ALL ABOUT HEALTH -

28Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

If You Wrote a Letter to Your Acne, What Would You Say?

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Acne is the most common skin disorder in the United States, impacting up to 50 million people annually, according to the American Academy of Dermatology Society. Although we often think of acne as a natural (and minorly annoying) part of puberty, it can persist into your thirties, forties, and even fifties.More than just a physical condition, acne can have enormous long-term psychological effects. For a study published in July 2022 in the journal JAMA Dermatology, researchers undertook a novel approach to finding out just how persistent the emotional toll can be.About 60 participants with active acne or acne scars were asked to write a “Letter to My Disease,” personifying their condition to express their feelings about living with what many subjects called an “intruder.”The research revealed the lack of control…

28Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

New Drugs on Horizon for Opioid Overdose, Withdrawal

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Drug overdose deaths have surged to record highs in recent years, accelerated by the increasing pervasiveness of fentanyl-laced street drugs and by limited access to care during the COVID-19 pandemic.Overdose fatalities hit a grim milestone last year, surpassing 100,000 for the first time and shattering the record for annual fatalities set in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Two-thirds of the overdose deaths in 2021 involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl.“If you think about what has happened in the last two years since COVID began, it used to be that one person would die every 11 minutes of an overdose of opiates,” says Nancy Davis, cofounder and president of Cure Addiction Now (CAN), a nonprofit funding research to develop new treatments for substance use disorders. “Now…

27Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Tomato Flu: What Is It and What Do You Need to Know?

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A new virus that’s been dubbed tomato flu, or tomato fever, is spreading in India and causing several symptoms that are similar to COVID-19, including fever, fatigue, and body aches.The virus got its name from one telltale symptom that isn’t seen with COVID — painful bright red blisters that spread all over the body and can gradually grow to the size of a tomato. While the virus is rare, at least 100 cases have been reported in India since the first case was identified in the state of Kerala on May 6, according to a report in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine on August 17.So far there have been no fatalities attributed to tomato flu, according to the Lancet report.Scientists and public health officials are still investigating the recent spate of…

27Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Can Blood Type Predict Risk of Early Stroke?

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A person’s blood type may be linked to how likely they are to have an early stroke, according to a new meta-analysis of more than 600,000 patients in 48 studies. The findings, published August 31 in the journal Neurology, included all available data from genetic studies on ischemic strokes, which are caused by a blockage of blood flow to the brain, occurring in adults younger than 60. In the overall population, this type of stroke accounts for 87 percent of all strokes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).“The number of people with early strokes is rising,” said the study's co-principal investigator Steven J. Kittner, MD, MPH, in a press release. Dr. Kittner is a professor of neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM)…

27Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Steroids for Asthma, Allergies Tied to Unhealthy Changes in the Brain

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Inhaled and oral glucocorticoids are associated with structural changes in the brain that may help explain some of the neurological and psychological side effects seen with these drugs, a new study suggests.“This study shows that both systemic and inhaled glucocorticoids are associated with an apparently widespread reduction in white matter integrity,” wrote the lead study author, Merel van der Meulen of Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, in research published August 30 in BMJ Open.White matter makes up about half of the tissue in the brain, and its main job is transmitting messages between the brain and the rest of the body. Reduced white matter volume has long been linked to cognitive decline — particularly when it comes to memory loss, processing information, and attention. Diminished white matter has also been tied…

27Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Queen Elizabeth Dies at Age 96

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Having led the United Kingdom as its monarch for more than 70 years, Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland surrounded by her children and grandchildren on Thursday. The queen steadily shepherded her nation through times of peace and triumph, but also through periods of great trauma and turmoil since her coronation on June 2, 1953. Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was 96.Queen Elizabeth’s son Prince Charles is now king. Charles immediately ascended the throne, in accordance with the British line of succession.A poll conducted in the United Kingdom in the spring of 2022 in recognition of her Platinum Jubilee found the queen had "sky high" public approval, with almost 9 in 10 Britons in favor of how she conducted her job.A total of 15 prime ministers served during…

27Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Depression and Anxiety May Heighten Long COVID Risk

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Researchers had already noted that people with chronic physical health conditions were more likely to have serious illness from COVID-19, which in turn has been linked to a high risk of developing long-term impairment. A new study published September 7 in JAMA Psychiatry, however, has found that psychological factors — such as depression, anxiety, worry, perceived stress, and loneliness — may be an even greater predictor of long COVID than physical problems.“We were surprised by how strongly psychological distress before a COVID-19 infection was associated with an increased risk of long COVID,” said the lead author, Siwen Wang, MD, a researcher in the department of nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in a statement. “Distress was more strongly associated with developing long COVID than physical health risk factors such…

27Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Despite Rising Cases, Hispanic Americans Face Delays in IBD Treatment

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Cases of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have increased in all races in the United States over the past two decades, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.But the disease — which includes both Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis (UC) — is still largely misdiagnosed in Hispanic Americans.A review published in July 2022 in the journal Inflammatory Bowel Diseases outlined the disparities in IBD treatment and diagnosis among Black and Hispanic Americans that was previously discussed at a meeting held in December 2021 at Morehouse School of Medicine, in Atlanta.According to Julia Liu, MD, chief of the division of gastroenterology at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, who coauthored the paper, equitable patient care starts with recognizing IBD as a disease that can impact anyone. Dr. Liu says IBD has…

27Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Can Walking (Even Fewer Than 10,000 Steps a Day) Help Prevent Dementia?

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Good news for those of us who often don’t achieve a goal of 10,000 steps per day — walking 3,800 to 9,800 steps per day was also linked to a lower risk of dementia in a new study of adults in the United Kingdom.The findings, published on September 6 in JAMA Neurology, represent an important contribution to step-count-based recommendations for dementia prevention, according to the study authors. “Step-count-based recommendations have the advantage of being easy to communicate, interpret, and measure, and may be particularly relevant for people who accumulate their physical activity in an unstructured manner,” the authors wrote.On Average, People Who Count Their Steps Walk MoreAbout one in five Americans use a smart watch or fitness tracker, according to a 2020 survey by Pew Research. Not surprisingly, people who…

27Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Philips Respironics Recalling More Than 17 Million CPAP, BiPAP Masks

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Philips Respironics has voluntarily recalled more than 17 million sleep apnea masks with magnetic parts that can cause implanted medical devices with metal parts to malfunction — including pacemakers and implanted defibrillators.Masks involved in the recall work with bilevel positive airway pressure (also known as bilevel PAP, BiPAP, or BPAP) machines and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines that are used to treat sleep apnea. All of the recalled masks — the Amara View full face, DreamWisp nasal, DreamWear full, Wisp and Wisp Youth nasal, and Therapy mask 3100 NC/SP — use magnets to headgear clips to attach the headgear straps to the masks.“The recalled masks have magnets and can cause potential injuries or death when use of a recalled mask with magnets interferes with certain implanted metallic medical devices…