Health & Fitness

People who can frequently recall their dreams tend to be more creative and exhibit increased functional connectivity in a key brain network, according to new research published in the journal Nature and Science of Sleep. The findings provide new insights into the neurophysiological correlates of dreaming. “I think that dreaming is one of the last frontiers of human cognition — a terra incognita of the mind if you will,” said study author Raphael Vallat, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley. “Although we all spend a significant amount of our lives dreaming, there are still so many basic research questions related to dreams that are unanswered, which obviously makes it such a fascinating topic to study! “In this and previo...

Have you ever turned to Google to ask questions about sex and sexual health? We asked experts to answer some commonly searched questions on Google about sex. “Sexual health is an important part of health," Dr. Jewel Kling told USA TODAY. Sex: Ever Googled it?  From searches about the potential health benefits of sexual activity to why you or a partner may feel pain during or after sex, you probably have Googled something about sex. But did you get the answers that you needed? USA TODAY asked experts to answer six commonly searched questions on Google about sex.  Some of the answers differ depending on a person's gender, age, sexual orientation and a host of other factors. Answers may also change based on the kind of sexual activity people are engaging in with a partner.  Here's what you...

Lehigh and Northampton counties are experiencing “high” community levels of COVID-19, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, based on calculations released Thursday. That means the CDC recommends: Wear a mask indoors in public. Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines. Get tested if you have symptoms. Additional precautions may be needed for people at high risk for severe illness. The Lehigh Valley counties are among eight of 67 Pennsylvania counties seeing the highest level of community coronavirus activity, according to the CDC. In Lehigh County, the CDC reports a case rate of 206.6 per 100,000 people, while in Northampton County the rate was calculated as 247.31 cases per 100,000 people. In New Jersey, Warren and Hunterdon counties are considered in the medium-...

The researchers also replicated the findings in mice, compressing the animals’ sciatic nerves to produce back and leg pain or injecting the sciatic nerves with an irritant. When they blocked the animals’ immune response with dexamethasone, a steroid commonly used to treat back pain, the pain became chronic. Six Tips for Treating Chronic Pain Card 1 of 6 2. Exercise helps. If you have chronic pain, you can still exercise. And, in many cases, it might just help you reduce feelings of discomfort and raise your pain threshold. 5. Use helpful descriptive language. Using different metaphors or second languages to talk about your pain can actually change how much you feel it. For example, swearing outright may be more beneficial than using substitute words. Then, the group questioned whe...

The past few months have seen a significant rise in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths among the fully vaccinated portion of the Pennsylvania populace. And, the data at best are five weeks old. The most recent sign of the trend is the latest Tower Health update, which showed on Tuesday that eight of the 11 patients were considered fully vaccinated. That criteria is the two-dose course of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson product. But, the fully vaccinated moniker sticks no matter how long it has been since the latest shot, and vaccinations have slowed to a trickle. “The Department of Health recommends that everyone who is eligible for vaccines to get up to date (for most people 12+ that means fully vaccinated and boosted), wit...

There's a sound so frequent and familiar in my home, I know it like I know the click of a key in the front door. It's the low squeak of the opening of the medicine cabinet, followed by the rattle of a jumbo sized bottle of pills. A few times a week, at least one person in my house has got a headache. Do you, too, have a headache right this minute, even as you read these words? Odds are good that you do. In April, a narrative review from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and published in The Journal of Headache and Pain revealed that each and every day "15.8% of the world's population had headache, and almost half of those individuals report a migraine (7%)." The Australian Standard starkly notes, "that means 1.1 billion people have a headache today." And as the study's le...

Most octopus species live for one year. But the deaths of octopus mothers after they reproduce have long been a scientific spectacle. Why exactly octopus mothers engage in a form of self-harm that leads to death just after they reproduce remains something of a mystery. But a study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology uses the California two-spot octopus as a model to help explain the physiology of this strange behavior. Z. Yan Wang, an assistant professor of psychology and biology at the University of Washington and an author of the study, explained that the female of the species goes through three reproductive stages. After she mates, the mother produces her eggs and handles them with care. She takes each egg, one by one, carefully stringing them into long strands. Then she...

She has found some solace in online support groups that connect her with others who are trying to navigate recovery and career changes, she said. “I drop a lot of balls all the time that I never used to,” said Ms. Bailey, whose work as a campaigns coordinator for a charity in London was not renewed last year after her contract ended. “I don’t really know where to go next. I can’t do the jobs I loved before.” ‘Another unequal burden’ Some countries in Western Europe have robust policies to protect those with disabilities, said Philippa Dunne, one of the authors of a report published by the Solve Long Covid Initiative, a nonprofit research and advocacy group. In the United States, however, there are fewer protections. Since people who are unvaccinated may be at a higher risk for developing ...

Earlier this spring, the city’s confirmed new case rates climbed above those of the U.S. Then, on May 3, San Francisco’s case rate doubled that of the U.S. As of May 10, the national daily case rate was at about 23 new cases per 100,000 people, whereas in S.F. the rate was at 42 per 100,000, according to data from the New York Times analyzed by The Chronicle. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, said that San Francisco’s current high case rates are likely due to the city being relatively protected from the disease for the last two years, combined with city residents taking more risks as local pandemic-era restrictions and messaging wane. “You can only protect yourself for that long,” Chin-Hong said. “Once people get tired or fed up for v...

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