Monday, May 31, 2021
Sunday, May 30, 2021
Living near fast food doesn’t increase weight gain
People don’t gain or lose weight because they live near a fast-food restaurant or supermarket, according to a new study.
Additionally, living in a more “walkable”, dense neighborhood likely only has a small impact on weight.
“…when thinking about ways to curb the obesity epidemic, our study suggests there’s likely no simple fix from the built environment, like putting in a playground or supermarket.”
These “built-environment” amenities have been seen in past research as essential contributors to losing weight or tending toward obesity. The idea appears obvious: If you live next to a fast-food restaurant, you’ll eat there more and thus gain weight. Or, if you have a supermarket nearby, you’ll shop there, eat healthier, and thus lose weight. Live in a neighborhood that makes walking and biking easier and you’ll get out, exercise more, and burn more calories.
The new study based on anonymized medical records from more than 100,000 Kaiser Permanente Washington patients did not find that living near supermarkets or fast-food restaurants had any impact on weight. However, urban density, such as the number of houses in a given neighborhood, which is closely linked to neighborhood “walkability” appears to be the strongest element of the built environment linked to change in body weight over time.
“There’s a lot of prior work that has suggested that living close to a supermarket might lead to lower weight gain or more weight loss, while living close to lots of fast-food restaurants might lead to weight gain,” says James Buszkiewicz, lead author of the study and a research scientist in the University of Washington School of Public Health.
“Our analyses of the food environment and density together suggests that the more people there are in an area—higher density—the more supermarkets and fast-food restaurants are located there. And we found that density matters to weight gain, but not proximity to fast food or supermarkets. So, that seems to suggest that those other studies were likely observing a false signal.”
The new study, which appears in the International Journal of Obesity, found that people living in neighborhoods with higher residential and population density weigh less and have less obesity than people living in less-populated areas. And that didn’t change over a five-year period of study.
“On the whole, when thinking about ways to curb the obesity epidemic, our study suggests there’s likely no simple fix from the built environment, like putting in a playground or supermarket,” says Buszkiewicz, who did his research for the study while a graduate student in the epidemiology department.
Rather than “something magical about the built environment itself” influencing the weight of those individuals, Buszkiewicz says, community-level differences in obesity are more likely driven by systematic factors other than the built environment—such as income inequality, which is often the determining factor of where people can afford to live and whether they can afford to move.
“Whether you can afford to eat a healthy diet or to have the time to exercise, those factors probably outweigh the things we’re seeing in terms of the built environment effect,” he says.
The researchers used the Kaiser Permanente Washington records to gather body weight measurements several times over a five-year period. They also used geocodable addresses to establish neighborhood details, including property values to help establish socioeconomic status, residential unit density, population density, road intersection density, and counts of supermarkets and fast-food restaurants accessible within a short walk or drive.
“This study really leverages the power of big data,” says coauthor David Arterburn, senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. “Our use of anonymized health care records allows us to answer important questions about environmental contributions to obesity that would have been impossible in the past.”
This study is part of a 12-year, joint UW and Kaiser Permanente Washington research project called Moving to Health. The goal of the study, according to the project website, is to provide population-based, comprehensive, rigorous evidence for policymakers, developers, and consumers regarding the features of the built environment that are most strongly associated with risk of obesity and diabetes.
“Our next goal is to better understand what happens when people move their primary residence from one neighborhood to another,” Arterburn says. “When our neighborhood characteristics change rapidly—such as moving to a much more walkable residential area—does that have an important effect on our body weight?”
Additional coauthors are from Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and the University of Washington. Support for the research came from the National Institutes of Health.
Source: University of Washington
The post Living near fast food doesn’t increase weight gain appeared first on Futurity.
* This article was originally published here
Saturday, May 29, 2021
Many Older Americans Aren't Telling Their Doctors They Use Pot
Title: Many Older Americans Aren't Telling Their Doctors They Use Pot
Category: Health News
Created: 5/3/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/4/2021 12:00:00 AM
* This article was originally published here
Category: Health News
Created: 5/3/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/4/2021 12:00:00 AM
* This article was originally published here
Friday, May 28, 2021
16 Candles? Molly Ringwald Says You’re Due for Your 2nd Meningitis Shot
- Meningococcal meningitis is a rare but deadly contagious disease that can develop quickly and cause death within a day.
