The Mediterranean diet has already been shown to be great for a person’s physical health, but new research finds that following the Mediterranean diet also can lift your mood. People on the diet tended to have lower levels of anxiety and stress, researchers reported recently in the journal Nutrients. “It’s a big tick for the Mediterranean diet,” said researcher Evangeline Mantzioris, with the University of South Australia. “Through a relatively easy lifestyle change, people can markedly improve their stress and anxiety levels. Who wouldn’t want to give it a go?” The Mediterranean diet involves plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, seeds, nuts, legumes and olive oil, researchers said. Fish and seafood should be eaten at least twice a week, and dairy and lean proteins eaten daily in smaller portions. The diet encourages minimal consumption of red meats and processed foods and cutting out sugary beverages. For this study, researchers surveyed nearly 300 Australians aged 60 and older regarding their diet and their symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. People who ate in ways that closely tracked a Mediterranean diet had lower levels of stress and anxiety, even after researchers accounted for other factors. The researchers also found that specific elements of a Mediterranean diet — fruit, nuts, legumes and low consumption of sugary beverages — were associated with less stress and anxiety. No…  read on >  read on >

People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) face more than triple the odds of bruxism, otherwise known as teeth grinding, a new study finds. The small study of 76 Brazilian adults (38 diagnosed with PTSD and 38 without the condition) found much higher incidence of daytime teeth grinding. “Our study showed that PTSD can be manifested orally, in bruxism and a higher level of pain after a clinical dental examination. This requires joint action by psychiatrists, psychologists and dentists in screening and treatment of both health conditions,” said study lead author Dr. Ana Cristina de Oliveira Solis of the University of Sao Paulo. The findings were published recently in the journal Clinical Oral Investigations. According to background information supplied by the researchers, it’s thought that between 8% and 30% of people habitually grind their teeth during waking hours. While it’s well known that PTSD can manifest in psychological ways, such as flashbacks, nightmares, sleeplessness and self-destructive behaviors, there’s been little study of its effect on oral health, the researchers said. Everyone in the study underwent an examination to determine the health of their teeth and gums. “Oral hygiene was not found to be associated with the problem,” Solis said in a journal news release. “Periodontal examination, which included measurement of bacterial plaque and gingival bleeding [or bleeding on probing], showed that patients with PTSD and controls…  read on >  read on >

Inmates released from jail have a ninefold increased risk of suicide within the following year, compared to people who’ve never been incarcerated, new research shows. “Suicide prevention efforts should focus on people who have spent at least one night in jail in the past year,” concluded the team led by Ted Miller, a senior research scientist with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Beltsville, Md. For the study, researchers pooled data from 10 different studies of death rates among formerly incarcerated adults. They used that data to estimate the suicide rate among the nearly 7.1 million adults who had been released from jail at least once in 2019. Inmates had a nine times greater risk of dying by suicide within one year of their release, and a seven times greater risk of suicide within two years of release, researchers found. People newly released from jail account for an estimated 20% of all adult suicide deaths, but they only account for just under 3% of the entire adult population. Adults are often arrested while in the throes of a mental health crisis, researchers noted. It’s now possible for health systems to link jail release data to patient health records, and thus can target for outreach patients who have been recently released, the researchers noted. “Focused suicide prevention efforts could reach a substantial number of…  read on >  read on >

San Francisco is on the verge of passing a ban on “forever chemicals” in the protective clothing firefighters wear while battling blazes. City lawmakers are expected to pass an ordinance on Tuesday that will prohibit the use of firefighting gear made with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS have been linked to health harms, including decreased fertility, low-birth weight and developmental delays in children, a greater risk of certain cancers and higher cholesterol levels, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. While the compounds, which linger for years in the environment, have been phased out of most manufacturing, they are still used in some firefighting foams and nearly all firefighters’ uniforms because they resist flames and extreme heat, NBC News reported. If passed into law, the city’s fire department would have until June 30, 2026, to buy new protective clothing made without PFAS for its more than 1,400 firefighters. San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who authored the legislation, said he believes the ban “is morally right and it is financially right.”  “Cost is so small compared to a human life, is so small compared to the cost of health care, is so small compared to the cost of settling lawsuits,” he told NBC News. Lt. Magaly Saade, a firefighter and training instructor at the San Francisco Fire Department, has had cancer twice, forcing her to undergo…  read on >  read on >

