Latest news with #BrighamAndWomensHospital
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Professional Doctor Issues 'Warning' to Anyone Taking GLP-1 Medication
GLP-1 drugs have proved lifechanging for millions of Americans, but doctors say there are things people should consider before starting them. According to a new feature by the Washington Post, approximately 16 million American adults are on GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound, which act by mimicking a hormone in the body that regulates hunger and blood sugar. As a result, the drugs can be very effective at facilitating weight loss and managing Type 2 diabetes. But, as several doctors told the Post, the drugs themselves aren't miracle cures. They have to be used in conjunction with a balanced diet and exercise routine, says Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "These medications can help someone lose around 15 to 21 percent of their body weight. But a significant portion of that weight — up to one-fourth — can be lean body mass and muscle," Manson told the Post. As a result, Manson recommends beginning every meal with 20 to 30 grams of protein from chicken, fish, beans, chickpeas or tofu and incorporating 60 to 90 minutes of resistance training with bands, weights and body-weight exercises per week. Drinking more water and avoiding lying down after meals are also recommended. Additionally, while Manson warns patients about how to avoid losing weight in the form of muscle, one of her colleagues cautions that simply relying on the GLP-1 drugs themselves to get you healthier is a mistake. "This perception — just take the shot and don't do anything else — is wrong. It's not going to drive real, long-term behavioral changes,' said Dr. Andres J. Acosta of the Mayo Clinic.' 'Patients aren't going to see the outcomes that we're seeing in the trials." Professional Doctor Issues 'Warning' to Anyone Taking GLP-1 Medication first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 15, 2025
Medscape
14-07-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Improving Outcomes on GLP-1s: Lifestyle Factors Remain Crucial
This transcript has been edited for clarity. This is Dr JoAnn Manson, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. I'd like to talk with you about a recent Clinical Insights article in JAMA Internal Medicine, which is a very brief, succinct, two-page article about improving outcomes of patients on GLP-1 medications by integrating diet and physical activity guidance. The bottom line: Lifestyle factors remain crucial for patients on GLP-1 medications to optimize outcomes. This paper also comes with a companion JAMA Patient Page that contains patient-friendly and accessible information to help patients utilize these takeaways. I'd like to acknowledge that I'm a co-author of the Clinical Insights article and Patient Page. Now, we know that the GLP-1 medications and dual receptor agonist medications are very effective in terms of weight loss, achieving about 20% weight loss or more. But we also know from randomized trials that loss of muscle mass and lean body mass is also quite common, sometimes accounting for 25% or more of the total weight loss. Also, gastrointestinal symptoms — such as nausea, constipation, and reflux — can limit the use of these medications, lead to drug discontinuation, and subsequently results in weight regain. So, the goal of the Clinical Insights article and Patient Page is to help improve patient outcomes, avoid muscle loss, and avoid the gastrointestinal symptoms that can lead to drug discontinuation. The article provides information on how to incorporate a healthy diet while on GLP-1s, which consists of a largely plant-based diet that ensures adequate protein intake and adequate hydration — sometimes requiring 2-3 liters of water, or more, per day. These publications also help identify situations in which patients may benefit from micronutrient supplementation and, importantly, provide guidance on physical activity. Aerobic exercise is recommended but, in particular, resistance activities and muscle-strengthening activities can help mitigate the muscle loss and the lean body mass loss that commonly occurs on these medications. The Clinical Insights article and accompanying Patient Page also provide information on ways to minimize the likelihood of having gastrointestinal symptoms that would limit GLP-1 use. Overall, we hope that this information will be a good resource that will result in better care for patients on GLP-1 medications and better outcomes.
