Latest Health News

TUESDAY, Oct. 5, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has hit minority groups in the United States hard, with significantly more deaths among Black and Hispanic Americans compared with white and Asian Americans, a new study finds.According to the report, these disparities highlight the need to address ongoing inequities influencing health and longevity in the United States.What's more, "focusing on COVID-19 deaths alone without examining total excess deaths — that is, deaths due to non-COVID-19 causes as well as to COVID-19 — may underestimate the true impact of the pandemic," added study author Meredith Shiels. She's a senior investigator at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.For the study, the researchers compared excess deaths by race/ethnicity, sex, age...

MONDAY, Oct. 4, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for people aged 18 and older have been given the green light by the European Medicines Agency.They "may be considered at least six months after the second dose for people aged 18 years and older," the European Union's drug regulator said Monday, the Associated Press reported.The advice is based on data showing that a booster shot of the Pfizer vaccine about six months after the second dose increases antibody levels in all people aged 18 to 55.The agency also gave its backing to an additional dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines to people with severely weakened immune systems at least 28 days after their second dose of the vaccines. A third dose is not considered a booster shot in...

MONDAY, Oct. 4, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- From the fear of getting sick to lockdown isolation, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically increased stress levels, and for many women, the uptick led to changes in their monthly periods.More than half of respondents to an online survey reported changes in their menstrual cycles during the pandemic, including differences in premenstrual symptoms and in the time between cycles and the duration of their bleeding."It is well-known that stress can cause changes in menstrual cycles, and these changes range from shorter or longer periods to heavier or lighter bleeding, and may cause women and people who menstruate to skip or miss a period altogether," said study author Nicole Woitowich. She's a research assistant professor of medical social sciences at...

MONDAY, Oct. 4, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Two American researchers have been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries that could help ease chronic and acute pain.The prize was given jointly on Monday to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, the New York Times reported. Julius, a professor of physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, turned to hot chili peppers to identify a protein on nerve cells that responds to uncomfortably hot temperatures.Patapoutian, a molecular biologist at Scripps Research in La Jolla, Calif., led a team that prodded individual cells with a tiny pipette, identifying a receptor that responds to pressure, touch and the positioning of body parts."This knowledge is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of...