- Teenagers and young adults are at increased risk of developing it.
- Molly Ringwald is using her popularity as a teen idol to spread awareness about protecting teenagers with the meningococcal vaccine.
Molly Ringwald will forever stay 16 to many movie lovers. Her roles in iconic films like “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club” brought a relatable side of teenage life to the big screen.
Now, as a mom to a teenager and two pre-teens, Ringwald is using her stardom to bring awareness to meningococcal meningitis, a rare but serious infection of the thin lining that surrounds the brain and spinal cord.
She partnered with The 16 Vaccine campaign, launched by the National Meningitis Association and Sanofi, to talk about how vaccination is the best defense against meningococcal meningitis, and the importance of receiving the second dose of the MenACWY vaccine at age 16.
“I felt like it was a natural fit… one of the great things about being so well known for these movies is that I really do have a platform to talk about meningococcal meningitis, which most people don’t even think about. Particularly after this year everyone has been through, it’s not really on anyone’s radar,” Ringwald told Healthline.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that childhood vaccination rates are down across the United States due to the pandemic.
“Vaccines are a vital part of child healthcare because they prevent some of the most serious infections. A child who misses a vaccine remains vulnerable and at risk indefinitely, even into adulthood,” Dr. Robert Amler, dean of New York Medical College School of Health Sciences and Practice and a former CDC chief medical officer, told Healthline. “If your child’s regular schedule has lapsed, don’t panic, but catch up as soon as you can.”
Why 16?
The CDC recommends routine MenACWY vaccination for adolescents starting at ages 11 to 12 with a second dose at age 16.
While anyone at any age can get meningococcal meningitis, teenagers and young adults are at increased risk.
The bacteria that cause it can be transmitted via saliva, like through kissing, coughing, sharing beverages, or even cosmetics. People living in crowded settings like college dorms or military barracks are also at increased risk.
“We know teens are going to parties, they’re sharing water bottles, they’re kissing, and also probably having less sleep than they should, which brings their immune system down,” Leslie Maier, president of the National Meningitis Association, told Healthline.
Although rare, meningococcal meningitis can develop quickly and cause death within a day. Even with treatment, 10 to 15 percent of people who contract the infection die from it, according to the National Meningitis Association. Of survivors, around 19 percent live with permanent disabilities, such as brain damage, hearing loss, loss of kidney function, or limb amputations.
Maier learned about the consequences of meningococcal meningitis after losing her healthy 17-year-old son, Chris, to it in 2005.
Two weeks before he died, Chris scored the winning goal to help his high school soccer team win the Arizona state championship.
“We were all on top of the world. A lot of the boys were seniors like Chris, so I was so happy for them. Little did we know that 2 weeks later he was going to die,” Maier said.
Leading up to that game, Chris traveled back and forth between his hometown, Tucson, to Phoenix for the state tournament.
“There were night games and he’d get home about 12:00 to 12:30 and get up for school at 7:00 the next day, so part of what led to him being more susceptible to meningococcal meningitis was that he was getting run down from all the trips to Phoenix,” Maier said.
About 10 days after the championship game, Chris went snowboarding in Colorado with friends. When he came home, he went to school, where he developed a headache.
Still, after school, he decided to go to soccer practice with the University of Arizona, where he was going to play on the club team in the fall. However, the coach noticed how ill he seemed and sent him home.
“He did have a fever and a headache, and he took a bath because he couldn’t get warm. I did ask if he wanted to go to the urgent care and he said no, he just wanted to go to bed, and I thought that was normal… because I thought he had the flu,” Maier said.
Chris woke up uncomfortable throughout the night. The next day he agreed to go to the doctor.