Women who smoke during pregnancy run a higher risk of their kids becoming overweight or obese, and researchers now think they know one reason why. Children born of moms who smoked while expecting tend to have gut bacteria that is significantly different from that of kids whose moms didn’t light up, scientists reported recently in the journal Gut Microbes. It’s been known for some time that women who smoke in pregnancy tend to have babies who become overweight children, said co-senior researcher Anita Kozyrskyj, a microbiome epidemiologist and professor of pediatrics at the University of Alberta in Canada. “We just didn’t know how it happened,” Kozyrskyj said in a university news release. “There may be many ways, but in our study we showed one way is by changing the gut bacteria in the infant.” Obesity currently affects more than 18% of children and teens, up from only 4% back in 1975, researchers said in background notes. For the study, researchers used data from more than 1,500 children being tracked as part of a long-term study of child development. The kids’ weight was measured at ages 1 and 3, and stool samples were collected at 3 and 12 months of age. Researchers found that a child’s risk of excess weight was associated with higher levels of a type of gut bacteria called Firmicutes, and that smoking…  read on >  read on >

Colon cancer steadily increased among young people in the United States over the past two decades, with tweens enduring the most dramatic leap in cancer rates, a new study says. The rate of colon cancer grew 500% among kids 10 to 14 between 1999 and 2020, researchers will report at the Digestive Disease Week medical meeting in Washington, D.C., later this month. The rate also increased 333% among 15- to 19-year-olds, and 185% among 20- to 24-year-olds, researchers found. “Colorectal cancer is no longer considered just a disease of the elderly population,” lead researcher Dr. Islam Mohamed, an internal medicine resident physician at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, said in a news release. For the study, researchers calculated 1999-2020 trends in colon cancer for people between 10 and 44 years of age, using U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. Even though the rates rose among children and young adults, they still are much lower in sheer numbers than those of older adults, results show. Among 10- to 14-year-olds, 0.6 children per 100,000 were diagnosed with colon cancer in 2020, up from just 0.1 children per 100,000 in 1999. Similarly, diagnoses in 15- to 19-year-olds went from 0.3 to 1.3 per 100,000, and those among 20- to 24-year-olds rose from 0.7 to 2 per 100,000. The most common colon cancer symptoms were constipation,…  read on >  read on >

Smoking cigarettes while pregnant has long been known to harm the fetus, but new research shows things get even worse when marijuana is in the mix. The study by a team at Oregon Health & Science University (OSHU) in Portland involved more than 3 million pregnancies.   It found heightened risks for underweight newborns, preterm delivery and even infant death among women who used tobacco and cannabis while pregnant. “With the growing legalization of cannabis around the country, there is often a perception that cannabis is safe in pregnancy,” study co-author Dr. Jamie Lo said in an OSHU news release.  “Because we know that many people who use cannabis often use tobacco or nicotine products, we wanted to better understand the potential health implications on both the pregnant individual and the infant,” she explained. Lo is associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology (maternal-fetal medicine) at OHSU. The findings were published May 7 in JAMA Network Open. Lo’s team analyzed hospital discharge data and vital statistics on more than 3 million pregnant women in California averaging about 29 years of age.   Of those women, just over 23,000 (0.7%) said they had used cannabis while pregnant; close to 57,000 (1.8%) had smoked tobacco; and more than 10, 300 (0.3%) had used both substances while pregnant. Compared to women who abstained from cigarettes or marijuana during pregnancy, the…  read on >  read on >