Pickleball boosts seniors' mood, drug could extend dogs' lives and boy needs life-saving liver

A FAMILY'S PLEA – A 10-year-old Pittsburgh boy needs a second liver transplant to save his life. Continue reading…

MIRACLE PREGNANCY – An Alabama woman with a rare double uterus and a "one in 50 million pregnancy" prepares to give birth to twins. Continue reading…

DOG YEARS – An anti-aging drug for dogs has moved closer to gaining FDA approval. Here's what pet owners should know. Continue reading…

SICKLE CELL BREAKTHROUGH – The FDA has approved a "remarkable" gene-editing treatment for sickle cell disease. Continue reading…

COGNITIVE COACHING – A health coach could help reduce seniors' risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, a new study suggests. Continue reading…

NET GAIN – Playing pickleball could slash stress and anxiety for seniors, among other benefits. Continue reading…

SLEEP INTERRUPTED – A sleep doctor weighs in on what to do – and what not to do – when you wake up at night and can't drift back off. Continue reading…

ORGAN AGING – A new blood test has been shown to predict which organs in the body are aging faster than others. Learn more about the findings. Continue reading…

TICKED OFF – A deadly Rocky Mountain spotted fever outbreak in California likely came from Mexico, CDC says. Continue reading…

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Excessive worry about health can lead to earlier death, Swedish study finds

A large Swedish study has uncovered a paradox about people diagnosed with an excessive fear of serious illness: They tend to die earlier than people who aren’t hypervigilant about health concerns.

Hypochondriasis, now called illness anxiety disorder, is a rare condition with symptoms that go beyond average health worries. People with the disorder are unable to shake their fears despite normal physical exams and lab tests. Some may change doctors repeatedly. Others may avoid medical care.

"Many of us are mild hypochondriacs. But there are also people on the other extreme of the spectrum who live in a perpetual state of worry and suffering and rumination about having a serious illness," said Dr. Jonathan E. Alpert of Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

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People with the disorder are suffering and "it’s important to take it seriously and to treat it," said Alpert, who was not involved in the new study. Treatment can involve cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation techniques, education and sometimes antidepressant medication.

The researchers found that people with the diagnosis have an increased risk of death from both natural and unnatural causes, particularly suicide. Chronic stress and its impact on the body could explain some of the difference, the authors wrote.

The study, published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry, addressed "a clear gap in the literature," said David Mataix-Cols of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who led the research. "We got lucky," he said, because the Swedish classification system for diseases has a separate code for hypochondriasis, allowing data analysis on thousands of people over 24 years, 1997-2020.

Older research had suggested the risk of suicide might be lower for people with the condition, but "our hunch, based on clinical experience, was that this would be incorrect," Mataix-Cols said. In the study, the risk of suicide death was four times higher for the people with the diagnosis.

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They looked at 4,100 people diagnosed with hypochondriasis and matched them with 41,000 people similar in age, sex and county of residence. They used a measurement called person years, which accounts for the number of people and how long they were tracked.

Overall death rates were higher in the people with hypochondriasis, 8.5 versus 5.5 per 1,000 person years. People with the condition died younger than the others, a mean age of 70 versus 75. Their risk of death from circulatory and respiratory diseases was higher. Cancer was an exception; the risk of death was about the same.

Referring an excessively anxious patient to mental health professionals takes care, said Alpert, who leads the American Psychiatric Association’s council on research. Patients can be offended, because they feel they're being accused of imagining symptoms.

"It takes a great deal of respect and sensitivity conveyed to patients that this itself is a kind of condition, that it has a name," Alpert said. "And, fortunately, there are good treatments."

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Pickleball helps boost seniors’ mental health, offering 'adaptability and accessibility,' survey finds

For many of today’s older adults, a pickleball paddle is the best medicine.

Beyond the physical benefits, the fast-growing sport is helping to improve seniors’ mental health, according to a new survey.

Carewell, a North Carolina-based company that supports caregivers, did a survey of 1,000 Americans about the impact pickleball has had on their psyche.

WHAT IS PICKLEBALL?

Nearly 70% of older adults reported reduced stress and anxiety after playing the sport, while 64% found the game to be "uplifting."

Half the seniors surveyed said they value the sense of community that comes with pickleball, and one in three experienced enhanced cognition and increased self-esteem.

"Overall, our study sheds light on a compelling shift in societal attitudes toward aging, fitness and family dynamics," James Campigotto, one of the researchers for Carewell, told Fox News Digital.

