Health and Wellness « Weekly Sauce

Current treatments sometimes fail to help people with “wet” age-related macular degeneration — and researchers now think they know why. Wet AMD is caused by an overgrowth of blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensing tissue at the back of the eye. The vessels leak fluid or bleed, damaging the retina and causing vision loss.… read on > read on >

Banning menthol cigarettes could help convince smokers quit the habit, a new study finds. People who prefer menthol cigarettes would rather buy nicotine gum or other nicotine replacement therapies than switch to traditional tobacco cigarettes, researchers reported recently in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. In addition, menthol cigarette smokers were less likely to use… read on > read on >

Many people turn to mindfulness meditation to help them manage their chronic pain, a practice that’s been used for centuries. However, it’s been an open question whether meditation is simply functioning as a placebo, rather than actually quelling pain. Now, a new study involving brain scans has revealed that’s not the case. Mindfulness meditation engages… read on > read on >

Alzheimer’s disease patients prescribed fistfuls of daily drugs are at greater risk of harm, a new study warns. Patients with Alzheimer’s prescribed five or more daily medications suffer from more symptoms, falls and hospitalizations, and they are at greater risk of death, researchers found. “They also experienced more functional decline, required more assistance with activities… read on > read on >

Menopausal women with frequent hot flashes and night sweats are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, a new study warns. Middle-aged women who regularly suffer those well-known symptoms of menopause are 50% more likely to wind up with type 2 diabetes, researchers reported recently in the journal JAMA Network Open. “There’s a growing body… read on > read on >

Huntington’s disease is a devastating, fatal neurological illness with little means of treatment, but a new study in mice offers a glimmer of hope. Huntington’s occurs when inherited genes cause key proteins to fold and clump together within brain cells. Over time, this severely hampers brain function and patients lose the ability to talk, walk,… read on > read on >

Women who’ve had concussions are more likely to suffer severe mental health problems following childbirth, a new study shows. A history of concussion increased a new mother’s risk of severe mental illness by 25%, after adjusting for other factors, Canadian researchers reported. “We found that individuals with a history of concussion were significantly more likely… read on > read on >

Everyone knows that colonoscopies save lives, but that doesn’t make drinking a lot of liquid laxatives in preparation for the procedure any less daunting. Luckily, one expert has some helpful tips on how to take some of the pain out of the process. The purpose of a colonoscopy is to examine the colon and rectum for… read on > read on >

Yoga can help ease chronic low back pain, even if the classes are conducted online, a new study shows. Guidelines recommend using physical therapy or yoga to treat lower back pain before moving on to painkillers, but it can be tough for some people to make it to a yoga studio. “Attending yoga classes in… read on > read on >

The GLP-1 drug semaglutide can help obese people manage debilitating knee arthritis, a new trial has found. People who received weekly injections of semaglutide — the active agent in the diabetes drug Ozempic and the weight-loss medication Wegovy — had a nearly 14% decrease in their body weight after 68 weeks, compared with 3% of… read on > read on >