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TUESDAY, Sept. 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- For the very young, sleep builds and strengthens the brain, but it quickly switches to maintenance and repair before a child turns 3, new research shows. Before about the age of 2½, the brain grows rapidly. And during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep a baby's brain builds and strengthens synapses, which connect neurons to each other so they can communicate. After that, sleep's main purpose switches to preserving function, and this role continues for the rest of your life, according to the study. "Don't wake babies up during REM sleep -- important work is being done in their brains as they sleep," said study co-senior author Gina Poe. She's a professor of integrative biology and physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles...

TUESDAY, Sept. 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Babies of mothers with anxiety or depression can have significantly higher heart rates than normal, a new study finds. And this might put them at risk for long-term problems, researchers say. Mother-infant interaction plays a crucial role in children's healthy development, but moms with depression, anxiety or postnatal depression may be emotionally distant from their infants, the German researchers said in background notes. "We found that if a mother was anxious or depressed, their baby had a more sensitive physiological response to stress during the test than did the babies of healthy mothers," said researcher Fabio Blanco-Dormond, of the University of Heidelberg. In this preliminary study, researchers assessed 50 mothers and their...

TUESDAY, Sept. 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- People with cancer are at increased risk for severe COVID-19. Now, a preliminary study suggests that certain cancer therapies may heighten those odds even further. Researchers found that of 3,600 U.S. cancer patients who contracted COVID-19, the highest risk of death was among those who'd received cancer treatment within the past three months. And the type of therapy mattered: Patients treated with immunotherapy plus chemotherapy faced the highest risk of dying after contracting COVID-19. Experts stressed that the findings should not deter cancer patients from getting lifesaving or life-prolonging treatment. "We don't want people delaying care," said lead researcher Dr. Trisha Wise-Draper, an oncologist at the University of Cincinnati...

TUESDAY, Sept. 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Minority residents of U.S. nursing homes and assisted living communities have been especially hard hit in the coronavirus pandemic, two University of Rochester studies show. The first found that nursing homes with higher percentages of racial and ethnic minority residents reported two to four times more new COVID-19 cases and deaths compared to others for the week of May 25. The number of confirmed new COVID-19 cases each week averaged 1.5 in facilities with the highest proportion of minority residents, compared with 0.4 cases per facility among those with a low proportion. The findings are based on data reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services by nearly 15,600 nursing homes. They suggest that persistent inequalities in...