Adopting a plant-based diet that is rich in dark, green, leafy vegetables can help ease symptoms of chronic migraines, physicians recommended in 

Medications can help prevent and treat migraines, but there is evidence to suggest that diet could also offer an effective alternative without any adverse events associated with these drugs, according to the physicians.

The recommendation comes after the physicians treated a man who had endured severe migraine headaches without aura for more than 12 years.

He tried meditation, topiramate and zolmitriptan, yoga, and cutting out potential trigger foods, including caffeine, cheese, chocolate, dried fruit, and nuts, to reduce the frequency and severity of the headaches. The man found that none of these things helped his migraine frequency and severity.

About 6 months before his clinic referral, his migraines became chronic, occurring on about 18 to 24 days each month. Migraines are either episodic, which is fewer than 15 days a month, or chronic, which is 15 or more migraine days a month, plus migraine features on at least 8 days of the month.

The throbbing pain started intensely and suddenly in the forehead and temple on the left side of the man’s head and lasted around 72 hours.

He said that the headaches were accompanied by sensitivity to light and sound, nausea, and vomiting and described the pain severity as a 10 to 12 out of 10.

Blood tests showed that the man did not have high levels of systemic inflammation but had normal levels of beta-carotene.

The physicians said this could be the result of his daily consumption of sweet potatoes, which contain high levels of beta-carotene but are low in nutrients for anti-inflammation and antioxidant properties of carotenoids.

Nutrients responsible for anti-inflammation and antioxidant properties of carotenoids are found in dark, green, leafy vegetables, such as kale, spinach, and watercress. Systemic inflammation and oxidative stress are associated with migraines.

The physicians advised the man to adopt the Low Inflammatory Foods Everyday (LIFE) diet, which is a nutrient-dense, plant-based, whole-food diet.

The LIFE diet includes drinking 1 32-ounce daily green LIFE smoothie every day, eating at least 5 ounces by weight of cooked or raw dark, green, leafy vegetables, and limiting the intake of oils, starchy vegetables, whole grains, and animal protein, specifically dairy and red meat.

After 2 months of the LIFE diet, the individual said that the frequency of his migraine attacks had fallen to about 1 day a month, and the length of severity of the attacks had also lessened. The results of blood tests also showed a substantial rise in beta-carotene.

The man also stopped taking migraine medication. When he tried certain so-called challenge foods, such as egg whites, iced tea, or salmon, which can all trigger headaches, he found that the headaches were much less painful and shorter in duration than previously.

After 3 months, his migraines stopped completely and have not returned in 7 and a half years.

The man was HIV positive, which has been linked to a heightened risk of migraines, so his HIV status and antiretroviral drugs could have contributed to his symptoms, the physicians said.

However, it was not possible to study this assumption further without stopping antiretroviral treatment, which is a limitation of the study.

May be worth adopting plant based diet to ease chronic migraine severity, say doctors. EurekAlert. News release. November 18, 2021. Accessed April 8, 2022. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/935079

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Study results show that an individual received little or no relief from doing yoga, eliminating certain foods, practicing medication, or taking prescribed medications.

Physicians Recommend Plant-Based Diet to Ease Chronic Migraine Symptoms

New data from a phase 2 trial of navitoclax in combination with ruxolitinib (AbbVie) in patients with myelofibrosis were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.

Navitoclax is an investigational, oral BCL-XL/BCL-2 inhibitor that is designed to activate programmed cell death in cancer cells. The safety and efficacy are currently under evaluation as part of the ongoing phase 2 and registrational phase 3 studies.

"Myelofibrosis is a cancer that originates in the bone marrow, leading to fibrosis. Currently, available therapies do not address the underlying disease biology and have not shown a consistent effect on both biomarkers of disease modification and overall survival. Disease control with reversal of bone marrow fibrosis is a key objective for improving patient outcomes," said Mohamed Zaki, MD, PhD, vice president and global head of oncology clinical development at AbbVie, in a press release. "That's why we are especially pleased about these early results of navitoclax in combination with ruxolitinib that indicate its novel mechanism of action of inducing cell death may cause reversal of bone marrow fibrosis and extend survival for patients who respond to treatment."

The results presented were from REFINE (NCT03222609), which is a phase 2 trial evaluating navitoclax in combination with ruxolitinib and includes patients with myelofibrosis who had progressed on or had a suboptimal response to at least 12 weeks of ruxolitinib monotherapy.

