Boosting doses of opioid pain medicines doesn’t appear to benefit patients with chronic pain, researchers report. “What we found was that the pain relief the provider and the patient are going for really isn’t there when they increase their doses,” said study author Corey Hayes, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas College of… read on >
Carrying excess pounds can be painful, literally. A new study finds that being overweight or obese ups the risk of pain in people with musculoskeletal disorders. “Pain, osteoarthritis and weight share a complicated relationship,” said study author Dr. Diana Higgins. She’s a researcher with the VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston University School of Medicine.… read on >
(HealthDay News) — Nearly 36,000 American lives would have been spared if strict social distancing measures had been enacted across the country just one week earlier than they were, new estimates suggest. And if those measures had been imposed two weeks before most people started staying home, about 54,000 COVID-19 deaths would have been avoided… read on >
A combination drug therapy for COVID-19 aims to both prevent the virus from spreading inside the human body as well as quelling the immune system havoc that the germ wreaks. A U.S. federally funded clinical trial is testing whether the experimental antiviral drug remdesivir works better against COVID-19 if given with a powerful anti-inflammatory drug… read on >
The more pregnancies losses a woman has, the greater her risk of developing diabetes, a new study suggests. Researchers examined data on nearly 25,000 Danish women who were born between 1957 and 1997 and diagnosed with type 2 diabetes between 1977 to 2017. The women were compared with a control group of nearly 248,000 women… read on >
Without quick action, the new coronavirus could sicken up to a quarter-billion people in Africa during the pandemic’s first year and claim 190,000 lives, a new modeling forecast suggests. Up to 5.5 million people could require hospitalization, 140,000 could have severe COVID-19, and 89,000 would be critically ill, the World Health Organization study says. The… read on >
(HealthDay News) — All 50 states have started reopening their economies as of Wednesday, more than two months after the new coronavirus first forced America into lockdown. Connecticut will be among the last states to return to business, when its stay-at-home order lifts and stores, museums and offices are allowed to reopen, The New York… read on >
More than one-fifth of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in New York City have critical illness, and nearly 80% of critically ill patients need ventilators to help them breathe, according to a new study. The findings have important implications for U.S. hospitals, specifically the need to prepare for large numbers of COVID-19 patients who require intensive care,… read on >
(HealthDay News) Young to middle-aged asthmatics who are hospitalized for COVID-19 are likely to be on a ventilator longer than patients without asthma, new research reports. Patients with asthma who were between 20 and 59 years of age needed a ventilator to help with breathing five days longer than patients without asthma in that age… read on >
Obesity makes COVID-19 worse and may lead to deadly blood clots in the lungs, a new study finds. The researchers said that obese patients with COVID-19 may have nearly three times the risk of developing what is known as a pulmonary embolism. “Clinicians can utilize our findings to aid in determining which patients should have… read on >
