Getting Sick All the Time? Don ’ t (Necessarily) Blame COVID-19
Respiratory disease season is in full swing, with influenza, RSV, and COVID-19 case counts rising in various parts of the U.S. Hospitals in some states are also reporting upticks in pediatric pneumonia diagnoses, which experts say seems to be unrelated to the recent spike of pneumonias reported in China.
On the heels of last year’s severe flu and RSV reason, all this contagion has some people wondering if SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, may be to blame. Some studies suggest the virus leaves its mark on the immune system even after an acute illness passes, raising an important question: does having COVI...
Source: TIME: Health - December 7, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jamie Ducharme Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
The Updated COVID-19 Shot Works on the Newest Variants
Every COVID-19 vaccine is a step behind the virus. In the time it takes companies to make the shot, SARS-CoV-2 is already busy mutating into different versions that can evade the immune response produced by it.
But even though the latest vaccine targets XBB.1.5, a variant no longer dominant in the U.S., it seems to be doing a decent job at warding off some of the emerging variants. In a study published on the preprint server bioRxiv, scientists led by Dr. David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University, report that the vaccine can generate strong antibodies that can neutralize not jus...
Source: TIME: Health - December 7, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
Panera Bread Faces Second Wrongful Death Lawsuit Over Caffeinated ‘ Charged Lemonade ’
Panera Bread is confronting a second wrongful death lawsuit after a customer allegedly died from consuming its popular caffeinated “charged lemonade” beverage. The lawsuit, filed on Monday, details the death of Dennis Brown, a 46-year-old Florida man who passed away in October after consuming three servings of the drink.
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According to the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Brown’s family in Superior Court in Delaware, Brown suffered a “cardiac event” while walking home from a Panera Bread in Fleming Island, Fla. on Oct. 9. The lawsuit alleges that P...
Source: TIME: Health - December 6, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Nik Popli Tags: Uncategorized News Desk Source Type: news
How to Get Free Flu and COVID-19 Tests and Treatments
As we head into winter, health experts expect that cases of flu and COVID-19 will start to creep up. One piece of good news: if you do get sick, there’s a way to get tests and treatments for both—without paying a cent.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have teamed up with digital health company eMed to create an at-home test-to-treat program that offers free tests for both flu and COVID-19, and, if you are positive, free telehealth visits and antiviral treatments that are sent to your home.
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Source: TIME: Health - December 6, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
Suicides Don ’t Actually Spike in Winter
There’s a long-enduring idea in the media that suicide rates peak in the winter months, when days get darker earlier, stress levels seem to rise, and the so-called “holiday blues” set in. The sentiment is so prevalent that 40% of stories published by news organizations about suicide during the 2022-2023 holiday season made this claim.
There’s just one problem with these stories: no such seasonal trend exists in actual suicide data. In fact, December often sees a lull in suicide numbers worldwide.
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Dan Romer, a research director at Annenberg Public...
Source: TIME: Health - December 5, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Haley Weiss Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
Hospitals Should Be Redesigned to Improve Care
Hospitals are such important places in our lives. It’s where we are born, where we go for help when we’re not well, and where we turn to when cancer, a heart attack, or major injury leaves us hanging by a thread. It’s also where our loved ones spend their time anxiously waiting for us to get better, to hear good or bad news.
So then, why are hospitals such miserable places?
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Most hospitals are so poorly designed, you feel their negative effects the moment you walk through the front door. The unintuitive layout immediately disorients you. The stark, cold l...
Source: TIME: Health - December 5, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Danish Kurani Tags: Uncategorized freelance Health Care Source Type: news
23andMe Hack Breaches 6.9 Million Users ’ Info, Including Some’s Health Data
Some 6.9 million 23andMe customers had their data compromised after an anonymous hacker accessed user profiles and posted them for sale on the internet earlier this year, the company said on Monday.
The compromised data included users’ ancestry information as well as, for some users, health-related information based on their genetic profiles, the company said in an email.
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Privacy advocates have long warned that sharing DNA with testing companies like 23andMe and Ancestry makes consumers vulnerable to the exposure of sensitive genetic ...
Source: TIME: Health - December 5, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Kristen V. Brown / Bloomberg Tags: Uncategorized News Desk wire Source Type: news
What Pigs and Squirrels Can Teach Us About Managing Pain
Over the past several decades, there have been many supporting studies of the health-promoting effects of an optimistic personality. Much research has been done on the connection between a high level of optimism and good health, described well in clinical psychologists Burel R. Goodin and Hailey W. Bulls’ 2014 research paper, appropriately titled, “Optimism and the Experience of Pain: Benefits of Seeing the Glass as Half Full.” The authors state that optimism “is linked to both enhanced physiological recovery and psychosocial adjustment to coronary artery bypass surgery, bone marrow transplant, post...