In the analysis of 32 patients who were evaluable for improvements in bone marrow fibrosis (BMF), 12 had a ≥1 grade improvement during any point in time during the study. Meanwhile, 26 patients were evaluable for driver gene variant allele frequency (VAF) and achieved a ≥20% reduction at week 24. Only 5 patients achieved both BMF and VAF responses.

The median overall survival (OS) for all patients was not reached, and for patients who had a ≥1 grade improvement BMF, median OS was not reached, compared with 28.5 months for patients who did not experience an improvement. All 34 patients experienced at least 1 adverse event (AE), and 44% experienced a serious AE (SAEs). The most common AEs were thrombocytopenia, diarrhea, fatigue, and nausea, and the most common SAEs were pneumonia and splenic infarction.

"Data obtained from this exploratory analysis holds promise for potential future clinical research," said Jacqueline S. Garcia, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, in a press release. "What is most notable in this analysis is the overall survival among patients who demonstrate VAF and BMF responses and all patients were alive at time of analysis. Patients in this Phase 2 trial had suboptimal response to ruxolitinib at time of study entry and then had navitoclax added to ruxolitinib on the trial. VAF and BMF responses occurred despite the presence of high molecular risk mutations, which suggests the potential efficacy of combination navitoclax and ruxolitinib could be independent of underlying risk factors."

AbbVie presents positive investigational navitoclax combination data in phase 2 REFINE study suggesting anti-fibrosis activity for patients with myelofibrosis. AbbVie. April 12, 2022. Accessed April 13, 2022. 

https://news.abbvie.com/news/press-releases/abbvie-presents-positive-investigational-navitoclax-combination-data-in-phase-2-refine-study-suggesting-anti-fibrosis-activity-for-patients-with-myelofibrosis.htm

Navitoclax is an investigational, oral BCL-XL/BCL-2 inhibitor that is designed to activate programmed cell death in cancer cells.

Navitoclax Combination Shows Promising Anti-Fibrosis Activity in Patients with Myelofibrosis

Sufficient intake of vegetables has long been recommended as part of a balanced and healthy diet to lower the risk of a multitude of diseases. However, a new study conducted by the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the University of Bristol, did not find that a diet high in vegetables was effective in lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

The study authors noted that data gathered from prior research are inconsistent in illustrating the overall effect of vegetable consumption on CVD. However, the results from the current study, which was published in 

, show that higher consumption of cooked or uncooked vegetables is unlikely to affect the risk of CVD.

“The UK Biobank is a large-scale prospective study on how genetics and environment contribute to the development of the most common and life-threatening diseases. Here we make use of the UK Biobank’s large sample size, long-term follow-up, and detailed information on social and lifestyle factors, to assess reliably the association of vegetable intake with the risk of subsequent CVD,” said study co-author professor Naomi Allen, UK Biobank’s chief scientist, in a press release.

For the study, volunteers at the UK Biobank were interviewed from 2006-2010 about factors such as diet, lifestyle, medical, and reproductive history.

The investigators used the responses from 399,586 participants regarding their daily average consumption of uncooked versus cooked vegetables, analyzing the association with the risk of hospitalization or death from myocardial infarction, stroke, or major CVD. The investigators controlled for other potential confounding factors, such as socio-economic status and other dietary issues.

The study authors also sought to assess the potential role of “residual confounding,” which is whether other unknown factors or inaccurate measurement of known factors could cause a false statistical association between CVD risk and vegetable consumption.

The study found that the mean daily intake of total vegetables, raw vegetables, and cooked vegetables was 5.0, 2.3, and 2.8 heaped tablespoons per person, respectively. The risk of death from CVD was approximately 15% lower for those with the highest vegetable intake compared to the lowest vegetable intake.

However, this effect was significantly weakened when assessing other possible socio-economic, nutritional, and health- and medicine-related confounding factors. The study authors suggest that more precise measures of these cofounders may shed light on the residual effect of vegetable intake.

“This is an important study with implications for understanding the dietary causes of CVD and the burden of CVD normally attributed to low vegetable intake. However, eating a balanced diet and maintaining a healthy weight remains an important part of maintaining good health and reducing risk of major diseases, including some cancers. It is widely recommended that at least five portions of a variety of fruits and vegetables should be eaten every day,” said last author Dr Ben Lacey, an associate professor in the Nuffield Department of Population Health, in the press release.

Eating vegetables does not protect against cardiovascular disease, finds large-scale study. Frontiers. February 21, 2022. Accessed February 25, 2022. 

https://blog.frontiersin.org/2022/02/21/frontiers-nutrition-cardiovascular-disease-risk-vegetable-intake-does-not-protect/

Higher consumption of cooked or uncooked vegetables is unlikely to affect the risk of CVD.