"The data proves the multifaceted impact of this sport on the well-being of seniors."

The game also provides seniors with the opportunity to spend time with younger family members.

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Around 36% of Gen Z and millennial players use physical activities like pickleball as a means to connect with their older family members, the survey found. 

"This not only challenges today’s narratives about digital disconnection but also emphasizes the power of shared experiences in strengthening family bonds," said Campigotto.

Pickleball is a paddle sport that dates back to 1965. 

MEET THE AMERICAN WHO FOUNDED PICKLEBALL, THE FASTEST GROWING SPORT IN THE NATION 

The game can be played with two or four participants (singles or doubles) on an indoor or outdoor court. 

The players use paddles to hit a hollow plastic ball back and forth over a 34-inch-high net while adhering to the rules of the game.

Laura Gainor, Florida-based founder of Vossberg Gainor, the world's first pickleball marketing agency, and Pickleball in the Sun, a lifestyle and leisure brand, noted that the pandemic played a pivotal role in the sport’s quick growth, as individuals sought outdoor activities that allowed for both recreation and social interaction. 

She was not involved in the new survey.

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"The surge in pickleball's popularity underscores its status as a sport that not only provides physical and mental well-being but also fosters a sense of community and connection, a testament to its enduring appeal across generations," she told Fox News Digital.

"The sport's adaptability and accessibility have made it an appealing choice for people of all ages."

Gainor added, "Seniors are able to visit their local pickleball courts easily as an individual and jump in on recreational games to be healthy and active and build social relationships."

Kristina Centenari, certified fitness coach at the San Francisco fitness equipment company Tonal, who also was not involved in the Carewell research, noted that pickleball is a "much more approachable" sport for seniors due to the smaller court and lighter-weight equipment.

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"And while it still requires some level of athleticism, pickleball is also usually played in doubles, which introduces a social element that many people who are new to fitness enjoy," she told Fox News Digital.

As pickleball’s popularity keeps growing, the sport also brings the potential for more injuries.

The most common misconception is that players think they can wear their everyday running shoes on the pickleball court, but that is causing doctors to see an increase in patients with leg and ankle injuries, Gainor warned.

"It is important for seniors to know that you should wear proper court shoes in order to have the support you need when making the side-to-side lateral movements on the courts," she told Fox News Digital.

Arnold Poblete, director of athletics and certified pickleball instructor at The Sporting Club at the Bellevue, a luxury fitness club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, recommends that seniors and players of all ages take the time to warm up properly before starting to play. 

Poblete was not part of the Carewell survey.

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"Do a dynamic warm-up of some bodyweight movements to prime your body for physical activity," he told Fox News Digital. "Also, know your limitations and cool down properly."

Centenari also emphasized the importance of incorporating strength training and mobility into seniors’ regular workout routines to help prepare for the physical demands of pickleball and prevent common injuries. 

Muscle tone declines approximately 1-2% every year after the age of 50, she told Fox News Digital.

"By training your major muscle groups and incorporating plyometrics for speed and conditioning, you’ll build your power, agility and resilience, boosting your performance and confidence on the court," said Centenari.

"Strengthening your muscles, tendons and joints through resistance training has been shown in multiple studies to reduce the risk of sports injuries for adults of all ages."

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Blood test may predict the organs in the body that are aging faster than normal, says Stanford study

A simple blood test could detect which organs are aging at an accelerated pace for people who otherwise appear healthy, according to a recent study published on Dec. 7 in the journal Nature.

Researchers from Stanford University Medicine found that roughly one in every five "reasonably healthy" adults aged 50 or older has at least one organ that is aging at a "strongly accelerated rate," which causes a higher risk of disease and death.

The blood test could help guide therapeutic interventions before symptoms appear, according to senior author Tony Wyss-Coray, PhD, the senior author of the study and a professor of neurology at Stanford Medicine in California.

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By looking at specialized proteins in a person’s blood, scientists could detect the biological age of an organ, even if the person appears healthy at the time, Wyss-Coray told Fox News Digital. 

That information could then predict the person’s risk for disease related to that organ.

Wyss-Coray compared it to an auto mechanic plugging a vehicle into a machine to get information about how the different car parts are functioning.

"This is basically what we do, but by looking at the concentration of these highly specialized proteins," he told Fox News Digital in an interview.

The research team — led by Stanford in collaboration with Washington University; the University of California, San Francisco; the Albert Einstein College of Medicine; and Montefiore Medical Center in New York — looked at blood samples from 5,678 people, focusing on proteins in the blood that are unique to specific organs. 

