Planting trees and bushes near busy highways helps clear the air of harmful air pollutants from motor vehicles, new research affirms. “They provide benefits that go beyond aesthetics,” Roby Greenwald, an associate professor of public health at Georgia State University in Atlanta, said in a university news release. “But,” he added, “I don’t want to give anyone the impression that we can solve all of the problems associated with motor vehicle emissions simply by planting trees.” Greenwald is the lead author of a new study that sampled air quality along five Atlanta-area highways and interstates. The findings were recently published in the journal PLoS One. When air at sites with natural or ornamental vegetation was compared with that from similar sites without vegetation, the results were clear: Soot levels were 37% lower and ultrafine particles, 7% lower.  Vegetation doesn’t, however, reduce hazardous carbon dioxide emissions or ozone pollution, Greenwald emphasized. “Trees and bushes near roadways don’t solve the problem of air pollution caused by motor vehicles, but they can help reduce the severity of the problem,” he said in the news release. Motor vehicle exhaust has been linked to asthma, chronic bronchitis, lung cancer and heart attacks, and remedies are urgently needed, researchers said.  In the U.S., 45 million people live, work or go to school within 300 feet of a major highway, they pointed…  read on >  read on >

People with dementia — and their caregivers — need active social lives to stay healthy, a new study reports. However, researchers found that both dementia patients and their caregivers had declining social connections as the disease progressed. Patients’ social networks faltered, as failing memory made conversation difficult, causing family and friends to become uncomfortable in their presence, researchers said. And their caregivers — spouses, adult children and others — became isolated as their responsibilities to the patient mounted. None of that was healthy for patients or caregivers. “Unmet social needs negatively impact quality of life, and that can lead to health outcomes like depression and cardiovascular disease, as well as high health-care use and early death,” explained lead researcher Dr. Ashwin Kotwal, an assistant professor of medicine in the University of California, San Francisco’s Division of Geriatrics.  “We know from previous research that older adults with higher levels of social isolation have more than double the odds of nursing home placement,” Kotwal added in a university news release. For the study, researchers analyzed the cases of two dozen mainly male patients with dementia and four dozen mainly female caregivers. The average age of patients was 80, and the average age of caregivers was 67. Results indicate that both patients and caregivers should be regularly screened for loneliness and isolation, so doctors can find ways to…  read on >  read on >

Middle-aged Americans are lonelier than ever, with new research showing they are even more isolated than some of their peers in Europe. That does not bode well for their health. “Loneliness is gaining attention globally as a public health issue because elevated loneliness increases one’s risk for depression, compromised immunity, chronic illness and [premature death],” said study author Frank Infurna, an associate professor of psychology at Arizona State University in Tempe. For the new research, Infurna’s team used representative surveys from the United States and 13 European nations to look at how loneliness has changed over time and how it differs from one country to the next.  All told, the surveys included more than 53,000 people from the Silent Generation (1928-45), Baby Boomer (1946-64) and Generation X (1965-80). When they took the surveys, between 2002 and 2020, participants were between 45 and 65 years of age. “We focused on middle-aged adults because they form the backbone of society and empirical evidence demonstrates that U.S. midlife health is lagging other industrialized nations,” Infurna noted in an American Psychological Association news release. “Middle-aged adults carry much of society’s load by constituting most of the workforce, while simultaneously supporting the needs of younger and older generations in the family.” Still, middle-aged Americans reported higher levels of loneliness than many folks in Europe.  And the younger folks were lonelier…  read on >  read on >

High school students who use tobacco and cannabis products miss more school and have lower grades than classmates who use them individually or not at all. That’s the conclusion of a study by researchers at UC Davis Health. “Substance use is a main predictor of educational outcomes, including absenteeism,” said first study author Melanie Dove, an assistant adjunct professor of public health sciences at UC Davis. “These results highlight the need for comprehensive efforts to prevent and reduce substance use from both cannabis and tobacco products among youth.” For the study, her team analyzed 2021-22 data from the California Healthy Kids Survey. It included more than 287,600 ninth- and 11th-graders. Of that group: 3.7% used tobacco and cannabis 3.7% used cannabis only 1.7% used tobacco only Those who used both products missed an average three days of school in the preceding month — twice as many as teens who didn’t use both.  Their grades suffered, too.  On an 8-point scale with an 8 representing A’s and a 1 representing F’s, nonusers averaged about 6.2, mostly Bs. In comparison, double users averaged about 5.1 (mostly Bs and Cs), the survey showed. Classmates who used one substance also had poorer grades than abstainers. Tobacco users averaged 5.6; cannabis users averaged about 5.5 — or mostly B’s for both groups. The findings were recently published online in The Journal…  read on >  read on >