Study Indicates Vegetable Consumption Does Not Protect Against Cardiovascular Disease

Primarily obstructive sleep apnea, also known as sleep disordered breathing, during pregnancy and in the years after delivery may be associated with an increased risk for hypertension and metabolic syndrome, according to the results of a new study.

The findings were published online in the 

American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

, the journal of the American Thoracic Society.

In the study, investigators conducted sleep apnea tests on 1965 women who were part of the Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers-to-be Heart Health Study and experiencing their first pregnancy. Additionally, they also tested 1222 women of the same study who were examined 2 to 7 years after delivery.

Investigators determined whether individuals were at increased risk for hypertension or metabolic syndrome.

“While epidemiologic data from cohorts of middle-aged and older adults indicate that sleep disordered breathing is associated with adverse cardiometabolic outcomes, less is known about how sleep-disordered breathing in pregnancy and in the post-delivery period impacts maternal health,” investigators from the UPMC Magee Womens Hospital said in a statement.

Sleep disordered breathing during pregnancy has been associated with a 2- to 3-fold increased risk for preeclampsia, which is persistent high blood pressure during pregnancy that can lead to serious health consequences, such as gestational diabetes.

Other adverse pregnancy outcomes are risk factors for later development of hypertension and metabolic disease for the mother.

Additionally, individuals with sleep apnea that persisted during pregnancy and during follow-up visits between 2 and 7 years after delivery had more than a 3-fold increased risk for incident hypertension and more than a 2-fold increased risk for metabolic syndrome compared with those who never participated in an abnormal sleep study.

Incident hypertension was defined as the first occurrence at any follow-up visit of diastolic blood pressure 90 mm HG or higher or systolic blood pressure 140 mm HG or higher.

“Our data also demonstrated a higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome and hypertension using a simple measurement of oxygen dips per hour of sleep,” Susan Redline, MD, MPH, who directs the Sleep Medicine Epidemiology program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, said in the statement. “These results suggest that use of simple oxygen monitoring devices may be useful for identifying women in pregnancy and in the post-delivery period at risk for adverse health outcomes and identifying women who may potentially benefit from treating sleep apnea.”.

Individuals in the study were tested both during pregnancy and 2 to 7 years later, each using the same model home sleep apnea test. Among other factors, sleep apnea tests measure the number of times an individual experiences breathing pauses and associated drops in oxygen levels.

The individuals were considered to have sleep apnea if they experienced 5 or more breathing pauses or drops in oxygen during their estimated sleep period.

“These data underscore the need to rigorously evaluate the role of screening and treating sleep apnea during pregnancy and in the post-delivery period as new strategies for early interventions aimed at improving long-term maternal health,” investigators said.

Sleep apnea in pregnancy associated with increased post-delivery risk of metabolic syndrome, hypertension. EurekAlert. News release. February 11, 2022. Accessed February 15, 2022. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/942602

Obstructive sleep apnea during pregnancy and in the years after delivery may be associated with an increased risk for hypertension and metabolic syndrome.

Sleep Apnea During Pregnancy Associated with Risk of Hypertension, Metabolic Syndrome

The World Health Organization Guideline Development Group of International Experts has recommended molnupiravir, an antiviral drug, for patients with non-severe COVID-19 who have a high risk of hospitalization.

Although patients with the highest risk of hospitalization typically include those who are unvaccinated, older people, and those with weak immune systems or chronic diseases, the panel recommends that young and healthy patients, including children and pregnant/breastfeeding women, should not be given the drug due to potential harms.

Molnupiravir is an antiviral medicine that works by stopping COVID-19 from spreading, and it can help prevent more severe symptoms developing if it is used as early as possible after infection.

The recommendation is based on new data from 6 randomized controlled trials involving 4796 patients, which is the largest dataset on this drug so far, according to the panel.

Evidence from existing trials suggests that molnupiravir reduces the risk of hospital admission (43 fewer admissions per 1000 patients at highest risk) and time to symptom resolution (which was on average 3.4 fewer days), whereas low certainty evidence suggests a small effect on mortality, which was 6 fewer deaths per 1000 patients.

Certain mitigation strategies were described by the panel that are needed at population level, such as pharmacovigilance and antiviral resistance monitoring, given concerns about genotoxicity, emergence of resistance, and new variants. 

