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THURSDAY, June 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- There's some discouraging news for baby boomers.Americans born between 1948 and 1965 are more likely than the generations that preceded them to have multiple health problems as they age, a new study shows. And, many develop two or more health conditions up to 20 years sooner than folks from other generations, too. Until recently the largest generation group in U.S. history, baby boomers have always been a force to reckon with due to their sheer numbers. They have transformed pretty much every market they enter, starting with the diaper industry when they were born and then public schools, so it makes sense that boomers are also upending what aging looks like.For the study, researchers analyzed data on Americans aged 51 and older who took part...

THURSDAY, June 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- If you battled a COVID-19 infection early in the pandemic, it probably won't protect you much from reinfection with Omicron and its subvariants, a new study warns.Even a previous infection with the original Omicron variant provides little protection against reinfection, researchers report.They said the findings from their study of more than 730 triple-vaccinated health care workers in the United Kingdom may help explain why Omicron reinfection is so common, The Guardian reported."If you were infected during the first wave, then you can't boost your immune response if you have an Omicron infection," study co-author Rosemary Boyton, a professor at Imperial College London, told the newspaper.Boyton also noted that when "Omicron started flying...

THURSDAY, June 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Putting a new spin on the term "beer gut," a small study suggests that a bottle a day may do a man's gut bacteria some good.In a clinical trial of 19 healthy men, researchers found that a daily bottle of beer — alcoholic or non-alcoholic — changed the composition of the men's gut bacteria over four weeks. Specifically, either type of beer boosted the diversity in their gut microbes.In general, greater diversity in gut bacteria is considered better than less diversity. Experts cautioned, however, that it's unclear whether people would gain any health benefits from the gut changes seen in this short-term trial."We have a lot left to learn about what defines a healthy balance of gut bacteria," said Lauri Wright, chairwoman of nutrition and...

THURSDAY, June 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have figured out a way to safely give children a donor kidney without the need for immune-suppressing drugs -- an advance they hope to expand to many more kidney transplant patients in coming years.Reporting in the June 15 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors at Stanford University describe the first three children to be treated with the new approach. It involved giving them not only a new kidney, but a new immune system -- both donated from a parent.All three children now have normal kidney function, and are free of the anti-rejection drugs that transplant recipients normally have to take every day for the rest of their lives.Much research remains before the approach can be widely offered, and experts cautioned...