“[As] he was preparing to go to the doctor, his dad found him lying on his bed and he asked, ‘Why aren’t you ready?’ Chris said, ‘Dad, I can’t feel my feet,’ and then he became unconscious,” Maier said.
At the hospital, doctors determined Chris had meningococcal meningitis.
“We had no idea what that was but we could see that Chris was crashing, and when they tried to resuscitate him his fingers and ears were becoming purple,” Maier said. “We had to tell all the people who were working on him that it was all right to let our son go because we knew he was not going to survive.”
Before that day, she did not know about meningococcal meningitis.
“I never knew there was a disease that could take a healthy child in less than 24 hours,” Maier said.
At the time Chris got sick, the meningitis vaccine had just been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but it was only recommended for kids in college.
“I don’t want any family to go through what our family went through. This is a rare disease, but it can be deadly. People don’t have to lose their children or have their children live with debilitating disabilities. Chris died when he was 17, and had he gotten that second dose at 16, I really believe he would be alive now and living a good life,” Maier said.
What can parents do?
Although the CDC recommends the second dose of MenACWY at age 16, only about half of eligible teens have received it.
“You really think a lot about vaccinations and immunizations when you have babies… I feel like I knew everything when I was a young mother, I was on top of it,” Ringwald said.
“When you’re a parent of a teenager, you’re thinking ‘Oh my God, they’re going to be driving soon’ or ‘Which college are we looking at?’ and we’re not thinking about the fact that they really need to get this crucial second shot of the MenACWY vaccine,” she said.
Since teaming up with Maier to bring awareness, Ringwald said the need to keep her children up to date on vaccinations has never been clearer.
“[Leslie and I have] been doing interviews together and I can’t help but tear up every single time she talks about [Chris], because as a parent, it’s your worst nightmare. For me, knowing there is this way that I can protect my kids — there is so much we can’t control, but vaccinating our kids against these diseases is something we can do,” Ringwald said.
On The 16 Vaccine campaign website, you can sign up to schedule an email reminder for when your children are due for their second dose of MenACWY.
Amler recommends asking your doctor to check your child’s vaccination record.
“When in doubt, a repeat dose is typically harmless and way better than remaining vulnerable without the vaccine. There are very few reasons to defer vaccinating an otherwise healthy child. In most cases, even a child with a cold, headache, or upset stomach without fever can still be vaccinated the same day,” he said.
In addition to receiving the two doses of MenACWY, Amler notes that teens and young adults between ages 16 and 23 can get the meningitis B vaccine for extra protection against different types of meningococcal disease.
“[The] two different meningitis vaccines are available and effective against many, but not all, types of meningitis,” he warned.
Whether it’s looking at information provided by the National Meningitis Association, The 16 Vaccine campaign, or your doctor, Ringwald said finding reputable information is the best way to keep your children safe.
“I think it’s really important that parents are educated about this because it’s still our responsibility — before our kids grow up and go to college or move on with their lives — that they are protected so they can have a nice, long, healthy life,” she said.
* This article was originally published here
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Decades after ban, lead in soil still puts kids at risk
Decades after federal bans ended widespread use of lead in paint and gasoline, some urban soils still contain levels that exceed federal safety guidelines for children, a new study finds.
Researchers analyzed and mapped soil lead concentrations along 25 miles of streets in Durham, North Carolina, a city of about 270,000 people. They found that while soil lead levels have generally decreased since the 1970s, they have decreased much less near residential foundations than along streets.
The researchers collected soil samples near foundations of houses built before 1978. Samples within a meter of the older homes averaged 649 milligrams (mg) of lead per kilogram (kg) of soil, more than three times the average level detected near streets, which was 150 mg/kg.
EPA guidelines say exposure to soil lead concentrations above 400 mg/kg is associated with potential long-term health risks to children, including possible damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems, and hearing and speech problems.
“Urban soil processes are driving lead concentrations down over time, but it’s alarming that lead levels in some locations—typically older, poorer neighborhoods—still far exceed safe levels decades after leaded gasoline and lead paint were phased out,” says lead author Anna Wade, a postdoctoral researcher at the US Environmental Protection Agency and a 2020 PhD graduate of Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment.
