The decades-long U.S. opioid epidemic could be hitting Black people harder than white folks as the crisis enters a new phase. Opioid overdose death rates among Black Americans jumped nearly 40% from 2018 to 2019 in four states hammered by the epidemic, researchers found. Fatal ODs among all other races and ethnicities remained about the…  read on >  read on >

Anxiety prevention may be just a snowy trail away. New research suggests cross-country skiers — and perhaps others who also exercise vigorously — are less prone to develop anxiety disorders than less active folks. Researchers in Sweden spent roughly two decades tracking anxiety risk among more than 395,000 Swedes. Nearly half the participants were skiers…  read on >  read on >

MONDAY, Sept. 13, 2021 (HealthDay News) – If you often feel stressed out, your blood pressure may rise over time alongside higher odds for other heart concerns, a new study indicates. Researchers found adults with normal blood pressure but high levels of stress hormones were more likely to develop high blood pressure in six to…  read on >  read on >

College athletes who suffer a concussion may take as long as a month to recover, not the two weeks considered normal, new research finds. “Normal return-to-play time was previously set at 14 days — meaning 50% of people recovered in that time,” said lead researcher Steve Broglio. He is director of the University of Michigan…  read on >  read on >

Fewer COVID-19 vaccine doses than expected will be available through the global COVAX program, affecting many less-affluent nations waiting on these doses. The United Nations forecast last week that it would have about 25% fewer vaccines to distribute through COVAX this year — 1.4 billion compared to an earlier projection for 1.9 billion doses, The…  read on >  read on >