Health & Fitness

Placeholder while article actions load Andrew J. Rosen wasn’t surprised when he was diagnosed with high blood pressure at 39. Both his parents had taken medication for years, which had effectively controlled the condition that affects nearly half of all American adults and frequently runs in families. But Rosen, who lives in Carlsbad, Calif., was not so lucky. Even on the maximum recommended doses of five drugs, his blood pressure remained stubbornly elevated. Rosen said he repeatedly asked his doctors whether an undiagnosed condition might be to blame. Each time, he received the same response: He had “essential hypertension” — high blood pressure with no underlying cause. Sometimes, doctors told him, the condition, also known as primary hypertension, can be difficult to control. Poor...

Disease-causing pathogens are notoriously dangerous foes that have evolved many tricks to thwart the body's immune system. Among the most terrifying are ones that can sneak into the nervous system, even infecting the brain.   Now, a new study from researchers in the UK, Australia, and Singapore has captured a timelapse of destruction in lab-grown zebrafish, showing how a fungus that causes a rare type of meningitis spreads out of the bloodstream and into the brain. As if squeezing between the tightly packed cells of the blood-brain barrier or hitching a ride inside immune cells bound for the brain (like many other pathogens do) wasn't enough, it seems one meningitis-causing microbe that goes by the name of Cryptococcus neoformans has another trick in the bag: blocking and bursting sm...

By European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases April 22, 2022 New research has shown that a longer interval between primary COVID-19 vaccine doses can boost antibody production up to nine-fold. The study will be presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Lisbon, Portugal, (April 23-26, 2022). Understanding the immunological response to vaccination against COVID-19 is critical to controlling the virus and minimizing the number of deaths. To find out factors affecting antibody responses following Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccination, Dr. Ashley Otter and colleagues at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) measured antibody levels in blood samples taken from almost 6,000 healthcare workers from ...

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Nearly 3.5 million chickens in Lancaster County have been destroyed because of avian flu.Despite that, state Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding said he's encouraged about where Pennsylvania stands in the fight against the devastating virus.Redding said he feels confident in the actions being taken to stop the spread of avian flu."We have to contain this virus. That's what this game is about right now," he said.The state's effort to do that is working so far.Three commercial chicken farms have tested positive for avian flu, and they are all in what's being called the control zone. It's the six-mile radius surrounding the East Donegal Township farm where the virus was first detected.According to Redding, the control zone is critical to stopping the spread of avian flu."To control...

Photo: Getty (Getty Images) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning doctors to keep an eye out for mysterious cases of hepatitis that are affecting young kids in the U.S. and elsewhere. Two children in the U.S. have become so sick that they’ve required a liver transplant. Officials in Europe and Israel have reported similar recent cases. Since late last year, children have been coming down with severe hepatitis (liver inflammation) that couldn’t be explained by other well-known causes, such as the group of viruses most commonly responsible for hepatitis. Symptoms have included jaundice, fever, stomach pain, as well as discolored urine and feces, with more life-threatening cases leading to complete liver failure. Reports have largely come from the UK so far, with now ...

Photo: Ancha Chiangmai (Shutterstock) The idyllic start to any spring morning is waking up to the sun shining and the birds chirping. Unfortunately, this year you may have to compromise a bit on the latter. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over 30 million cases of the bird flu have been detected in aquatic birds, commercial poultry, and backyard flocks as of April 19, spanning across at least 31 states. Because of this, health officials across multiple states are asking people to take down their bird feeders and baths to do their part to stop the spread. Dr. Victoria Hall of the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota explains that, “not only will this action help to protect those beautiful feathered creatures that visit your yard, but will also help al...

A British patient has died after the longest COVID infection on record — regularly testing positive for a staggering 505 days. The unidentified patient, who had a weakened immune system, succumbed after suffering “one continuous infection” that lasted nearly 17 months, according to Dr. Luke Blagdon Snell, of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. COVID throat-swab tests “were positive each time — the patient never had a negative test,” Snell told the BBC, as per The Times of London. “And we can tell it was one continuous infection because the genetic signature of it, the information we got from sequencing the viral genome, was unique and constant in that patient,” the doctor said. Snell told the BBC that “at 505 days, it certainly seems to be the longe...

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