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TUESDAY, March 17, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- You're a little feverish, but you feel good enough to get your shopping done and a quick workout at the gym. If you do, you could become part of the exponential spread of the coronavirus, a new study concludes. About 86% of COVID-19 cases in China were milder and went undetected during the two-week ramp-up of the epidemic in January, prior to the country imposing travel restrictions, researchers conclude in the March 16 issue of Science. These undocumented cases of infection were "about half as infectious per person as a documented case who has more severe symptoms and may be shedding more," said senior researcher Jeffrey Shaman. He's a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, in...

MONDAY, March 16, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The Trump Administration on Monday ramped up its coronavirus "social distancing" advisory to now discourage gatherings of 10 or more people. Hours later, about 7 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area were ordered to shelter in their homes. Residents were instructed to only leave for "essential" reasons, such as going grocery shopping, going to the bank, using gas stations and going to pharmacies, CNN reported. By far the strictest social distancing measure in the United States at this point, the order mirrors many of those already in place across Europe. ""We know these measures will significantly disrupt people's day to day lives, but they are absolutely necessary," San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in a statement. "This is...

MONDAY, March 16, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Cannabidiol -- commonly known as CBD -- might not be all it is touted to be, new research suggests. Instead, existing evidence on the potential benefits of the compound found in marijuana and hemp has often been backed by industry, scientists said. The researchers found that of 99 human CBD studies done since 2014, about 62% had some conflict of interest -- including industry funding, or a study author employed by a company that markets CBD products. And those studies were more likely to reach positive conclusions, versus research with no industry ties. The findings are not surprising, experts said. It's known from drug studies that industry funding is linked to a greater likelihood of positive results. But at a time when CBD is showing...

TUESDAY, March 17, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Can a self-help strategy built on daily expressions of gratitude keep depression and anxiety at bay? Don't count on it, researchers say. That's the takeaway from a review of 27 studies involving nearly 3,700 participants. Each study focused on the impact of so-called "gratitude interventions" -- such as "Three Good Things," in which people reflect on three things that went well that day, or a "gratitude visit," in which a person writes a thank you letter and reads it aloud. The conclusion: Neither self-help strategy did much to help participants feel less anxious or depressed. "Ultimately, I think these results suggest that depression and anxiety are complex indeed," said study co-author David Cregg, a doctoral candidate in psychology at...