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"For example, because the brain is highly specialized, it uses very special proteins to maintain its function," Wyss-Coray said.

The team then created a model using an algorithm to detect the organs’ biological age.

"When we compared each of these organs’ biological age for each individual to their counterparts among a large group of people without obvious severe diseases, we found that 18.4% of those age 50 or older had at least one organ aging significantly more rapidly than the average," Wyss-Coray said in a news release from the university.

"These individuals were at a heightened risk for disease in that particular organ in the next 15 years."

Human organs age at different rates, lead authors Hamilton Oh and Jarod Rutledge, who are graduate students in Wyss-Coray’s lab, said in the Stanford news release.

Previous studies have examined ways to detect a person’s biological age through biomarkers, but the Stanford team took it a step further by determining scores for specific organs, including the heart, brain, kidney, liver, pancreas, lung, intestines, immune system and tissues. 

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The researchers used an algorithm that included organ-specific protein calculations and came up with an "age gap." That's the difference between an organ’s actual age and its estimated age based on the algorithm’s calculations, Wyss-Cross told Fox News Digital.

Age gaps were found for 10 of the 11 organs studied. An individual who had an accelerated-aging organ carried a 15% to 50% higher mortality risk over the next 15 years depending on which organ was affected, the study found.

Even for people who did not initially show any active disease or abnormal clinical biomarkers, an accelerated aging heart increased their risk of heart failure by 2.5 times, according to the study release.

Those considered to have "older" brains were 1.8 times as likely to show cognitive decline over five years, compared to those with "young" brains, the Stanford release noted.

Accelerated aging of the brain or vasculature (blood vessel) system also predicted risk for Alzheimer’s disease progression, according to the study.

There were also strong associations between an extreme-aging kidney score with diabetes and hypertension, as well as a link between an extreme-aging heart score and atrial fibrillation or heart attack, Wyss-Coray told Fox News Digital. 

A smaller number of individuals (1 in 60 people) had two organs that were aging at a faster pace. Their mortality risk was 6.5 times higher than a person without a significantly aged organ.

"If we can reproduce this finding in 50,000 or 100,000 individuals, it will mean that by monitoring the health of individual organs in apparently healthy people, we might be able to find organs that are undergoing accelerated aging in people’s bodies, and we might be able to treat people before they get sick," Wyss-Coray said in the release.

Another benefit of identifying accelerated organ aging is that it can help with drug repurposing, he noted.

"Let’s say you take a drug for heart disease and we saw that as a result, your lung gets younger," Wyss-Coray told Fox News Digital in the interview. "It could be another effect of that drug. Then maybe we can use that same drug to treat a lung disease."

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Identifying these proteins can also lead to new drug targets, Wyss-Coray added.

If proteins are shown to decline in people who get a disease, scientists could make more of them, for example — or other proteins could be inhibited if they are detrimental.

Dr. Anuradha Lala, M.D., an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist at Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital in New York City, was not affiliated with the study, but told Fox News Digital that the findings may help to increase organ donations. 

In heart transplant medicine, doctors typically select relatively younger, healthier donors to maximize the longevity of the transplanted organ, Lala noted.

"Yet the authors showed … that aging in one organ did not necessarily mean other organs age at the same rate," she told Fox News Digital. 

"Given the large number of patients awaiting life-saving transplantation of specific organs, being able to decipher which organs may indeed have better chances of doing well could theoretically increase the number of donor [hearts] available," Lala said. 

More research is needed into the implications of race, ethnicity and gender, as well as costs and access, she added.

Sean Clouston, PhD, a professor in the Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University in New York, was not involved in the study but commented on the research.

"This is a remarkably complicated but intuitive study that used exceptional measurements to examine aging separately across different organ systems," Clouston, who is also the director of public health research, said via email to Fox News Digital.

The study findings could help practitioners identify and treat many types of conditions, he added.

"This could mean that you could go to your doctor to do one blood test to monitor a huge array of conditions … and maybe they could act earlier to intervene for problems that are still only emerging."

Existing treatments, including those for Alzheimer’s disease, could also become much more effective, Clouston noted.

Two doctors from Northwell Health on Long Island, New York — Dr. Christine L. Sardo Molmenti, PhD, an associate professor and cancer epidemiologist, and Dr. Ernesto P. Molmenti, MD, Ph.D., surgical director of kidney transplantation — were not involved in the study but weighed in on the findings.

The findings "bring us closer to the concept of individualized and personalized medicine," they said in a joint statement to Fox News Digital.

