Could vitamin D help ward off suicide? Plus, sleep apnea linked to weaker bones and teeth, and more health news
Could vitamin D help ward off suicide?
A new study hints that treating low vitamin D levels with supplements might have a critical benefit for certain people: a decreased risk of attempting suicide.
In a study of more than 1 million U.S. veterans, researchers found that those prescribed vitamin D were nearly 50% less likely to attempt suicide over eight years, versus those who were not prescribed the supplements.
The benefit was seen specifically among veterans who had low vitamin D levels to begin with, as well as Black veterans — who may be at greater risk of insufficient vitamin D stores.
Experts stressed that the study was not a clinical trial that directly tested vitamin D for reducing suicidal behavior. So it does not prove that supplements, per se, actually cause suicide risk to fall.
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Ability to smell may be predictive marker of frailty
Olfaction is a potential marker and risk factor for frailty, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Gerontology.
Nimesh V. Nagururu, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues used data from 1,160 older adults to assess the relationship between olfactory subdomains (peripheral or central dysfunction) and frailty.
The researchers found that participants in the most-frail physical frailty phenotype (PFP) category had lower olfactory identification and olfactory sensitivity scores.
“Both olfactory sensitivity and olfactory identification, predominantly peripheral and central measures of olfaction, respectively, are associated with frailty implicating olfaction as a potential biomarker and risk factor for frailty,” the authors write.
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Is oxytocin really the “love hormone”?
The “love hormone” oxytocin might not play the critical role in forming social bonds that scientists have long believed, a new animal study suggests.
Prairie voles bred without receptors for oxytocin display the same monogamous mating, attachment and parenting behaviors as regular voles, according to researchers.
“While oxytocin has been considered ‘Love Potion No. 9,’ it seems that potions 1 through 8 might be sufficient,” said co-senior researcher Dr. Devanand Manoli, a psychiatrist with the University of California, San Francisco’s Weill Institute for Neurosciences. “This study tells us that oxytocin is likely just one part of a much more complex genetic program.”
Prairie voles are one of the few mammals known to form lifelong monogamous relationships, so they are a natural fit for researchers looking into the biology of social bonding.
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Sleep apnea linked to weaker bones, teeth
People who have sleep apnea may have another issue to worry about — weaker bones and teeth.
Known as low bone-mineral density, the condition is an indicator of osteoporosis and can increase the risk of fractures and cause teeth to become loose and dental implants to fail, according to new research from the University at Buffalo (UB) in New York.
To study this, researchers used cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) — a type of X-ray — to measure bone density in the heads and necks of 38 adults. Half of the study participants had sleep apnea.
These scans found that participants with sleep apnea had significantly lower bone-mineral density than the participants without the condition.
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The risks of living in a “food swamp”
Americans who live near a “food swamp” may have a higher risk of suffering a stroke, a preliminary study finds.
A number of studies have looked at the health consequences of living in a so-called food desert — areas with few grocery stores or other options for buying fresh food.
Food swamps are different: The term was coined to describe communities where fast food restaurants, convenience stores and other junk-food purveyors heavily outweigh healthier options like grocery stores and farmers’ markets.
The new study looked at whether Americans’ stroke risk varies based on how far their county of residence veers into food swamp territory.
It turned out it did: Among nearly 18,000 adults age 50 and older, those living in U.S. counties high on the food swamp scale had a 13% higher risk of suffering a stroke, compared to those in areas with more healthy options.
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Deer carry COVID variants no longer seen in people
While COVID-19 variants Alpha, Gamma and Delta are no longer circulating among humans, they continue to spread in white-tailed deer.
The animals are the most abundant large mammal in North America. Scientists aren’t sure whether the deer could act as long-term reservoirs for these obsolete variants.
In a new study, researchers at Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y., collected 5,700 deer lymph node samples from 2020 to 2022 in the state, comparing the genomic sequences of the variants found in deer with sequences of the same variants taken from humans across New York.
The investigators found the viruses had mutated in the deer, which suggested the variants had likely been circulating in the animals for many months.
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Rare but dangerous form of eating disorder could run in families
Genes may have a strong influence over whether kids develop an eating disorder marked by extremely limited food choices, a new study finds.
The study focused on a condition called avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). It’s a relatively new diagnosis that describes people who severely limit the types or quantity of food they eat — but not over body image concerns or a quest for thinness.
Instead, food is the center of the issue. People with ARFID may have a strong aversion to various tastes, smells or textures, have little appetite, or may fear choking, vomiting or suffering an allergic reaction if they eat an unfamiliar food (often based on a past experience).
Studies suggest it affects 1% to 5% of the population.
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