Lifestyle « Weekly Gravy

An overwhelming majority of older Americans think health insurers and Medicare should cover the cost of weight-loss medications like Ozempic, Wegovy or Zepbound, a new survey has found. More than four out of five older adults (83%) think insurance companies should pay for drugs that help obese people manage their weight, according to poll results from over 2,600 people ages 50 to 80. And about three in four (76%) believe Medicare should cover weight-loss drugs, researchers at the University of Michigan National Poll and Healthy Aging found. “Our data show the strong awareness and interest in these medications, and in access to them through insurance, alongside coverage for other weight-focused care including nutrition counseling, exercise programs and bariatric surgery,” said researcher Dr. Lauren Oshman, an obesity medicine specialist and associate professor in the University of Michigan Department of Family Medicine. Weight-loss drugs have been in the spotlight since the approval of Wegovy, an injectable drug initially approved for treating type 2 diabetes under the name Ozempic. The FDA has since approved Zepbound for weight loss, a diabetes drug previously approved under the name Mounjaro. These new medications are pricey, costing more than $12,000 a year for people who pay out of their own pockets. But the drugs are nearly as effective as bariatric surgery in helping people with obesity lose 10% or more of their… read on > read on >

A healthy plant-based diet can reduce a person’s risk of type 2 diabetes by 24%, a new study has found. Eating plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains has this protective effect even in people with a genetic predisposition for diabetes or risk factors like obesity, advanced age or lack of physical activity, researchers report. And for the first time, researchers identified specific health improvements from a plant-based diet that would shield a person from obesity, according to their report published in the January issue of the journal Diabetes and Metabolism. These included improved processing of blood sugars, as well as better liver and kidney function, researchers said. That means the protective effects of a plant-based diet go far beyond simply losing weight and dropping fat, researchers said. “Our study is the first to identify biomarkers of central metabolic processes and organ functions as mediators of the health effects of a plant-based diet,” said lead researcher Tilman Kühn, a professor of public health nutrition at the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna in Austria. However, researchers noted that there’s such a thing as an unhealthy plant-based diet. Those that are still high in sweets, refined grains and sugary drinks are associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, researchers found. For the study, Kuhn and colleagues reviewed data on more… read on > read on >

Gun advocates often claim that mental illness is the driving force behind mass shootings in the United States. But new research argues that gun violence is more likely driven by the massive numbers of firearms available throughout the country, providing easy access to anyone with a homicidal bent. In the study, investigators compared mental illness and gun violence between three countries — the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. The United States has a rate of mental illness not much different than those of the U.K. or Australia, the researchers said. Nearly 16% of Americans had some sort of mental illness in 2019, compared with about 18% in Australia and 14% in the U.K. But in the first half of 2023, the United States had experienced about 21,000 gun homicides among a population of 335 million, compared to 225 murders among 26.4 million in Australia and about 200 killings among 67.7 million in the U.K. “The U.S. is experiencing more than 10 times higher death rates from gun violence than Australia and more than 40 times higher death rates than the U.K.,” said researcher Dr. Charles Hennekens, a professor with the Florida Atlantic University Schmidt College of Medicine in Boca Raton. What is different between the three countries is the number of firearms freely available, his team noted. There are about 393 million guns owned… read on > read on >

Many women and men begin new relationships never dreaming they could later be enmeshed in a cycle of intimate partner violence. Now, a new study finds there are early behavioral warning signs from a partner that suggest the risk for violence is there. And the more signs a person sees in the partner, the higher the potential risk. “These red flags could eventually be used in interventions to help people learn how to avoid abusive relationships or support loved ones who may be at risk for abuse,” said study lead author Nicolyn Charlot, of the University of Western Ontario in Canada. The study had two parts. In the first part, Charlot’s group presented 147 young couples who had been together an average of six months with a list of 200 abusive and non-abusive thoughts, feelings and behaviors based on prior research. The participants then told researchers how often any of those had occurred since they started dating their partner. In the second part, this time with 355 young couples who had been together an average of about four months, Charlot’s team identified thoughts, feelings and behaviors that appeared to predict violence in the relationship six months later. Some of the warning signs in a partner uncovered by the study were: a sense of arrogance or entitlement negative reactions when a person said no to something discounting… read on > read on >

Folks who take the blockbuster weight-loss med tirzepatide (Zepbound) may regain much of the weight they lost soon after discontinuing it, new research shows. A trial funded by Eli Lilly, the injected drug’s maker, found that “in patients with obesity or overweight, withdrawing tirzepatide led to substantial regain of weight.” On the other hand, continuing on with tirzepatide kept the weight off, over the full two years of the trial. Of course, sticking with drug could mean big bills for users. Medicare and Medicaid do not cover the drug, and if your private insurance doesn’t cover Zepbound, it can cost over $1,000 per month. Lilly says certain commercial card savings programs it offers can reduce the monthly cost to about $550, or even lower, however. Zepbound was approved for weight loss by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Nov. 8, and Lilly announced its availability to consumers on Dec. 6. To trigger weight loss, tirzepatide mimics two hormones, GLP-1 and GIP, which stimulate the release of insulin in the body. It quells appetite and slows the rate at which food moves through the stomach, helping patients feel full. It’s the first drug in its class to compete with another weight-loss blockbuster, Wegovy. Wegovy, made by Novo Nordisk, uses a similar active ingredient, semaglutide, which only focuses on GLP-1. That difference appears to translate to… read on > read on >