However, there were no recommendations for patients with severe or critical illness since there are no trial data on molnupiravir for this population. Cost and availability issues associated with molnupiravir were also highlighted by the panel, which may make access to low- and middle- income countries challenging and exacerbate health inequity.

Further, in the same guidance update, the panel recommended a treatment combining 2 antibodies, casirivimab and imdevimab, to be used in people who are confirmed not to have the omicron variant.

The new guidance adds to previous recommendations for the use of baricitinib, interleukin-6 receptor blockers and systemic corticosteroids for patients with severe or critical COVID-19.

WHO recommends antiviral drug for patients with non-severe COVID-19 at highest risk of hospital admission. EurekAlert! March 2, 2022. Accessed March 10, 2022. 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/944989

Molnupiravir can help prevent more severe COVID-19 symptoms developing if it is used as early as possible after infection. 

Molnupiravir Recommended for Patients with Non-Severe COVID-19 at Highest Risk of Hospital Admission

Individuals with congenital heart defects who were hospitalized with COVID-19 infections were at higher risk for severe illness or death than those without heart defects, according to study results published by 

, the American heart Association’s journal.

Individuals with congenital heart defects who contracted COVID-19 infections were also more likely to need ventilators or require treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU), study results showed.

Those at the highest risk of the most severe COVID-19 infections were individuals who had heart defects in addition to another heart condition, being aged 50 years or older, or being men, the study showed.

Investigators examined data on individuals who were hospitalized with COVID-19 between March 2020 and January 2021, which was collected by the Premier Healthcare Database Special COVID-19 Release, a database representing approximately 20% of all United States hospitalizations.

Individuals with and without heart defects received care in the same hospitals, and investigators accounted for differences in age, ethnicity, health insurance type, race, and sex, as well as other high-risk conditions, including diabetes, Down syndrome, heart failure, obesity, and pulmonary hypertension.

During the study period, 235,638 individuals between aged 1 and 64years were hospitalized for COVID-19 and included in the study. Investigators divided the individuals into those who had congenital heart defects and those who did not.

In the 2 groups, investigators then determined how many individuals required admission to the ICU, needed a ventilator to help with breathing, or died. They also reviewed other characteristics, including other health conditions.

Of the individuals in the study, 421 had congenital heart defects.

Investigators found that among those with heart defects, approximately 73% were older than age 30 years, 61% were male, 55% were non-Hispanic white, 19% were Hispanic, and 16% were non-Hispanic Black.

Overall, approximately 68% of individuals with heart defects had at least 1 other health condition, compared with approximately 59% of those without congenital heart defects.

Additionally, approximately 54% of individuals with congenital heart defects were admitted to ICUs compared with 43% without.

Investigators also found that approximately 24% of individuals with congenital heart defects required ventilators compared with 15% without.

Approximately 11% of individuals with congenital heart defects died during hospitalization compared with 7% of those without.

Furthermore, investigators noted that individuals with congenital heart defects consistently remained at high risk for severe COVID-19 infection, even when divided into categories by age or other health conditions in the study.

“People with heart defects should be encouraged to receive the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters and to continue to practice additional preventive measures for COVID-19, such as mask-wearing and physical distancing. People with heart defects should also consult with their health care teams about additional steps to manage personal risks related to COVID-19, given the significantly increased risk of severe infection and serious complications,” Karrie Downing, MPH, an epidemiologist at the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities and the COVID-19 Response Team at the CDC, said in a statement.

A limitation of the study was that only individuals who were hospitalized with COVID-19 were included in the study, so clinical details about the underlying heart defects were not available.

Laboratory testing of COVID-19 also varied by hospital, and vaccination status was not considered in the study.

People with heart defects may be at greater risk for severe COVID-19 illness. EurekAlert. News release. March 7, 2022. Accessed March 7, 2022. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/945163

These individuals, who were also more likely to require treatment in the intensive care unit, should get their vaccines and booster shots, investigators say.

Heart Defects Linked to Higher Risk of Severe COVID-19 Illness, Study Results Show

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London found that common symptoms linked with Parkinson’s, such as tremor and memory problems, can appear up to 10 and 5 years before diagnosis, respectively. During their investigation, the researchers additionally uncovered 2 new early features of Parkinson’s, epilepsy, and hearing loss, and were able to replicate these findings using additional data from the UK Biobank.

Using electronic primary health care records, the team looked at over a million people living in East London between 1990 and 2018 to explore early symptoms and risk factors for Parkinson’s.

