Utah becomes 1st state to ban fluoride in drinking water

(NEW YORK) — Longer periods of extreme heat has been found to accelerate biological age in older adults by up to two years, according to new research.

More heat days over time correlated with deterioration at the molecular and cellular level in adults 56 years or older, likely because the biological deterioration accumulates over time and eventually leads to disease and disability, Eunyoung Choi, a postdoctoral associate at the University of California’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, told ABC News.

Researchers at the University of Southern California studied blood samples from 3,686 adults starting at an average chronological age of 68 years with varying socioeconomic backgrounds across the U.S. and compared epigenetic aging trends to the number of extreme heat days in the participants’ places of residence, according to a study published Wednesday in Science Advances.

“Epigenetic age is one way we measure biological aging, which tells us how well our body is functioning at the physical, molecular and the cellular levels,” Choi said. “…We know that some people seem to age faster than others, and that’s because biological aging doesn’t always match chronological age.”

Regression modeling showed that more heat days, or longer-term heat, over one and six years increased biological age by 2.48 years. Short and mid-term heat also increased biological age by 1.07 years, according to the paper.

Extreme heat was defined as the daily maximum heat index — derived from both temperature and humidity — with a “caution” range of between 80 degrees to 90 degrees Fahrenheit and an “extreme caution” range of between 90 degrees and 103 degrees Fahrenheit, in accordance with the National Weather Service, according to the paper. “Extreme danger” was defined as any heat index level over 124 degrees Fahrenheit.

The researchers compared the epigenetic age of participants from regions with long periods of extreme heat to those living in cooler climates. There was a 14-month difference in epigenetic age between residents living in places like Phoenix, Arizona, than milder places like Seattle, even after accounting other individual and community-level differences, like income, education, physical activity and smoking, Choi said.

“Two people that had identical sociodemographic characteristics and similar lifestyles, just because one is living in a hotter environment, they experience additional biological aging,” she said.

The 14-month differences is comparable to effects seen with smoking and heavy alcohol consumption — two well-established risk factors of accelerated biological aging, the researchers found.

DNA methylation — the process of chemical modification to DNA that tends to change as people age — is “highly responsive” to environmental exposures like social stress, pollution and, in this case, extreme heat, Choi said.

Previous research has linked extreme heat to serious health risks like cardiovascular disease, kidney dysfunction, hospitalization and even death, Choi said. But prior to this research, scientists did not fully understand what is occurring at the biological level before those health issues appear, Choi added.

“The physical toll of the heat might not show up right away as a diagnosable health condition, but it could be taking a silent toll at the cellular and the molecular level,” Choi said.

It’s important to uncover potential hidden effects of heat on the body because it can serve as an “important precursor” before they turn into more serious health conditions, Choi said.

“We can intervene at the earlier stage,” she added.

Humidity also plays a big role in how the body responds to heat, especially for older adults, Choi said.

“As we age, our bodies don’t cool down as rapidly,” she said.

The new research provides a foundation for the development of targeted public health interventions, the researchers said.

“This provides strong evidence critical for guiding public policy and advocacy initiatives aimed at developing mitigation strategies against climate change,” Choi said.

ABC News Medical Unit’s Dr. Jessica Yang contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A personalized mRNA vaccine may reduce the risks of pancreatic cancer returning after surgery, according to a preliminary study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive cancers, with a typical survival rate of only about a year after the diagnosis according to the study.

While the findings are encouraging, the vaccine is still in early testing and will likely take years before it becomes widely available — assuming ongoing trials continue to show success, according to Dr. Vinod P. Balachandran, lead investigator of the trial and senior author of the study.

In this small, preliminary trial of 16 patients, half had a strong immune response to the vaccine. Most of these responders remained cancer-free for more than three years, much longer than those who didn’t respond.

The vaccine works by training specialized immune system cells, known as T cells, to recognize and attack the cancer.

Researchers couldn’t track tumor shrinkage because all patients had surgery to remove visible cancer before vaccination. However, they found that the vaccine produced long-lasting T cells that may keep fighting cancer for years.

“This is one way through which you can make lots of T cells, and you can make these T cells such that they can persist for a long time in patients and retain their function,” Balachandran said.

Balachandran said “to be able to get an immune response has been very challenging,” especially when an illness like pancreatic cancer typically does not respond to vaccines, which highlights the significance of these findings.

A larger trial is now underway to confirm the results. If successful, this approach could lead to new ways to treat or even prevent pancreatic and other advanced cancers.

Overall, Balachandran said this study can “provide some important clues on how you would be able to develop vaccines more broadly for other cancers.”

“Hopefully this information that we will learn from these clinical trials will give us information to know apply vaccines in other settings, such as primary prevention, meaning preventing cancers from occurring even before they occur, with vaccines or perhaps also using it to treat patients who have more advanced disease,” Balachandran said.

-Suhas Kochat, MD, contributed to this report

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(NEW YORK) — Celebrities are increasingly opening up about reversing cosmetic procedures and swearing off dermal fillers, but some have discovered it can come with unexpected consequences.

“Friends” actress Courteney Cox spoke about removing her fillers on the “Gloss Angeles” podcast in 2023.

“I was just doing too many fillers and then having to have them removed which, thank God they are removable, but I think I’ve messed — I messed up a lot and now, luckily, I can, you know, I was able to reverse most of that,” the 60-year-old said.

