Sports « Weekly Gravy

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin threw himself into the path of a Cincinnati Bengals ball carrier, taking a hard hit to the chest that sent both NFL players to the ground. Hamlin, 24, stood to dust himself off, took two steps — and then fell flat on his back, limp and unresponsive. Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest following the tough tackle in Monday night’s game, officials now say. He received CPR on the field, and was in critical condition this morning at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. A cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). More than 350,000 cardiac arrests occur outside a hospital in the United States every year, the AHA said in a news release. About 9 of 10 people who suffer a cardiac arrest die, the AHA says. Survival depends on immediately receiving CPR from a bystander. Cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack, which occurs when a blocked artery prevents blood flow to the heart muscle. Instead, a cardiac arrest is caused by a malfunction in the heart’s electrical system. The heart starts to beat irregularly at first, and then just stops. First aid involves CPR to keep the person alive until a defibrillator shocks the heart into restoring a normal heart rhythm, usually within a… read on > read on >

New Year’s resolutions can be a fickle thing. They are a time-honored way to promise improvements to yourself and your behavior, a “fresh start” to the new year. But if chosen poorly, a resolution also can be a source of anxiety, disappointment and hopelessness. “They tap into the abiding American spirit of relentless self-improvement, and that can be so relentless that it translates into additional stress,” said John Norcross, chair of psychology with the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania and author of “Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions.” About one in four Americans cite their resolutions as a source of anxiety heading into the new year, according to a new poll by the American Psychiatric Association. Choosing an appropriate resolution — and realistic ways to follow through on it — can help relieve some of that stress, experts say. Resolutions tend to focus on a few specific areas — health, money and relationships, Norcross said. “The number one difficulty we encounter is that people make truly unrealistic, grandiose expectations,” Norcross said. Still, it makes sense that people would set lofty goals for themselves as the year turns, said Dr. Rebecca Brendel, president of the American Psychiatric Association. “There’s this temptation when the year switches from 2022 to 2023, then it’s a fresh start and everything in the past is all history,” Brendel… read on > read on >

FRIDAY, Dec. 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) – Move your body every day to guard against type 2 diabetes. That’s the upshot of a new study that analyzed Fitbit data and type 2 diabetes rates from participants in a nationwide research program, reporting that women who logged more steps each day had a lower risk of diabetes. “We investigated the relationship between physical activity and type 2 diabetes with an innovative approach using data from wearable devices linked to electronic health records in a real-world population,” said lead author Dr. Andrew Perry, of the Vanderbilt Translational and Clinical Cardiovascular Research Center in Nashville, Tenn. “We found that people who spent more time in any type of physical activity had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Our data shows the importance of moving your body every day to lower your risk of diabetes.” The data came from more than 5,600 people, 75% of them women, who were part of the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us research program between 2010 and 2021. All of Us aims to advance individualized health care by enrolling and collecting data on more than 1 million people over many years. Over four years, researchers found 97 new cases of diabetes among the 5,600 people in this new study. People with an average daily step count of 10,700 — a… read on > read on >

Black children and teens drown in swimming pools at rates seven times higher than white children, but a new survey suggests that special swimming programs could make a difference and help save lives. The survey, from the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, found that only 25% of Hispanic parents and 28% of Black parents were comfortable with their own swimming skills. That’s compared to 56% of white parents. About 33% of Black parents and fewer than 40% of Hispanic parents felt their children were competent swimmers, compared to nearly 60% of white parents. The problem may span generations: More than 26% of Black parents said they had never learned to swim and the same was true for more than 32% of Hispanic parents. On the other hand, fewer than 4% of white parents said they’d never learned to swim. Meanwhile, about 46% of Black children and 47% of Latino children had swimming lessons, compared to 72% of white children. “Our results underscore that racial and ethnic gaps in swimming competence run in families, and that children are less likely to swim when their parents can’t swim,” said senior study author Dr. Michelle Macy, an emergency medicine physician at Lurie Children’s. “To improve swimming abilities in Black and [Hispanic] communities, we need to address swim comfort and skills for both parents and… read on > read on >

Exercise and mindfulness are known for their health benefits, but a new study found that didn’t extend to boosting memory or thinking skills in healthy seniors. That doesn’t mean these activities wouldn’t be beneficial for memory if practiced for a longer period of time or in adults with impairments, the researchers noted, just that there were not apparent benefits during the study. “We know beyond any doubt that exercise is good for older adults, that it can lower risk for cardiac [heart] problems, strengthen bones, improve mood and have other beneficial effects — and there has been some thought that it also might improve cognitive [thinking] function,” said study first author Dr. Eric Lenze. He is head of the department of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “Likewise, mindfulness training is beneficial because it reduces stress, and stress can be bad for your brain. Therefore, we hypothesized that if older adults exercised regularly, practiced mindfulness or did both, there might be cognitive benefits — but that’s not what we found,” Lenze said in a university news release. The researchers studied this in 585 adults aged 65 to 84 for up to 18 months. None had been diagnosed with dementia, though all worried about minor memory issues. “Minor memory problems often are considered a normal part of aging, but it’s also normal… read on > read on >

