Month: August 2021

About one-third of U.S. adults have high blood sugar levels, a condition called pre-diabetes that often precedes Type 2 diabetes and can progress to full blown disease. Most are unaware they have the condition, which doesn’t produce obvious symptoms and is why screening is essential, Dr. Barry said. Being overweight or obese is the most important risk factor for the most common type of diabetes, Type 2 diabetes, and for pre-diabetes. Lifestyle changes — including increasing physical activity, eating a healthier diet and losing even a modest amount of weight — can prevent the progression from pre-diabetes to full diabetes. (Drug treatment is also an option.) Screening generally involves a blood test to determine whether blood sugar (or glucose) is elevated. The task force called for loweri...

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University of Chicago Assoc. Prof. Emily Landon answers common questions about additional vaccine doses. Increasingly, research shows many people who have weakened immune systems haven’t been able to receive full protection from their COVID-19 vaccines. Unlike healthy people who’ve been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, immunocompromised people’s bodies may not produce enough protective antibodies after two doses of the COVID-19 vaccines. This could leave them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, especially as more contagious variants circulate in a community. That’s why federal health authorities announced in mid-August that they would allow immunocompromised people to get special, additional doses of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines. This...

On Tuesday, Mother Jones relayed the story of David Boulware, a medical researcher who found himself a target for abuse from right-wing conspiracy theorists — only because he tried to study whether an anti-parasitic drug is actually able to treat COVID-19. "When David Boulware read in 2020 that a cheap and plentiful drug called ivermectin had shown some promise in treating COVID-19, he was eager to study it," reported Kiera Butler. "In May, Boulware's team put the word out about the study, aiming to recruit 1,100 volunteers. But then something strange happened: He began receiving hostile emails and messages on Twitter from people who fervently believed that ivermectin was a miracle cure for COVID-19 and that administering a placebo to some trial participants was therefore unethical." One ...