Lifestyle « Weekly Gravy

In sickness and in health — and in blood pressure, too? A new international study finds that if your blood pressure rises with time, your spouse’s might, also. “Many people know that high blood pressure is common in middle-aged and older adults, yet we were surprised to find that among many older couples, both husband and wife had high blood pressure in the U.S., England, China and India,” said study senior author Dr. Chihua Li, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan. “For instance, in the U.S., among more than 35% of couples who were ages 50 or older, both had high blood pressure,” Li said in a news release from the American Heart Association (AHA). Li’s team published its findings Dec. 6 in the Journal of the American Heart Association. High blood pressure is a common complaint among Americans, and the risk of hypertension rises with age. According to the AHA, almost half (about 47%) of adult Americans had high blood pressure in 2020, and it contributed to 120,000 deaths that year. In the new study, Li and colleagues looked at rates of high blood pressure among nearly 34,000 heterosexual couples worldwide: 4,000 U.S. couples, 1,100 couples in England, more than 6,500 Chinese couples and over 22,000 Indian couples. Data was collected between 2015 and 2019, depending on the country. High blood pressure… read on > read on >

Unhealthy air from wildfires is causing hundreds of additional deaths in the western United States every year, a new study claims. Wildfires have undercut progress made in cleaning America’s air, and between 2000 and 2020 caused an increase of 670 premature deaths each year in the West, researchers report Dec. 4 in The Lancet Planetary Health journal. “Our air is supposed to be cleaner and cleaner, due mostly to EPA regulations on emissions, but the fires have limited or erased these air-quality gains,” said lead researcher Jun Wang, chair of chemical and biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa. “In other words, all the efforts for the past 20 years by the EPA to make our air cleaner basically have been lost in fire-prone areas and downwind regions,” Wang added in a university news release. “We are losing ground.” For this study, researchers calculated the concentration of airborne black carbon, a fine-particle air pollutant linked to respiratory and heart disease, across the continental United States. For their calculations, researchers used an AI program to analyze air quality data from satellites and ground-based stations. Premature deaths were calculated using a formula that took into account average lifespan, black carbon exposure and population density. “This is the first time to look at black carbon concentrations everywhere, and at one-kilometer resolution,” Wang says. They found that black carbon… read on > read on >

Teenagers with epilepsy are more likely to have an eating disorder than those not suffering from the brain disease, a new study shows. About 8.4% of children ages 10 to 19 treated at a Boston epilepsy clinic had eating disorders, three times the national average of 2.7% of teens with an eating disorder, researchers found. “Adolescents with epilepsy may feel a loss of control because they don’t know when they’ll have a seizure,” said lead researcher Dr. Itay Tokatly Latzer, an epilepsy fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital. “Controlling what they eat or don’t eat can presumably make them feel they have regained some control,” Tokatly Latzer added in a hospital news release. “This is one of the ways epilepsy may lead to eating disorders, in people who have a biological or psychological predisposition to develop eating disorders.” For the study, Tokatly Latzer and colleagues analyzed data on 1,740 teens treated at least once at Boston Children’s Epilepsy Center for any conditions involving seizures between 2013 and 2022. None of the teens had an intellectual disability or autism. Of those children, 146 were diagnosed with an eating disorder. During the 10-year-period, the number of teens treated at the center who had eating disorders increased annually, rising from 12 in 2013 to 22 in 2022. Anorexia was more common than either bulimia or binge eating among teens… read on > read on >

Holiday festivities bring joy to many, but they also give rise to quite a few unhealthy habits, a new survey has found. Two-thirds of people say they overindulge in food during the holidays, and nearly half (45%) said they take a break from exercise, according to a new survey from Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center. Meanwhile, a third admit they drink more alcohol during the holidays, and more than half report feeling tired and having less time for themselves. “Holiday travel, activities with friends and family, and trying to get a bunch of things done can cause people to lose track of their healthy habits,” said Dr. Barbara Bawer, a family medicine physician at Wexner. The survey involved 1,007 people polled between Oct. 20 and 23, with a 3.6 percentage point margin of error. Folks need to stick to their normal routine as much as possible to avoid starting unhealthy habits, Bawer said.. “Once you’re out of a routine, which typically happens around the holidays, it’s really hard to get back on track, partly because the motivation is no longer there,” Bawer said in a university news release. People should keep in mind that it’s okay to say no, whether it be for one more holiday party or one more rich dish at the buffet, Bawer said. Bawer also recommends that people: Maintain their… read on > read on >

SATURDAY, Dec. 2, 2023 (Healthday News) — The holidays are typically a happy whirlwind of gift-buying, house decorating, party planning and family gatherings, but all that work can also stress people out. Luckily, experts at UT Southwestern Medical Center say there are things you can do to keep your stress levels under control and help make your holidays happy. “Excess stress wears and tears on our bodies,” said Rita Smith, a clinical social worker in the Clinical Heart and Vascular Center at UT Southwestern. “The best holiday gifts you can give yourself are equal doses of self-care and grace.” Start with realistic expectations, which will ease the pressure of trying to be perfect. Remembering the holidays are all about gratitude will also help, said Sarah Woods, vice chair of research in UT Southwestern’s Department of Family and Community Medicine. “Think about what you’re grateful for and put it in writing,” Woods suggested in a university news release. “Focusing on the good can help you relax and cope with the not-so-good.” Another stressor during the holidays? Money. Smith said it’s best to make a spending plan for gifts and celebrations because holiday debts can be overwhelming. So, try to be practical yet creative with your gifting. Then there’s family relationships, which are sometimes strained. Woods said stress linked to difficult family relationships can produce more cortisol.… read on > read on >