The researchers shared their findings with Durham public health groups and plan to conduct similar mapping studies in five or six other cities nationwide.
Determining where contamination risks persist, and why contamination is decreasing at different rates in different locations, is essential for mitigating those risks, Wade says. However, many cities lack the resources to conduct the regular city-wide sampling needed to obtain that data.
“Our study had to go all the way back to the 1970s to find comparable data for portions of the 35-square-kilometer area [about 13.5 square miles] we sampled,” Wade says.
“There’s been a lot of interest in mitigating lead exposure in cities, but most is focused on reducing risks within the home. Our study reminds us about the outdoor environment where exposure risks also exist,” says Daniel D. Richter, professor of soils at Duke.
Curbside soil lead levels have dropped over time as the result of human and natural causes, the study suggests. Those causes include accelerated erosion and stormwater runoff, which has carried away some contaminated surface soils, depositing them in nearby floodplains.
Digging for road construction and repair also contributed to the drop by mixing and burying some contaminated soil deeper underground.
Foundation soils are less affected by these processes. Also, soils near many older homes continue to receive chips and dust from old leaded paint. Soil lead levels are thus decreasing more slowly near older homes, and those soils continue to pose a higher risk.
Traffic density also factors into the risk equation.
In larger cities that see more traffic, such as New York or Chicago, soil lead levels along heavily travelled streets have historically been high. In larger cities, those levels may still be unacceptably high, Wade says. Implementing regular, widespread soil testing is the only way to know for certain.
“Large-scale sampling reveals patterns of soil lead distribution that you miss through spot checking,” Richter says. “That can make the problem more predictable and remediable and encourage cities to act on this issue rather than just letting it be.”
The study appears in Environmental Science & Technology. Additional coauthors are from Duke and Indiana University.
Source: Duke University
The post Decades after ban, lead in soil still puts kids at risk appeared first on Futurity.
* This article was originally published here
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Caffeine isn’t a great way to fight sleep deprivation
Relying on caffeine to get you through the day isn’t always the answer, according to a new study.
The researchers assessed how effective caffeine was in counteracting the negative effects of sleep deprivation on cognition. As it turns out, caffeine can only get you so far.
The study in the most recent edition of Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition assessed the impact of caffeine after a night of sleep deprivation.
More than 275 participants were asked to complete a simple attention task as well as a more challenging “placekeeping” task that required completion of tasks in a specific order without skipping or repeating steps.
The study is the first to investigate the effect of caffeine on placekeeping after a period of sleep deprivation.
“We found that sleep deprivation impaired performance on both types of tasks and that having caffeine helped people successfully achieve the easier task. However, it had little effect on performance on the placekeeping task for most participants,” says Kimberly Fenn, associate professor of psychology from Michigan State University’s Sleep and Learning Lab.
“Caffeine may improve the ability to stay awake and attend to a task, but it doesn’t do much to prevent the sort of procedural errors that can cause things like medical mistakes and car accidents,” she adds.
Insufficient sleep is pervasive in the United States, a problem that has intensified during the pandemic, Fenn says. Consistently lacking adequate sleep not only affects cognition and alters mood, but can eventually take a toll on immunity.
“Caffeine increases energy, reduces sleepiness, and can even improve mood, but it absolutely does not replace a full night of sleep, Fenn says.
“Although people may feel as if they can combat sleep deprivation with caffeine, their performance on higher-level tasks will likely still be impaired. This is one of the reasons why sleep deprivation can be so dangerous.”
Fenn says that the study has the potential to inform both theory and practice.
“If we had found that caffeine significantly reduced procedural errors under conditions of sleep deprivation, this would have broad implications for individuals who must perform high stakes procedures with insufficient sleep, like surgeons, pilots, and police officers,” Fenn says. “Instead, our findings underscore the importance of prioritizing sleep.”
Source: Michigan State University
The post Caffeine isn’t a great way to fight sleep deprivation appeared first on Futurity.
