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THURSDAY, Nov. 3, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Autism is a more comprehensive disorder than previously thought, and appears to arise from brain changes located throughout the cerebral cortex, not just in specific areas, a new study reports.Because of autism's specific symptoms, scientists had thought the disorder was likely caused by changes in brain regions believed to affect social behavior and language.But the new study -- led by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles -- found genetically driven brain-wide changes in virtually all of the 11 regions of the cerebral cortex that were analyzed. The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of the brain, and plays a key role in all human cognition and behavior. (Cognition refers to the processes needed to learn something new,...

THURSDAY, Nov. 3, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Motorists are more likely to plow into a deer on U.S. highways after the annual "fall back" end of daylight saving time (DST), a new study shows.That’s because frisky deer in the middle of their mating season (also known as rut) are crossing roads that become shrouded in darkness earlier in the day with the time change, researchers explained.There's a 16% increase in deer-vehicle collisions in the week following the shift from DST to standard time, according to a report published Nov. 2 in the journal Current Biology.What's more, nearly 1 in 10 of all deer-vehicle wrecks occur during the two-week period around the switch from DST to standard time, researchers found.Adopting permanent daylight saving time could save dozens of deaths,...

THURSDAY, Nov. 3, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Although blood pressure levels among Americans rose during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research suggests things could have been far worse."We expected blood pressure control to be worse due to decreased physical activity, stress, poor sleep and other cardiovascular disease risk factors that worsened during the pandemic," said study leader Dr. Hiroshi Gotanda, an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. "But the results were better than we expected, probably because of the use of telemedicine and home monitoring of blood pressure," he noted.For the study, which was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, researchers looked at the electronic data records of more than...

THURSDAY, Nov. 3, 2022 (HealthDay News) – A weight-loss drug approved for adults may soon become an option for teens struggling with obesity. Young people who received the drug Wegovy (semaglutide) were able to lose an average of 14.7% of their starting body weight in a new clinical trial. More than 40% of the youths who received a weekly injection of the medication plus lifestyle counseling were able to reduce their BMI by 20% or more. The trial, published Nov. 2 in the New England Journal of Medicine, included 201 people ages 12 to 17 who were treated at medical centers in the U.S., Europe and Mexico. Some received a placebo and counseling on diet and exercise instead of Wegovy. Those youths actually gained 2.7% of their initial body weight. The study was funded by the drug's...