Fox News
11-07-2025
- Automotive
- Fox News
Teens and phone use while driving: Why this deadly habit persists
Phones have become a constant companion for today's teens, offering entertainment, connection and navigation at their fingertips. But when it comes to driving, this convenience can quickly turn dangerous. Recent research reveals an unsettling reality: Despite widespread awareness of the risks, teens and phone use while driving remains a persistent and deadly problem. Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide - free when you join my As of 2025, distracted driving remains a major safety concern in the United States. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, taking your eyes off the road for just five seconds at 55 mph is like driving the length of a football field with your eyes closed. In recent years, distracted driving has contributed to over 3,200 deaths and hundreds of thousands of crashes annually in the U.S., averaging nearly 900 incidents every day. A new study led by Dr. Rebecca Robbins at Brigham and Women's Hospital, part of the Mass General Brigham system, and published in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention, found that teens spend an average of 21% of every car trip looking at their phones. That's roughly one out of every five minutes behind the wheel. Even more alarming, more than a quarter of teens admitted to glancing at their phones for two seconds or longer at a time, long enough to dramatically increase the risk of a crash. You might assume teens are just checking directions, but the data tells a different story: This means that the urge to stay entertained or connected often outweighs safety concerns, even when teens are aware of the risks. Researchers used the Integrated Model of Behavioral Prediction to investigate what motivates teenagers to use their phones while driving. They found that many teens believe using their phones makes driving more enjoyable or helps them multitask. Social influence also plays a significant role; when friends or family members use their phones while driving, teens are more likely to adopt the same behavior. Additionally, many teens feel confident in their ability to manage both driving and phone use, which leads them to underestimate the real dangers involved. Reducing teen phone use behind the wheel requires a combination of practical strategies, open communication and positive role modeling. Here are some effective tips to help keep young drivers focused and safe: 1. Set "Do Not Disturb": Activate "Do Not Disturb" mode before driving to block notifications and reduce temptation. 2. Keep phones out of reach: Store your phone in the glove box or back seat so it's not easily accessible. 3. Talk about risks: Parents and schools should regularly discuss the dangers of distracted driving with teens. 4. Model safe behavior: Adults should avoid using phones while driving to set a positive example. 5. Use monitoring apps: Consider apps that block phone use or track driving habits for added accountability. 6. Know the law: Understand and follow your state's rules on phone use for young drivers. The alarming truth is that teens and phone use while driving isn't just about a lack of awareness; it's about competing motivations, social pressures, and a dangerous sense of confidence. As technology evolves, so must our strategies for keeping young drivers safe. If you knew that just one glance at your phone could change your life or someone else's forever, would you still take the risk? Let us know by writing to us at Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide - free when you join my Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
CNN
30-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
Removing fluoride from public drinking water may lead to millions more cavities in US children, study estimates
Water availabilityFacebookTweetLink Follow The longstanding public health practice of adding fluoride to public drinking water systems in the United States is facing new challenges and bans in some places, and experts have warned that the change would come with significant costs – both to the health of children and the health care system. A new modeling study, published Friday in JAMA Health Forum, estimates that removing fluoride from public water in the US would lead to 25.4 million excess decayed teeth in children and adolescents within five years, along with $9.8 billion in health care costs. After 10 years, these impacts would more than double to nearly 54 million excess decayed teeth and $19.4 billion in costs. That translates to one additional decayed tooth for every three children in the US – but the costs wouldn't be spread evenly, said Dr. Lisa Simon, an internal medicine physician with Brigham and Women's Hospital and co-author of the new study. 'We know that the people who have the most benefit from fluoride are people who otherwise struggle to access dental care,' says Simon, who has been researching dental policy for a decade. 