04Feb 2023 by Janice Holland
Age-Related Eye Disease Tied to Increased COVID-19 Risk

Age-Related Eye Disease Tied to Increased COVID-19 Risk

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Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors have cautioned people with certain chronic health issues, like type 2 diabetes and obesity, that they face a higher risk of developing severe coronavirus infections. But there’s a common age-related eye disorder that may be even more concerning: age-related macular degeneration (AMD).Some research has found that AMD is associated with a 25 percent higher risk for severe COVID-19 — higher than the increased risk seen with type 2 diabetes or obesity.Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss for Americans over 50, according to the National Eye Institute (NEI). It results from damage to a part of the retina called the macula. There are two types: dry AMD and wet AMD, a rarer and more advanced form of the condition…
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04Feb 2023 by Janice Holland
Frequent Antibiotic Use Tied to Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Frequent Antibiotic Use Tied to Inflammatory Bowel Disease

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People who receive multiple courses of antibiotics are at higher risk for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) — especially if they take these infection-fighting drugs to treat gastrointestinal pathogens.For the study, researchers examined data on 6.1 million people 10 years and older in Denmark, including 5.5 individuals who received at least one course of antibiotics between 2000 and 2018. During the study period almost 53,000 people were newly diagnosed with IBD, including both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.Compared with people who never used antibiotics, those who did were significantly more likely to develop IBD at all age groups in the study.With each additional course of antibiotics, the risk of IBD climbed by at least another 10 percent, impacting all ages and rising more for those over 40, according to research published in…
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04Feb 2023 by Janice Holland
Eating Almonds May Help Muscle Recovery After Starting a New Workout Routine

Eating Almonds May Help Muscle Recovery After Starting a New Workout Routine

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Regularly snacking on almonds may help ease pain and stiffness after an intense workout if your body isn’t used to such exertion, according to a small study published on January 9 in Frontiers in Nutrition.Researchers found that people who ate 2 ounces (oz) of almonds each day for one month had more of a recovery-boosting fat in their blood after a single session of hard exercise than a group who ate a cereal bar with the same number of calories.What’s more, “They also reported feeling less fatigue and tension, better leg [and] back strength, and decreased muscle damage after exercise than control volunteers,” said David C Nieman, DrPH, a coauthor of the study, a professor, and the director of the Appalachian State University Human Performance Laboratory at the North Carolina…
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03Feb 2023 by Janice Holland
A Diet High in Fast Food Raises Liver Disease Risk, Study Finds

A Diet High in Fast Food Raises Liver Disease Risk, Study Finds

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Health experts already know that fast food can increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. Now research has found that regular consumption of fast-food burgers, fries, pizza, and the like may also contribute to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a potentially life-threatening condition in which fat builds up in the liver.Based on an analysis of health data from 4,000 adults whose fatty liver measurements were included in the most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (from 2017–18), scientists discovered that people with obesity or diabetes who take in one-fifth or more of their daily calories from fast food have severely elevated levels of fat in their liver compared with those who eat less or no fast food.A diet consisting of at least 20 percent fast food was also…
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03Feb 2023 by Janice Holland
FDA Approves Long-Acting Medication for People With Multidrug-Resistant HIV

FDA Approves Long-Acting Medication for People With Multidrug-Resistant HIV

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Sunlenca (lenacapavir), a new type of medication for the most common variant of HIV, HIV-1 (human immunodeficiency virus type 1).Lenacapavir is designed for heavily treatment-experienced adults with multidrug-resistant HIV who are not able to adequately manage the virus with their current treatment regimen. It is an injectable medication administered under the skin (subcutaneously) once every six months.Developed by Gilead Sciences, lenacapavir is the first of a new class of HIV medications called capsid inhibitors, which work by blocking the virus’s protein shell (the capsid), thereby interfering with essential steps of the virus’s life cycle.In a clinical trial, lenacapavir was able to lower the viral load in patients who were not responding adequately to other therapies.“Today’s approval ushers in a new class…
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03Feb 2023 by Janice Holland
Stem Cell Transplants May Slow Disability Progression in Active SPMS

Stem Cell Transplants May Slow Disability Progression in Active SPMS

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Blood cells formed in bone marrow called hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) have been shown to delay disability when transplanted in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).When it comes to treating secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS), a more advanced stage of the disease, little research has focused on autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCT), which use healthy blood stem cells from a person’s own body (autologous) to replace diseased cells.New research published online in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, has found that people with active SPMS — meaning they continue to experience MS relapses or develop new lesions, as seen on their MRIs — who received stem-cell transplantation were slower in accumulating disability than those taking anti-inflammatory disease-modifying therapies (DMT).Most people with MS are first diagnosed with relapsing-remitting…
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03Feb 2023 by Janice Holland
Metformin May Reduce the Need for Joint Replacement in People With Diabetes

Metformin May Reduce the Need for Joint Replacement in People With Diabetes

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A large new study based on the health insurance data of more than 40,000 type 2 diabetes patients found that those who used metformin to manage high blood sugar levels were less likely to need total joint replacement.The research, published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal by scientists from China, Taiwan, and Australia, showed an association between regular use of metformin and about a 30 percent reduced likelihood of needing total knee replacement or total hip replacement. This association did not mean that metformin was conclusively proven to cause a lower rate of joint replacements, according to study authors.Joint replacements are a common treatment for people with advanced osteoarthritis, a chronic joint disorder that often leaves older people in pain and unable to walk or perform other daily…
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03Feb 2023 by Janice Holland
Flu and COVID-19 Push Hospitalizations Higher as RSV Cases Rise

Flu and COVID-19 Push Hospitalizations Higher as RSV Cases Rise

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Hospitalizations due to the flu are at the highest they’ve been in a decade, according to a telebriefing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday. With COVID-19 hospitalizations on the upswing as well, health authorities are concerned that hospitals may be overwhelmed in the weeks ahead.Since the beginning of October, about 78,000 people have been hospitalized with the flu. The number of flu hospitalizations for the week ending November 27 (19,593) was almost double that of the week before. There have already been 8.7 million illnesses and 4,500 deaths from flu, including at least 14 children, per the CDC.During the press briefing, Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, director of the CDC, also warned that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have been climbing across the nation since the Thanksgiving…
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03Feb 2023 by Janice Holland
HIV Vaccine Candidate Prompts Immune Response in Early Human Trials

HIV Vaccine Candidate Prompts Immune Response in Early Human Trials

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An experimental vaccine designed to prevent HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) has produced promising results in a preliminary study involving a small group of volunteers. The vaccine candidate showed success in stimulating production of rare immune cells needed to start the process of generating antibodies against the fast-mutating virus.As detailed December 2 in the journal Science, the treatment produced a broad neutralizing antibody response in 35 of 36 (97 percent) of recipients who received two vaccine doses eight weeks apart.“With our many collaborators on the study team, we showed that vaccines can be designed to stimulate rare immune cells with specific properties, and this targeted stimulation can be very efficient in humans,” said William Schief, PhD, a study author and immunologist at Scripps Research, in La Jolla, California, in a press…
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