A new study of identical twins has provided fresh evidence that a vegan diet can vastly improve a person’s heart health. Twins assigned a vegan diet for two months had significant improvements in cholesterol, insulin and body weight compared to their siblings, who ate a healthy diet that included animal protein. “Based on these results and thinking about longevity, most of us would benefit from going to a more plant-based diet,” said researcher Christopher Gardner, a professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. It’s well-known that cutting back on meat consumption improves heart health, but differences between participants in diet studies — things like genetics, upbringing and lifestyle choices — make it hard for researchers to draw definitive conclusions. Gardner and his colleagues chose to study identical twins because they share the same genetics, grew up in the same household and often have similar lifestyles. “Not only did this study provide a groundbreaking way to assert that a vegan diet is healthier than the conventional omnivore diet, but the twins were also a riot to work with,” Gardner noted in a university news release. “They dressed the same, they talked the same and they had a banter between them that you could have only if you spent an inordinate amount of time together.” The research team recruited 22 pairs of identical twins… read on > read on >

Got a naturally sunny disposition? It might protect you from dementia as the years advance, new research shows. A team at Northwestern University in Chicago report that certain personality traits — being conscientious, outgoing and positive — appear to lower a person’s odds for a dementia diagnosis. On the other hand, being neurotic and more negative in outlook and behavior was tied to a higher risk for mental decline, the same study found. The good news: Daily behaviors are probably the key factor here, and behaviors can be changed. People’s personalities can influence whether or not daily habits are healthy or unhealthy for the brain, explained a team led by researcher Eileen Graham, an associate professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern. “Neuroticism is related to dementia decline, and people with neuroticism are more prone to anxiousness, moodiness and worry, whereas conscientious people are more likely to exercise, make and go to preventive health appointments and drink less,” Graham said in a university news release. “So, maybe that’s where an intervention might be useful to improve someone’s health behaviors for better health outcomes,” Graham reasoned. The new analysis focused on what psychologists have long called the “Big Five” personality traits: conscientiousness, extraversion, openness to experience, neuroticism and agreeableness. Graham’s team looked at data from eight studies. Together, the studies included more than 44,000 people —… read on > read on >

Bodybuilders are largely unaware that the protein supplements they use to bulk up might harm their fertility, a new study shows. Four out of five male gym enthusiasts (79%) said they use protein supplements as part of their fitness plan, the poll found. But only 14% had considered how those supplements — which contain high levels of the female hormone estrogen — might impact their fertility, researchers found. “Too much female hormone can cause problems with the amount and quality of sperm that a man can produce,” explained lead researcher Meurig Gallagher, an assistant professor studying infertility at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. Men taking these protein supplements also might be unintentionally dosing themselves with steroids, Gallagher added. “Many protein supplements that can be bought have been found to be contaminated by anabolic steroids, which can cause reduced sperm count, shrunken testicles and erectile dysfunction, amongst other things,” Gallagher said. For this study, Gallagher and his colleagues surveyed 152 avid gym-goers. They found that more than half (52%) of male participants had thought about their fertility prior to being asked. “We found that men are genuinely curious about their fertility when prompted, but that they don’t think about it on their own – likely because societally people still think of fertility as a ‘female issue’ and [incorrectly] believe that men’s fertility doesn’t change… read on > read on >

The latest national data show that when it comes to suicide, Americans are increasingly resorting to firearms as their method of choice. An analysis by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that of the nearly 50,000 suicides recorded in the United States in 2022, more than half (27,000) involved a gun. Gun-related suicides have been on the rise over the past two decades, but they jumped by 11% during the pandemic, reported a team led by Wojciech Kaczkowski, of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. “The persistent upward trend in firearm suicide rates since 2020 across all racial and ethnic groups, coupled with unprecedented high rates during 2022, highlight the need for continuing prevention efforts,” the researchers said in their report. In sheer numbers, white Americans suffered the highest death toll from gun suicide, the report found. But the rate at which guns are being used in suicides is rising fastest among minorities, Kaczkowski’s group noted. For example, while the rate of suicides by firearm rose by 9% among white Americans between 2019 and 2022, it rose by 28% among Hispanic Americans, 42% among Black Americans and 66% among American Indians/Alaska Natives, the study found. Why the sharp rise? Unemployment pressures during the pandemic and lack of access to mental health care may have played a… read on > read on >

Teens glued to Instagram, TikTok and other social media are more likely to drink, take drugs, smoke and engage in risky sexual behaviors, a new review warns. For example, spending at least two hours a day on social media doubled the odds of alcohol consumption, compared with less than two hours daily use, researchers report in the Nov. 29 issue of BMJ. The results show that teens are particularly susceptible to social media depictions of risky health behaviors like alcohol use or unhealthy eating, the investigators said. “Experimental and risk-taking behaviors are an inherent part of adolescence,” the team concluded in a journal news release. “However, as safeguards for a digital world are still evolving, precaution across academic, governmental, health and educational sectors may be warranted before the risks of adolescents’ use of social media is fully understood.” For the review, researchers analyzed more than 250 social media measures reported in 73 studies conducted between 1997 and 2022, involving 1.4 million kids ages 10 to 19. The pooled data showed that frequent or daily social media use is associated with a 48% increased risk of alcohol consumption, a 28% increased risk of drug use and an 85% increased risk of smoking, compared to infrequent surfing of social media. Social media seems to have an influence over teens’ sexual choices as well. Frequent or daily social… read on > read on >