'When we think about those 25 million decayed teeth, they're much more likely to appear in the mouths of children who are publicly insured by Medicaid or come from otherwise low-income families.' Fluoride is a mineral that can be found naturally in some foods and groundwater. It can help prevent tooth decay by strengthening the protective outer layer of enamel that can be worn away by acids formed by bacteria, plaque and sugars in the mouth. Adding fluoride to public water systems started in the US in 1945 and has been hailed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of the 10 greatest health interventions in America in the 20th century In 2022, close to two-thirds of the US population was served by community water systems that had fluoride added to them, according to CDC data. But US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in April that he would tell the CDC to stop recommending that fluoride be added to public drinking water, and lawmakers in two states – Utah and Florida – have banned the practice this year. To estimate the effects of removing fluoride from community water, Simon and co-author Dr. Sung Eun Choi from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine assessed clinical oral health data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to create a nationally representative sample of US children. At baseline, the data showed that about 1 in 5 children between the ages of 2 and 5 were estimated to have dental caries, a chronic infectious disease involving tooth decay and cavities, along with more than half of children ages 6 to 12 and more than 57% of teenagers. But removing fluoride would raise those prevalence rates by more than 7 percentage points, the researchers found. 'This is a huge cost for our country and it's all avoidable. There is no better replacement for the time-tested, doctor trusted use of fluoride in community water programs,' Dr. Brett Kessler, president of the American Dental Association, said in a statement. 'No amount of political rhetoric or misinformation will change that good oral health depends on proper nutrition, oral hygiene and optimally fluoridated water, or fluoride supplements if community water programs lack fluoride.' On the campaign trail last fall, Kennedy called fluoride 'industrial waste' and claimed that exposure has resulted in a wide variety of health problems, including cancer – claims that both the American Cancer Society and the CDC have disagreed with. And in April, HHS and the US Environmental Protection Agency announced that they would study the potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water – a review centered around a government study from last year concluding that higher levels of fluoride are linked to lowered IQ in children. In the new modeling study, researchers found that only about 1.5% of US children in 2016 had exposure to this excess level of fluoride – considered to be above 1.5 milligrams per liter – that posed risk for fluorosis, a condition that leaves streaks or spots on teeth, or other harms. Meanwhile, about 40% of US children had access to optimal fluoride levels that effectively prevent tooth decay – between 0.6 and 1.5 milligrams per liter – while about 46% had access to even lower levels. The authors of the new study did not assess the neurocognitive effects of fluoride because 'current federal guidance does not find an association' at the levels used in public drinking water. They found that removing fluoride would only help prevent about 200,000 cases of fluorosis over five years. Tooth decay can mean a lot of things, Simon said, but their model was picking up cases that would likely need at least a filling along with severe cavities that could turn into a root canal or a tooth extraction – the costs of which would be borne by families, insurers and the government. 'Talking about money, which is really important, is only one way to measure that cost,' Simon said. 'It's also a cost in terms of children being in pain, children not being able to eat, children missing school or not being able to pay attention in school because their teeth hurt, parents missing work, children losing teeth that are supposed to stay with them for their entire lives, and those children growing into older adults who are more likely to be missing teeth with all of the health consequences that entails.' Forecasts in the new modeling study mirror real-life impacts that were measured in other parts of the world after fluoride was removed from drinking water. Calgary, Alberta, stopped putting fluoride in its water in 2011, and a study found that children there had more cavities than those in cities that kept fluoride. Calgary will resume fluoridation this year. Simon worries the effects in the US might be even greater because of health inequities that are especially pronounced in the dental care system. 'We've had fluoridated water for so long and it's worked so well that we've stopped appreciating the amazing things it's done,' she said. 'When something has been a success story for 80 years … you don't know which kid never got a cavity because they were exposed to fluoride, and we don't know which older adults aren't wearing dentures because of that.'
