Many Americans experience a “winter funk” as the days grow shorter and temperatures turn colder, a new American Psychiatric Association poll reports. Two-fifths of Americans (41%) said their mood declines during the winter months, according to the APA’s Healthy Minds Poll. Midwesterners and Northeasterners are most affected, where 52% and 46%, respectively, said they tend… read on > read on >
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How a Move Away From Beef Could Help the Planet
Eating fewer burgers and steaks could pay big dividends for Mother Earth, and human health, by combatting climate change, a new study suggests. Small cutbacks in beef production among wealthy nations could remove 125 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, researchers report — an amount that exceeds the total number of global fossil… read on > read on >
Little More Learning Might Not Save Your Aging Brain
In 1972, Britain bumped up the total school years mandated for its children from 15 to 16 years. That created a “natural experiment”: Would Britons who got that extra year of education fare any better, neurologically, as they aged? Unfortunately, the answer is “no.” “This surprised us,” said study co-author and brain researcher Nicholas Judd,… read on > read on >
Drowsy Driving: Not Taken as Seriously as Drunk Driving, But It Can Kill
Folks are more likely to drive drowsy than drive drunk, even though both raise the risk of a fatal crash, a new survey shows. About 4 in 10 adults say they’ll find alternative transportation when they haven’t gotten enough sleep, according to the poll from the National Sleep Foundation (NSF). By comparison, nearly 7 in… read on > read on >
COVID Vaccine Mistrust Levels Aren’t Budging, Study Finds
More than a third of Americans continue to express mistrust in the science behind COVID vaccines, a new study finds. This level of mistrust has remained relatively consistent, expressed by 36% of people in 2021, 33% in 2022 and 36% in 2023. People who lost a family member or close friend to COVID were significantly… read on > read on >
PCOS Plus Obesity Can Be Hazardous in Pregnancy
Women who are pregnant but who also have the ovarian cyst disorder polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are at higher odds of giving birth to an underweight baby, new Norwegian research shows. The risk rises even higher if the woman with PCOS is also obese, the study found. “In women of normal weight who have PCOS,… read on > read on >
Fish Oil Supplements Might Help Prevent Cancer
The omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in fish oil supplements might help protect people from cancer, a new study claims. Study participants with higher levels of omega-3s had lower rates of colon, stomach, lung and other digestive tract cancers, researchers found. Likewise, high omega-6 levels led to lower rates of 14 different cancers, including brain,… read on > read on >
22 Pesticides Linked to Prostate Cancer Risk
Exposure to any one of 22 pesticides may bring heightened odds of developing prostate cancer, a new analysis suggests. The study was conducted over decades because prostate cancer is known to grow very slowly, noted a team led by Dr. Simon John Christoph Soerensen, of Stanford University in California. The researchers looked at U.S. data… read on > read on >
A Visit to the ER Can Often Precede a Cancer Diagnosis
Canadian researchers have found that about 1 in every 3 people newly diagnosed with cancer experienced at least one emergency department visit sometime during the three months prior to their diagnosis. Many of the visits ended up being caused by symptoms related to the cancer, noted a team led by Dr. Keerat Grewal, an emergency… read on > read on >
Medicaid Covers GLP-1 Meds for Obesity in Just 13 States
Poorer folks’ access to blockbuster weight-loss drugs through Medicaid remains limited, a new KFF analysis has found. Only 13 states currently allow Medicaid to cover treatment of obesity using glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist (GLP-1) medications, researchers discovered. Under the Medicaid system, individual states are allowed to decide whether to cover GLP-1 drugs, which include Wegovy (semaglutide),… read on > read on >