Breathing and relaxation techniques may offer relief to some patients battling Long COVID. In a new, small study of 20 patients, biofeedback therapy relieved both the physical and psychological symptoms of Long COVID, researchers said. Many participants had been dealing with symptoms for more than a year. “Our biggest hope is that we’ve identified a way to alleviate chronic physical symptoms that are not successfully treated by standard biomedical approaches, and that we did so with a short-term, non-pharmacological model that is easily scalable,” said lead author Natacha Emerson, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Biofeedback therapy pairs breathing and relaxation techniques with visual feedback to teach people how to regulate their body temperature, heart rate and other body processes. After six weeks of treatment, patients in this study reported they were sleeping better and had significant improvements in physical, depression and anxiety symptoms.  Three months later, they were still seeing the benefit, using fewer prescription medicines and having fewer doctor visits, researchers said. Worldwide, an estimated 65 million people have Long COVID — persistent symptoms that linger long past the actual infection. This constellation of symptoms include depression, anxiety, sleep issues, brain fog, dizziness and heart palpitations. “It is important to underscore that while this behavioral intervention may help symptoms, patients with Long…  read on >  read on >

Playing fetch or grooming Fido isn’t just good for your precious pooch — it also benefits your brain. Such interactions appear to strengthen brain waves associated with rest and relaxation, South Korean researchers report in the March 13 issue of the journal PLOS One. Their small study compared people’s mood or hormone levels before and after spending quality time with a willing canine. For the study, Onyoo Yoo, a doctoral student at Konkuk University in Seoul, asked 30 volunteers to take part in a series of activities with his well-trained 4-year-old female poodle. After getting to know her, the volunteers fed, massaged, groomed, photographed, hugged, walked and played with the pup. During each activity, EEG tests measured their brain waves for three minutes. Participants also answered questions about their emotional states after each activity. The study revealed that different activities had varying effects on participants’ brain waves.  Playing with and walking the dog increased the strength of alpha waves, a general indication of stability and relaxation, CNN reported. The study noted that alpha wave activity is linked to lower mental stress and better memory. Meanwhile, grooming, playing and gently massaging the dog strengthened beta waves — evidence of heightened attention and concentration. Volunteers also reported feeling less stressed, fatigued and depressed after the poodle play. Many studies in this field have been anecdotal or subjective,…  read on >  read on >

There’s a toxic stew of chemicals in polluted air that can all trigger asthma attacks in kids, new research shows. Also, where a child lives — for example, near factories or highways — greatly influences how much they’re exposed to these toxins, reports a team from Washington State University in Spokane. “It’s not just one pollutant that can be linked to asthma outcomes. This study examined the variety and combinations of air toxics that may be associated with asthma symptoms,” said study lead author Solmaz Amiri, a researcher at the university’s college of medicine. Prior studies on the issue have tended to focus on just a few toxic elements of polluted air, but Amiri said her team harnessed the power of AI to look at a broad spectrum of toxins breathed in by kids in various Spokane neighborhoods. In total, the effects of 109 air pollutants on asthmatic children were analyzed. Samples were taken by the Environmental Protection Agency at neighborhoods surrounding 10 elementary schools in the Spokane area. Data from those samples was compared to health data from each of the schools on asthma symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, difficulty breathing and the need to use an inhaler. The data was taken in 2019 and 2020, before pandemic-era lockdowns began. Three pollutants appeared especially key to triggering asthma symptoms in children:  1,1,1 trichloroethane, 2-nitropropane…  read on >  read on >