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FRIDAY, Nov. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) – Researchers have found that nearly 3% of pregnancies in the United States were exposed to addictive opioid drugs.The finding stems from an analysis of data from 21,905 pregnant women in what's dubbed the ECHO program (Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes), a federally funded effort to investigate the effects of early life exposures on several key areas of child health.The new study found opioid use in pregnancy was more prevalent in white individuals. It was also more common in women with a history of depression and multiple substance use.Most of the prenatal opioid use was connected to a prescription drug."Previous studies have not adequately described people in the U.S. who use opioids during pregnancy, a fact that has limited...

FRIDAY, Nov. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- When COVID-19 restrictions lifted in the United Kingdom, the risk for severe asthma attacks doubled.While having COVID isn't more likely to cause asthma attacks than other respiratory infections, it may have been that safety measures, such as wearing masks and reduced socializing, kept these attacks at bay, the authors of a new study suggested. "Our study was observational, so it can't prove cause-and-effect. But our findings do raise the possibility that certain elements of the public health measures introduced during the pandemic -- such as wearing face masks -- could help in reducing respiratory illnesses moving forward," study lead author Adrian Martineau said in a news release from Queen Mary University of London. He is a clinical...

THURSDAY, Nov. 24, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Transgender youth are more likely than others to experience sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea, and researchers now recommend these young people be screened for sleep problems.“Transgender and gender-nonconforming identity may precede mental health disorders, and both influence insomnia diagnosis,” said study co-author Galit Levi Dunietz, an epidemiologist in the University of Michigan neurology department's division of sleep medicine.For the study, the researchers analyzed claims data from more than 1.2 million people aged 12 to 25. Among them were just over 2,600 young people who identified as transgender or gender-nonconforming. The investigators found that transgender youth were 5.4 times more likely than cisgender...

THURSDAY, Nov. 24, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Many women experience back pain during pregnancy and a new study review suggests an ancient treatment can help.Acupuncture provided significant relief of lower back and pelvic pain, according to an analysis of 10 trials from various parts of the world. The findings were published Nov. 21 in BMJ Open."Acupuncture significantly improved pain, functional status, and quality of life in women with [lower back/pelvic pain] during the pregnancy," wrote the researchers, who included Dr. Wei Dong, from the Department of Orthopaedics at the Kunming Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China. "Additionally, acupuncture had no observable severe adverse influences on the newborns," they said in a journal news release.The 10 trials were...