* This article was originally published here
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
AHA News: How Social Isolation Can Harm Health as You Age – and How to Prevent It
Title: AHA News: How Social Isolation Can Harm Health as You Age – and How to Prevent It
Category: Health News
Created: 5/7/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/10/2021 12:00:00 AM
* This article was originally published here
Category: Health News
Created: 5/7/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/10/2021 12:00:00 AM
* This article was originally published here
Monday, May 24, 2021
U.S. Seniors Are Getting Fewer Abdominal Surgeries
Title: U.S. Seniors Are Getting Fewer Abdominal Surgeries
Category: Health News
Created: 5/12/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/12/2021 12:00:00 AM
* This article was originally published here
Category: Health News
Created: 5/12/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/12/2021 12:00:00 AM
* This article was originally published here
Sunday, May 23, 2021
Vast under-treatment of diabetes seen in global study
Nearly half a billion people on the planet have diabetes, but most of them aren't getting the kind of care that could make their lives healthier, longer and more productive, according to a new global study of data from people with the condition.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Saturday, May 22, 2021
Compound may prevent arrhythmia side effect
New research identifies a compound that may prevent a dangerous and sometimes deadly arrhythmia called Torsades de Pointes.
Many drugs that are effective against cancer, infections, and other diseases, can induce a lengthening of the heart’s electrical event, or action potential, as an adverse side effect. This can render these drugs unsafe or too risky for patients.
According to the American Heart Association, heart arrhythmias contribute to about 200,000 to 300,000 sudden deaths a year, more than annual deaths from stroke, lung cancer, or breast cancer. The drugs in question, as well as several that have been pulled from the market, cause a prolongation of the QT interval of the ECG (acquired Long Q-T Syndrome).
Through both computational and experimental validation in animal cells, the research team identified a compound named C28. They found that C28 not only prevents or reverses Q-T prolongation, but also does not cause any change on the normal action potential when used alone.
“These findings could prove ground-breaking in the effort to make some cancer drugs safer and bring other drugs back into the marketplace,” says Ira S. Cohen, professor in the department of physiology and biophysics at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, and director of the Institute for Molecular Cardiology.
“With many of these medications, there is a concentration of the drug that is acceptable, but at higher doses, it become dangerous. If C28 can eliminate the danger of QT prolongation, then these drugs can be used at higher concentrations, and in many cases, they can become more therapeutic.”
The team selected a specific target, IKs, for this latest work because it is one of the two potassium channels that are activated during the action potential: IKr (rapid) and IKs (slow).
They wanted to determine if the prolongation of the QT interval could be prevented by compensating for the change in current that induces the Long QT Syndrome by enhancing IKs. They identified a site on the voltage-sensing domain of the IKs potassium ion channel that small molecules could access.
Xiaoqin Zou, professor of physics, biochemistry, and a member of the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center and Institute for Data Science and Informatics at the University of Missouri-Columbia and colleagues used the atomic structure of the KCNQ1 unit of the IKs channel protein to computationally screen a library of a quarter of a million small compounds that targeted this voltage-sensing domain of the KCNQ1 protein unit.
To do this, they developed software called MDock to test the interaction of small compounds with a specific protein in silico, or computationally. One by one, Zou and her lab docked the potential compounds with the protein KCNQ1 and compared the binding energy of each one. They selected about 50 candidates with very negative, or tight, binding energies. Coauthor Jianmin Cui, head of the research team and professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering in Washington University in St. Louis, and his lab then identified C28 using experiments out of the 50 candidates identified in silico by Zou’s lab.
Cohen and colleagues tested the C28 compound in ventricular myocytes from a small mammal model that expresses the same IKs channel as humans. They found that C28 could prevent or reverse the drug-induced prolongation of the electrical signals across the cardiac cell membrane and minimally affected the normal action potentials at the same dosage. They also determined that there were no significant effects on atrial muscle cells, an important control for the drug’s potential use.