It’s tempting to follow the latest trend when it comes to health care, but for patients who live with heart failure, some alternative treatments could have serious consequences. To address the issue, the American Heart Association (AHA) has published a new scientific statement covering a wide range of alternative therapies and their impact on heart failure. It also offers guidance for health care professionals and recommendations for patients. “Patients should talk to their health care team first,” said Dr. Sheryl Chow, who was part of the AHA’s writing group for the statement. The AHA paper offers guidance on supplements such as CoQ10, vitamin D, ginkgo, devil’s claw, fish oil, thiamine, hawthorn, vitamin E, blue cohosh, lily of the valley and aloe vera, while offering additional advice on alcohol, caffeine and grapefruit juice. “Because these agents are largely unregulated by the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration], manufacturers do not need to demonstrate efficacy or safety,” explained Chow, an associate professor of pharmacy practice and administration at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif. “It is important that both health care professionals and consumers are educated about potential efficacy and risk of harm, so that shared and informed decision-making can occur.” The committee also reviewed yoga and tai chi, commonly suggested for relaxation. About 6 million Americans aged 20 and up have heart failure, where their… read on > read on >

Skiiers and snowboarders, take note: You’re less likely to get hurt if you ease back into the winter sports season. “We see a lot of patients in the After-Hours Clinic (of the department of orthopaedic surgery) on their way back from skiing and snowboarding,” said Dr. Sabrina Sawlani, a sports medicine physician at UCLA Health, in Los Angeles. Sawlani, whose UCLA sports medicine fellowship included training at the urgent care ski clinic at Northstar Resort in Lake Tahoe, offered some tips for those who want to hit the slopes without getting hurt. Before downhill skiing, she recommended six weeks of cardiovascular conditioning through running, biking, stair-climbing or using an elliptical machine. Target muscles involved in skiing, such as your core, hamstrings, quadriceps and glutes. “Those are the areas I’d really try to focus on — really stretching out those areas, and your low back and shoulders,” she said in a UCLA Health news release. “There’s no perfect routine, but really incorporating strength, endurance, stability and your overall fitness and flexibility to keep your body safe from injury is important.” Have your equipment checked by a professional if you haven’t used it in a couple of years, she urged. “Retest that release mechanism with a certified shop every year,” said Sawlani, who is a skier and snowboarder. “You want to test that self-release each day while… read on > read on >

Former elite football players may age faster than their more average peers, a new study suggests. NFL players, especially former linemen, had fewer disease-free years and earlier high blood pressure and diabetes diagnoses. Two age-related diseases, arthritis and dementia, were also more commonly found in former football players than in other men of the same age. This research was part of the ongoing Football Players Health Study at Harvard University. “We wanted to know: Are professional football players being robbed of their middle age? Our findings suggest that football prematurely weathers them and puts them on an alternate aging trajectory, increasing the prevalence of a variety of diseases of old age,” said senior investigator Rachel Grashow, director of epidemiological research initiatives for the Football Players Health Study. “We need to look not just at the length of life but the quality of life,” she said in a university news release. “Professional football players might live as long as men in the general population, but those years could be filled with disability and infirmity.” For this research, nearly 3,000 former NFL players completed a survey for investigators at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School. “Our analysis raises important biological and physiological questions about underlying causes but, just as importantly, the results should serve as an alarm bell telling clinicians… read on > read on >

One might expect identical twins to have the same health outcomes. But it’s not just genetics that makes a notable difference in their weight and in how their genes behave, according to a new study. Exercise can alter genetic markers of metabolic disease — any of the diseases or disorders that disrupt normal metabolism. The study could help explain exercise’s key role in health. “The findings provide a molecular mechanism for the link between physical activity and metabolic disease,” explained study co-author Michael Skinner, a biologist at Washington State University, in Pullman. Scientists have previously found that a majority of identical twins develop different diseases as they get older, even though they have the same genes. Epigenetics — the study of how your behaviors and environment affect the day-to-day function of genes — may explain that, Skinner said. “Physical exercise is known to reduce the susceptibility to obesity, but now it looks like exercise through epigenetics is affecting a lot of cell types, many of them involved in metabolic disease,” he noted in a university news release. For this study, the researchers swabbed the cheeks of 70 pairs of identical twins, who also participated in an exercise study through the Washington State Twin Registry. The team, led by registry director Glen Duncan, collected data on the twins at several different points between 2012 and 2019.… read on >

Adding a little yoga to an exercise routine can be the fix someone needs to drop high blood pressure, a small study suggests. “As observed in several studies, we recommend that patients try to find exercise and stress relief for the management of hypertension [high blood pressure] and cardiovascular disease in whatever form they find most appealing,” said Dr. Paul Poirier, of the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute — Laval University in Quebec, Canada. “Our study shows that structured yoga practices can be a healthier addition to aerobic exercise than simply muscle stretching,” he said. The findings were published Dec. 8 in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology. “While there is some evidence that yoga interventions and exercise have equal and/or superior cardiovascular outcomes, there is considerable variability in yoga types, components, frequency, session length, duration and intensity. We sought to apply a rigorous scientific approach to identify cardiovascular risk factors for which yoga is beneficial for at-risk patients and ways it could be applied in a health care setting, such as a primary prevention program,” Poirier said in a journal news release. Yoga is, of course, a spiritual and exercise practice for millions of people worldwide. It is widely accepted as a form of exercise. The researchers recruited 60 people for this study. Each had been diagnosed with high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome, which… read on > read on >