Society-led study. The society and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommend a yearly computed tomography (CT) scan for people who are at high risk for lung cancer. Those include current smokers between the ages of 50 and 80 as well as those who quit less than 15 years ago. “We, clearly, still have a long way to go,” said Priti Bandi, scientific director of cancer risk factors and screening surveillance research at the American Cancer Society (ACS). She said screening is critical because lung cancer often has no symptoms in the early stages. “When diagnosed and treated early, survival is markedly improved,” Bandi added in an ACS news release. For the study, researchers analyzed data from close to 26,000 Americans who were eligible for lung cancer screening. More than 61% were smokers, 54% were men and 64% were over 60. Nearly 8 in 10 were white people. Overall, 18% had been screened for lung cancer. Rates varied from state to state, with lower rates in the South, where seven states have not expanded eligibility for Medicaid. Screening rates rose with age — from 6.7%… read on > read on >

A plant-based eating regimen designed to save the Earth also saves people’s lives, a large study confirms. “Shifting how we eat can help slow the process of climate change,” said corresponding author Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “And what’s healthiest for the planet is also healthiest for humans.” Known as the Planetary Health Diet (PHD), the regimen emphasizes minimally processed plant foods, while modest intake of meat and dairy foods are allowed. While other studies have shown that plant-based diets have benefits for the planet and people alike, most have looked at one point in time. The new study drew on health data from more than 200,000 men and women who were followed for up to 34 years. Researchers found those whose diets most closely hewed to the PHD regimen had a 30% lower risk of early death compared to those whose diets were the least like it. That was true for every major cause of death — cancer, heart disease and lung disease, the study found. None of the participants had major chronic illnesses at the outset. They completed dietary questionnaires every four years and were scored based on intake of 15 food groups, including veggies, poultry, whole grains and nuts. Those whose eating habits were closest to the PHD had a… read on > read on >

An experimental ‘supercharged’ form of popular GLP-1 weight-loss meds could help ease fatty liver disease, a new trial suggests. The drug under development, survodutide, helped up to 83% of patients gain real improvements in markers of fatty liver disease, a widespread and potentially lethal condition often linked to obesity. Right now, there’s only one drug, resmetirom, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to fight fatty liver disease, and not all patients can use it. Survodutide “could be a game-changer” against the illness, said study lead researcher Dr. Arun Sanyal. He directs the Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health and is a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond. The trial was funded by Boehringer Ingelheim, the drug company developing survodutide. Results were published June 7 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Fatty liver disease is shorthand for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). According to a news release from VCU, about 1 in every 4 people globally are affected by the condition. A healthy liver has a fat content of just 5% or less by weight, but in MASH fat can rise to unhealthy levels that put people at risk for cirrhosis, liver cancer or even the need for a liver transplant. Obesity is a prime factor driving fatty liver disease. The new trial isn’t the first to suggest that a… read on > read on >

Roughly 1 in 6 people who stop taking an antidepressant will experience symptoms caused by discontinuing the drug, a new review finds. However, only 1 in 35 will experience severe symptoms after dropping their medication, researchers report June 5 in The Lancet Psychiatry journal. “Our study confirms that a number of patients coming off antidepressants will experience discontinuation symptoms, and for a few, these will be of a more severe extent,” said lead researcher Dr. Jonathan Henssler, a psychiatrist with Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Germany. However, Henssler added in a journal news release that the findings “should also provide reassurance that rates of discontinuation symptoms are not as high as some previous single studies and reviews have suggested.” Previous studies have estimated that more than half of patients experience symptoms when stopping antidepressants, and that half the symptoms are severe, researchers said in background notes. To get a more accurate picture, researchers reviewed data from 79 studies involving more than 21,000 patients. Looking at all the data, the researchers found that about a third (31%) of people who stopped taking an antidepressant experienced at least one symptom. These symptoms could include dizziness, headache, nausea, insomnia and irritability. The overall data also showed that severe symptoms occurred in about 3% of patients, or 1 in 35. However, when looking at results from randomized controlled clinical… read on > read on >

Despite recent concerns that taking Ozempic, Wegovy or other GLP-1 medications might be unsafe before a surgery, a new review has uncovered no such danger. The issue arose because weight-loss drugs slow gastric emptying. The thought was that food might linger in the stomach so patients might be at higher risk of aspirating food particles and choking while under anesthesia. But a new review of data from 15 randomized studies found only a minimal change in gastric emptying among GLP-1 users, not enough to pose any danger during surgery. “While GLP-1 medications affect gastrointestinal tract motility [movement], their quantified impact may not be as significant as previously assumed,” said study senior author Dr. Walter Chan. “It appears safe to continue these medications before a procedure requiring anesthesia or sedation, with minor precautions like abstaining from solid food for a day to minimize any potential risk of aspiration,” said Chan, who directs the Center of Gastrointestinal Motility at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. His team published its findings in the June issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology. As the researchers explained, guidelines around GLP-1 use prior to a surgery are mixed. The American Society of Anesthesiologists recommends that patients stop taking GLP-1 medications for up to a week before elective surgeries and procedures. On the other hand, the American Gastroenterological Association suggests proceeding with… read on > read on >

