Latest news with #UniversityofUtahHealth
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Poor Utah air quality may be even more dangerous than previously believed, research shows
SALT LAKE CITY () — Researchers with University of Utah Health have linked air pollution along the Wasatch Front with a higher risk of brain bleed. Led by neurosurgeon Robert Rennert, M.D., for brain bleeds, caused by aneurysms, over the last five years. Rennert's team says they were able to find nearly 13,000 data points to determine levels of PM2.5 (a common particulate found in air pollution). 'We found that these patients were experiencing higher rates of aneurysmal rupture 3-6 months after peaks in air pollution levels,' Rennert said. , the Salt Lake City-Provo area was ranked 25th in the nation for most polluted cities in the U.S. More specifically, the area was found to have high levels of PM2.5. LDS missionaries host wildfire recovery hub for victims of deadly California fires The particulate PM2.5 is 30 times finer than a human hair and can be easily inhaled. Previous research has found that it can damage lungs and contribute to a risk of strokes. The team's research was recently published in . 'We're hoping that our research helps alert people to the public health risks of air pollution, and encourages changes,' Rennert said. Rennert says this study is just the beginning in the team's efforts to understand the effects of air pollution on the brain. He says they hope to expand to studying regions beyond the Wasatch Front. Threats against public officials persist in year after Trump assassination attempt Butler assassination attempt proved to be turning point for Trump RSL runs unbeaten streak to four with 1-0 victory Unified Police standoff in Magna ends with surrender, suspect in custody Good news: Florida animal shelter's longest resident finds forever home Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Does air pollution raise the risk of brain bleeds over time? University of Utah study
The type of air pollution common in wildfires and smoggy inversions — PM2.5 — may be linked to rare but serious and sometimes deadly brain bleeds. New research from University of Utah Health has for the first time linked the small particulate matter pollution to ruptured brain aneurysm, which is more formally called aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. The resulting brain tissue damage can be severe enough to leave patients paralyzed or in a coma, if they survive it. The study is published in the journal npj Clean Air. The 'npj' indicates it's part of the Nature Partners Journal portfolio. The findings are preliminary, said lead researcher Dr. Robert Rennert, a neurosurgeon and assistant professor of neurosurgery at the University of Utah. But it's compelling and shows that pollution from a wildfire or smog can have an impact even several months later. PM2.5 pollution is made up of tiny particles or droplets that are easy to breathe in and can damage lungs and contribute to risk of ischemic strokes. A university news release says PM2.5 pollution particles are 30 times finer than human hair. Rennert said earlier research has shown negative health effects from the pollution, including increased risk of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, as well as neurological, cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. 'People in the past have naturally thought that there may be a link between air pollution exposure and risk of bleeding from an intracranial aneurysm. These aneurysms occur in 3%-6% of the adult population,' he said. That type of brain bleed kills about a third of the time, while a like share suffer very severe neurologic injuries," per Rennert. The study involved a retrospective look at 70 adult patients University of Utah Hospital treated over the course of five years for that type of brain aneurysm. The researchers went backwards from the medical event, looking at close to 13,000 data points to see what the PM2.5 levels were in the days, weeks and months before a brain bleed occurred. Rennert said they wanted to see whether the pollution itself changed each patient's risk of having the hemorrhage. All of the patients in the study lived within 36 selected ZIP codes within the Salt Lake, Ogden, Provo and surrounding valleys. Rennert said he thought the research team would find that the patients would have the hemorrhage soon after a spike in PM2.5 pollution. Instead, the brain bleeds occurred between 90 and 180 days after high air pollution levels. 