General Health
Although most colds in children don’t cause serious complications, they can cause stress and worry in parents and caregivers. It’s understandable that you might want to give your child medicine to treat a cold. But most children will get better on their own, and cough or cold medicine will not change the natural course of a cold or make it go away faster. In addition, some cough and cold medicines can have serious side effects, such as slowed breathing, which can be life-threatening, especially in infants and young children. For those reasons, it’s important to know when your ch... read more
Unless you’re a water-polo player, the “egg-beater” technique may mean little to you. But new research from the University of Otago has found it may be the most effective skill you can learn to prevent drowning. Dr Tina van Duijn, from the University’s School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences, says it is important during an emergency to be able to perform a moveme... read more
Is the use of epidural analgesia during labor associated with adverse neonatal and childhood outcomes? *Findings* In this population-based cohort study of 435 281 mother-offspring pairs, the use of epidural analgesia in labor was not associated with adverse neonatal outcomes after adjustment for confounders and mediation by mode of delivery. Epidural analgesia was, however, associated with a small reduction in some adverse developmental outcomes at 2 years. *Meaning* In this study, epidural analgesia in labor was not associated with adverse immediate or longer-term offspring o... read more
Chest discomfort associated with a heart attack or heart event may often be felt beyond the chest, with many people reporting pain in their shoulders, arms, jaw, neck, back and upper abdomen. A new approach to evaluate the source and symptoms of chest pain can help clinicians improve patient outcomes and reduce health care costs, according to a new joint guideline from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. The guideline publishes today in the American Heart Association’s flagship journal *Circulation* and simultaneously in the *Journal of the Amer... read more
The number of people experiencing numbness, tingling and pain in their feet with no known cause has been increasing over the last two decades, according at a new study published in the October 27, 2021, online issue of *Neurology®*, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology*. *Called small fiber neuropathy, the condition has different symptoms than large fiber neuropathy, which can cause weakness and balance issues. But in many cases people have both types of neuropathy. For the study, researchers looked at records for everyone diagnosed with small fiber neuropat... read more
Many sunscreens offer just a quarter of their stated SPF protection against ultraviolet A rays that increase the risk of skin cancer, a new Environmental Working Group study finds. For the study, EWG scientists tested 51 sunscreens with SPF between 15 and 110. “Most of the products we tested reduced UV radiation only by half of what would be expected from looking at the SPF on the label,” said David Andrews, Ph.D., a senior scientist at EWG and the lead author of the study unveiled today. The new research, published in the peer-reviewed journal *Photodermatology, Photoimmunolog... read more
Diet
Chicken nuggets, burritos and other popular items consumers buy from fast food outlets in the United States contain chemicals that are linked to a long list of serious health problems, according to a first-of-its-kind study published today. Researchers at the George Washington University and their colleagues bought fast foods from popular outlets and found 10 of 11 potentially harmful chemicals in the samples, including phthalates, a group of chemicals that are used to make plastics soft and are known to disrupt the endocrine system. The research team also found other plasticizer... read more
Green tea has long been known to have health benefits. In particular, it contains catechins called ECG and EGCG that are said to prolong life. These two substances belong to the group of polyphenols. They are considered antioxidants, which means they counteract or prevent oxidative stress in the body caused by aggressive free radicals of oxygen. Until now, research has assumed that the catechins neutralise these free radicals and thus prevent damage to cells or DNA. One source of oxygen free radicals is metabolism; for example, when the mitochondria – the powerhouses of the cell ... read more
In a study published in the *International Journal of Cancer* of breast cancer survivors, nut consumption was linked with lower risks of breast cancer recurrence or death. Among 3,449 breast cancer survivors from the Shanghai Breast Cancer Survival Study who completed a dietary assessment 5 years after diagnosis, there were 374 deaths during a median follow-up of 8.27 years after the dietary assessment. Among 3,274 survivors without a previous recurrence at the time of their dietary assessment, 209 developed breast cancer–specific events, including recurrence, metastasis, or br... read more
A new study suggests 100% orange juice has the potential to help fight inflammation and oxidative stress in adults, paving the way for further research on the topic. Though limited in scope, the study indicates drinking 100% orange juice significantly reduces interleukin 6, a well-established marker of inflammation, in both healthy and high-risk adults. Two additional inflammatory and oxidative stress markers were also reduced; however, the results did not quite reach statistical significance. The findings of this study, which was funded through an unrestricted grant by the Flor... read more
Sleep
*Periodically catching up on sleep can improve gait control for the chronically sleep-deprived.* Good sleep can be hard to come by. But a new study finds that if you can make up for lost sleep, even for just a few weekend hours, the extra zzz’s could help reduce fatigue-induced clumsiness, at least in how you walk. There’s plenty of evidence to show sleep, and how much we get of it, can affect how well we do on cognitive tasks such as solving a math problem, holding a conversation, or even reading this article. Less explored is the question of whether sleep influences the way we ... read more
