Yoga may help you quit tobacco

Practising yoga could significantly improve a tobacco addict’s chances of quitting by almost 50 percent. It can also reduce anxiety, depression, and other psychological factors linked with addiction, according to a review by researchers at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.

The systematic review and meta-analysis, conducted by researchers from AIIMS’ Centre for Integrative Medicine and Research and Centre for Community Medicine, was published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research (July). The review was authored by doctors Shruti Singh, Dhanlika Dhanlika, Partha Haldar, and Gautam Sharma of AIIMS-Delhi, who analysed data from seven randomised controlled trials involving 629 participants from the US, India and Thailand. Five of these studies were included in the meta-analysis.

Tobacco addiction is a major public health challenge globally, causing an estimated 8.7 million deaths every year. Despite strong desire among many users to quit, relapse rates remain high, even among those using conventional cessation therapies.

“The findings of the review suggest that yoga can serve as a moderately effective (approx. 50 percent) intervention for tobacco cessation,” say the authors.

Energy drinks consumption raises risk of heart diseases

Energy-boosting drinks — popular among teenagers and young adults — may carry hidden risks for heart health, according to a new review from the American Heart Association. Researchers cautioned that highly concentrated caffeine products, including energy drinks and caffeine shots, can trigger a sharp spike in blood pressure and irregular heart rhythms, especially in people with existing health concerns.

The review also found that caffeine itself is not always harmful when consumed in moderate amounts. Up to 400 milligrams of caffeine a day — about three to five cups of regular black coffee — is considered safe for most healthy adults and may even be linked with lower risk of heart disease, stroke, heart failure, and type 2 diabetes. The impact of caffeine depends on the source, amount consumed, and a person’s overall health, researchers noted.

“People respond very differently to caffeine based on age, medication, underlying health conditions, genetics and how quickly their bodies metabolize it. What may be a reasonable amount for one person could cause palpitations or sleep disruption, in another. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to how your body responds to caffeine and talk with your healthcare team about what is right for you,” says Gregory M. Marcus, professor of medicine at the University of California.

GLP-1 diabetes drugs raise risk of hair loss

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs including Ozempic and Mounjaro may marginally raise the risk of hair loss in people with type 2 diabetes, say a study published in the British Medical Journal (July). Compared with two other common classes of diabetes medications, GLP-1 users developed alopecia more often, though the absolute risk is still low.

To investigate, researchers of the University of Pennsylvania analyzed electronic health records of 12,000 patients treated between January 2019 and September 2024 from the University of Pennsylvania Health System (Penn Medicine). They compared alopecia rates among adults with type 2 diabetes who began treatment with GLP-1, sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT-2), or dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) drugs. “Our findings extend previous research and provide more systematic evidence to generate clinical awareness of this potential adverse effect,” concluded the researchers.

One in five Indian teens vulnerable to substance abuse

A study published in The Lancet Regional Health-Southeast Asia (July) that examined over 6,000 teenagers from across 108 Indian schools has found that over a fifth might be at moderate-to-high risk of substance abuse. The study was conducted in government and private schools across six districts — Gorakhpur, Kamrup, Nagpur, Rajkot, Deoghar, and Puducherry.

“Overall, 21.4 percent of adolescents were reported as having moderate (or) high substance use risk, including 10.3 percent with moderate risk and 11.1 percent with high risk. The remaining 78.6 percent were reported as low risk,” say the authors, including those from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Gorakhpur and Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry.

Schools from Guwahati and Deoghar were found to have the highest proportion of adolescents in the high and moderate-risk categories, while those in Nagpur and Puducherry were characterised by predominantly low-risk profiles.