'Over the entire study period, recurring spikes of (the brain bleed) were often seen three to six months after PM2.5 cyclic elevations, suggesting a delayed adverse effect of PM2.5 exposure,' the study reported. While he said that was unexpected and makes drawing connections more challenging, the researchers believe that the pollution kicks off inflammation, which weakens the blood vessel and makes it more vulnerable to hemorrhage in a process that takes some time. When they controlled for other factors that have been 'variably linked' to aneurysm in the past, including temperature, season and barometric pressure, he said only the latter on the day of bleeding was found to be associated. The research team plans to further study how PM2.5 impacts brain health not only locally, but in a larger geographic region and they hope to involve multiple centers in future research. They also want to understand the 'mechanisms and risks of air pollution on cerebrovascular disease more broadly,' as a news release puts it. They'll start with their theory that it's due to inflammation. Rennert said the working theory is that the pollution kicks off inflammation that does damage, then barometric pressure somehow triggers the aneurysm to bleed. 'I would say that the barometric side is not as well understood, but that is the hypothesis.' He added that a 'long-standing body of literature shows that inflammation within an aneurysm wall is associated with its risk of rupture over time. I and others are interested in pathways to mitigate that inflammation and potentially decrease the risk of an aneurysm rupturing if you do have one.' Ultimately, they hope people including policymakers will consider the danger of air pollution and do something about it. Among ideas they offer are giving people an incentive to use public transportation, creating stricter rules around pollution levels and dedicating more funding to environmental studies.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Freak Accident Burned 50% of High School Senior's Body. It Didn't Stop Him from Starring in 'Footloose' (Exclusive)
Rising Virginia high school senior James Culatta was on a summer hike when the ground gave way beneath him and he fell into a near-boiling hot spring He was horribly injured and spent months in the hospital but eventually recovered enough to star in his school's spring musical "I felt so grateful for these people that believed in my kid," his mom saysLast June, James Culatta was hiking with his family in Orem, Utah, during a college visit when he stepped on a rock and the ground opened up beneath him — sending him tumbling into a underground hot spring of scalding water and mud. 'I was terrified,' the 18-year-old from Herndon, Va., says now. 'I had never experienced that much pain in my life. I didn't know you could feel that much pain.' The spring that James fell into was more than 200 degrees, close to the boiling point. He tried to swim out but the ground was too unstable. Eventually, though horribly injured — the skin had melted off of both of his hands and he had suffered burns on about half his body — he pulled himself to safety. 'There was blood everywhere,' he says. James drank two gallons of water while he waited for a LifeFlight helicopter to take him to the University of Utah Health's Burn Center in Salt Lake City. What had started out as a summer trip for a family reunion, with a detour to see a prospective college, was suddenly something much more dire. 'We thought there was a good chance he was never going to walk again,' says James' dad, Richard Culatta, 46. The recovery, James says, was 'more painful' than his accident. Doctors had to remove the burned skin from the bottom half of his body, then they had to strip the skin that had not been burned — from his belly button to his neck — and stretch it to make grafts for to help replace what had been lost. (He looked, his dad says, like a mummy in a museum.) '[It] was so stressful and so painful, and I really couldn't have done it without my family. They've helped me so much,' says James, the second oldest of four children. 'They were by my side the whole time.' The teen spent two months in the hospital in Salt Lake. He was still an inpatient when his school, Herndon High, announced they were staging a musical production of Footloose for the spring. The news caught his family's attention. James says he's always felt a connection to the original movie, and he loves singing and dancing. He was in his school's production of Fiddler on the Roof last year. 'We looked at each other and said, 'Oh my gosh,' wouldn't that be amazing [for him to be in it],' recalls James' mom, Shaundra Culatta, a 42-year-old professional violinist. 'But,' she says, 'it felt so far out of reach. He couldn't even stand at that point — it felt like an impossible goal.' And then, with time, it wasn't so impossible after all. Earlier this month, after six months of grueling rehab and seven surgeries, he starred as Ren McCormick, the character Kevin Bacon originated in the 1984 movie. 'To see him dancing up on stage is just amazing,' says Richard, who runs the nonprofit Innovative Learning. 'I was like, 'Are you able to do this?' You should see his knees. If I showed you a picture of what his knees look like, they look like they've been through a garbage disposal. It's just totally shredded,' Richard says of James. 