Suicide rates for Black women and girls ages 15 to 24 have more than doubled over the past two decades, a new report finds. “Suicides are rapidly increasingly among young, Black females in the U.S.,” said study first author Victoria Joseph, an analyst in the department of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. Her team published their findings recently in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Suicide has been on the rise generally across the United States for many years. Data released in late November by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that almost 49,500 people lost their lives to suicide in 2022. That’s a 3% rise from the nearly 48,200 deaths recorded in 2021. Joseph’s team found that young Black females are no exception to this trend. They looked at 1999-2020 data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics database, which tracked causes of deaths for Americans. In 1999, 289 Black females aged 15 to 84 died by suicide; by 2020 that number had risen to 652. The year 2010, especially, seemed to be “an inflection point for subsequent increases in suicide deaths,” Joseph noted. There was also a “clear age effect,” the researchers said, with suicide rates rising higher among younger Black females. The overall rate of suicide among Black females rose from 2… read on > read on >

The Biden administration has again delayed enacting a ban on menthol cigarettes following intense lobbying from the tobacco industry. Along with that pressure, other critics of the ban have warned that it might anger Black smokers, who use menthol cigarettes at far higher rates than whites — just as President Biden gears up to run for re-election, administration officials told the Washington Post. The delay, which was posted Wednesday, now says officials plan to finalize rules to put the ban in place in March. Officials had originally planned to finalize the rules last August and later signaled to public health groups that they hoped to finish them by January, the Post reported. Still, the ban would not likely go into effect for several years because of the legal challenges that many expect will come. But anti-smoking advocates aren’t waiting to push passage of the ban. Karen Knudsen, chief executive of the American Cancer Society, said her organization is among a coalition of public health associations that this month will take out ads in national newspapers, send letters to lawmakers and use other measures to push the Biden administration to finalize the rule sooner rather than later. “The cost of inaction is high,” Knudsen told the Post, citing projections that a ban on menthol cigarettes would save up to 650,000 lives over the next four decades. Many of the lives… read on > read on >

“Forever” PFAS chemicals appear to harm bone health in Hispanic teenagers, a new study finds. The more PFAS chemicals found in the bodies of Hispanic adolescents, the lower their bone density was, researchers report in the Dec. 6 issue of the journal Environmental Research. Peak bone mineral density in adolescence helps predict whether a person will develop osteoporosis later in life, University of Southern California researchers noted. “Many existing studies haven’t included participants this young, but we’re now able to see that this association is already happening at a time when bones are supposed to be developing,” said lead researcher Emily Beglarian, a doctoral student in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at USC’s Keck School of Medicine. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are used in a wide range of consumer products, and also are widely present in drinking water and the environment. They are called “forever chemicals” because of their carbon and fluorine molecules, one of the strongest chemical bonds possible. PFAS have been linked to reproductive problems and increased cancer risk, while a growing body of evidence has also tied the chemicals to lower bone mineral density, researchers said. But those studies have focused mainly on older whites. This research team decided to see whether the same risk holds in young Hispanics, a group that faces a heightened risk of bone… read on > read on >

Acne can be terribly embarrassing for a teenager, but a new study has found that adults’ blemishes might have even greater consequences for their social and professional reputation. People are less likely to want to be friends, have close contact or post a pic on social media with a person who has severe acne, researchers found. “Our findings show that stigmatizing attitudes about acne can impair quality of life, potentially by affecting personal relationships and employment opportunities,” said researcher Dr. John Barbieri, a dermatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “Acne is often wrongly perceived as merely a cosmetic issue,” Barbieri added. “It’s important that people with this medical problem get access to treatment, just like any other condition.” Acne occurs in a person’s hair follicles and oil glands, according to Johns Hopkins. Normally, oil from the glands travels up the hair follicles to the skin, keeping the skin moist. But if skin cells plug the follicles and block the oil, bacteria growing inside the follicles can cause pimples and cysts. For this study, Barbieri and his colleagues obtained stock photos of four adults, including men and women with either light or dark skin tone. The researchers digitally altered the pictures to create two additional versions of each, adding either mild or severe acne to the people’s faces. They then performed an experiment with… read on > read on >

The newly approved weight-loss medication known as Zepbound is now available for patients to take, drug maker Eli Lilly announced Tuesday. “Today opens another chapter for adults living with obesity who have been looking for a new treatment option like Zepbound,” Rhonda Pacheco, group vice president of Lilly Diabetes and Obesity, U.S., said in a company news release. “The availability of Zepbound in U.S. pharmacies is the first step, but we have to work hand-in-hand with employers, government and healthcare industry partners to remove barriers and make Zepbound available to those who need it,” Pacheco added. “We are excited to see growing [insurance] coverage in the marketplace, giving millions of Americans access to Zepbound.” It was only last month when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Zepbound as a weight-loss medication. Tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Zepbound, had already been approved by the FDA as a treatment for type 2 diabetes called Mounjaro. To trigger weight loss, tirzepatide mimics two hormones, GLP-1 and GIP, which stimulate the release of insulin in the body. It quells appetite and slows the rate at which food moves through the stomach, helping patients feel full. Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss medication, Wegovy, uses semaglutide, which only focuses on GLP-1. That difference translated to greater weight loss with Zepbound than Wegovy, a recent study found. Zepbound has been found to prompt up to a 20.9%… read on > read on >