Health & Fitness

An athletic student was in for a shocking surprise when she found frecklelike spots suddenly appearing on her skin — and soon discovered she had blood cancer. Iowa resident Helaina Hillyard, 20, first started to notice the splotches after she came back from basketball practice one night in November 2021. However, within just a few short hours, the spots became larger and spread throughout her body, according to Jam Press. At first, Hillyard believed that her markings were bruises from playing hoops, but she decided to go to a nearby hospital — and found herself in the emergency room. After undergoing bloodwork, her blood levels were shown to be extremely low. Her doctor revealed to her that the specks on her skin were in fact, petechiae, which the Mayo Clinic d...

A 57-year-old Maryland man who survived for two months with a heart transplanted from a genetically altered pig carried signs of a virus that infects the animals, according to the surgeon who performed the first-of-its-kind procedure. The disclosure bolsters one of the most pressing objections to animal-to-human transplants, which is that widespread use of modified animal organs may facilitate the introduction of new pathogens into the human population. The presence of viral DNA in the patient may indicate an infection that contributed to his sudden deterioration and death on March 8, Dr. Bartley Griffith, a transplant surgeon at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said during a presentation to the American Society of Transplantation. Dr. Griffith’s comments were first report...

The genetically modified pig whose heart was used in the first human transplant of its kind had a porcine virus that may have played the role in the death of the patient two months later, experts said. David Bennett Sr., 57, first seemed to be doing well the first few weeks after he received the history-making heart transplant on January 7 at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, but his condition suddenly took a dramatic turn for the worse, the MIT Technology Review reported Wednesday. “He looked really funky,” Dr. Bartley Griffith, Bennett’s transplant surgeon, said during an American Society of Transplantation webinar. “Something happened to him. He looked infected.” Despite doctors’ efforts to save the patient by treating him with an ...

Medical research Clinical trial seems to show Dupuytren’s disease reversed by rheumatoid arthritis drug Researchers have hailed a breakthrough in the treatment of a common, incurable disease that causes hand deformities by bending the fingers firmly into the palm.A clinical trial at Oxford and Edinburgh Universities found that a drug used for rheumatoid arthritis appeared to drive Dupuytren’s disease into reverse when used early on, a result described as a potential “gamechanger” for patients.“We are very keen to pursue this,” said Prof Jagdeep Nanchahal, a surgeon scientist who led the trial at Oxford’s Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology. “This is a very safe drug and it’s important patients can access a treatment if it’s likely to be effective.” The disease is named after the French sur...

The final month of Minnesota Timberwolves basketball was livelier than ever this season, and not just because they nearly upset the Memphis Grizzlies in their first-round playoff series. During one game in mid-April, a woman glued her hand to the court. A few days later, another woman chained herself to the goal post. The following week, a third woman, dressed as a referee, stormed the court before removing her jacket, exposing a shirt underneath that read “Glen Taylor roasts animals alive.” The protests, coordinated by the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere, were aimed at the Timberwolves’ majority owner Glen Taylor. Taylor also owns Rembrandt Enterprises, a large Iowa egg producer that has culled — meaning deliberately killed — 5.3 million of its hens in response to ...

Children are seen walking to school, on the first day of lifting the indoor mask mandate for DOE schools between K through 12, in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S. March 7, 2022. Brendan McDermid | Reuters New York City could bring back mask mandates and proof of vaccination status to go to restaurants, bars and other venues if Covid hospitalizations rise to a concerning level, according to the city's top health official. The city increased its Covid alert level from low to medium earlier this week as infections surpassed a rate of 200 per 100,000 people, driven by the more contagious omicron BA.2 subvariant. For now, health officials are asking residents to exercise increased caution by voluntarily masking indoors and getting tested before and after gather...

Health officials are saying it, friends are saying it: COVID-19 seems on track to become as common and familiar to us as influenza. But experts stress that there are still limitations to this comparison — COVID is still, and may always be, no ordinary flu. “It is time to accept that the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is the new normal,” leaders at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wrote in a paper published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “It will likely circulate globally for the foreseeable future, taking its place alongside other common respiratory viruses such as influenza.” At the beginning of the pandemic, experts noted, drawing comparisons between COVID-19 and the flu was highly politicized — a way to minimize a ...

A sign requiring masks is seen outside of a closed-down business during the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Washington, U.S., December 27, 2021. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register May 5 (Reuters) - The Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV2 virus is intrinsically as severe as previous variants, unlike assumptions made in previous studies that it was more transmissible but less severe, a large study in the United States has found. "We found that the risks of hospitalization and mortality were nearly identical between periods," said four scientists who conducted the study based on records of 130,000 COVID-19 patients, referring to times in the past two years when different variants were dominant across the world. The stud...

According to a new study, scientists have uncovered a single master gene that programs ear hair cells into either outer or inner ones, overcoming a major hurdle that had prevented the development of these cells to restore hearing. ‘We have overcome a major hurdle’ to restore hearing, investigators say. Gene discovery allows the production of inner or outer ear hair cells Death of outer hair cells due to aging or noise cause most hearing loss Master gene switch turns on ear hair cell development Hearing loss caused by aging, noise, and some cancer therapy medications and antibiotics has been irreversible because scientists have not been able to reprogram existing cells to develop into the outer and inner ear sensory cells — essential for hearing — once they die. But Northweste...

Obesity Trial seems to add to body of evidence about health risks of not getting enough sleep or poor quality sleep Poor sleep may undermine attempts to maintain weight loss, research has suggested.Millions of people who are overweight or obese manage to lose weight every year. But many often then face a struggle to keep the pounds creeping back.Now results from a randomised trial, which was conducted by the University of Copenhagen and presented at the European Congress on Obesity, suggests better and longer sleep patterns could help keep the weight off for good.It is well known that not getting enough or poor quality sleep increases the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and fatty deposits building up in the arteries. Not getting enough sleep has also been linked to diabetes...