My Choices News Update

What advice is being given by general practitioners to people living with obesity? “GPs must work towards making every communication with the patient count and regularly talk to the same patient. Patients indicate they would like to speak to a GP about their weight loss, with the family practice being their preferred setting. Research indicates that even brief talks with patients are associated with weight loss.” Music therapy reduces pain and anxiety for patients with cancer and sickle cell disease “A new study from University Hospitals (UH) Connor Whole Health has found that patients with cancer and patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) treated at an academic cancer center reported clinically significant reductions in pain and anxiety in response to music therapy. Furthermore, patients with SCD who received music therapy reported significantly higher pain and anxiety at baseline than patients with hematologic and/or oncologic conditions excluding SCD. The findings from this study were recently published in the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies.” Popular ‘heart-healthy’ dietary supplements don’t lower cholesterol, new Cleveland Clinic study suggests “CLEVELAND, Ohio — If you’re taking fish oil or garlic pills to lower cholesterol, a new Cleveland Clinic study suggests it’s a waste of money. Six commonly used dietary supplements marketed for improving heart health did not lower “bad cholesterol” when compared to a low-dose cholesterol-lowering medication or placebo, in the Clinic study.” Increasingly under fire as potential health hazards, gas stoves could be banned in 2023, top federal official says: ‘It’s a real possibility.’ “Citing studies that link gas stoves to health problems, including asthma in children, a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission official said his agency will begin a formal review process that could lead to new regulations.” Black and Hispanic Patients More Likely to Develop Chronic Lower Back Pain or High Impact Lower Back Pain than White Patients “BOSTON – New research from Boston Medical Center discovered that Black and Hispanic patients with acute low back pain were more likely to develop high-impact chronic pain when compared to White patients. Published in Pain Med, researchers suggest experiences of discrimination, unmet social needs, and elevated levels of stress may explain the observed racial disparity in long-term outcomes for acute low back pain.” Exercise science team conducts study on exercise and inflammation “When you’re ill, your body springs into action. The natural healing process involves your immune system rapidly defending itself against bacteria, which causes areas to be red and swollen. That’s inflammation. Properly regulated inflammation is critical for normal, healthy immune responses and is typically a beneficial bodily process.” Congressional inaction on child nutrition ignores the needs of students, teachers, schools “WASHINGTON, D.C., December 20, 2022 — Congressional leaders today announced a year-end omnibus spending package that fails to meaningfully reauthorize critical federal child nutrition programs. Nancy Brown, chief executive of the American Heart Association, a global force for healthier lives for all, issued the following statement:“We are deeply disheartened by Congress’ failure to reauthorize federal child nutrition programs and expand access to healthy school meals for all in the omnibus bill. Although Congress did include critical provisions to expand access to summer meals in the bill, lawmakers failed to adequately address the nutrition cliff children nationwide have faced since the expiration earlier this year of pandemic-response child nutrition waivers. Congress ignored vital child nutrition provisions such as expanding access to free school meals, protecting and strengthening nutrition standards to prevent further erosion by special interests and improving access to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. Through its inaction, Congress did not do its job to prioritize the needs of children, parents, teachers and schools.” Artificial intelligence could help work out the best diet for every individual “CNN- Is broccoli or beetroot the best option for your personal health? Which foods are likely to trigger the biggest glucose spikes or cholesterol surges in your blood? Custom diets are the next frontier in nutrition science – and artificial intelligence (AI) will play a key role in figuring out what each of us should, and shouldn’t, be eating. An ambitious program called Nutrition for Precision Health (NPH) kicked off in the US in January 2022 when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded $170 million to fund institutions across the country to conduct a five-year study with 10,000 participants.”