“IMPACT x Nightline: Facelift: After Fillers?” streams on Hulu beginning Jan. 23.

Reality TV star Lala Kent known for “Vanderpump Rules” discussed her change of heart with BravoTV.com.

“I wanna stop with the lips, I wanna stop with the fillers, you know, it’s just enough is enough,” the 34-year-old said. “I’m starting to look at the comments and compare photos, I’m not about it anymore.”

In 2023, model Blac Chyna told “Impact x Nightline” about how losing weight prompted her to have cosmetic work reversed at age 34.

“As I started to slim down, my features started to really come out, like my cheekbones and everything. So with all the filler, that started to really protrude out now that my face has become slimmer,” she said. “It served its purpose, like I’m just, I’m cutting ties with it so I can move on to the next chapter in my life.”

UK beauty influencer and podcaster Ashley Stobart shares her reflections on cosmetic procedures with followers on her podcast “Nip, Tuck, Not Giving A…” She got nonsurgical injections of lip filler when she was 18 — the earliest age it’s legal to do so in her country.

“It was just that quick fix I needed for maybe loss of volume, wanting bigger lips, bigger cheeks, the jaw filler, the chin filler, the nose filler,” she told ABC News. “I was having all the filler.”

Hyaluronic acid, which is commonly used for fillers, is a gel-like substance that’s injected into spaces to give an appearance of plumpness, according to ABC News medical correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton.

He noted that the internet is flooded with ads for med spas offering seemingly cheap deals on fillers and Botox.

“When you scroll online, you see advertisements for things like fillers — that should be a red flag,” Sutton said. “When you see people looking for customers, aka patients, trying to do procedures that they may not be fully skilled in doing, selling it at a discount, you know, these should be red flags.”

These injectables are sometimes described as dissolving over time, but Sutton said this isn’t always the case.

“We’re learning more and more that many of these substances are persistent in people’s bodies for longer than they may think,” he said. “And that exposes people to risks that we are only beginning to understand.”

When Stobart got pregnant, it meant she took a break from topping up her filler. Then she realized it hadn’t worn off.

“There were just multiple layers of treatments that I had accumulated over the years,” she said. “I’m looking bigger and puffier than ever.”

She decided to get her fillers reversed, but dissolving more than a decade’s worth of substances she had in her face left her with sagging skin. So she opted to get a face-lift at age 34.

She’s not alone. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons said that while the overwhelming majority of facelifts are still among people over 50, their members have observed an increase among people in their 40s and younger.

Even though Stobart had some of her fillers removed already, she said the face-lift surgery was grueling.

“They found a lot of hyaluronic acid, or remnants of some injectable at some point that I had had. They were pushing it out for hours,” she told ABC News. “I was in surgery for 9.5 hours in total. That wasn’t anticipated because when he opened everything up, it turned out there was still a lot left in there.”

Dr. Darien Sutton warned that the face is among the most complicated areas in the body due to the composition of blood vessels, nerves. and muscles, so the surgery requires expertise.

“The risk of complication is so high, and the risk of disfigurement is so high, that you have to make sure you’re doing it with someone who knows exactly what they’re doing,” he said.

Some people in their 20s and 30s are also sharing their surgical lift stories on social media. Ryan Joers is 26 years old, and started his cosmetic journey almost a decade ago with fillers.

“I had always seen on social media, other influencers,” he told ABC News. “Kylie Jenner, at that time was, I think, 16 years old, getting her lips done, and just seeing that kind of noise everywhere, seeing the influencers apply products to their lips that were beautiful and full was a big motivator.”

In the years that followed, Joers enjoyed being able to address perceived imperfections with filler. However, that changed when he was around 22.

“That was when I would smile — I didn’t see anything other than my lips,” he said. “I would see photos and videos of myself and just see lips.”

He acknowledged that he didn’t fully understand how fillers work when he first started getting them.

“Our knowledge on fillers was not what it was today, it was ‘fillers aren’t permanent.’ So you need more, you need more, you need more,” he said. “So I never really got the opportunity at first to understand different types of filler, how they interact differently in the body.”

After that, Joers began to undo what he had spent thousands of dollars and years of his life doing. He had some of his fillers dissolved and got a rhinoplasty, which is a plastic surgery that reshapes the nose. Then, at 25, he got a brow and eye lift.

“It was an interesting landscape, being, you know, a younger man — it comes with a lot of judgment from plastic surgeons,” he said. “You have to admit to someone not only that you made mistakes, but that you’re not happy with the way you look. And that’s a very vulnerable thing with anyone, whether it’s a friend or a doctor.”

Joers believes surgical lifts were his best option due to the limitations of the nonsurgical options available at med spas.

“I’m happier now with the way my face looks, given that surgery was an intervention or an option of altering my chin, altering my nose, altering my face in a way that naturally would have not been possible or achievable through a med spa procedure,” he said.

He hasn’t been afraid to be open and vulnerable about his journey, posting about his recovery and before-and-after shots on TikTok. His videos have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, and he hopes telling his story will help those who are just starting their cosmetic journeys.

“I’m grateful for my experience, even the bad of it, because that’s how I got here,” he said. “Through that, I was able to learn and make better decisions when it came to permanent solutions.”

Having followed a similar path, Ashley Stobart told ABC News she hopes others learn from her story.

“I would just say, don’t rush into anything unless you’re 100% sure and you understand all of the pros and cons,” she said.

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