Previous studies about Parkinson’s have focused on affluent white populations, with patients from minority ethnic groups and those who live in areas of high social deprivation largely under-represented in Parkinson’s research to date. This recent study provides more evidence of risk factors and early signs of Parkinson’s, using data from urban populations.

Hypertension and type 2 diabetes were associated with increased odds of developing Parkinson’s, in addition to an observation of stronger connections between memory complaints within this population than previously described in East London.

“This is the first study focusing on the pre-diagnostic phase of Parkinson’s in such a diverse population with high socioeconomic deprivation but universal access to health care,” said lead study author Cristina Simonet, PhD, in a press release. “People from minority ethnic groups and deprived areas have largely been under-represented in Parkinson’s research up till now, but to allow us to get a full picture of the condition we need to ensure research is inclusive and represents all those affected.”

Study co-author Alastair Noyce, PhD, added that people see their GPs with symptoms but often don’t get a diagnosis until 5 to 10 years after, and diagnosing Parkinson’s earlier can provide a real opportunity to intervene early and offer treatments that could improve quality of life for patients.

“This study confirms that many of the symptoms and early features of Parkinson’s can occur long before a diagnosis,” Noyce said in a press release. “Through our ongoing PREDICT-PD research, we’re hoping to identify people at high risk of Parkinson’s even before obvious symptoms appear – which means that we could do more than just improve quality of life for patients, and perhaps be in the position to slow down or cure Parkinson’s in the future.”

New early signs of Parkinson’s uncovered in most diverse UK study to date. Queen Mary University of London. March 7, 2022. Accessed March 9, 2022. 

https://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2022/smd/new-early-signs-of-parkinsons-uncovered-in-most-diverse-uk-study-to-date--.html#

Early Signs of Parkinson's Disease Can Appear 5 to 10 Years Before Diagnosis

 interviewed April Kapu, DNP, a professor at the Vanderbilt School of Nursing, an acute care nurse practitioner based in Nashville, TN, and president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, on the future of the nurse practitioner workforce amid health care staffing burnout and the extreme fatigue and stress of the pandemic.

 With current strains on staffing numbers, have you seen more nurse practitioners need to step in and fill the roles of physicians who may be focusing on treating patients with COVID-19?

 So, nurse practitioners, like other health care workers, have been under sustained crisis mode for the last 2 years, going into the third year. We're kind of moving past our fifth wave, and it has been sustained adrenaline, sustained taxing on your physical being, your emotional wellbeing, and your mental wellbeing throughout.

I think that's for all health care workers but certainly NPs—they work right alongside physicians, so our NPs are seeing COVID-19 positive patients 24/7 in our ICUs. We opened additional ICUs to specifically treat COVID-19 positive patients, and those NPs are right there taking care of patients.

I think we've spent a lot of time talking about the physical exhaustion because of the staffing shortage because staff are out because of COVID-19 reasons, families with COVID-19, or we've just seen a lot of professionals leave the health care workforce because of burnout. We were in a staffing shortage before we even went into the pandemic because of all those things you're seeing people having to stay 12, 14, 16, 24, or more hours on the job caring for patients, working shift after shift. You may think you're going to take off for the weekend, but you're called in to come back and work, so multiple days in a row—so you see that physical exhaustion.

What we don't talk about as much is the mental and emotional exhaustion because these patients are sick and you're caring for these patients and you get to know the patients and the family, and as they get sicker and sicker, and they pass away, maybe you're coordinating final conversations with the family via Zoom—this is all new territory and it's very emotional. It takes a lot out of you because you're grieving just like the patient and the family and oftentimes you must work with those final conversations and the patient passes away and then you must just immediately move on to the next patient without having time to debrief or grieve.

So, this has been tough on everyone in the health care workforce. I don't know that people outside the hospital doors know that until they're in the hospital with their family and they see what's happening and just the tremendous stress that COVID-19 has brought to the inpatient environment.

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April Kapu, DNP, a professor at the Vanderbilt School of Nursing and president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, discusses the shifting roles and responsibilities of nurse practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Expanding Role of the Nurse Practitioner Shifts to Meet the Needs of the Pandemic

Individuals with a combination of high lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) and high coronary artery calcium scores (CAC) face more than a 20% risk of a heart attack or stroke over the subsequent 10 years, according to the results of a study by preventive cardiologists at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center.

"We are hopeful that by making the connection between Lp(a) and CAC as dual risk drivers, we can raise awareness in the medical community and improve earlier heart attack prevention for these patients," Parag Joshi, MD, associate professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern, said in a statement.

