Fatty liver disease may increase heart failure risk

An abnormal buildup of fat in the liver not caused by alcohol may greatly increase the risk of heart failure, according to new research. Nearly 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. has a condition known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD. Scientists already knew NAFLD can lead to permanent liver damage and increase the risk for atherosclerosis, when plaque builds up in the arteries. But there has been less research on NAFLD's relationship with heart failure, a term used when the heart isn't pumping as well as it should be. About 6 million U.S. adults have heart failure, which can't be cured but can be treated with lifestyle changes, medications and surgical procedures. Researchers looked at national health survey data from 2005-2018 and found more than 3.8 million adults with NAFLD, including about 400,000 who also had heart failure. People with NAFLD who were older, male or who had diabetes or coronary heart disease were at particularly higher risk for heart failure. But even after adjusting for age, race and gender, the researchers found adults with NAFLD were 3.5 times more likely to have heart failure than those without NAFLD. Doctors need to keep a close eye on cardiac function as well as liver biomarkers and make sure patients with heart failure are not developing fatty liver disease and vice versa, the researcher said. He said obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol often play a major role in NAFLD. He recommended using the AHA's Life's Essential 8 checklist for improving and maintaining cardiovascular health. The list calls for keeping a healthy weight, not smoking, being physically active, eating a healthy diet, getting enough sleep and controlling blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar.

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                                      Anyone Can Get Lung Cancer. Detecting It Early Is Crucial

Less than 6% of eligible Americans have been screened for lung cancer, and in some states, lung cancer screening rates are as low as 1%. In 2021, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force began recommending annual lung cancer screening with low-dose computed tomography (CT) for people aged 50 to 80 who smoked at least one pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years, smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for 10 years, currently smoke, or who have quit in the past 15 years. About 14.2 million Americans meet these guidelines. Medicare and most private insurance plans must pay for the screening test in folks who fall into these high-risk categories. Part of the reason behind low screening rates is that lung cancer screening is the newer kids on the block. People have been doing colonoscopies to find colon cancer, Pap testing for cervical cancer, and mammograms to detect breast cancer for decades, and the decision to support lung cancer screening didn't happen until 2021, the researcher said. The lung cancer screening test is simple and painless, especially compared to some other cancer screening tests that involve prep work like colonoscopies, are invasive like Pap testing, or can be painful such as mammograms, she said. The five-year survival rate for lung cancer is now 25%, up 21% from 2014 to 2018, and close to 26% of people are diagnosed with lung cancer at an early stage when survival rates are much higher. Lung cancer can often be treated surgically if it is diagnosed at an early stage and hasn't spread. It's not just smokers who develop lung cancer, it can happen who has never smoked too! Anyone can get lung cancer.

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                               Damage to Health Mounts With Each New COVID Infection

Every time a person gets infected with COVID-19, their risk of dying or suffering serious long-term health problems increases dramatically, a new study has found. People with repeated COVID-19 infections are twice as likely to die and three times as likely to be hospitalized compared to those only infected once, according to the report published online Nov. 10, 2022 in the journal Nature Medicine. Repeated COVID-19 patients are also three times more likely to develop lung and heart problems, and 60% more likely to develop a brain condition, the researchers found. Without ambiguity, the research showed that getting an infection a second, third or fourth time contributes to additional health risks in the acute phase, meaning the first 30 days after infection, and in the months beyond, meaning the long COVID phase, said the senior researcher. He is a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The researchers also found that the risk rises with each additional infection. This means that even if someone had two COVID-19 infections, it's better to avoid a third, and if someone had three infections, it's best to avoid the fourth, the scientist added. For the study, the investigators analyzed medical records of about 5.8 million patients treated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the nation's largest integrated health care system. The researchers compared nearly 41,000 people who had two or more documented COVID-19 infections with more than 443,000 people who had been infected once and 5.3 million others who were COVID-free between March 2020 and April 2022.Most of the people who had been reinfected had gone through two or three bouts with COVID-19. A small number had four infections, and no one had five or more.
People who have had COVID-19 once should take every possible precaution to protect their health and prevent reinfection, the researcher advised.

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                                             Aerobic Exercise Reinvigorates the Aging Brain

Regular aerobic exercise improves blood flow to the brain, which should help keep seniors sharper as they age, a new trial has revealed. At least a half-hour of power walking or jogging four to five times a week promoted better blood flow in and out of the brain among a small group of older adults, said study co-author. He directs the cerebrovascular laboratory at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine, a collaboration between UT Southwestern and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. The brain requires about 20% of the body's total blood flow to maintain its function as an organ, he said. But as people age, blood starts to flow less freely in and out of the brain, a condition called cerebrovascular impedence. Less blood flow means the brain is receiving lower levels of oxygen and nutrients, the scientist said. It also means that toxins could build up in the brain, since reduced blood flow is less able to carry away waste products generated by the brain's high metabolism. To see whether regular exercise could help people maintain healthy blood flow to their brain, a group of researchers recruited 72 people between the ages of 60 and 80 to take part in a yearlong experiment. Half were randomly assigned to an aerobic exercise group, while the rest were placed in a control group that performed stretching and toning activities. The aerobics group started with three half-hour exercise sessions a week, and gradually increased to four or five sessions that could run as long as 40 minutes. After a year of exercise, researchers performed brain scans and arterial tests to see how well blood was flowing in and out of the participants' brains. The aerobics group showed a significant improvement in brain blood flow by the end of the year, but the stretching and toning group did not. This sort of improvement in blood flow should lead to better brain health, said a neurologist with the Mayo Clinic in Eau Claire, and a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. Current guidelines recommend adults get at least 150 minutes a week (30 minutes a day) of moderate-intensity exercise, the researchers said.
At the same time, people shouldn't feel they have to overdo it, the researcher added.

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                                  Mindfulness Program Equals Antidepressants in Easing Anxiety Disorders

A new study harnesses the power of mindfulness to help overanxious people calm themselves -- and the benefit may equal the use of an antidepressant, according to researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Published Nov. 9, 2022 in JAMA Psychiatry, the study recruited 276 people with anxiety disorder who were seeking treatment at hospitals in Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C. All were offered either the SSRI antidepressant escitalopram or eight weeks of Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). The mindfulness classes were given weekly and lasted 2.5 hours. People using MBSR were also sent on a weekend mindfulness retreat at about week 5 or 6 of the program. They were also asked to do daily 45-minute practices at home. Participants' anxiety levels were assessed prior to enrollment in the study and then again at completion (eight weeks later). They got follow-up assessments 12 and 24 weeks later, as well. Professionals who conducted the assessments were not told whether the person had undergone the MBSR program or had simply taken the antidepressant. Participants' anxiety was graded on a standard 7-point scale, with 7 representing severe anxiety levels. The people enrolled in the study had an average anxiety score of 4.5, the research team said. Both methods of anxiety reduction seemed to help. Folks who took the antidepressant saw their anxiety scores drop by an average of 1.46 points, while those taking MBSR got an average 1.35-point reduction, which the researchers say is a statistically equivalent benefit. The point drop equals about a 30% decline in anxiety scores. The researcher noted that a big advantage of mindfulness meditation is that it doesn't require a clinical degree to train someone to become a mindfulness facilitator, and additionally, sessions can be done outside of a medical setting, such as at a school or community center. While antidepressants can be effective in easing excess worry, they can sometimes be tough for patients to access or they may come with side effects ranging from sexual dysfunction, nausea or drowsiness. The effectiveness of virtual delivery of MBSR for anxiety disorders is now being studied by the same group of researchers.

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