CNN
30-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
Removing fluoride from public drinking water may lead to millions more cavities in US children, study estimates
Water availabilityFacebookTweetLink Follow The longstanding public health practice of adding fluoride to public drinking water systems in the United States is facing new challenges and bans in some places, and experts have warned that the change would come with significant costs – both to the health of children and the health care system. A new modeling study, published Friday in JAMA Health Forum, estimates that removing fluoride from public water in the US would lead to 25.4 million excess decayed teeth in children and adolescents within five years, along with $9.8 billion in health care costs. After 10 years, these impacts would more than double to nearly 54 million excess decayed teeth and $19.4 billion in costs. That translates to one additional decayed tooth for every three children in the US – but the costs wouldn't be spread evenly, said Dr. Lisa Simon, an internal medicine physician with Brigham and Women's Hospital and co-author of the new study. 'We know that the people who have the most benefit from fluoride are people who otherwise struggle to access dental care,' says Simon, who has been researching dental policy for a decade. 'When we think about those 25 million decayed teeth, they're much more likely to appear in the mouths of children who are publicly insured by Medicaid or come from otherwise low-income families.' Fluoride is a mineral that can be found naturally in some foods and groundwater. It can help prevent tooth decay by strengthening the protective outer layer of enamel that can be worn away by acids formed by bacteria, plaque and sugars in the mouth. Adding fluoride to public water systems started in the US in 1945 and has been hailed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of the 10 greatest health interventions in America in the 20th century In 2022, close to two-thirds of the US population was served by community water systems that had fluoride added to them, according to CDC data. But US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in April that he would tell the CDC to stop recommending that fluoride be added to public drinking water, and lawmakers in two states – Utah and Florida – have banned the practice this year. To estimate the effects of removing fluoride from community water, Simon and co-author Dr. Sung Eun Choi from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine assessed clinical oral health data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to create a nationally representative sample of US children. At baseline, the data showed that about 1 in 5 children between the ages of 2 and 5 were estimated to have dental caries, a chronic infectious disease involving tooth decay and cavities, along with more than half of children ages 6 to 12 and more than 57% of teenagers. But removing fluoride would raise those prevalence rates by more than 7 percentage points, the researchers found. 'This is a huge cost for our country and it's all avoidable. There is no better replacement for the time-tested, doctor trusted use of fluoride in community water programs,' Dr. Brett Kessler, president of the American Dental Association, said in a statement. 'No amount of political rhetoric or misinformation will change that good oral health depends on proper nutrition, oral hygiene and optimally fluoridated water, or fluoride supplements if community water programs lack fluoride.' On the campaign trail last fall, Kennedy called fluoride 'industrial waste' and claimed that exposure has resulted in a wide variety of health problems, including cancer – claims that both the American Cancer Society and the CDC have disagreed with. And in April, HHS and the US Environmental Protection Agency announced that they would study the potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water – a review centered around a government study from last year concluding that higher levels of fluoride are linked to lowered IQ in children. In the new modeling study, researchers found that only about 1.5% of US children in 2016 had exposure to this excess level of fluoride – considered to be above 1.5 milligrams per liter – that posed risk for fluorosis, a condition that leaves streaks or spots on teeth, or other harms. Meanwhile, about 40% of US children had access to optimal fluoride levels that effectively prevent tooth decay – between 0.6 and 1.5 milligrams per liter – while about 46% had access to even lower levels. The authors of the new study did not assess the neurocognitive effects of fluoride because 'current federal guidance does not find an association' at the levels used in public drinking water. They found that removing fluoride would only help prevent about 200,000 cases of fluorosis over five years. Tooth decay can mean a lot of things, Simon said, but their model was picking up cases that would likely need at least a filling along with severe cavities that could turn into a root canal or a tooth extraction – the costs of which would be borne by families, insurers and the government. 'Talking about money, which is really important, is only one way to measure that cost,' Simon said. 'It's also a cost in terms of children being in pain, children not being able to eat, children missing school or not being able to pay attention in school because their teeth hurt, parents missing work, children losing teeth that are supposed to stay with them for their entire lives, and those children growing into older adults who are more likely to be missing teeth with all of the health consequences that entails.' Forecasts in the new modeling study mirror real-life impacts that were measured in other parts of the world after fluoride was removed from drinking water. Calgary, Alberta, stopped putting fluoride in its water in 2011, and a study found that children there had more cavities than those in cities that kept fluoride. Calgary will resume fluoridation this year. Simon worries the effects in the US might be even greater because of health inequities that are especially pronounced in the dental care system. 'We've had fluoridated water for so long and it's worked so well that we've stopped appreciating the amazing things it's done,' she said. 'When something has been a success story for 80 years … you don't know which kid never got a cavity because they were exposed to fluoride, and we don't know which older adults aren't wearing dentures because of that.'