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"They are able to identify, in a minimally invasive way, which organs will require immediate, intermediate and/or long-term therapeutic interventions," the doctors said.

"Once an organ has been identified as actively aging, it may allow for providing optimal medical care and improving prognosis and survival," they continued. 

"With our ultimate goal of intervening prior to the progression of disease, this approach also focuses on prevention as a promising strategy for reducing morbidity and mortality of several chronic diseases that are leading causes of death in this country."

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Can you reduce Alzheimer’s risk by seeing a health coach? Cognitive study suggests it’s possible

Just as a fitness trainer can help you build physical strength, could a health and lifestyle coach help you reduce the chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease?

A recent study led by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), suggested personalized coaching in health and lifestyle resulted in better cognitive scores, improved quality of life and reduced dementia risk.

Titled the Systematic Multi-Domain Alzheimer Risk Reduction Trial (SMARRT), the study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine on Nov. 27. 

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The data was collected from August 2018 to August 2022 and analyzed from October 2022 to September 2023.

A total of 172 older adults between 70 and 89 years of age who were already at high risk for dementia were placed in either a "personalized, multi-domain intervention group" or a control group that received no coaching.

The participants all exhibited at least two of eight risk factors for dementia, including sedentary lifestyle, poor sleep, uncontrolled hypertension, uncontrolled diabetes, current smoking status, depression, social isolation and use of prescription medications associated with a risk of cognitive decline.

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Before the study began, participants met with a health coach to choose the risk factors they wanted to improve. 

Over a two-year period, they met with their coach every few months to discuss their progress toward their goals.

Compared to the control group, the intervention group showed a 74% improvement in cognitive test scores at the end of the study period.

They also experienced a 145% improvement in dementia risk factors and an 8% increase in quality of life, the study found.

"This is the first personalized intervention, focusing on multiple areas of cognition, in which risk factor targets are based on a participant’s risk profile, preferences and priorities, which we think may be more effective than a one-size-fits-all approach," said first author and lead investigator Kristine Yaffe, M.D., vice chair of research in psychiatry at UCSF, in a press release from the university. 

"Not only did we find a significant reduction in risk factors, this is one of only a few trials that has shown a benefit in cognition that likely translates to lower dementia risk."

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Dr. Suhail Rasool, director of the neurology research group at California pharmaceutical company TrueBinding, was not involved in the SMARRT study but shared his input on the potential benefits of cognitive coaching.

"The ‘use it or lose it’ theory underpins the concept of brain training," he told Fox News Digital.

"According to a widely held belief, the more mentally demanding activities you engage in on a regular basis, the lower your risk of developing dementia or cognitive impairment as you age."

The theory is based on the observation that some people seem to have lower rates of dementia when they work complex jobs or engage in activities like crossword puzzles, puzzles or taking up new hobbies, Rasool noted. 

"Brain training games on computers have been created to test mental skills like reasoning, memory and problem-solving, abilities that can deteriorate or slow down with age."

Dr. Joseph Antoun, CEO and chairman of the board of L-Nutra Inc., a California nutri-technology company, was also not involved in the SMARRT study but shared his insights on the potential benefits of cognitive coaching.

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"Some studies have suggested that working regularly with a brain coach can aid in brain health and develop neuroplasticity, which is the ability of the brain to heal, grow new neurons and form synaptic connections in response to stimuli," he told Fox News Digital. 

"When coupling the stimulation received from a brain coach with other strategies, such as regular exercise, proper nutrition and quality sleep, the brain can start to repair itself." 

Stimulation through social interactions, learning a new hobby or even listening to music can also help aid brain repair, Antoun added.

"Treating the disease requires addressing many aspects of the body at one time, as you would when repairing holes in a roof, and the more holes you cover, the more success you have at fixing the problem," he said.

Heather M. Snyder, PhD, vice president of medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer’s Association in Chicago, Illinois, who was not involved in the SMARRT research, noted that lifestyle and behavioral interventions combining multiple components "show promise as a therapeutic strategy to protect brain health."

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Snyder pointed to a previous study from 2015, the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER).

"The FINGER study reported that a combination of physical activity, nutritional guidance, cognitive training, social activities and management of heart-health risk factors protected cognition in healthy older adults with an increased risk of cognitive decline," she told Fox News Digital. 

"There is an urgent need to expand this work to test the generalizability, adaptability and sustainability of the FINGER study's findings in geographically and culturally diverse populations worldwide."

Fox News Digital reached out to the SMARRT study authors for further comment on the findings.