'He's like, "No, we made it work.' ' Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The teen had to miss the first semester of his senior year because he was in the hospital and, when he returned home, he needed four hours of physical therapy at a MedStar in Washington, D.C., with a commute that took about 90 minutes each way. The possibility of Footloose hung out in the future. Friends encouraged him to audition for Ren and while he says he 'never really thought I would actually get the role … I'm so glad that I did, because I made so many friends and I strengthened relationships.' 'It gives me hope going forward,' he says. His parents say they are very grateful that the director took a risk in casting James — at the time he auditioned, he was walking 'like a penguin,' Richard says. 'His overall health was in the balance from the very beginning, he was still sick all the time,' Shaundra says. 'I felt so grateful for these people that believed in my kid.' The choreography and costuming were adjusted for James. For example, in a gym class scene, he wore long pants (with medical-grade compression garments underneath) when the rest of the actors rocked shorts. Nonetheless, he danced, shuffled and slid on his knees as the part required. 'It was an incredible miracle,' Shaunda says. 'It's just such a testament of the power of family and community and prayer and faith. It was truly horrific what he went through. But it is kind of this wonderful comeback story because this musical is all about dancing." James has a 'really, really long road' ahead, according to his mom. He has several more surgeries planned to improve his mobility. 'But he's a really, really tough kid." His care team sat with his parents in the second row for his final performance on May 4. 'There were lots of tears,' Richard says. This summer, James plans to return to Utah and be a counselor at a summer camp for kids who are burn survivors, alongside the doctors and medical team he got to know from the University of Utah Health. 'They've become my family,' he says. 'I love them so much.' And in the fall, having now caught up on the schoolwork he missed, he plans to attend Utah Valley University, where he had been planning to visit before his injuries. He's considering becoming a physical therapist and working with other burn victims. 'You can do anything if you believe in yourself,' he says. 'And with the power of friendship and family, anything's really possible.' Read the original article on People
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump Wants Pharmaceutical Tariffs Soon — Here's Which Drugs Could Disappear From Hospitals First
We use pharmaceutical drugs every day to heal infections, treat cancers and relieve pain. But if President Donald Trump has his way, these largely foreign-made drugs would be targeted with tariffs, potentially causing unexpected shortages and making your doctor's visit look much different in the future, experts say. Erin Fox, a drug shortages expert at University of Utah Health, said a major tariff could cause companies to discontinue production of low-cost, low-margin drugs like the ingredients in epidurals, as one example. She said patients could end up receiving alternative medicines because the hospital has a shortage of certain pharmaceutical drugs. 'Maybe everybody doesn't get an epidural,' she said. 'We may be going back in time there.'So far, pharmaceutical drugs have been one of the few exceptions from Trump's ongoing trade war against the world. They were left out of Trump's 'Liberation Day' announcement in April to impose exorbitant levies on imports from foreign nations. But this reprieve may not be for much taking office again, Trump has repeatedly said that he believes using tariffs on pharmaceuticals can pressure drugmakers to move their manufacturing back to the U.S. 'We're going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals,' Trump said in April at the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner, and earlier this year, he said he would impose a tariff of at least 25% on April, the Department of Commerce also announced an investigation into the national security implications of pharmaceutical imports, which could set the stage for justifying tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs as a solution. 'The reason why it's particularly relevant is that the [Trump] administration has used it to also do steel tariffs,' said Marta E. Wosińska, a senior fellow on health policy at the Brookings Institution. It is not yet clear when that national security investigation will end, and if and how tariffs on pharmaceuticals will be implemented. But U.S. pharmacists are already stockpiling the most common drugs for that possibility. Because the supply chain for medications is not transparent, Fox said, it's not exactly clear which drugs would be impacted by tariffs the most. But if an extreme pharmaceutical tariff does happen, here's which types of drugs could be most at risk of disappearing for people in need. Most over-the-counter pain medication you get in the U.S. comes from China. You wouldn't notice drug disappearances right away because of stockpiles. If tariffs went into effect on June 1, Fox said you could realistically notice some shortages by Halloween and Christmas. 