While the researchers emphasize that C28 needs additional verification and testing, there is tremendous potential for this compound or others like it to help change cancer therapeutics as well as turn second line drugs into first-line drugs and return others previously taken off the market because of Q-T prolongation back onto the market.
The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Support for the research came from the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.
Source: Stony Brook University
The post Compound may prevent arrhythmia side effect appeared first on Futurity.
* This article was originally published here
Friday, May 21, 2021
Thursday, May 20, 2021
Medicare HMO vs. PPO
Title: Medicare HMO vs. PPO
Category: Health and Living
Created: 5/13/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/13/2021 12:00:00 AM
* This article was originally published here
Category: Health and Living
Created: 5/13/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/13/2021 12:00:00 AM
* This article was originally published here
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Secondhand tobacco exposure in utero linked to decreased lung function in children
Environmental tobacco smoke exposure in utero and during early childhood—especially secondhand smoke—is associated with decreased childhood lung function, according to research presented at the ATS 2021 International Conference.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Study shows Pinterest users pin healthy recipes, are more likely to make unhealthy ones
When it comes sharing recipes on social media, what users post, and what they cook may be two entirely different things. That's the conclusion of a recent study from George Mason University's College of Health and Human Services, published in April in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), a leading journal for digital medicine and health research. The study led by Hong Xue, Ph.D. analyzed hundreds of Pinterest Users and Pinterest Influencers, and found users liked and pinned posts that were healthy, featuring more poultry, fish and vegetables, but users more heavily engaged off-line with recipes that were high in fat, sugar, and total calories—indicating that users were more like to actually cook the less healthy recipes.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Monday, May 17, 2021
Sunday, May 16, 2021
Uterine fluid model could help prevent pregnancy complications
Scientists have developed a new model that uses precision medicine to improve pregnancy outcomes.
The quest to create safer, more successful pregnancies is one of the top goals of modern science. While pregnancy is better understood today than ever before, with improvements in technology helping to lower the risk of negative outcomes, researchers still don’t know much about a vital part of the pregnancy process: uterine fluid.
Secreted by glands in the uterus during pregnancy, uterine fluid is believed to play an important role in supporting a developing embryo by sending information from the uterus to the embryo, along with a host of other speculated functions.
But studying this fluid in women presents myriad dilemmas, given that studies might require invasive monitoring or experimentation during an active pregnancy.
Now, in a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers have found a way to study uterine fluid in the lab and avoid invasive procedures during pregnancy, while at the same time developing a potential model for using precision medicine to improve pregnancy outcomes.
“Using stem cell-derived organoids, we were able to isolate an analog to uterine fluid in the lab,” says Constantine Simintiras, a postdoctoral research fellow in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Division of Animal Sciences at the University of Missouri.
“For such an understudied element of human pregnancy, being able to grow and study this fluid in the lab makes it much easier to advance our understanding of this important function of the uterus.”
Simintiras and his colleagues used “organoids”—simplified versions of the tissue that forms the lining of the uterus, grown from stem cells—as the source for a fluid that closely resembles uterine fluid. Inside the body, uterine glands secrete this fluid to support sperm migration and the early development of embryos.
Using organoids as a model not only sidesteps potential issues with extracting samples during pregnancy, but it also paves the way for a precision medicine approach to maintaining a healthy pregnancy. The hope is that by obtaining stem cells from expectant mothers, even before they conceive, researchers could study the composition of their uterine fluid to determine if any issues are present. For example, a deficit in NAD+—a “coenzyme” considered crucial for metabolism—has been linked to birth defects and miscarriage.
“We know the composition of uterine fluid is extremely important, so we need to understand how that composition is regulated,” Simintiras says. “In women it is likely influenced by hormones, but are there other factors at play? This model for lab study gives us a means to tackle such questions, and in the future, this could help us detect and correct problems with uterine fluid before they lead to complications.”
Additional coauthors are from the University of Missouri.
Source: University of Missouri
The post Uterine fluid model could help prevent pregnancy complications appeared first on Futurity.
* This article was originally published here
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Monday, May 10, 2021
Sunday, May 9, 2021
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