Jessica Caldwell, PhD, director of the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement Prevention Center at Cleveland Clinic in Las Vegas, pointed out some potential limitations of using health coaching to prevent Alzheimer’s.

She was not involved in the new research.

"Coaching may not be possible for everyone at risk, as it could be expensive and we do not yet know how often or long coaching is needed," Caldwell told Fox News Digital. 

"In any case, coaching would not be expected to last forever, but health changes must be made for the long term."

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Caldwell also pointed out that before someone engages in major lifestyle changes, such as exercise and diet, it’s important to first check in with a doctor to be sure they are healthy enough for changes and to understand any possible risks. 

Although a full recovery is a "difficult thing to guarantee," said Antoun, practices like health coaching are most effective when used as a preventative measure or in the very early stages of cognitive decline.

In the future, study author Yaffe hopes that "treatment of Alzheimer’s and related dementias will be like cardiovascular disease management, with a combination of risk-reduction and specific drugs targeted for disease mechanisms."

Added Snyder of the Alzheimer’s Association, "It is possible to live well with Alzheimer's by taking control of your health and wellness and focusing your energy on the aspects of your life you find most meaningful."

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‘Remarkable’ gene-editing treatment for sickle cell disease is approved by FDA

Modern medicine is one step closer to potentially curing sickle cell disease.

On the heels of the U.K.'s authorizing the world’s first gene-edited treatment for sickle cell disease on Nov. 16, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the same treatment on Dec. 8.

"CASGEVY’s approval by the FDA is momentous," Reshma Kewalramani, M.D., chief executive officer and president of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston, said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.

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"It is the first CRISPR-based gene-editing therapy to be approved in the U.S."

"These approvals represent an important medical advance with the use of innovative cell-based gene therapies to target potentially devastating diseases and improve public health," said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, in the agency's press release. 

"Today’s actions follow rigorous evaluations of the scientific and clinical data needed to support approval," he also said "reflecting the FDA’s commitment to facilitating [the] development of safe and effective treatments for conditions with severe impacts on human health."

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The CASEVY treatment — also known as exa-cel, or exagamglogene autotemcel — uses technology that "edits" the genes that cause sickle cell disease.

To develop the drug, Boston-based Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics, which is based in Switzerland, used a gene-editing system known as CRISPR-Cas9 to turn genes on and off, according to the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America website.

"CASGEVY is a first-in-class treatment that offers the potential of a one-time transformative therapy for eligible patients with sickle cell disease," said Kewalramani.

The inventors of the CRISPR technology won the Nobel Prize in 2020.

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CRISPR stands for "clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats," which are repetitive sequences of DNA.

"The CRISPR technology [that is] being used with this treatment for sickle cell disease — a devastating inherited illness that profoundly affects survival and quality of life — is remarkable," Dr. Mikkael Sekeres, chief of the division of hematology of Sylvester Cancer Center at the University of Miami, told Fox News Digital.

He was not involved in the drug’s development.

"The data from the admittedly small study in support of the treatment’s approval by the FDA are impressive, and the therapy was thought safe by a panel of independent experts," Sekeres added.

The treatment is approved for people 12 and older with severe sickle cell disease who get recurrent pain syndromes known as vaso-occlusive crises, in which blood flow is blocked due to sickle cells.

The FDA also approved Lyfgenia, the first cell-based gene therapy for the treatment of sickle cell disease in people 12 years of age and older, per the agency’s press release.

Sickle cell disease is the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States, affecting an estimated 100,000 Americans, as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) noted on its website. 

It disproportionately affects people of Black or African ancestry.

Red blood cells, which are produced in the bone marrow, contain a protein called hemoglobin that helps carry oxygen throughout the body.

The cells are normally a round shape, which allows them to easily travel through small blood vessels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.

Patients with sickle cell disease inherit a gene mutation that produces abnormal hemoglobin, which makes it more difficult for the cells to move through the bloodstream, per the NIH.

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The diseased cells eventually get stuck in blood vessels, which blocks blood flow — sometimes leading to painful episodes (known as sickle cell crises), infection, acute chest syndrome or stroke, per the CDC.

The cells begin to take on the shape of the C-shaped farm tool known as a sickle, which led to the disease’s name.

While in utero, fetuses make a type of hemoglobin called fetal hemoglobin, which does not cause cells to sickle and has been shown to make sickle cell disease milder in those who have it.