'The first thing that would happen is you would just have way fewer choices,' Fox said. Right now, if you go to a drugstore, you can buy ibuprofen in multiple forms, as a liquid or as a tablet from different store brands. 'I think it's very realistic that that would shrink,' she said. Most prescriptions in the U.S. are for generic drugs, and many active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in those drugs are sourced from injectable drugs that hospitals use every day, like lidocaine and morphine, are basic drugs that are cheap to produce, and they would be vulnerable to getting discontinued under a major tariff because companies would pivot to making more profitable drugs, Fox said. 'What my fear is and what I anticipate is that we will see ... six to eight months out, we're going to see companies start to discontinue these very basic but very essential drugs, because they just can't absorb those added costs,' Fox drugs have low profit margins and 'unless they can increase the price, the drug is going to be completely unprofitable, and they'll want to get out of the U.S. market,' Wosińska said. There are 'zero requirements' from the government to force any company to make any drug, no matter how life-saving it is, Fox said. 'Cancer drugs, I would say, are the ones that I worry about the most' of getting impacted by major pharmaceutical tariffs, Wosińska said, noting that they could lead to hospital shortages. 'You get admitted to a hospital, go for your cancer treatment, and the doctor tells you, 'Sorry, we don't have that,'' Wosińska said as one scenario. These drugs already face supply issues. In 2023, there were shortages of Cisplatin, a critical chemotherapy drug, driven by manufacturing quality problems in an Indian facility. The facility had 50% of the market share for the drug, highlighting how one problem in the supply chain can cause ripple effects. That 2023 supply disruption was due to quality issues. But if Trump enacted widespread pharmaceutical tariffs, this kind of shortage would be due to money. Most cancer drugs have to be administered by a physician, and many are covered under the U.S. government's '340B' safety-net program, which allows qualified hospitals and other health care providers to buy certain outpatient medications at steeply discounted prices from manufacturers. This program is meant to increase access to outpatient medications. But it could also make cancer drugs unprofitable for manufacturers to continue making under 20-25% tariffs. 'Manufacturers in this scenario, if they sell to a '340B' hospital, would have to eat 90% of the tariff,' Wosińska said. 'If their margins are really low, they're just going to say, 'We're out of here,'' she continued. 'Cancer drugs in particular have really high exposure to '340B' ― it could be more than half their market.' The higher the tariffs are, the more likely this kind of market exit will happen, she said. Not in the near future, Fox said, noting it takes at least three years to build a medication factory in the U.S. because they involve complicated Food and Drug Administration regulations and inspections. There have been tariff success stories, though. Hospital-administered drugs usually come in a vial that you need a syringe to use, and most of those syringes are made in China. Wosińska cited how tariffs on Chinese syringes pushed U.S. facilities to reopen during COVID and have ensured we have a domestic supply of a critical product. But that worked because factories already had the capacity to produce that way that tariffs aren't all bad: Wosińska said a China-only tariff could be helpful at incentivizing other nations like India to stop relying on Chinese active pharmaceutical ingredients. That would, in turn, helps the U.S. since it buys a lot of products from India. But a widespread tariff that includes India would exacerbate the risk of generic drug shortages and incentivize India to purchase from cheaper Chinese sources, Wosińska has argued. For now, Trump continues to defend his tariff trade policy as a 'legendary' achievement. If he ends up setting a 25% tariff on all foreign-made pharmaceuticals, it will certainly be memorable. But losing access to preferred or necessary medical treatments because of drug shortages is not a future we would want to remember. 'We don't want to see products discontinued that we need, and it could be a reality,' Fox said. 'This winter, when you have a cold, that medicine that you're looking for, it may not be on the shelf.' Trump Announces His Next Tariff Target We Could Soon Be Seeing Empty Shelves Everywhere. Here's Which Items Might Disappear First. Worried About A 'Trumpcession'? Here's What Finance Experts Say You Should Do Now.
