Harvard Health Content API

Advice and encouragement from text messages may help people quit smoking, a review of research suggests. The study was done by the Cochrane Collaboration. This is an independent group that offers expert review of medical research on various topics. In this case, the reviewers looked at 5 earlier studies. They included about 9,000 people. All of the studies randomly divided people into 2 groups. One group received regular text and/or video messages to help them quit smoking. The other group received a different form of support. People in this group got occasional phone calls or texts. After 6 months, people who received the text or video messages were more likely to be still not smoking. In the largest study, involving 6,000 people, about 9% of those in the text group were still not smoking after 6 months. About 4% of those who did not receive texts were smoke-free.

If a rash returns after you’ve been treated for Lyme disease, chances are it’s a new infection, a new study suggests. Lyme is caused by bacteria that are transmitted by tick bites. Taking antibiotics cures most people. But for some the symptoms don’t go away or return. The new study included 17 people who had been treated for Lyme disease. Then the distinctive “bull’s eye” rash came back, in some cases up to 3 times. Skin or blood samples were taken after each rash appeared. They all showed Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, the type that causes Lyme disease. In the new study, researchers looked more closely. They did a genetic analysis of the samples. In each case, the bacteria that caused the first outbreak and later outbreaks were different strains. That means there was a new infection, not a return of the old infection. The rash also appeared at a different spot when it returned.

In a new survey, about 2 out of 3 smoking parents who don’t allow smoking at home said they do allow it in the car. Among those who don’t have a no-smoking policy in the car, half allow smoking even when children are riding.. Researchers were surprised by the results. They said it shows people don’t realize that smoke in the car, and even the residue of past smoking, can harm children. Researchers interviewed about 800 smokers who had brought their children to a doctor’s office. About 3 out of 4 said that someone had smoked in their car in the last 3 months. About 1 out of 4 said they had a strict no-smoking policy for the car. Only about 12% said their child’s doctor had urged them not to allow smoking in the car. The journal Pediatrics published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it November 12.

For most people, fasting might not be necessary before cholesterol tests, a new study suggests. These blood tests usually measure 4 things: LDL (“bad cholesterol”), HDL (“good cholesterol”), total cholesterol and triglycerides. The standard practice is to fast (avoid eating and drinking) for at least 8 hours before the test. The new study looked at laboratory data for more than 200,000 people who had these tests done. Some people had fasted before the tests. Others had eaten recently. Researchers found that levels of total and HDL cholesterol varied only about 2% based on whether a person fasted or not. LDL levels varied less than 10%. Triglycerides varied the most, but still less than 20%. The journal Archives of Internal Medicine published the study. A commentary published in the journal said the results show that doctors may be able to use non-fasting tests for many patients.

A couple of cups of coffee may help our brains process some words faster, a small experiment suggests. But we only get the message faster if the words are emotionally positive. The study included 66 healthy young men. They were told to consume no caffeine, nicotine or alcohol in the 12 hours before the experiment. The men were randomly divided into 2 groups. One group took a tablet containing 200 milligrams of coffee, about the amount in 2 to 3 cups of coffee. Each person in the other group received a placebo (fake) pill. Half an hour later, the men were given tests that involved being shown a series of real and invented words. They had to press buttons to indicate whether a word was real or not. Men who took the caffeine pills did this faster and more accurately for words with a positive emotional connotation.