Like so many other good things in life, sleep is best in moderation. A multiyear study of older adults found that both short and long sleepers experienced greater cognitive decline than people who slept a moderate amount, even when the effects of early Alzheimer’s disease were taken into account. The study was led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Poor sleep and Alzheimer’s disease are both associated with cognitive decline, and separating out the effects of each has proven challenging. By tracking cognitive function in a large group of olde... read more
Aging
Polyphenol-rich diets improve leaky gut syndrome in the elderly
The increase of intestinal permeability is associated with factors such as ageing, food allergies and intolerances and unhealthy diets. This alteration causes a reduction of the gut integrity barrier that triggers the transit of potentially-toxic substances for the blood, and is related to the development of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and even Alzheimer’s. A polyphenol-rich diet improves the intestinal permeability in old people, according to an article published in the journal *Clinical Nutrition*. The study is led by Cristina Andrés-Lacueva, prof... read more
Learning a second language is an effective and enjoyable way to improve brain health, reports a new study that was jointly conducted by Baycrest and York University. Researchers found that older adults who studied Spanish showed similar improvements in certain critical cognitive skills as did those who engaged in brain training activities that targeted those skills. These results are remarkable given that brain training focuses specifically on improving these aspects of cognition, while language learning does not. As well, those who learned Spanish reported greater enjoyment than ... read more
A new study led by researchers at UCLA Health has found that women over the age of 50 who had breastfed their babies performed better on cognitive tests compared to women who had never breastfed. The findings, published in *Evolution, Medicine and Public Health*, suggest that breastfeeding may have a positive impact on postmenopausal women’s cognitive performance and could have long-term benefits for the mother’s brain. “While many studies have found that breastfeeding improves a child’s long-term health and well-being, our study is one of very few that has looked at the long-t... read more
“Motivation is the royal road to understanding healthy aging,” says a new supplemental issueto *The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences*. Motivation science investigates what it is that people desire and dislike or even fear, how these desires, dislikes, and fears are transformed into goals, how people go about pursuing these goals successfully or disengage from them if necessary, and how these processes change over time. The supplement is comprised of nine articles addressing one or more components of a motivational model of healthy agin... read more
Like so many other good things in life, sleep is best in moderation. A multiyear study of older adults found that both short and long sleepers experienced greater cognitive decline than people who slept a moderate amount, even when the effects of early Alzheimer’s disease were taken into account. The study was led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Poor sleep and Alzheimer’s disease are both associated with cognitive decline, and separating out the effects of each has proven challenging. By tracking cognitive function in a large group of olde... read more
Exercise
There is debate over whether vigorous physical activity is a risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A new study suggests it depends on whether that vigorous activity you get over your lifetime happens on the job or during leisure time. The research is published in the October 20, 2021, online issue of *Neurology®*, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology*.* ALS is a rare, progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. People with ALS lose the ability to initiate and control muscle movement, which oft... read more
COVID
*Findings suggest people who recovered from the virus should still receive vaccines* A nationwide study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are associated with significantly more immunity than a prior COVID-19 infection. Researchers from the CDC’s VISION Network gathered data from more than 201,000 hospitalizations in nine different states. About 7,000 people in that group fit the criteria for this study. The research team analyzed the number of unvaccinated individuals who had a positive COVID-19 test more than three m... read more
A new paper in *The Economic Journal* indicates that a large-scale government subsidy aimed at encouraging people to eat out in restaurants in the wake of the first 2020 COVID-19 wave in the United Kingdom accelerated a second COVID19 wave. The COVID19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus hurt economies around the world. The hospitality sector was particularly vulnerable due to forced decline in tourism and leisure activities. This rippled across economies, as hospitality workers then reduce their spending and have trouble meeting basic expenses. Some governments have used fi... read more
People who have received two vaccine doses against COVID-19 have a lower, but still appreciable, risk of becoming infected with the delta variant compared with unvaccinated people. Vaccinated people clear the infection more quickly, but the peak viral load among vaccinated people is similar to that seen in unvaccinated people, which may explain why they can still readily pass on the virus in household settings, according to a study published in *The Lancet Infectious Diseases*. Vaccines remain highly effective at preventing severe disease and deaths from COVID-19, but some studie... read more
