Do city lights mean more mosquito bites? Plus, heart structure may change in sedentary teens, and more health news

Mosquitoes appear to be affected by artificial light at night, but whether that’s a good or bad thing is an open question.

New research finds that urban light pollution may disrupt the winter dormancy period of the mosquitoes that transmit the West Nile virus.

That could be good because they may not fatten up in winter, which could affect their survival. And it could be bad because they might just extend their biting season further into the fall.

The Ohio State University researchers noted that Ohio has the highest levels of West Nile virus transmission in late summer and early fall.

Be forewarned: High blood pressure in your 30s may lead to poorer brain health in your 70s.

A new study suggests that treating the condition in young and middle-aged adults may help prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s disease later on, especially in men.

For the study, researchers examined brain scans of older adults who had high blood pressure in their 30s. They were compared to older adults with normal blood pressure.

Those in the high blood pressure group had two key markers associated with dementia — significantly lower regional brain volumes and worse white matter integrity.

Forcibly moving homeless people away from their encampments is a widespread practice in the United States. And it may be killing them.

A new study found significant spikes in deaths, overdoses and hospitalizations with involuntary displacement of the homeless.

These forced movements contribute to 15% to 25% of deaths in this population over 10 years, according to researchers.

“Our research shows that these widespread practices that forcibly displace people are clearly impacting the health of this population, particularly when it comes to increasing their overdose risk, so much so that it actually decreases the life expectancy of the entire population,” said co-author Dr. Josh Barocas, associate professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Your toddler may be going through a phase of nail-biting that might be driving you crazy.

While biting or picking at one’s nails is a common behavior in children (50% do it) and many will stop biting their nails on their own, some do not.

There are several reasons you may see your toddler picking his nails, according to Nationwide Children’s. These include anxiety, copying someone else, nails that are too long, or boredom. Some may even bite their nails to provide extra stimulation for their brains.

For many children, nail-biting does not cause problems. However, Dr. Cindy Gellner, a pediatrician from the University of Utah, said in a recent podcast, “In some cases, nail-biting may cause a bacterial infection called paronychia [skin infections around the nails].”

Too much sedentary time among adolescents may increase their heart size, according to a study published online April 10 in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports.

Andrew O. Agbaje, M.D., M.P.H., from the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio, used data from 530 adolescents (aged 17 years) participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, U.K. birth cohort.

Agbaje found that higher sedentary time was associated with higher left ventricular mass indexed for height2.7 (LVMI2.7) among females, but higher sedentary time was associated with lower left ventricular diastolic function in males.

The national and public health emergencies for COVID-19 officially ended Monday after President Joe Biden signed a Republican-backed bill to end the emergency a month earlier than planned.

The White House had earlier said the legislation would “create wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system — for states, for hospitals and doctors’ offices, and, most importantly, for tens of millions of Americans,” CBS News reported.

The national emergency was first declared by former President Donald Trump in March 2020. It allowed for federal funding to go to cities and states for COVID testing and vaccinations.

It’s not new for young people to develop an interest in their favorite pop singer or actor, but it can be problematic if that adoration turns toxic.

It’s easier than ever to get lost in a celebrity’s carefully curated image via social media posts, according to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, which offers some tips for when fandom goes too far.

“Artists may do things that encourage people to get to know them better, so when they start giving people a peek into their lives and creating a persona that their fans can emotionally invest in, they get more people interacting with their work and also gain prestige and make more money,” explained Dr. Laurel Williams, an associate professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor.