Prior studies have suggested that binge eating disorder may not last long, but a more rigorous look at the illness finds that just isn’t so. “The big takeaway is that binge-eating disorder does improve with time, but for many people it lasts years,” said study first author Kristin Javaras, assistant psychologist in the Division of Women’s Mental Health at McLean Hospital in Boston. “As a clinician, oftentimes the clients I work with report many, many years of binge-eating disorder, which felt very discordant with studies that suggested that it was a transient disorder,” she said in a hospital news release. “It’s very important to understand how long binge-eating disorder lasts and how likely people are to relapse so that we can better provide better care.” In binge eating disorder, which typically arises around a person’s mid-20s, people feel their eating is out of their control. Anywhere from 1 to 3 percent of American adults are thought to have the disorder. According to Javaras’ team, prior studies looking at binge eating disorder were either retrospective (meaning they often relied on people’s memory of their disorder). If they were prospective (following patients through time) they were often very small (less than 50 people) or didn’t include people tackling severe obesity. In the new study, Javaras’ team tracked outcomes for 137 adults diagnosed with binge-eating disorder for five…  read on >  read on >

Weighted blankets are trendy items, largely based on the idea that the pressure of a heavy blanket will help a person more easily slip into slumber. But they do little to help troubled children sleep better, a new study has found. There was no difference in sleep between weighted and normal blankets among a group of 30 children ages 6 to 15 adopted from foster care in Texas, according to a report published recently in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. “We were somewhat surprised to find no differences in either objective or subjective sleep variables based on blanket type,” said researcher Candice Alfano, a University of Houston psychology professor and sleep expert. For the study, the group of children were asked to use weighted blankets – between 5 and 10 pounds – for two weeks, and their normal blanket for another two weeks. During the entire month, their sleep was monitored continuously using both sleep diaries and actigraphs — a wristwatch-like device that tracks sleep patterns. The weighted blankets did not help kids go to sleep easier or sleep better, results show. Weighted blankets also did not seem to improve the sleep of children who’d been abused or neglected, researchers said. Children in foster care can have persistent sleep problems, including trouble falling asleep, waking in the night and nightmares, researchers said. “We have…  read on >  read on >

“Ugh, I’m so busy these days I can barely think straight. It’s so crazy.” No doubt some friend or coworker (maybe even yourself) has moaned about how stressed and overworked they are. Sometimes its fully justified, but in many cases folks see it as “stress bragging,” or “busy bragging,” signaling how important and needed the person is. In those cases, stress bragging could do you more harm than good, new research shows. “This is a behavior we’ve all seen, and we all might be guilty of at some point,” said study author Jessica Rodell, a professor of management at the University of Georgia Athens’ Terry College of Business.  “When I was wondering about why people do this, I thought maybe we are talking about our stress because we want to prove we’re good enough,” she said in a university news release. “We found out that often backfires.” Instead of instilling respect and sympathy in co-workers, stress braggers often are looked upon as unlikable and less competent, the study found. The data was based on a survey of 360 adults who were told to imagine that a colleague had just returned from a business conference. These imaginary colleagues uttered a variety of statements. The stress-bragging worker said “Just one more thing on my full plate. And I was already stressed to the max … you have…  read on >  read on >

Does advising your teen sometimes feel like talking to the proverbial brick wall? Don’t fret: New research shows that even when your preteen or teen gives your advice a flat “no way,” your counsel is probably having an impact. It may simply be tucked away by your child, ready for use another day. “The kids are at an age where they’re maturing and wanting to make their own decisions,” explained study lead author and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researcher Kelly Tu. “Their immediate response may be resistance or reluctance, but the advice about how to reframe the problem, consider other explanations or think about what they are learning from the experience is sticking with them,” Tu said in a university news release. “They may need time to process and evaluate it. Maybe they didn’t find it useful in that specific situation they were discussing. But perhaps they came across new experiences in middle school and now they have some strategies to pull from their toolbox because mom gave them different ways to think about academic challenges.” Tu is associate professor of human development and family studies at the university. Her team published the study in the May-June issue of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. The study focused on 100 mother-child pairs where the child was in the fifth grade. Tu said her team focused…  read on >  read on >

Ozempic provides a wide variety of health benefits for people with kidney disease and type 2 diabetes, a major clinical trial has found. The drug significantly reduces the risk of severe kidney events, heart problems and death from any cause in patients who have both conditions, researchers found. “These benefits signify a profound clinical impact saving kidneys, hearts and lives for patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease,” said researcher Vlado Perkovic, provost of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. “Additionally, the reassuring safety findings further support the strong potential value of [Ozempic] in this population.” Chronic kidney disease affects more than 800 million people worldwide, and is particularly common among people with type 2 diabetes, researchers said in background notes. Ozempic was originally developed as a treatment for diabetes, as it helps control the release of insulin and keeps blood sugar levels lower. Its potential benefits for weight loss were later tested and approved. However, its potential to help people with kidney disease had not been fully examined, researchers said. For the study, investigators recruited more than 3,500 patients who had both kidney disease and type 2 diabetes. Patients were randomly chosen to receive weekly Ozempic (semaglutide) or a placebo. Patients taking Ozempic had a 24% lower risk of kidney problems, heart disease and death related to either the…  read on >  read on >

Folks regularly taking fish oil supplements might not be helping their health as much as they might think, a new study suggests. Regular use of fish oil supplements could increase the risk of first-time heart disease and stroke among those with good heart health, new research suggests. However, the long-term study also found that fish oil can help those whose hearts are already in trouble, potentially slowing the progression of heart problems and lowering the risk of death. Healthy people taking fish oil supplements had a 13% increased risk of developing atrial fibrillation, a heart rhythm problem that increases the risk of heart attack and stroke, researchers found. They also had a 5% increased risk of stroke, results show. “Our findings suggest caution in the use of fish oil supplements for primary prevention because of the uncertain cardiovascular benefits and adverse effects,” wrote the research team led by Dr. Hualiang Lin, an epidemiologist with Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China. But in those with existing heart disease, regular use of fish oil lowered risk of a heart attack due to atrial fibrillation by 15%, and the risk of heart failure leading to death by 9%. “Regular use of fish oil supplements might have different roles in the progression of cardiovascular disease,” based on whether someone already has heart problems, the researchers suggested. “Overall, I would…  read on >  read on >

Doctors have long known that excessive marijuana use can trigger psychosis, especially in the young. But new research suggests the link is stronger that ever imagined before. Teens who use cannabis face 11 times the odds for a psychotic episode compared to teens who abstain from the drug, new Canadian research contends. The teen years may be an especially vulnerable time in this regard, the researchers noted. “We found a very strong association between cannabis use and risk of psychotic disorder in adolescence. Surprisingly, we didn’t find evidence of association in young adulthood,” said lead author André McDonald, who led the study as part of his PhD work at the University of Toronto. The findings were published May 22 in the journal Psychological Medicine. McDonald finished the research while at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). Psychotic episodes involve a dangerous psychiatric state in which people lose their connection with reality. These episodes can get so out of control that people may need hospitalization. It’s long been known that marijuana use can help trigger psychosis, and the potency of cannabis is much stronger now than in decades past, the Toronto investigators noted. They estimate that the average THC potency of cannabis in Canada rose from roughly 1% in 1980 to 20% in 2018.  So how is all that super-strong weed affecting the developing brains…  read on >  read on >