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WEDNESDAY, Jan. 13, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. colleges could be COVID-19 superspreader sites, and the first two weeks of classes are the most dangerous, researchers warn.They studied 30 campuses nationwide with the highest numbers of reported coronavirus cases and found that more than half had spikes that peaked well above 1,000 cases per 100,000 people per week within the first two weeks of class.On some campuses, 1 in 5 students had been infected with the virus by the end of the fall term. Four of the schools had more than 5,000 cases.On 17 of the campuses, computer modeling showed that college outbreaks were also directly connected with infection peaks in the counties where the schools were located.Luckily, the researchers also found that strict management of outbreaks -- such...

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 13, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- New research offers a novel explanation for the long-term brain problems many COVID-19 patients experience. Many coronavirus patients report headaches and "brain fog" for weeks or months after they recover from respiratory symptoms. It's been believed that these lingering neurological issues are the result of nerve cell damage, but the new study suggests that the virus may instead be striking the brain's small blood vessels.Previous studies found that COVID-19 can cause inflammation in and around the blood vessels elsewhere in the body, so the researchers decided to examine brain tissue for the same thing in 13 patients who died of COVID-19.The investigators found that small blood vessels in the brain tissue had signs of inflammation and...

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 13, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Brain drain: Arguing with others puts a lot more strain on your brain than agreeing with them, a new study finds."Our entire brain is a social processing network," said senior author Joy Hirsch, professor of psychiatry, comparative medicine and neuroscience at Yale University. "However, it just takes a lot more brain real estate to disagree than to agree."The researchers, from Yale and University College London, asked 38 adults whether they agreed or disagreed with a series of potentially contentious statements such as "same-sex marriage is a civil right" or "marijuana should be legalized."Researchers then monitored the participants' brain activity when they were paired up and had face-to-face discussions about the topics.When people...

THURSDAY, Jan. 14, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Here's a New Year's resolution that might be more common than you think: quitting pot.A new study suggests it might explain why marijuana use typically falls at the start of the year and then increases as the year unfolds."We found that marijuana use is consistently higher among those surveyed later in the year, peaking during late fall or early winter before dropping at the beginning of the following year," said study author Joseph Palamar, an associate professor of population health at New York University. "We think this may be due, in part, to a 'Dry January' in which some people stop drinking alcohol or even stop using marijuana as part of a New Year's resolution," he said in a university news release. Palamar and colleagues analyzed data...