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THURSDAY, Dec. 23, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- In some heartening news for the holidays, three new studies that combed through early data on the new Omicron variant suggest it does not cause severe disease as often as the Delta variant does.On the other hand, Omicron is so contagious that it will likely increase hospitalizations, and the unvaccinated still need to worry, public health experts said.“If you are unvaccinated and you have never been infected, it is a little less severe than Delta,” William Hanage, an epidemiologist from Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, told The New York Times. “But that’s a bit like saying you’re being hit over the head with one hammer instead of two hammers. And the hammers are more likely to hit you now.”To slow Omicron's...

THURSDAY, Dec. 23, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Gum disease isn't just a threat to your teeth. It also increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease, mental woes and more, British researchers report."The study reinforces the importance of prevention, early identification and treatment of periodontal disease, and the need for members of the public to attend regular oral health checks with a dentist or dental care professional," lead researcher Dr. Joht Singh Chandan said.Looking at thousands of people with gum disease, the researchers found links to a host of chronic health conditions. Compared to people with healthy gums, folks with "pink in the sink" were more likely to develop heart failure, stroke, vascular dementia, high blood pressure, arthritis, psoriasis and type 1 and type 2...

THURSDAY, Dec. 23, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Meditation done at an intense level may bring a significant boost to the inner workings of your immune system.The finding follows a blood sample analysis that took pre- and post-meditation snapshots of genetic activity among more than 100 men and women. That analysis suggested that meditation boosted the activity of hundreds of genes known to be directly involved in regulating immune response. But the researchers stressed that their study involved 10-hour daily marathon meditation sessions conducted for eight straight days in total silence. In the real world, most people would be hard-pressed to replicate those methods. Still, the findings "suggest that meditation could have an important role in treating various diseases associated with a...

THURSDAY, Dec. 23, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- People who struggle with severe asthma now have a new treatment to get some relief.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved an injectable drug called Tezspire (tezepelumab-ekko), which would be administered every four weeks by a health care professional.The medication is considered an add-on treatment meant to improve severe asthma in a person whose condition isn’t controlled by their current medications. People who are prescribed Tezspire would continue to use other asthma treatments. Tezspire is unique because it is not limited to a specific type of severe asthma. It only targets a type of molecule that is involved in airway inflammation. "There are several monoclonal antibody treatments for asthma mediated by eosinophils,"...