Month: January 2022

Candida auris in a petri dish.Photo: Nicolas Armer/dpa (Getty Images) A worrying superbug fungus has been spotted in Louisiana for the first time. On Tuesday, hospital officials reported that at least two patients at the University Medical Center in New Orleans had contracted Candida auris, a deadly yeast often resistant to antifungals that can spread quickly in hospitals. The cases follow the first Oregon outbreak of C. auris reported just a month earlier. Nirav Patel, chief medical officer at the University Medical Center, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that the hospital publicly reported the cases “out of an abundance of caution.” Citing privacy concerns, the hospital has disclosed little else about the cases, including the current condition of the two patients, when the infec...

EAST MELBOURNE, Australia (StudyFinds.org) — A simple eye test may provide doctors with a clue into how long you have left to live. An international team has discovered a link between the biological age of a person’s retinas and their risk of death. Marvel actor Gaspard Ulliel, 37, dies after ski accident The membrane at the back of the eye contains light sensitive cells that begin deteriorating during middle age. A study of almost 47,000 adults found that people whose retinas were “older” than their actual age were more likely to die over the next decade. The discovery could lead to a routine screening tool for a host of life-threatening illnesses – including Alzheimer’s disease. “The retina offers a unique, accessible ‘window’ to evaluate underlying pa...

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A £15 blood-thinning drug could help Covid patients and prevent lung damage, a study suggested today. Researchers based in the UK and Australia found heparin improved oxygen levels of hospitalised patients by 70 per cent.  The drug is unique because of its combination of anti-viral, anti-inflammatory and anti-coagulant effects, experts said.   Heparin — which is found in drugs such as Lovenox — is already used in hospitals to treat infected Brits suffering clots. It is usually injected but doctors found it was safe and effective for Covid patients when inhaled. Experts believe the drug works by preventing the virus multiplying in the lungs, while its anti-inflammatory properties stop the immune system overreacting.  Covid can be deadly because it has the potential to damage the lungs, whi...

When I was about 9 years old and in the fourth grade, one of my friends asked me why I had "cankles." I didn't even know what that meant at the time. While I didn’t think too much about it, I kind of accepted the fact that I had them. I embraced the slang term and joked about them. But as the years went on, the shape of my legs and ankles became much more obvious to me, something seemed off. Regardless of any weight fluctuations, my legs remained in this weirdly different shape than my peers. My worries didn't just have to do with how my legs looked. I also got bruises all the time and had no idea where they came from. They could be really painful to the touch, with a ton of swelling. The extra weight on my legs also made it harder for me to work out. But no one could give me an ...

In September 2018, the pain in my ribs and back erupted almost overnight. I ignored it at first, sure that I had done too many abdominal exercises at the gym. When the pain persisted for a few weeks, I went to my doctor. She was a bit concerned, but all my blood and urine tests came back normal. Two months later, the pain intensified and started waking me at night. I made an appointment with a physical therapist. Within 10 minutes of examining me, a shadow came over the therapist’s face. “I don’t want to alarm you, but this pain is not muscular-skeletal,” she told me. “You need to get a CT scan. Today.” Later that day—the Wednesday before Thanksgiving—my husband Greg and I sat in our local hospital’s emergency department, waiting for scan results. When the ED doctor returned to my ...