- Permanent Daylight Saving Time may hurt our health
- Treatment approved in Europe to prevent RSV in infants could be coming to the US soon
- CDC updates opioid prescribing guidelines
- The truth about how often you should wash your hair
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Permanent Daylight Saving Time may hurt our health |
The end of Daylight Saving Time has come again, meaning our clocks have moved backward an hour. We'll move them forward (again) in the spring, when governments put Daylight Saving Time back in place. But are we putting our trust in an unhealthy, outdated idea? Not according to the US Senate, which in March passed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021; if it becomes law, Daylight Saving Time will be permanent. However, a growing number of sleep experts say the act of moving our clocks forward in the spring is ruining our health. "Your body clock stays with [natural] light, not with the clock on your wall," said Dr. Elizabeth Klerman, a professor of neurology in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "And there's no evidence that your body fully shifts to the new time." Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Evanston, Illinois, also opposes Daylight Saving Time. "Between March and November, your body gets less morning light and more evening light, which can throw off your circadian rhythm," she said. Standard time, which we enter when we move our clocks back in the fall, is much closer to the sun's day and night cycle, Zee said. This cycle has set our circadian rhythm, or body clock, for centuries. That internal timer controls not just when you sleep but when you want to eat, exercise or work, as well as "your blood pressure, your heart rate and your cortisol rhythm," Zee added. When our internal clocks are offset from the solar day-night cycle by even one hour, we develop what sleep experts call social jet lag. Studies have shown that social jet lag increases the risk of metabolic disorders such as diabetes, raises the risk of heart disease and stroke, worsens mood disorders such as depression, affects the digestive and endocrine systems and shortens our sleep duration. It can even reduce life expectancy. |
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Treatment approved in Europe to prevent RSV in infants could be coming to the US soon |
A preventive treatment for lower respiratory tract infections caused by RSV has gotten the go-ahead from the European Commission, according to one of the companies that makes it. A Sanofi spokesperson says it has also submitted its research to the US Food and Drug Administration for approval. The company hopes the treatment will be available in the United States for the 2023-24 RSV season. The monoclonal antibody treatment is given to infants in a single-dose shot at birth or just before the start of the RSV season. And unlike a vaccine, with which the body builds up its immunity over time, a monoclonal antibody works right away. The most common side effects are rash, injection site reactions and fever. If approved in the US, this will be the only single-dose RSV protective option for the general infant population. Sanofi said that broad protection is important because 80% of infants that are hospitalized for RSV have no underlying health conditions. Across the United States, cases of RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, and influenza are increasing. At the same time, Covid-19 cases, which had been dropping, appear to have plateaued over the past three weeks, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. A raft of new variants has been gaining ground against BA.5, the Omicron subvariant that caused a wave of illness over the summer. Dr. Jose Romero, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, stressed that with holiday gatherings just around the corner, vaccination is the best protection against these infections. "We have vaccines for two of the three viruses we talked about: influenza and Covid-19," he said, and he urged Americans to take advantage of them. |
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CDC updates opioid prescribing guidelines |
For the first time since 2016, the CDC has updated its guidelines for clinicians and patients on the use of prescription opioids to treat short-term and long-term pain. Drug overdose deaths have risen dramatically in recent years, although the majority of those deaths are now driven by illicit synthetic opioids, not prescription drugs. The new guidelines include more focus on treating short-term acute and subacute pain, as well as more emphasis on clinicians and patients who are receiving ongoing opioid therapy working together to assess the risks and benefits of long-term opioid use. They also recommend that clinicians consider nonopioid therapies for many common types of acute pain, which is pain lasting less than a month. That guidance is a B recommendation, meaning it might not apply to everyone, and decisions should be made based on the patient's circumstances. "We know that at least one in five people in the country have chronic pain. It's one of the most common reasons why people present to their health care provider. And the goal here is to advance pain function and quality of life for that patient population, while also reducing misuse, diversion, consequences of prescription opioid misuse," said Dr. Christopher Jones, acting director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. |
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The truth about how often you should wash your hair |
A recent report about a cancer-causing chemical being detected in some dry shampoos may have you rethinking your hair care routine. But experts say there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to how often you should wash your hair – or what you can do to maintain it on off days. "Some people just think that they have to wash their hair every day or they're going to get very greasy hair," said Dr. Anthony Rossi, an assistant attending dermatologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and a fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology Association. "If they give themselves a chance, they may see that they don't actually have that greasy scalp or hair. And on the other hand, they may not be able to tolerate going too long or too infrequently because they feel that their scalp becomes very greasy." Rossi generally tells his patients they should wash their hair once or twice a week. But if you've had chemical treatments that can make your hair drier – such as bleach, perms or relaxers – you might want to wash it less than once weekly to avoid breaking or brittle hair or split ends, he said. If your scalp is very oily, you might need to wash it as often as once per day, according to the American Academy of Dermatology Association's website. Your age can play a role, too. Our scalps produce less oil as we get older, according to the association. Hair and scalp care doesn't only happen in the shower. In between washes, you can do some things to maintain its cleanliness and appearance – and protect it from harm. "I do think it's important to have scalp hygiene. Just like beard hygiene, you want to take care of the skin that's underneath," Rossi said. "Tend to it, and comb [your hair]. That loosens up the dead skin cells, the debris. You want to wet it if you can. Most dry shampoos have been considered safe for hair, but don't rely on them often, Rossi said. "If you're super oily, it's good in a pinch. But you want to wash that out. You don't want to build up that on the scalp as well." |
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| So much evidence-based parenting advice is built on behavior-modification principles, but the goal is not to shape behavior; it's to raise humans. Here's how to build strong relationships with kids and improve communication. |
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| Having covered vaping for years, I continue to be concerned about its short- and long-term effects on adolescents. Despite the prevalence of e-cigarette use declining among teens in recent years, a new study highlights why vaping remains a major concern. It showed that those who vape not only start younger; they are using e-cigarettes more intensely. What does that mean? About 10.3% of adolescents who report using only e-cigarettes said they used the products within five minutes of waking. The first five minutes. In 2017, that number was less than 1%. "The changes detected in this survey study may reflect the higher levels of nicotine delivery and addiction liability of modern e-cigarettes that use protonated nicotine to make nicotine easier to inhale," the researchers wrote. The pandemic could have played a part in this increase in intense use, the researchers noted. As mental health concerns rose among adolescents, they may have turned to nicotine for self-medication. Also, being out of school meant potentially less access to school-based prevention treatments. The awareness of exactly how adolescents are using vaping products will be a large part of how we continue to address this problem. For example, the FDA banned flavored cartridge-based e-cigarettes in 2020 (except for tobacco and menthol), but then disposable e-cigarettes started to gain popularity. We have made tremendous progress against use of tobacco over the past few decades – it's one of the main reasons we have seen cancer death rates go down – but this study is a sobering reminder that nicotine remains highly addictive and is finding new ways to hook new generations. |
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| When psychedelics were first studied more than 50 years ago, researchers noticed that they were useful in helping people explore a greater sense of self. After a half-century hiatus, scientists are studying psychedelics as treatment for depression, PTSD, anxiety and other mental health conditions. So what promise do they now hold as therapeutics? |
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