Finding yourself packing on the pounds around your waist and arms? If so, you might be at heightened risk for neurological illnesses like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, new research suggests. There was one other physical characteristic that lowered the odds, however: muscle strength. Stronger folk appeared to have a lower odds for neurological illnesses compared to… read on > read on >
Obese kids infected with dengue are significantly more likely to suffer severe illness requiring hospitalization, a new study warns. A new analysis of nearly 5,000 dengue-infected Sri Lankan children found that weight plays a powerful role in how sick the mosquito-borne virus can make a kid. Kids with higher BMIs had higher hospitalization rates than… read on > read on >
Millions of Americans deal with the sleep deficits brought on by sleep apnea, and many turn to one of the few treatments out there, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines. But what if new neurochemical targets in the brain could lead to new, less cumbersome therapies for sleep apnea? That’s what a team at the… read on > read on >
Synthetic antibiotics that attack bacteria in two directions at once could be the solution for combatting antimicrobial-resistant bugs, a new study claims. These dual-action antibiotics, called macrolones, disrupt bacterial cell function in two different ways. It’s nearly impossible for bacteria to resist macrolones, because the germ would need to defend against both attacks at once,… read on > read on >
Medicare Advantage plans are touted as a great alternative to traditional Medicare, offering seniors easier access to doctors, hospitals and prescription drugs. But access to a good Medicare Advantage plan relies heavily on where a person lives, a new study finds. People are less likely to find a five-star Medicare Advantage plan if they live… read on > read on >
Hospitals and clinical laboratories across the United States are facing a critical shortage of bottles used to culture blood samples, federal health officials report. Without the ability to culture blood, patients might receive the wrong antibiotics to treat conditions like endocarditis, sepsis and catheter-related blood infections, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned… read on > read on >
Misuse of illicit prescription drugs is falling dramatically among U.S. high school students, a new study says. The percentage of seniors who say they’ve misused prescription drugs in the past year has dropped to 2% in 2022, down from 11% back in 2009, researchers reported July 24 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.… read on > read on >
COVID-19 doesn’t raise a person’s risk of developing chronic fatigue syndrome more than any other infectious disease, a new study finds. The rate of chronic fatigue syndrome following a brief illness was roughly the same between people who caught COVID and those who came down with some other malady, researchers reported July 24 in the… read on > read on >
Just two shots a year of an HIV treatment provided complete protection against infections in highly at-risk women, researchers reported Wednesday. In the study of about 5,000 women in South Africa and Uganda, those given injections of lenacapavir were 100% protected, while roughly 2% of those given daily prevention pills were infected by their sex partners. “These… read on > read on >
As marijuana loses much of its stigma and laws around its use relax, Americans are increasingly consuming it medically and recreationally. Americans with diabetes are no exception, a new study finds. The number of adults with diabetes who said that they’d used cannabis at least once over the past month jumped by a third between… read on > read on >
