Health & Fitness

LONDON (AP) — For many in the U.K., the pandemic may as well be over. Mask requirements have been dropped. Free mass testing is a thing of the past. And for the first time since spring 2020, people can go abroad for holidays without ordering tests or filling out lengthy forms. That sense of freedom is widespread even as infections soared in Britain in March, driven by the milder but more transmissible omicron BA.2 variant that’s rapidly spreading around Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere. The situation in the U.K. may portend what lies ahead for other countries as they ease coronavirus restrictions. France and Germany have seen similar spikes in infections in recent weeks, and the number of hospitalizations in the U.K. and France has again climbed — though the number of deaths per day rem...

At first glance, U.S. Covid cases appear to have plateaued over the past two weeks, with a consistent average of around 30,000 cases per day, according to NBC News' tally. But disease experts say incomplete data likely masks an upward trend. In Washington, D.C., for example, several high-profile government figures recently tested positive, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, White House press secretary Jen Psaki and Attorney General Merrick Garland. "I do think we are in the middle of a surge, the magnitude of which I can’t tell you," Zeke Emanuel, vice provost of global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, said. The BA.2 omicron subvariant, which now accounts for about 72 percent of U.S. cases and is more contagious than the original omicron variant, is fueling that spread, ...

The idea is that it wasn’t just masks, social distancing or other pandemic restrictions that caused flu and other respiratory viruses to fade while the coronavirus reigned, and to resurge as it receded. Rather, exposure to one respiratory virus may put the body’s immune defenses on high alert, barring other intruders from gaining entry into the airways. This biological phenomenon, called viral interference, may cap the amount of respiratory virus circulating in a region at any given time. “My gut feeling, and my feeling based on our recent research, is that viral interference is real,” said Dr. Ellen Foxman, an immunologist at the Yale School of Medicine. “I don’t think we’re going to see the flu and the coronavirus peak at the same time.” At an individual level, she said, there may be som...

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There have been multiple outbreaks of illnesses among humans after exposure to E. coli- and salmonella-contaminated dog food, which has been more likely in commercial and homemade raw food diets. These diets typically involve the need to prep pets' foods in the kitchen, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE. But guidelines for how owners should safely handle pet food and dishes is limited, and their effectiveness is unclear, so the authors of the new study investigated dog owners' feeding habits and analyzed the impact of US Food and Drug Administration hygiene protocols on dog food dish contamination. During casual conversations among veterinary nutritionists, "we realized that, when it came to our own pets, we all had different pet food storage and hy...

article MILWAUKEE - The Wisconsin Humane Society has provided an update on the Bald Eagle that was found in distress Friday in Bay View. The female Bald Eagle was euthanized Saturday. In a statement: We are heartbroken to share that the Bald Eagle that was admitted to us yesterday from Bay View has passed away. Since her admission, we’ve been providing supportive care, but despite our best efforts, her condition declined rapidly, and she showed significant neurological problems. We’ve been consulting with veterinary and disease experts since her arrival, and hoped to see signs of improvement today. Unfortunately, she had a severe seizure, went into acute respiratory distress, and could not be saved. She was humanely euthanized.  Her symptoms were...

“City of Hope convinced me that if my donations were made public, I could encourage others to follow suit,” he told The Los Angeles Business Journal. Dr. Riggs later developed the foundations for monoclonal antibodies, again using recombinant DNA technology to trick bacteria into producing proteins that mimic human antibodies. That development has led to major advances in treating cancer and other diseases. In the 2000s he turned to the question of epigenetics, the study of how markers attached to a gene alter the way that gene is “read.” Over the course of an organism’s life, a gene will gain or lose certain markers, a process influenced by behavior and changes in one’s environment. Epigenetics is an emerging and still poorly understood field. But even after retiring in October 2020, Dr....

Bird flu US officials believe nearly 24m poultry birds, mostly chickens and turkeys, have died of flu since virus strain identified in February Millions of birds have died in the US in recent weeks, because of a contagious strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza, popularly known as bird flu.‘They’re cooking them alive’: calls to ban ‘cruel’ killing methods on US farmsThe bird flu has also led zoos across the US to temporarily close aviary exhibits and move birds away from the public. At zoos from Colorado to Maryland, species ranging from ostriches to penguins have been moved indoors.The virus poses a low risk to humans, but the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated that nearly 24m poultry birds, mostly chickens and turkeys, have died of the flu since February, when a flo...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health warning about an outbreak of meningococcal disease in Florida, which the agency said is mainly affecting gay and bisexual men, including those living with HIV.  The CDC urged gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men to get the MenACWY vaccine if they live in Florida. It also recommended that those planning to visit Florida talk with their healthcare provider about getting the vaccine The agency added in the advisory that multiple meningococcal disease cases in college students have been reported in the state over the last few months. However, the CDC added that there is no evidence to suggest that the cases among college students are related to the larger outbreak. Meningococcal diseas...

I lost 40 pounds in a year on the keto diet, but then I wanted to quit. To quit without gaining all of the weight back, I used "maintenance keto."  Maintenance keto is a period when you increase your carbohydrate count and decrease fat consumption. Loading Something is loading. When I started the keto diet , I was the heaviest I'd ever be...