Researchers from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences identified a compound that affects an area of the brain that triggers hormone production.

The age when girls hit puberty has been falling at an alarming rate for decades, and scientists have struggled to explain why. New research suggests a compound found in a wide variety of products — from cosmetics to air fresheners to detergents and soaps — may send a signal to an area of the brain that triggers the start of puberty. 

It’s the first time researchers have looked at the possible impact of environmental chemicals on the brain to explain the rise in early puberty, said Dr. Natalie Shaw, a pediatric endocrinologist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Durham, North Carolina. 

Starting puberty significantly early — younger than age 8 in girls, 9 in boys — may have health effects lasting into adulthood, including higher risks of breast cancer, diabetes and heart disease. It can also lead to shortened stature in both girls and boys. In May, a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that 15.5% of girls experienced early periods — younger than age 11 — and that 1.4% started menstruating younger than age 9.

More than a third of US counties do not have a single medical birthing facility or the services of an obstetric clinician, causing health advocates to warn about the dangers of “maternity care deserts”, a new report says.

The report, issued by March of Dimes, an infant health non-profit, and published on Tuesday, found that 35.1% of US counties are what the group calls maternity care deserts, meaning there are no specialist medical services available to provide care.

These 1,104 counties are home to more than 2.3 million women of reproductive age, the report states, and in these counties in 2022, women gave birth to more than 150,000 babies.

The report says that women living in such care deserts and counties with low access to care are more likely to have poorer health before pregnancy, receive less prenatal care, and experience higher rates of preterm birth. Additionally, the researchers state that women in these areas face a 13% higher risk of preterm birth.

The states with the highest percent of so-called maternity care deserts were North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska and Arkansas, it added.

Researchers found people with obesity who frequently exercised had changes in their belly fat that reduced the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Belly fat tends to get a bad rap, but new research shows that one kind of belly fat can be healthier than others — provided you’re willing to get moving.

“Fat is really misunderstood,” said Jeffrey Horowitz, a professor of exercise physiology in the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. “The fat we have, especially that which is stored under our skin, is a really important place to store our energy.”

In a new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Metabolism, Horowitz and his team found that people with obesity who get regular aerobic exercise have healthier belly fat tissue — specifically, that subcutaneous fat stored just beneath the skin — than nonexercisers with obesity.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/16766192

Cost, wait times, transportation problems, and negative interactions with healthcare professionals are causing U.S. women to delay or skip medical care, according to a Deloitte survey. Half of the surveyed women reported forgoing care in the past year, compared to 37% of men. Women require nearly 10% more health services than men but are 35% more likely to skip or delay care. Financial issues, access gaps, and poor provider experiences are key factors. Deloitte suggests increased investment in women's health products and a multi-pronged strategy involving providers, insurers, and policymakers to improve women's healthcare.

A new study links the recent use of personal care products like lotions, ointments and hair conditioners to higher levels of endocrine-disrupting chemicals called phthalates in young children. And children of different racial and ethnic groups seemed to have different levels of exposure to these chemicals.

Phthalates are a group of chemicals added to plastics to make them more flexible and durable. They are also used as ingredients in some personal care products.

These chemicals are endocrine disruptors – which means they can mimic, block or interfere with the body’s own hormones. And when it comes to children, the concern is that they might cause disruptions during key developmental moments.

Research group describes health workers waiting until patients ‘on brink of death’ before providing care

More than two years after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, state abortion bans are forcing doctors to provide substandard medical care, new research released Monday shows.

The study describes how one woman, whose water broke too early on her pregnancy, ended up in the ICU with severe sepsis because she could not get an abortion to end her doomed pregnancy. Her story is one of dozens of narratives collected by the research group Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, which is housed at the University of California, San Francisco.

Also first time for someone with H5 virus to be hospitalized, and CDC says it is studying patient specimen more

A person in Missouri with no known animal contact has tested positive for H5 bird flu, the state’s department of health and senior services said Friday.

It’s the first time a patient in the US outbreak has had no known exposure to sick animals. And it is the first time someone has been hospitalized with bird flu – though it’s not clear yet whether influenza was the reason for hospitalization or it was incidental.

The patient, who has underlying health conditions, was hospitalized on 22 August and tested positive for flu A. Doctors sent a sample to the Missouri state public health laboratory, where it was found to be of the H5 subtype, which is also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza – or bird flu.

Children's perception of time is relatively understudied. Learning to see time through their eyes may be fundamental to a happier human experience.

My household is absorbed in debate over when time goes the fastest or slowest.

"Slowest in the car!" yells my son.

"Never!" replies my daughter. "I'm too busy for time to go slow, but maybe on weekends when we are on the sofa watching movies."

There's some consensus too; they both agree that the days after Christmas and their birthdays dawdle by gloomily as it dawns on them they have to wait another 365 days to celebrate once more. Years seem to drag on endlessly at their age.

A Florida surgeon mistakenly removed a man’s liver instead of his spleen, causing him to die on the operating table, a lawyer for the man’s widow alleges.

William Bryan, 70, of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, underwent surgery on Aug. 21, at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast hospital in Miramar, Florida, because of spleen abnormalities, according to a statement from the personal injury firm Zarzaur Law, based in Pensacola, Florida.

New research claims that exposure to outdoor light at night may increase the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease, especially in people under the age of 65.

The researchers who conducted the study, funded by a National Institutes of Health grant and published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience on Friday, said they have found correlations between areas of the US with excessive exposure to artificial light at night and the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease.

In the US, at least 19 states have legislation in place aimed at reducing light pollution, but the authors of the study say that despite this, the “levels of light at night remain high in many parts of the country”.

New research from Northwestern Medicine in Chicago shows that states with the most severe abortion restrictions often lack robust public support programs for low-income families. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, categorized states based on their abortion laws and assessed access to reproductive healthcare and social services. The research also revealed that the most restrictive states had the highest rates of uninsured women of reproductive age and lower enrollment in state-funded assistance programs.