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WEDNESDAY, June 29, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- A yearly flu shot may do more than protect you from a nasty bout of influenza: New research suggests it may help guard against Alzheimer’s disease as well.People who were vaccinated at least once over four years were 40% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s during that period, the study found."It might be that by preventing the infection or reducing the severity of infection, we're mitigating the damage that influenza can cause in the brain, especially in those 65 and older," said lead author Dr. Avram Bukhbinder, a resident in the Division of Child Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston."An interesting piece of this puzzle is that it's not just the influenza vaccine that seems to have this protective effect on Alzheimer's...

WEDNESDAY, June 29, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- New research confirms the dangers of too much screen time for kids and teens: Those who play sports, take music lessons, or socialize with friends after school are happier and healthier than children who are glued to a screen during these hours."Screen time, where you are sitting and watching TV or playing computer games or scrolling social media for hours on end, is so detrimental because it's sedentary and usually not engaging," said study author Rosa Virgara, a research associate at the University of South Australia.She and her colleagues looked at how nearly 62,000 kids aged 4 to 9 spent their time after school. These kids also completed questionnaires about their well-being. Children who played video games, watched TV and used social...

WEDNESDAY, June 29, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Llamas are more than beautiful creatures -- they could also help protect humans from COVID-19 and a large array of similar viruses. Contained in their blood samples are tiny, robust immune particles that could protect against every COVID-19 variant, including Omicron and 18 similar viruses, a team of researchers reported.The findings suggest that these "super-immunity" molecules, known as nanobodies, could be precursors to a fast-acting, inhaled antiviral treatment or spray. This could potentially be stockpiled and used in the ongoing, evolving pandemic and against future virus spread.Llamas, along with camels and alpacas, have unique immune systems, the researchers explained. They produce antibodies that have a single polypeptide chain...

WEDNESDAY, June 29, 2022 (HealthDay News) – A strain of the superbug MRSA has emerged in pigs that is highly resistant to antibiotics and a growing cause of human infections.University of Cambridge researchers said this particular strain of MRSA, short for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, has shown up in livestock over the past 50 years, probably due to widespread antibiotic use in farming. They said it is a potential threat to public health.“Historically high levels of antibiotic use may have led to the evolution of this highly antibiotic-resistant strain of MRSA on pig farms,” said Dr. Gemma Murrayn of the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire, U.K. She worked on the new study while a member of the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of...