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Tuesday voted against recommending the psychedelic MDMA for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In a 10-1 vote, the panel determined the evidence amassed so far fails to show the controversial drug’s benefits outweigh its risks, the Associated Press reported. During the meeting, panel members pointed to flawed study data and significant drug risks, including the potential for heart problems, injury and abuse. “It seems like there are so many problems with the data — each one alone might be OK, but when you pile them on top of each other … there’s just a lot of questions I would have about how effective the treatment is,” Dr. Melissa Decker Barone, a psychologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs, said during the meeting, the AP reported. The FDA is expected to make a final decision by August, but the panel’s vote could bolster the agency’s reasoning for rejecting the treatment, the AP reported. MDMA is the first in a series of psychedelics — including LSD and psilocybin — that are expected to come before the FDA for review in the next few years, the AP reported. But on Tuesday, the FDA advisers pointed to flawed studies that could have skewed the results on MDMA, missing follow-up data on patient outcomes and a lack of diversity among participants.… read on > read on >

Military veterans often struggle with their mental health once their service ends, but the first clinical trial of its kind has found that having a service dog helps lower the risk of PTSD for these former soldiers. Veterans paired with a service dog had 66% lower odds of a PTSD diagnosis, compared to a control group of vets still waiting for a service dog, researchers reported June 4 in the journal JAMA Network Open. These vets also experienced lower anxiety and depression levels, as well as improvements in most areas of emotional and social well-being, researchers found. “This research reinforces what we have been studying for almost a decade — that service dogs are linked to significant benefits for many veterans suffering from PTSD and other invisible wounds of war,” said lead researcher Maggie O’Haire, associate dean for research at the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine. “Service dogs are more than pets — they can be essential partners in helping veterans readjust and thrive after they return from service,” O’Haire said. For the study, researchers tracked more than 150 military veterans over three months. Vets received their dogs through the program K9s For Warriors, the nation’s largest provider of trained service dogs for military veterans. Most of the dogs provided by K9s For Warriors are rescues, researchers noted. The program trains them, on… read on > read on >

Maternal mortality rates in the United States continue to exceed those in other wealthy nations, with most women dying during pregnancy and childbirth in ways that were preventable, a new report shows. In 2022, U.S. women had a death rate from complications of pregnancy and childbirth of 22 deaths per 100,000 live births, researchers found. That’s a rate more than double and sometimes triple that of other high-income countries, researchers said. For example, there were zero recorded maternal deaths in Norway that year. Further, Black women have the highest maternal death rate in the United States, at nearly 50 deaths per 100,000 live births. “This study provides a bleak picture of how poorly the U.S. is performing when it comes to maternal mortality rates compared to other high-income countries,” said study author Munira Gunja, a senior researcher with the Commonwealth Fund. For the study, researchers assessed maternal health across 14 nations: the United States, Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. About two-thirds (65%) of maternal deaths in the United States occur after birth, and more than 80% are preventable, the report found. Severe bleeding, high blood pressure and infection are the leading causes of maternal death within the first week following delivery, researchers report. In the subsequent weeks and months, weakening of the… read on > read on >

Ozempic and Wegovy appear to improve people’s sensitivity to tastes, potentially lowering their desire for sweets, a new study suggests. The active ingredient in the weight-loss medications, semaglutide, also appears to affect the way that the tongue and brain respond to sweet tastes, researchers reported Saturday at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston. “People with obesity often perceive tastes less ‘intensely,’ and they have an inherently elevated desire for sweet and energy-dense food,” said researcher Mojca Jensterle Sever, an endocrinologist with the University Medical Centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia. For the study, researchers randomly assigned obese women to receive either semaglutide injections or a placebo. For four months, researchers measured the participants’ taste sensitivity using strips containing different concentrations of tastes. They also used MRI scans to measure brain responses to a sweet solution dripping onto their tongues, both before and after the women ate a standard meal. Researchers also took tissue samples to evaluate genetic activity in the participants’ tongues. Women receiving semaglutide experienced changes in their taste perception, in the ways their taste bud genes expressed themselves and the way their brain responded to sweets. The changes track with those seen in animal studies, Jensterle Sever said. “Clinicians will likely correlate the findings with reports from their patients on changes in desire for certain foods, which go beyond broad changes in appetite and… read on > read on >

People who feel lonely and socially isolated might benefit from more sleep, especially if they’re a young adult, a new study suggests. Better sleep is associated with significantly less emotional and social loneliness, researchers report. Younger adults in particularbenefit from better sleep, but people of all ages report less loneliness after they’ve slept well, results show. “Loneliness is an urgent public health crisis, and there is a pressing need for providers to better understand and treat it,” said lead researcher Joseph Dzierzewski, vice president of research and scientific affairs at the National Sleep Foundation in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Surgeon General’s Office warned in 2023 about a public health crisis of loneliness and isolation, researchers noted. Even before the pandemic, about half of U.S. adults were experiencing loneliness, and the social isolation measures required to protect health likely made matters even worse, the warning said. “Our results highlight the important role that sleep plays in understanding loneliness across the adult lifespan,” Dzierzewksi said in a university news release. “Perhaps efforts to improve sleep health could have a beneficial effect on loneliness, especially for young people.” Adults should get about seven hours of sleep each night to promote optimal health and alertness, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine says. For this study, nearly 2,300 adults with an average age of 44 completed an online sleep health… read on > read on >