Latest Health News

MONDAY, Feb. 7, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- If you've already had COVID-19, your natural antibodies may last as long as 20 months, a new study suggests.While this is reassuring, experts are quick to caution that the new findings don't necessarily mean you're protected against reinfection, and that vaccines remain an important part of a COVID-19 prevention strategy."This study tells us that people have antibodies that hang around after COVID-19, but it doesn't tell us anything about immunity as we don't know what level of natural antibodies is needed for protection," said Dr. Otto Yang. He is an immunologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine who reviewed the findings. "People can and do get reinfected when they have natural COVID-19...

MONDAY, Feb. 7, 2022 (American Heart Association News) -- Watching what Olympic athletes can do on snow and ice might have you thinking about trying some cold weather activity yourself. And a glance at the thermometer might quickly have you saying, "nahhh."Before you head back to the couch, know there are experts who say that not only can embracing winter be healthy, even cold-haters can find ways to cope. Some even find it … fun."I always say that it'll feel cold for probably the first five minutes," said Beth Lewis, a professor and the director of the University of Minnesota's School of Kinesiology in Minneapolis. "In fact, if it doesn't feel cold for the first five minutes, you probably are overdressed. But after that, it will feel absolutely wonderful."Cold weather exercise might...

MONDAY, Feb. 7, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Chimpanzees aren't monkeying around when they catch insects and place them on open wounds, researchers report.An ongoing study of about 45 chimps in Loango National Park in Gabon is the first to document via video that such "healing" behavior is occurring, according to the team from Osnabrück University in Germany and the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project. The study was published Feb. 7 in the journal Current Biology."In the video, you can see that [chimp] Suzee is first looking at the foot of her son, and then it's as if she is thinking, 'What could I do?' and then she looks up, sees the insect, and catches it for her son," Alessandra Mascaro, a volunteer at the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project in Gabon, said in a journal news release."Self-medication —...

MONDAY, Feb. 7, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Many Americans are working hard to get a good night's sleep, and feeling the effects when they miss the mark.About 32% of people feel more tired these days than they did before the pandemic began, according to the results of a new HealthDay/Harris Poll survey. About 28% says they're getting less sleep than they did before the pandemic."During the peak of the pandemic with all these surges, people are at home -- appropriately trying to quarantine, trying to isolate," Dr. Raj Dasgupta, associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, said in a HealthDay Now interview."There just wasn’t that structure in the day," Dasgupta continued. "The next thing you know, you're staying up at night...