*Results provide reassurances of the vaccines’ safety.* New research addresses ongoing concerns regarding risks of allergic reactions after receiving mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, particularly for individuals with a history of severe allergic reactions. The *JAMA Network Open* study of employee vaccinations within the Mass General Brigham health care system revealed that although people with such a history reported more allergic symptoms after vaccination, nearly all of them were able to become fully vaccinated. In the study of 52,998 health care employees, 474 (0.9%) reported a his... read more
Vaccination is over 90 per cent effective at preventing deaths from the Delta variant of Covid-19, according to the first country-level data on mortality. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 90 per cent effective and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine 91 per cent effective in preventing deaths in people who have been double vaccinated, but who have tested positive for coronavirus in the community, research shows. The study, using data from the Scotland-wide EAVE II Covid-19 surveillance platform, is the first to show across an entire country how effective vaccines are at preventing death... read more
Two new studies report that COVID-19 vaccination strongly protects against both infection and serious illness, respectively among adolescents age 12 to 18. Both studies covered periods when the highly contagious Delta variant was the predominant circulating strain. A CDC-supported study, led by Boston Children’s Hospital and published in the *Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)* on October 19, focused on severe COVID-19 disease requiring hospitalization. It found that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine were 93 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 hos... read more
A new study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by “la Caixa” Foundation, provides robust evidence that COVID-19 is a seasonal infection linked to low temperatures and humidity, much like seasonal influenza. The results, published in *Nature Computational Science*, also support the considerable contribution of airborne SARS-CoV-2 transmission and the need to shift to measures that promote “air hygiene”. A key question regarding SARS-CoV-2 is whether it is behaving, or will behave, as a seasonal virus like influenza, or whether i... read more
A new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine has found no correlation between COVID-19 vaccinations and risk of first-trimester miscarriages, providing further evidence of the safety of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy. The study analyzed several national health registries in Norway to compare the proportion of vaccinated women who experienced a miscarriage during the first trimester and women who were still pregnant at the end of the first trimester. “Our study found no evidence of an increased risk for early pregnancy loss after COVID-19 vaccination and add... read more
Antibodies in the airways quickly wane after SARS-CoV-2 infection, but vaccination results in a strong increase in antibody levels, especially after two doses, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal *JCI Insight*. The results suggest that having a second dose of vaccine also after recovering from COVID-19 may be important for protecting against re-infection and to prevent transmission. “What makes the study unique is that we have looked at samples from both blood and airways, which has given us new knowledge of the local immune res... read more
“Motivation is the royal road to understanding healthy aging,” says a new supplemental issueto *The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences*. Motivation science investigates what it is that people desire and dislike or even fear, how these desires, dislikes, and fears are transformed into goals, how people go about pursuing these goals successfully or disengage from them if necessary, and how these processes change over time. The supplement is comprised of nine articles addressing one or more components of a motivational model of healthy agin... read more
Like so many other good things in life, sleep is best in moderation. A multiyear study of older adults found that both short and long sleepers experienced greater cognitive decline than people who slept a moderate amount, even when the effects of early Alzheimer’s disease were taken into account. The study was led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Poor sleep and Alzheimer’s disease are both associated with cognitive decline, and separating out the effects of each has proven challenging. By tracking cognitive function in a large group of olde... read more
*Key antibody functions are delayed in pregnant and lactating women following initial COVID-19 vaccine dose, but the second dose induces robust antibody responses similar to those in nonpregnant women* A new study indicates that the two-dose immunization schedule for COVID-19 mRNA vaccines ultimately stimulates comparable antibody responses in pregnant, lactating, and nonpregnant women of reproductive age, but key antibody functions kick in more slowly in pregnant and lactating women following the first dose. The research, which was led by investigators at Massachusetts General ... read more
Strong antibody response to mRNA vaccines declined over an eight-month follow-up period; lower initial response to single-shot Ad26 vaccine remained stable over time, research shows P Based on the strength of clinical trial data showing the vaccines conferred robust protection against COVID-19, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization to the mRNA-based vaccines known as BNT162b2 (BioNTech, Pfizer) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna) in December 2020, and to the Ad26.COV2.S (Johnson & Johnson) single-shot vaccine in February 2021. To date, nearly 200 million Am... read more
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