Homepage Round-Up: Cutting Carbs to Fight Diabetes; Link Between Family History of Cancer and Childhood Asthma; and More

Here are the top stories covered by DocWire News this week in the Homepage section. In this week’s edition of the round-up: for people at high risk for developing psychosis, poor function outcomes are linked with negative emotion recognition; a low-carb diet is effective at lowering blood sugar levels in diabetic patients; there exists a link between a family history of cancer and childhood asthma; and people who frequently use marijuana are at an increased risk of stroke, and individuals diagnosed with cannabis use disorder are more likely to be hospitalized for heart arrhythmia.

For individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for developing psychosis, poor functional outcomes are associated with baseline abnormalities in recognizing negative emotion, according to the findings of a study published in JAMA Psychiatry. “In this study, poor functional outcome in individuals at CHR was found to be associated with baseline abnormalities in recognizing negative emotion,” the researchers wrote. “This finding has potential implications for the stratification of individuals at CHR and suggests that interventions that target socioemotional processing may improve functional outcomes.”

Group medical visits (GMVs) in conjunction with weight management (WM) using a low-carb diet is effective at lowering blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes patients, according to the findings of a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The authors wrote that: “In GMVs for diabetes, addition of WM using a low-carbohydrate diet was noninferior for lowering HbA_1c levels compared with conventional medication management and showed advantages in other clinically important outcomes.”

There may exist a link between a family history of cancer and childhood asthma diagnosis, according to the findings of a study being presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting in Houston, TX. “If a parent knows there is a family history of cancer, they should be sure to tell their pediatrician and allergist, as an extra effort at asthma screening could be valuable in diagnosing and treating childhood asthma,” one of the study authors said.

People who frequently use marijuana are at an increased risk of stroke, and individuals diagnosed with cannabis use disorder are more likely to be hospitalized for heart arrhythmia, according to two preliminary studies that will be presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2019, taking place November 16-18 in Philadelphia, PA. “The risk of cannabis use linked to arrhythmia in young people is a major concern, and physicians should ask patients hospitalized with arrhythmias about their use of cannabis and other substances because they could be triggering their arrhythmias,” according to one of the study researchers.