Latest Health News

12Jun
2020

More Evidence Do-It-Yourself COVID Tests Work Fine, Without the Discomfort

More Evidence Do-It-Yourself COVID Tests Work Fine, Without the DiscomfortFRIDAY, June 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Most Americans have winced watching one of those nurse-administered COVID-19 nasal swab tests, where the swab reaches painfully farther up the nose than anyone would want. Well, the days of "nasopharyngeal" swab tests, administered only by health care workers, may be drawing to a close: New studies find a much more comfortable swab test, performed by patients themselves, works just as well. One new study of 30 volunteers was conducted by researchers at Stanford University in California. It found near-100% concordance between COVID-19 test results from patient-administered swab tests to the lower nasal passage and the more onerous nurse-delivered test much farther up the nose. Another study, conducted by UnitedHealth Group in Minnetonka,...

AHA News: Heart Fat Captures Researchers' Attention

12 June 2020
FRIDAY, June 12, 2020 (American Heart Association News) -- Everyone has it. It's been known about for hundreds of years. But only recently have scientists begun to unravel its mysteries. It has an unwieldly name: epicardial adipose tissue, or EAT. But researchers are learning how this pocket of fat beneath the outer lining of the heart plays a dynamic role in heart health. Like a cardiac version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, EAT sometimes serves as a protector against heart problems, but can also wreak havoc. Eventually, it might turn out to play a role in predicting your risk of heart disease. Since at least the early 1800s, doctors have known that fat surrounding the heart seemed related to cardiovascular disease. But over the past decade, researchers began to realize that EAT, which...

More Young Americans Are Going Without Sex

12 June 2020
More Young Americans Are Going Without SexFRIDAY, June 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Sex, and lots of it, has long been the primary preoccupation of young adults, but more of them are now going months and years without any intimate encounters. New research shows that one of three men between the ages of 18 to 24 have not had any sex during the past year, putting to rest all the talk of the "hookup culture." Men and women aged 25 to 34 in the United States also reported an increase in sexual inactivity and a decrease in sexual frequency during the past two decades, the researchers found. "In the age of Tinder, young people are actually having less sex, not more," said Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University. Analyzing national survey data, researchers found that sexual inactivity increased from...

That Cough or Sneeze Behind You Might Not Be COVID: Study

12 June 2020
That Cough or Sneeze Behind You Might Not Be COVID: StudyFRIDAY, June 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The grosser someone sounds when they cough or sneeze, the more likely you are to suspect they have a contagious infection -- even if it's not true. That's the upshot of a new study in which participants were asked to judge whether people were -- or weren't -- infected with a communicable disease by the sound of their coughs and sneezes. On average, they guessed about four out of 10 sounds correctly, according to researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The findings were recently published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. "We find no evidence that perceivers can reliably detect pathogen threats from cough and sneeze sounds, even though they are reasonably certain they can," said study lead...

Home Alone: Will Pandemic's Changes Harm Kids' Mental Health Long-Term?

12 June 2020
Home Alone: Will Pandemic`s Changes Harm Kids` Mental Health Long-Term?FRIDAY, June 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The isolation of the coronavirus pandemic might be stunting the social growth of young children, experts say. Since schools closed across the United States this past spring to stem the spread of COVID-19, kids have been deprived of experiences that are essential to their emotional development -- playing at recess, sharing lunch with classmates and learning together in the classroom. In a recent HealthDay Live! interview, Dr. Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children's Research Institute, and Dan Domenech, executive director of The School Superintendents Association, discussed how children might be impacted by the closure of their schools and the disruption of time spent with...

New Analysis Shows 21 States With Spikes in COVID-19 Infections

12 June 2020
New Analysis Shows 21 States With Spikes in COVID-19 InfectionsFRIDAY, June 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Governors across America have eased lockdowns, but a new analysis shows coronavirus cases are rising in nearly half of U.S. states. The rolling seven-day average of new cases per capita has been higher than the average seven days earlier in 21 states, the Associated Press analysis found. In Arizona, hospitals have been told to prepare for the worst. Texas has more hospitalized COVID-19 patients than at any time before, the analysis found. And the governor of North Carolina said recent jumps in cases caused him to rethink plans to reopen schools or businesses. In some states, more testing has uncovered more cases. But experts think at least some spikes are due to lifting stay-at-home orders, school and business closures, and other social...

HIV Can Travel From the Brain, Animal Study Suggests

11 June 2020
HIV Can Travel From the Brain, Animal Study SuggestsTHURSDAY, June 11, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- HIV can reside in brain cells and spread the AIDS-causing virus to the body, a new study in mice indicates. It's known that HIV enters the brain within eight days of infection, but less is known about whether HIV-infected brain cells can release HIV that can then infect other tissues. This new work from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago found that certain types of brain cells can harbor HIV, which can then spread to immune cells that carry it elsewhere in the body -- even if HIV has been suppressed by antiretroviral therapy. "Our study demonstrates that HIV in the brain is not trapped in the brain -- it can and does move back into peripheral organs through leukocyte trafficking," said study lead author Lena Al-Harthi, an...

COVID Got You Scared of Performing CPR? Study Finds Infection Risk Is Low

11 June 2020
COVID Got You Scared of Performing CPR? Study Finds Infection Risk Is LowTHURSDAY, June 11, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Someone collapses with a cardiac arrest nearby -- in the COVID-19 era, do you dare to assist? Here's some reassuring -- and potentially lifesaving -- news: You're at low risk for coronavirus infection if you perform CPR on someone in cardiac arrest, new research shows. CPR can save the lives of people who suffer cardiac arrest in a public place. But concerns have been raised during the current pandemic that chest compressions used in CPR could release respiratory droplets containing the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. "We believe the current findings support telecommunicators and bystanders maintaining the most efficient approach that prioritizes rapid identification of cardiac arrest and immediately proceeds to chest compressions and...

When COVID-19 Strikes in Pregnancy, C-Section Tied to...

THURSDAY, June 11, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Pregnant women with COVID-19 who deliver by cesarean section may be at greater risk for complications that affect them and their babies, new research...

Love During Lockdown: Survey Shows How Couples Have Coped

THURSDAY, June 11, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- As U.S. states issued stay-at-home orders in March and April, one of many questions was how couples would fare under lockdown together. Now a new survey...
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