As outdoor gatherings begin for the Fourth of July holiday, a leading asthma and allergy group is offering suggestions on how to avoid those seasonal symptoms. “The Fourth of July is a great time to gather with friends and family and celebrate summer,” said Dr. Kathleen May, president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). “But as with any outdoor holiday, July Fourth festivities mean those with allergies and asthma need to take a few extra precautions to make sure their holiday is safe, and sneeze- and wheeze-free. “Those with asthma need to be cautious at events where smoke will be featured. Smoke in any form — from fireworks, bonfires or campfires — should be avoided as it can cause asthma to flare,” she added in an ACAAI news release. Among other tips are to avoid “wings and stings.” If you’ve had a previous allergic reaction to a sting, always carry two doses of your epinephrine auto-injector, the ACAAI advises. Stay safe by wearing shoes when walking in grass where stinging insects may be looking for food. Cover soft drink cans and food because these bugs love open cans and containers. Your asthma may flare with temperature swings, such as going from a hot picnic area to a cold pool or an air-conditioned room. Consider instead doing an indoor workout on a…  read on >  read on >

California psychiatrist Dr. Carolyn Rodriguez once had a patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) who washed his hands so often that he had to wear gloves to cover his cracked and swollen skin. “People with intrusive thoughts of contamination can do this for hours on end with scalding hot water,” said Rodriguez, who is also associate dean for academic affairs at Stanford University School of Medicine. Though OCD is fairly common, with around 2 in every 100 adults in the United States affected, according to the Stanford Center for Health Education, its causes have not been well understood. Until now. Psychologists from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. report they have found widespread chemical imbalances in the regions of OCD patients’ brains responsible for decision-making, specifically involving the major neurotransmitter chemicals cortical glutamate and GABA. The findings could lead to more targeted treatments for the condition, they added. OCD is a mental health condition that “involves both obsessions and compulsions that take up a lot of time and get in the way of important activities, such as school, family life, extracurricular activities, developing friendships, and self-care,” according to the International OCD Foundation. OCD doesn’t look the same in each individual. People with the condition can have intrusive thoughts of harm toward themselves or others, intrusive thoughts of contamination, symmetry obsessions or checking compulsions. “Some people…  read on >  read on >

(HealthDay News) – For the second time this month, massive plumes of smoke from hundreds of out-of-control Canadian wildfires are polluting much of America’s air. Among the major U.S. cities now experiencing poor air quality are St. Louis, Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Chicago, while entire states have also issued air quality alerts, according to the National Weather Service. These are Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, New York and Wisconsin. Parts of Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia also have alerts. In the cities of Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Davenport, Iowa, air quality was in the “very unhealthy” range, according to airnow.gov. The air quality is cause for concern because of tiny particulate matter, also called PM2.5, which is a dangerous pollutant. It can travel deep into the lung tissue and enter the bloodstream, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. PM2.5 is associated with a variety of health issues, including asthma and heart disease. Between 80 million and 120 million people are affected by this poor air quality, according to an analysis by the National Weather Service and CNN. In some locations, residents have been asked to stay inside and run their air conditioning or to wear N95 masks if they need to go outside, CNN reported. Smoke concentration may increase over New York City on…  read on >  read on >

(HealthDay News) – New research has found that people who are transgender are far more prone to suicide than their peers. The new study, using Denmark’s centralized data repository, found that transgender people had 7.7 times the rate of suicide attempts compared to others, the study found. They also had 3.5 times the rate of suicide deaths. Suicide rates in all groups did decrease over time, the study noted. Still, transgender people died at younger ages than others, whether by suicide or from other causes, researchers said. “This is beyond doubt a huge problem that needs to be looked at,” study co-author Dr. Morten Frisch, a sexual health epidemiologist at Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen, told the New York Times. To study the issue, his team identified nearly 3,800 transgender people in Denmark through hospital records and applications for legal gender changes. The study found 92 suicide attempts and 12 suicide deaths in the transgender group between 1980 and 2021. The U.S. and Denmark have similar suicide rates, so the findings may also apply in America, the researchers noted. Yet it’s also possible the data don’t capture all suicides among transgender people or contain information on all transgender people, the Times noted. “These surveys tend to include much broader spectrums of trans individuals, and we cannot be as certain that our results are as problematic…  read on >  read on >

Having a couple of drinks a day won’t protect you from obesity or diabetes, a new study suggests. Everybody knows that heavy drinking isn’t good for your health, but whether moderate alcohol consumption is protective or harmful is still open for debate, researchers say. “Some research has indicated that moderate drinkers may be less likely to develop obesity or diabetes compared to non-drinkers and heavy drinkers. However, our study shows that even light-to-moderate alcohol consumption (no more than one standard drink per day) does not protect against obesity and type 2 diabetes in the general population,” said lead researcher Tianyuan Lu, of McGill University in Montreal, Canada. “We confirmed that heavy drinking could lead to increased measures of obesity (body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, fat mass, etc.) as well as increased risk of type 2 diabetes,” Lu added in a news release from the Endocrine Society. For the study, Lu’s team collected data on alcohol use from nearly 409,000 men and women in the UK Biobank (a large-scale biomedical database and research resource). The researchers found that people who had more than 14 drinks per week had higher fat mass and a higher risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. The links were greater among women than men, the researchers noted. They found no association between moderate drinking and better health in people consuming up…  read on >  read on >

Clouds of smoke continue to drift over the Eastern United States and Europe from wildfires in Canada, and experts are predicting a longer and more destructive wildfire season due to rising temperatures and drier conditions. Now, new research puts a number on just how dangerous wildfire smoke can be. Smoke particulates from wildfires could cause 4,000 to 9,200 premature deaths and may cost between $36 billion and $82 billion each year in the United States, according to the new study. Wildfires release fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, into the air, and these very tiny particles can travel deep into the lungs and bloodstream and trigger an asthma attack, heart attack or strokes, among other risks. Symptoms may include coughing, wheezing and feeling short of breath. Wildfire smoke can also make conditions like asthma and bronchitis worse, said study author Yunsoo Choi, an associate professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of Houston. “PM2.5 from wildfires can also have effects on the heart and blood vessels, increasing the chances of heart attacks and strokes, and making existing heart conditions worse,” he said. “It can cause general inflammation in the body and trigger allergies.” Certain groups, such as children, older adults, pregnant women and individuals with existing respiratory or heart problems, are more vulnerable to PM2.5 from wildfires, Choi said. For the study the researchers, led by…  read on >  read on >