Health and Wellness « Weekly Sauce

Preventive screenings for cancer declined during the pandemic, with lockdowns, social distancing and COVID-19 surges keeping many from needed mammograms and colonoscopies. But breast and colon cancer screening numbers have since rebounded and have even surpassed pre-pandemic screening estimates, a new American Cancer Society study has found. “These findings are mostly encouraging as the pandemic… read on > read on >

GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic can help kidney transplant patients avoid organ failure and live longer, a new study suggests. The drugs help manage patients’ type 2 diabetes and promote weight loss, both of which improve the chances of a successful kidney transplant, researchers added. Kidney transplant patients prescribed GLP-1 drugs were 49% less likely to… read on > read on >

Hot flashes, night sweats and other symptoms of a difficult menopause could be early warning flags for dementia, a new study suggests. Women who exhibit more menopause symptoms are more likely to develop early signs of dementia like decreased mental function and mild behavioral impairment, compared with women who have an easier transition, researchers reported… read on > read on >

Chronic stress can increase young women’s risk of stroke, a new study says. Moderate stress increases risk of stroke by 78% in women but not in men, researchers reported in the journal Neurology. “More research is needed to understand why women who feel stressed, but not men, may have a higher risk of stroke,” said senior… read on > read on >

Odactra is an immunotherapy for treatment of house dust mite-induced allergic rhinitis read on >

A measles outbreak in Texas has grown to 159 cases, and now the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has sent a team to help local health officials respond. The CDC announced the plan on X, explaining that its Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) is working closely with the Texas Department of State Health… read on > read on >

Folks facing surgery on a Friday may want to consider rescheduling if they can based on findings from a new study. People who undergo surgery just before the weekend have a significantly increased risk of death and complications, researchers reported March 4 in JAMA Network Open. This “weekend effect” occurred across 25 common procedures representing… read on > read on >

Over-the-counter drugs like aspirin or ibuprofen might help protect against dementia, a new study suggests. These NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) might help protect the brain by quelling inflammation that contributes to dementia, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. People who took NSAIDs long-term had a 12% lower risk of developing dementia,… read on > read on >

Sight-robbing injuries to the cornea can be repaired using a groundbreaking experimental stem cell treatment, a new study shows. The cornea — the clear outermost layer of the eye — can become irreversibly damaged if injury or disease destroys its ability to regenerate new cells. In this new process, stem cells taken from a person’s… read on > read on >