Boston Globe
07-05-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Genetics of Korea's extreme divers could unlock chronic disease treatments
Now, an international team of researchers has found evidence of natural selection at work: a genetic variation found in Jeju Islanders that helps to keep their blood pressure from rising as much when diving, according to a paper published in the journal Cell Reports. In theory, understanding the genetic adaptation could lead to the development of medications that help people at risk for stroke or blood pressure problems. Advertisement 'When you're diving, your blood vessels are responding in complicated ways to try to keep your vital organs safe as your oxygen is running low,' explained Melissa Ilardo, assistant professor of biomedical informatics at the University of Utah Health, who led the study. 'It becomes a trade-off between short term and long term benefits - what keeps you safe while you're diving might lead to complications further down the line. Evolution seems to have found a way to balance this out - a genetic variant that may protect divers while they're holding their breath and beyond.' Advertisement In their study, researchers discovered two kinds of adaptation at work. The first, developed over centuries, affects part of the genetic blueprint of all Jeju Islanders whether or not they dive, providing a protective blood pressure response to immersion in water. The variant is also thought to protect pregnant women who dive from developing preeclampsia, a complication of pregnancy that can be serious, even fatal. The other adaptation, present only in the Haenyeo, is gained from training and causes the heart rate to slow when the women dive. 'When you're diving, every heartbeat is bringing more oxygen to your cells which is normally a good thing,' Ilardo said, 'but when you don't have oxygen coming in, you want to slow that down.' Although it has not been established definitively, the history of diving and the genetic adaptation might be the reason Jeju Islanders have one of the lowest age-standardized stroke death rates in South Korea: a little over 24 deaths per 100,000 people; the rate in the United States is about 37 deaths per 100,000 people. The Haenyeo are not the only diving population scientists have studied. Ilardo and others have examined the male and female Bajau divers of Indonesia who have evolved larger spleens, which may help them hold their breath longer underwater. Other scientists have investigated Tibetans, who have evolved with the ability to live at higher altitudes where there is less oxygen. Insights gained from examining small populations with unique characteristics have helped researchers develop treatments for various medical conditions. The class of medications called PCSK9 inhibitors, used to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol, were discovered when research teams studied a French family with the genetic condition familial hypercholesterolemia, which affects about one in 300 people worldwide. Advertisement Ilardo said it is not clear why the Jeju Island divers are all women, 'but at some point, we think, it switched from men and women diving, which we see in many places in the world, to all women.' In the course of her work on the Haenyeo, Ilardo made three trips to Jeju Island and collaborated with another scientist, Joo-Young Lee, from Seoul National University, who has spent years with the divers and earned their trust. 'I mean it's mind-blowing, especially given the average of age of the divers,' Ilardo said. 'I watched an 87-year-old woman jump off a boat that hadn't stopped moving.' Although generations of Haenyeo dove into the icy waters wearing only cotton bodysuits, around the 1980s, they began wearing wetsuits. The scientists compared three groups of about 30 women each: Haenyeo; non-Haenyeo Jeju Islanders; and non-Haenyeo women from the South Korean mainland. The authors acknowledged the study was limited by its relatively small sample size. Researchers measured physiological characteristics, such as blood pressure and heart rate, then sequenced the DNA of participants to look for genetic differences. In a simulated dive, ordinary Jeju Islanders' heartbeats slowed by about 20 beats per minute, researchers found, about the same amount as women on the South Korean mainland. In the same circumstances, the Haenyeo, who have been diving their whole lives, slow their heartbeats by up to twice that number. In simulated dives, participants held their breath and submerged their faces in a basin of cold water, which triggers the same response in the body as diving. The simulation allowed the researchers to carry out the study without having untrained, and possibly non-swimming, older women try to dive in the open ocean. Advertisement The genetic variant shared by Jeju Islanders, not just the Haenyeo, triggers the protective blood pressure response to immersion in water, but it's not entirely clear how it works. The variant appears to influence a receptor that plays a role in blood vessel inflammation. Ilardo and her colleagues validated their findings by searching the large-scale All of Us database, run by the National Institutes of Health, for people with the same genetic variant. They found that among people of European ancestry, the same variant was linked to the protective blood pressure response seen in the Jeju Islanders, though the effect was not as strong. The scientists think that natural selection for this genetic variation started about 1,200 years ago. The process, they say, may have unfolded like this: Two pregnant Jeju Island women were diving many years ago. One of them carried the protective genetic variant while the other did not. Over the course of her pregnancy, the woman without the protective variant developed preeclampsia because of her daily diving; the condition led to the deaths of mother and child. The woman with the protective variant survived and so did her children. Even the loss of a few children per generation adds up over time. Gradually, more and more Jeju Island children are born with the variant. Tatum Simonson, associate professor of medicine at UC San Diego Health, called the study, which she was not involved in, 'a good first step towards understanding how genetic adaptation, but also importantly, how training can have an effect on blood pressure in these sort of extreme conditions.' Advertisement Simonson cautioned that working with blood pressure measurements can be challenging. Human blood pressure is a snapshot in time that reflects what is going on in a person's life at that moment. It will be different if a person is anxious, excited, angry, or depressed. To their credit, she said, the scientists collected multiple blood pressure readings at different points. Ilardo collaborated on the research with a team of physiologists led by Nikolai Nordsborg at the University of Copenhagen.
