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FRIDAY, Sept. 25, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Low blood levels of vitamin D might heighten people's odds for severe or even fatal COVID-19, new research shows. Taking in a healthy level of vitamin D may therefore "reduce the complications, including the cytokine storm [release of too many proteins into the blood too quickly] and ultimately death from COVID-19," said study author Dr. Michael Holick. He's a professor of medicine, physiology, biophysics and molecular medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. Vitamin D is called the "sunshine vitamin" because it's manufactured naturally by the skin upon contact with sunlight. But it can also be sourced through certain foods and supplements. One respiratory health expert who wasn't involved in the study said the findings echo those...

FRIDAY, Sept. 25, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Risky, groundbreaking surgery saved a 12-year-old dog that had an aggressive tumor and was given only weeks to live, University of Florida veterinarians report. Cello, a female goldendoodle, had a rare tumor that caused a life-threatening obstruction of her major veins. "This was one of the most advanced cases of tumor invasion that any of us had seen, and there was a very high chance that Cello could have died during surgery," said Dr. Elizabeth Maxwell, a clinical assistant professor in surgical oncology. She was a member of the team that treated Cello in May. The dog is now back home in St. Petersburg, Fla. "However, without surgery, she would have certainly died in a couple of weeks. With the combined efforts of all the specialists --...

FRIDAY, Sept. 25, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Among breast cancer patients in the United States, Black women are more likely to start treatment later and to have a longer treatment period than white women, new research shows. For the study, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill analyzed data from more than 2,800 patients (about equal numbers of Black women and white women) with stage 1 to 3 breast cancer in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study. The overall median time to start of treatment was 34 days, but Black women were more likely than white women to have a delayed start to treatment (13% versus 8%, respectively) and a long treatment duration (30% versus 21%, respectively). Nearly one-third (32%) of younger Black women were in the highest quartile of treatment...

FRIDAY, Sept. 25, 2020 (American Heart Association News) -- After taking her daughter to softball practice, Kelly Sosnowski popped over to the mall to run an errand. Walking inside, she felt a heavy pain in her chest and upper back. She paused and the pain let up. But when she started walking again, the pain returned. She found a place to sit and rest for a few minutes and the pain went away. It reminded her of the feeling from lifting heavy boxes. Although she hadn't been doing anything strenuous, she chalked it up to muscle soreness. The next morning, Kelly was working from home. The tightness in her chest and back returned and was painful enough that she called her general practitioner. "If I didn't know better, I'd think I was having a heart attack," she joked with her doctor. The...