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TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) – Older adults who maintain a steady weight as they age are less likely to experience rapid cognitive decline, regardless of how much they weigh to start, new research suggests.“There’s something about maintaining weight and BMI that seems to reflect some health resilience,” said study author Michal Schnaider Beeri, a professor of psychiatry at Icahn Mount Sinai in New York City. (BMI is an estimate of body fat based on height and weight.)“In old age, a stable BMI may confer protection against cognitive decline, and tracking BMI, which is simple to measure, at annual medical visits may point to individuals whose cognition is declining and allow for early intervention,” she said.The new study shows that the two conditions are linked....

TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Living through the pandemic has not been easy for kids, but it has really thrown off children who have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), new research warns.Though they were not more likely to catch COVID-19, they were more likely to experience symptoms if they were infected. But the damage did not stop there: These children were also more likely to have trouble sleeping, feel fear about infection risks, have trouble with remote learning and exhibit rule-breaking behavior.The interventions that can help these kids stay focused — like school involvement and parental monitoring — were also disrupted by the pandemic. "I think the biggest takeaway is that we need to be looking out for these kids with ADHD, who might be flying...

TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Americans, get up out of that chair and get moving.If everyone between 40 and 85 years of age were active just 10 minutes more a day, it could save more than 110,000 U.S. lives a year, a large study reports."Our projections are based on an additional 10 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity," said lead researcher Pedro Saint-Maurice of the Metabolic Epidemiology Branch at the U.S. National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md. "If the walk is brisk, it counts."And added exercise benefits everyone — white, Black, Asian and Hispanic, men and women, the investigators found.For the study, the researchers examined data from more than 4,800 middle-aged and elderly adults who were part of a government health and nutrition study between 2003...

TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Pfizer Inc. announced Tuesday that it has launched a trial that will compare its existing COVID-19 vaccine against a new version tailored to beat back the highly contagious Omicron variant."While current research and real-world data show that boosters continue to provide a high level of protection against severe disease and hospitalization with Omicron, we recognize the need to be prepared in the event this protection wanes over time and to potentially help address Omicron and new variants in the future," Kathrin Jansen, senior vice president and head of vaccine research & development at Pfizer, said in a company statement. "Staying vigilant against the virus requires us to identify new approaches for people to maintain a high level of...