Keeping Weight Stable Could Help Save Your Brain

“There’s something about maintaining weight and BMI that seems to reflect some health resilience,” said st...

Pandemic Especially Tough on Kids With ADHD

TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Living through the pandemic has not been easy for kids, but it has really thrown off children who have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), new research warns.

Though they were not more likely to catch COVID-19, they were more likely to experience symptoms if they we...

Extra 10 Minutes of Daily Activity Could Save 110,000 U.S. Lives Annually

TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Americans, get up out of that chair and get moving.

If everyone between 40 and 85 years of age were active just 10 minutes more a day, it could save more than 110,000 U.S. lives a year, a large study reports.

"Our projections are based on an additional 10 minutes of modera...

Pfizer Begins Testing a COVID Vaccine Targeted to Omicron

Pfizer Inc. announced Tuesday that it has launched a trial that will compare its existing COVID-19 vaccine against a new version tailored to beat back the highly contagious Omicron variant.

"While current research and real-world data show that boosters continue to provide a high level of protection against severe disease and hospitalizatio...

Pandemic to Endemic: Is a New Normal Near?

It has begun to feel like a pandemic that will never end, but public health experts now say the Omicron variant may be ushering in a "new normal," where COVID-19 becomes an endemic, but manageable, disease.

"I do feel that we are moving into a transition phase in the pandemic, and I do think Omicron represents a major move to endemicity," ...

EU Eases COVID-19 Travel Rules Within the Bloc for Fully Vaccinated

European Union residents should be able to move freely between the 27 member nations if they've been vaccinated in the past nine months or have recently recovered from coronavirus infection, bloc officials said Tuesday.

The announcement was made a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) said the spread of the Omicron variant could ch...

Vaccination Key to 'Super Immunity' Against COVID-19

Coronavirus infections before or after vaccination provide equal levels of increased immunity, and the key to this so-called "super immunity" is to be vaccinated, researchers report.

"It makes no difference whether you get infected-and-then-vaccinated, or if you get vaccinated-and-then-a-breakthrough infection," said study co-senior autho...

3 Factors Helped Teens Stay Mentally Healthy During Pandemic

Support from family and friends, along with exercise and sufficient sleep, have helped protect teens' mental health during the pandemic, new research shows.

The study also found that teen girls have been more likely than boys to suffer mental distress during the pandemic.

For the study, researchers analyzed data gathered from more th...

AHA News: At 26, Elementary School Music Teacher Had a Stroke Between Classes

Christina Saldivar felt well-rested and energetic when she headed to her elementary school in Newport News, Virginia, on a Monday morning in February 2020. At 26, she was enjoying her first year of teaching music at the same campus instead of bouncing around as an itinerant teacher.

The morning opened with back-to-back classes to second an...

Omicron Shows Signs of Ebbing as U.S. Cases Fall, Hospitalizations Level Off

Weeks after Omicron began ravaging the United States, experts are now seeing statistical signs that suggest the wildly contagious variant might be losing steam.

More states have now reported they have passed their peaks in new cases, and new cases have begun to drop nationally -- daily average cases fell to around 690,000 yesterday, down f...

Young Women at Higher Risk for Stroke Than Male Peers: Study

TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Strokes aren't common among young people, but when they do happen, they strike more often in women than men, a new review finds.

Of the nearly 800,000 Americans who suffer a stroke each year, 10% to 15% are adults age 45 or younger, according to the American Heart Association. <...

Free N95 Masks Begin Arriving in U.S. Pharmacies

The distribution of free N95 masks for Americans has begun, the Biden administration said Monday.

"Last week, masks began shipping and arriving at pharmacies and grocers around [the] country. We expect that throughout the week the number of stores and N95s arriving to scale up significantly," an administration official told CNN.

3 Reasons Why Trying to Get COVID Is a Bad Idea

If you're wondering whether to intentionally expose yourself to the Omicron variant with the goal of developing immunity, the answer is absolutely not, experts say.

"It sounds like playing with fire to me," said Dr. Nicole Van Groningen, a hospitalist who has treated hundreds of COVID-19 patients at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.

Firs...

How Many Steps to Walk Away From Diabetes?

When older people cut back on physical activity, their risk of type 2 diabetes rises. But walking regularly can help, a new study suggests.

The more steps you take -- and the more intensely you walk -- the lower your odds for type 2 diabetes, researchers found.

To assess the link between walking and diabetes risk, they enrolled more ...

COVID Is Proving More Lethal for Children in Africa

Children in sub-Saharan Africa have a far higher risk of death from COVID-19 than those in the United States and Europe, a new study shows.

“Although our study looked at data from earlier in the pandemic, the situation hasn’t changed much for the children of Africa. If anything, it is expected to be worsening with the global emergence ...

FDA Limits Use of Two COVID Antibody Treatments

MONDAY, Jan. 24, 2022 (healthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is curtailing the use of two monoclonal antibody treatments that do not appear to work against the highly contagious Omicron variant.

The combo treatments bamlanivimab/etesevimab and casirivimab/imdevimab, made by Eli Lilly and Regeneron, respectively, performe...

Can CBD Help Curb COVID? Maybe, But More Study Needed

Cannabidiol, a compound derived from marijuana, appears to show promise in blocking replication of the COVID-19 virus and preventing its spread, lab and animal studies show.

CBD inhibited the ability of the coronavirus to spread in human lung cell samples, and also suppressed COVID-19 infection in the lungs and nasal passages of lab mice. ...

England to Lift Travel Restrictions for Vaccinated Visitors

Coronavirus testing requirements for vaccinated people arriving in England will be scrapped, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Monday.

Details about the changes are to be provided later in the day by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, the Associated Press reported.

To "show that this country is open for business,...

COVID Vaccine Hesitancy Falling Faster Among Black Americans Than Whites

MONDAY, Jan. 24, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- While it appears that Black Americans were more hesitant than white Americans to roll up their sleeves when the COVID-19 vaccines launched last year, that unwillingness has lessened.

Following 1,200 U.S. adults through much of the pandemic, researchers found Black people were mor...

COVID Can Affect Brains of Hospitalized Kids

And the kids who developed these headaches or experienced an altered mental status known as acute encephalopathy were more likely to need i...