Source: TIME: Health - December 4, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Dr. David B. Agus Tags: Uncategorized Books freelance Source Type: news
Most Americans Are Quitting Smoking —Except For Those Over 65
An endless supply of trendy takes in recent years claim that among young adults, smoking is cool again. But though they may be hanging from the lips of major influencers and starlets, cigarettes have far more fans in an older demographic, according to new data on adult smoking behaviors in the United States. From 2011 to 2022, the prevalence of smoking habits decreased in every age bracket except one: the 65-and-up crowd.
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Public health campaigns and programs outlining the dangers of smoking aren’t really aimed at older adults, says Rafael Meza, an integrative onc...
Source: TIME: Health - December 1, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Haley Weiss Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
Biden Calls for Replacement of All Lead Pipes Within 10 Years
Most U.S. cities would have to replace lead water pipes within 10 years under strict new rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency as the Biden administration moves to reduce lead in drinking water and prevent public health crises like the ones in Flint, Michigan and Washington, D.C.
Millions of people consume drinking water from lead pipes and the agency said tighter standards would improve IQ scores in children and reduce high blood pressure and heart disease in adults. It is the strongest overhaul of lead rules in more than three decades, and will cost billions of dollars. Pulling it off will re...
Source: TIME: Health - December 1, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: MICHAEL PHILLIS and MATTHEW DALY / AP Tags: Uncategorized wire Source Type: news
Why ‘ Healthspan ’ May Be More Important Than Lifespan
In 2014, then-57-year-old bioethicist Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel wrote an infamous essay titled, “Why I Hope to Die at 75” for The Atlantic. His argument boiled down to this: it’s not worth living as long as humanly possible if those efforts yield extra decades defined by disease and poor health, which data suggest is the fate awaiting many people in the U.S.
Nearly a decade later, neither Emanuel’s mind nor the statistics have changed much. Emanuel still says he plans to stop most life-extending medical care once he reaches age 75, though he’s healthy enough that he expects to live longer natural...
Source: TIME: Health - November 30, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jamie Ducharme Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
U.S. Suicide Rates Reached an All-Time High in 2022
Suicide rates in the U.S. reached an all-time high in 2022, continuing a surge that began in 2021, according to new provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The increase to 14.3 deaths per 100,000 people in 2022, up from 14.1 in 2021, represented a 1% higher rate in suicides across the country. Though the rise is significantly smaller than the 4% jump in the rate from 2020 to 2021, the numbers indicate a still-growing problem with no clear explanation. Provisional data is also incomplete, which means that the final number of suicides in 2022 will likely be higher as additional death certifi...
Source: TIME: Health - November 29, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Haley Weiss Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
California ’ s New Plan to Treat the Mentally Ill May End Up Violating Their Rights
Facing enormous pressure to tame what appears to be a spiraling and increasingly intertwined statewide crisis in mental health, substance use, and homelessness, California officials have created the Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment Court, or CARE Court. The new system is a policy smorgasbord that ranges from the provision of court-ordered treatment and housing to food assistance, social activities, and exercise programming for Californians with severe mental illness.
CARE Court, which launched in October to skeptical but hopeful Californians, is aimed at tackling the Golden State’s perpetual public ...
Source: TIME: Health - November 29, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jerel Ezell Tags: Uncategorized California Source Type: news
The Evolutionary Origins of Psychedelics
Humans rely on a bevy of strange natural chemicals to liven up our food and drink, to endure pain, and to change our perspective. We use caffeine from coffee, tea, and yerba mate to stimulate our bodies and minds, capsaicin from red pepper flakes or isothiocyanates in horseradish or wasabi to enliven our food with spice, and codeine or morphine to endure the pain of injuries and surgeries.
Lately, though, some have also turned to psychedelics like psilocybin to change their perspectives. In fact, researchers are beginning to test if they could serve as new treatments for mental health disorders.
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Source: TIME: Health - November 29, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Noah Whiteman Tags: Uncategorized freelance Source Type: news
What to Know About Australia ’s Disposable Vape Ban
Australia will ban the importation of disposable vapes starting Jan. 1, the government announced on Tuesday, citing concerns of young people becoming addicted to nicotine. Plans for an import ban on nonprescription vaping products were first announced in May, as part of a broader set of legislation aimed at cracking down on the vape industry and stamping out recreational vaping, which authorities have identified as a brewing public health crisis.
Here’s what you need to know about Australia’s imminent ban on disposable vapes, along with other restrictions to come.
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Source: TIME: Health - November 29, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Koh Ewe Tags: Uncategorized Australia Source Type: news