After a baby is born, the BCL11A gene instructs the red blood cells to stop producing fetal hemoglobin. The gene is usually turned off within six months of birth, a Vertex spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

CASEVY works by targeting — and "turning off" — the BCL11A gene.

This enables continued production of fetal hemoglobin and significantly reduces the damage from sickle cells, according to Vertex. 

Although the treatment may not "cure" sickle cell disease, as patients will still have the sickle cell mutation, it could potentially eliminate most of the signs and symptoms, even if a small subset of the patient’s red blood cells continue to sickle, the Vertex spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

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To receive the treatment, patients will undergo a bone marrow transplant.

First, the patient will receive medication to help stem cells move from the bone marrow into the bloodstream. Next, the blood will be collected and the stem cells isolated.

The cells then will be shipped to a laboratory, where genetic technology will be used to edit their DNA.

The patient will then receive chemotherapy to destroy all potential stem cells, ideally, that could produce sickle cells in the future.

The edited cells then will be infused back into the patient under the monitoring of health care professionals, who will ensure that healthy cells are produced in the bone marrow.

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The FDA recommends that patients be monitored for health issues for 15 years after treatment.

More research is needed to determine the treatment’s long-term effectiveness, experts say.

It’s unclear whether the treated stem cells will continue to produce red blood cells that don’t sickle for the rest of the patient’s life, or if the cells will die off after a certain number of years, the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America cautioned on its website.

As the patients also receive chemotherapy, potential adverse effects could include infertility, secondary cancer or infectious complications.

The cost of the therapy and eligibility restrictions may also limit who can receive it.

The treatment could cost millions of dollars per patient, according to recent reports.

"The million-dollar question is how people with the disease will be able to afford this life-altering treatment, and how the health care system can sustain such costs," Sekeres told Fox News Digital.

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What is compression therapy and how does it help certain medical conditions?

Compression therapy, in which pressure is applied to certain areas of the body, has been proven to help with specific medical issues and is relatively easy to use. 

"Compression for lower extremities helps prevent or decrease swelling seen in the lower legs or when the legs are in a dependent position, sitting or standing," Danielle Bajakian, M.D., a vascular surgeon at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, told Fox News Digital. 

Here's a deeper dive and what to know.

Compression therapy can be used to help improve blood flow and decrease perceived muscle soreness related to exercise and activity.

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That's according to Chicago-based Leo Arguelles, PT, DPT, a spokesperson with the American Physical Therapy Association. 

"It is most commonly used in the case of sleeves worn on the lower legs, but it can also be used for the upper extremities," he said.

He said types may include:

Dr. Bajakian of Columbia University said patients who most commonly benefit from this are those with venous insufficiency or deep vein thrombosis.

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Others who can benefit: pregnant women in their second and third trimester, when their blood volume increases; patients with lymphedema (a build-up of lymph fluid in the fatty tissues just under the skin); and patients with heart failure or other medical conditions that prevent venous return, resulting in leg edema.

For most patients with mild symptoms, OTC compression clothing works well, Dr. Bajakian said. 

"The keys to effective compression garments are compliance and fit," she added. 

For a compression garment to work, the fit needs to be snug. 

For socks, there are usually sizing guidelines for calf circumference and leg length from knee to ankle, she said. 

"They should fit tightly around the ankle and looser as they get higher toward the knee," Dr. Bajakian noted. 

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"Regarding compliance, over the counter brands offer an array of styles and fabrics that work with different lifestyles," she also noted. "I often see better compliance with those than a medical grade compression garment."

She clarified that for patients with severe symptoms or diagnoses such as lymphedema, medical-grade compression garments are essential.

Sunil Iyer, M.D., FACC, an interventional cardiologist and vascular medicine specialist with Novant Health Heart & Vascular Institute in Wilmington, North Carolina, told Fox News Digital that for people who are on their feet for long periods of time — or who are going for long car rides or airplane rides — graduated compression stockings can help with the swelling and discomfort that may come from the blood pooling in the ankles. 

"This can even help varicose veins not to form or not to be as engorged and painful," Dr. Iyer said. 

Compression stockings are part of the treatment, he said. 

In addition, walking and exercising the legs, especially the calf muscles, can help with venous insufficiency as well, he said. 

"Diet is also important. Patients may note that the swelling is worse after they drink a lot of fluids or eat a lot of salt," he said.

For patients with minimal medical problems who are looking to improve vein health, there is no need to consult a physician prior to buying compression stockings, said Dr. Bajakian.

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"However, patients who are at risk of blood clots or who have unexplained leg swelling should seek out a doctor for a workup," she said. 

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