Latest Health News

18Mar
2021

People With MS Should Get the COVID-19 Vaccine: Expert

People With MS Should Get the COVID-19 Vaccine: ExpertTHURSDAY, March 18, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- People with multiple sclerosis (MS) may be wondering if they should get a COVID-19 shot, and the answer is definitely yes, an expert says."The big takeaway message is the COVID-19 vaccine is strongly recommended for patients with multiple sclerosis," said Dr. Nancy Sicotte, director of the Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology Program at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles."If you have an opportunity to get a vaccine, get it -- and the sooner, the better," she urged in a Cedars-Sinai news release.Her recommendations are based on National MS Society guidelines. Sicotte is chair of the society's National Medical Advisory Committee.More than 1 million Americans have MS, an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. COVID-19 vaccination is...

Black Women More Prone to Postmenopausal Weight Gain...

18 March 2021
Black Women More Prone to Postmenopausal Weight Gain Than White WomenTHURSDAY, March 18, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Black American women are more likely to gain weight after menopause than white women, and a number of factors may underlie the difference, researchers say.They analyzed data from nearly 71,000 American women who had gone through menopause and were enrolled in a long-term health study.The analysis found that Black women were more than 50% more likely to have a weight gain of 10% after menopause than white women. The findings were recently published in the journal PLOS ONE."This finding suggests that efforts to reduce the disparity in postmenopausal weight gain in non-Hispanic Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites should focus on preventing excess weight gain in non-Hispanic Black women who are normal weight at baseline," said lead author Christopher...

On-the-Road Help: 'Mobile Stroke Units' Are Saving...

18 March 2021
On-the-Road Help: `Mobile Stroke Units` Are Saving People`s LivesTHURSDAY, March 18, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Time is never more precious than in the minutes after a stroke. Now, research is confirming that a "mobile stroke unit" can rush aid to patients quickly, potentially saving lives."Patients who are treated early benefit from a complete reversal of stroke symptoms and avoidance of disability," said lead study author Dr. James Grotta. He is director of stroke research at the Clinical Institute for Research and Innovation at Memorial Hermann--Texas Medical Center, in Houston.. "This suggests that in the first hour after a stroke occurs, the brain is not yet irreversibly damaged and is very amenable to effective treatment."Mobile stroke units are special ambulances equipped to diagnose and treat stroke quickly. When treating patients with...

Fish Oil, Vitamin D Won't Prevent A-Fib: Study

18 March 2021
Fish Oil, Vitamin D Won`t Prevent A-Fib: StudyTHURSDAY, March 18, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- For people hoping to prevent the heart rhythm disorder known as "a-fib," new research shows that taking vitamin D or fish oil supplements won't help.A-fib, also known as atrial fibrillation, affects more than 33 million people worldwide and is the most common type of abnormal heart rhythm. It can cause symptoms that affect a person's quality of life, result in blood clots that can cause a stroke, and also lead to heart failure.For the study, the researchers examined whether taking vitamin D supplements or omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil might affect different kinds of a-fib, and whether some patients would be more likely to benefit or be harmed by the supplements.Overall, the results were mostly consistent across the different types of...

Some Long Haul COVID Patients Are Feeling Better After Vaccination

17 March 2021
Some Long Haul COVID Patients Are Feeling Better After VaccinationWEDNESDAY, March 17, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- For many, it's like emerging suddenly from a long, dark tunnel.Some people who've been laid low for months by so-called "long haul" symptoms after a coronavirus infection say that within days of getting their COVID-19 vaccine, those symptoms nearly disappeared.Speaking with The New York Times, Bridget Hayward, a 51-year-old operating room nurse in Alexandria, Va., said that for nearly a year after first becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2, she's had a slew of devastating symptoms. They've included persistent body aches, fatigue, a feeling of being hot even in cool weather, and a "brain fog" that rendered remembering even simple words difficult."It was horrifying," she told the newspaper. "It was awful thinking it may never get better, like...

Disappointment and Hope From Two HIV Prevention Trials

17 March 2021
Disappointment and Hope From Two HIV Prevention TrialsWEDNESDAY, March 17, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- An antibody infusion being tested for preventing HIV does not seem to thwart most infections -- but its success against certain strains of the virus suggests researchers are on the right track.That's the takeaway from a clinical trial that put the antibody, called VRC01, to the test in 2,700 people at high risk of contracting HIV.Researchers found that infusions of the antibody every two months did not lower patients' risk of HIV infection overall.But the tactic did block specific HIV strains that were susceptible to the VRC01 antibody: It cut people's risk of those infections by 75% over the 20-month trial.Lead researcher Dr. Lawrence Corey described the results as an "important proof of concept" that the antibody approach can work.But,...

World's First Face Transplant in a Black Patient Brought Special Challenges

17 March 2021
World`s First Face Transplant in a Black Patient Brought Special ChallengesWEDNESDAY, March 17, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Robert Chelsea needed a new face, having lost most of his in a horrific Los Angeles traffic accident years ago.But Chelsea is Black, and the process to give him the first-ever face transplant wound up posing novel challenges for his doctors, according to a new report.It took four times as long to find Chelsea a suitable donor than it typically does for white patients, doctors said, due to a lack of donors and the wider variability in skin tone among Black Americans."It's so rare to find a Black face [for transplant]," Chelsea said in an interview with the BBC. "We didn't know how rare it was."In addition, tracking Chelsea's post-surgery progress proved more complex due to his darker skin tone, with doctors less able to see the redness that...

Scientists Create First Lab Model of Human 'Pre-Embryo' for Research Purposes

17 March 2021
Scientists Create First Lab Model of Human `Pre-Embryo` for Research PurposesWEDNESDAY, March 17, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Research into miscarriages, infertility and birth defects is now primed to undergo revolutionary advances, thanks to the creation in the lab of an early stage of human embryos by two separate international teams of scientists.Both teams were able to use human cells to create artificial blastocysts, an early stage of conception that occurs a few days after egg fertilization but prior to the implantation and development of an embryo in the uterus.Until now, research into human blastocysts relied on embryo donations from in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures, which were scarce and difficult to obtain.But the procedures created by the two teams can be used to efficiently create hundreds of blastocysts for use in lab research, Jose Polo,...

AHA News: How to Get Better Sleep Amid the Pandemic –...

WEDNESDAY, March 17, 2021 (American Heart Association News) -- A good night's sleep. It's one of those things people don't appreciate until it's gone. But like much taken for granted prior to the...

AHA News: Study Links Green Communities to Lower Stroke Risk

WEDNESDAY, March 17, 2021 (American Heart Association News) -- The greener the neighborhood, the lower the stroke risk, a new study suggests.Researchers matched images gathered from space to...
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