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FRIDAY, Oct. 9, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The so-called love hormone, oxytocin, may be worth investigating as a treatment for COVID-19, a new study suggests. One of the most serious complications of infection with the new coronavirus is a "cytokine storm," in which the body attacks its own tissues. There are currently no U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved treatments for COVID-19, which means that "repurposing existing drugs that can act on the adaptive immune response and prevent the cytokine storm in early phases of the disease is a priority," according to the researchers. Previous research suggests that oxytocin -- a hormone that's produced in the brain and is involved in reproduction and childbirth -- reduces inflammation. In this new study, researcher Ali Imami, a...

FRIDAY, Oct. 9, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The new coronavirus is striking the Upper Midwest with a vengeance, as Wisconsin and the Dakotas became COVID-19 hotspots and health officials scrambled for hospital beds on Thursday. After months where residents of those states downplayed the virus and rejected mask requirements, all three now lead all other states in new cases per capita, the Associated Press reported. "It's an emotional roller coaster," said Melissa Resch, a nurse at Wisconsin's Aspirus Wausau Hospital, which is working to add beds and reassign staff to keep up with a rising caseload of seriously ill COVID-19 patients. "Just yesterday I had a patient say, 'It's OK, you guys took good care of me, but it's OK to let me go,'" Resch told the AP. "I've cried with the...

THURSDAY, Oct. 8, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The type of heating coil used in an e-cigarette and the amount of voltage sent through it could be contributing to vaping-related lung injuries, a new animal study contends. Laboratory rats suffered lung injuries when exposed to vapor from devices using high-powered heating coils made of nickel-chromium alloy, something that did not occur in earlier experiments using stainless steel heating coils, researchers report. "When we looked at their lungs, we saw they had very severe damage to the lung structure," said lead researcher Michael Kleinman, a professor of occupational and environmental medicine at the University of California, Irvine. "We found we got the worst effects in coils that contained nickel and chromium, which is a typical kind...

THURSDAY, Oct. 8, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Kids who reach puberty earlier than other kids are at an increased risk of harming themselves as teens, British researchers report. "Our study is the first to investigate the relationship between the timing of puberty and self-harm using an objective measure of pubertal timing in boys," said lead author Elystan Roberts, a researcher at the University of Bristol. He said it's important to find out why self-harm is on the rise among young people so that help can be provided to those who may be most at risk. "We still don't know a lot about the psychological effects of early puberty in boys because male pubertal timing is so hard to measure, so our results will be important for helping to reduce self-harm risk in boys as well as girls,"...