 "Our data may also expedite the development of treatments designed specifically for this high-risk population.”

Investigators, which also included some from Emory University, found that individuals with combined high Lp(a) and high CAC had about a 22% 10-year risk of heart attack or stroke compared with a 10% to 15% 10-year risk in individuals who had just 1 of the risk factors.

Individuals who had high Lp(a) and no CAC had the lowest 10-year risk of heart attack or stroke, while those who had low Lp(a) and high CAC had a higher-than-average 10-year risk of heart attack or stroke but lower than high Lp(a) CAC combined.

Journal of American College of Cardiology

 and will appear in the March print edition of the journal.

"Establishing the connection between Lp(a) and CAC means we can move to the important next phase of research, which will be defining and personalizing early screening protocols to identify patients at high risk of heart attack," Joshi said.

 "With further research, this could mean selectively scanning patients with high Lp(a) for their CAC score and studying therapies specifically designed to reduce Lp(a) among patients with high CAC."

The investigators confirmed the connection between Lp(a) and CAC by comparing data from 2 landmark cardiovascular trials.

The first trial was the Dallas Heart Study, which is a comprehensive, ongoing study of more than 6000 heart-healthy individuals. UT Southwestern conducted the study starting in 2000.

The second study was the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis, which included 6000 individuals, and investigated early stages of hardening of the arteries.

Approximately 1 in 6 individuals in the United States have high Lp(a), a type of bad cholesterol whose levels are driven primarily by genes, according to the statement.

CAC is a marker of plaque deposited around the heart.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common type of heart disease, and approximately 18.2 million individuals over aged 20 years have the condition, according to the CDC.

Approximately 2 in 10 deaths from CAD happen in adults who are younger than aged 65 years, according to the CDC.

1. High CAC, high cholesterol increase heart attack/stroke risk, cardiologists find. ScienceDaily. News release. February 23, 2022. Accessed March 3, 2022. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220223153349.htm

2.Heart disease facts. CDC. Updated February 7, 2022. Accessed March 3, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm

Patients with elevated high lipoprotein(a) and coronary artery calcium scores are at risk over the subsequent 10 years, findings from an analysis by cardiologists indicate.

High CAC, Cholesterol Increase Risk of Heart Attacks and Strokes, Study Results Show

New research has demonstrated that almost 1 in 5 people with ADHD experience clinically significant levels of hoarding, which could be linked to a hidden population of adults struggling with hoarding and its consequences. Clinically significant hoarding involves excessive accumulation, difficulties discarding and excessive clutter, and can lead to daily distress, depression, and anxiety,.

The study recruited 88 participants from an adult ADHD clinic operated by the Cambridge and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust; the study focused on differentiating from prior research that focused on older females who self-identify as hoarders and have looked for help later in life.

The results showed that 19% of this ADHD group displayed clinically significant hoarding symptoms and were on average 30 years of age, with an equal split between male and female genders. Among the 81% of the remaining study group participants, the researchers found a larger hoarding severity, but not to a point that significantly impaired their lives versus the control group.

Following the analysis of these findings, the researchers asked a closely-matched group of 90 adults without an ADHD diagnosis from the general population about ADHD symptoms and impulsivity, levels of hoarding and clutter, obsessive compulsive severity, perfectionism, depression and anxiety, and everyday functioning. These results showed only 2% of the control group exhibited clinically significant hoarding symptoms.

In a larger online sample of 220 UK adults, researchers replicated this analysis to see if similar patterns were found, and only 3% of adults from the general population without an ADHD diagnosis group exhibited hoarding symptoms.

"Hoarding disorder is much more than simply collecting too many possessions. People with diagnosed Hoarding Disorder have filled their living areas with so many items and clutter that it impacts their day-to-day functioning leading to a poorer quality of life, anxiety, and depression,” said Sharon Morein, PhD, associate professor in Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), in a press release.

Morein added that the findings also indicate that hoarding disorder should be routinely assessed in individuals with ADHD, as they do not typically disclose associated difficulties, despite these symptoms potentially impairing their everyday lives.

"Greater awareness amongst clinicians and people with ADHD about the link between ADHD and hoarding could also lead to more effective long-term management, as hoarding often gradually worsens with time,” Morein said in the press release.

ADHD linked to hoarding behavior. Science Daily. February 25, 2022. Accessed March 2, 2022. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220225135652.htm

Among the 81% of the remaining study group participants, the researchers found a larger hoarding severity, but not to a point that significantly impaired their lives versus the control group.

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