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MONDAY, Oct. 2, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Millions of people who live with the pain and stiffness of arthritis in their hands get steroid or hyaluronic acid injections directly into their finger joints in the hopes of feeling better.Now, a new review shows that even though these injections are widely recommended in treatment guidelines, they don’t really work.Joint injections to relieve the symptoms of hand osteoarthritis were no better than dummy (placebo) injections, the study found.That’s not all current treatment recommendations for hand arthritis seem to get wrong, either. Most also call for topical pain relievers as the first-line therapy for hand osteoarthritis, but the evidence on those is iffy, said study author Dr. Anna Døssing, a rheumatology resident at the Parker...

MONDAY, Oct. 2, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- What a baby eats, or how the baby eats, may have an impact on future weight and health, research has shown.A new study backs that up. It found that 9-year-olds who had been breast-fed for six months or more had a lower percentage of body fat than their peers who were never breast-fed or received breast milk.The researchers also found that kids who were not given soda before 18 months of age also had less fat at age 9.Past studies have zeroed in on links between infant feeding and obesity based on body mass index (BMI) — an estimate of body fat based on height and weight. This one relied on what researchers considered a more precise measure: percent fat mass. That's the proportion of total weight owing to body fat.“Infancy is a vulnerable...

MONDAY, Oct. 2, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- A diet rich in whole grains, fruits and non-starchy vegetables is the best recipe for middle-aged folks trying to keep their weight under control, new research finds.Low in added sugar, yet rich in vitamins and minerals, such foods are considered “high-quality” carbs, investigators explained. The same cannot be said of refined grains, sugary beverages or starchy vegetables. Such foods are “low-quality” carbs that are likely to fuel an expanding waistline at a time in life when weight gain is common.“The quality and source of carbohydrate is crucial for long-term weight management, especially for people already with excessive body weight,” said study lead author Yi Wan, a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of nutrition at...

MONDAY, Oct. 2, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Grandma knew it all along: Certain places on the body are "hot spots" for unhealthy microbes.That notion — which the authors of a new study dubbed “the grandma hypothesis,” after grandma’s admonitions to clean behind the ears — was tested by students in a genomics course at George Washington (GW) University in Washington, D.C.The investigators proved what grandma knew all along: Skin behind the ears and between the toes can harbor unhealthy microbes.The collection of microbes living on and in the body is known the microbiome. It has a role in human health. The skin's microbiome varies across dry, moist and oily areas.So students set out to test the hypothesis.Keith Crandall, director of the Computational Biology Institute at GW,...