Health & Fitness

Note that some links may require registration or subscription. The Biden administration plans to offer COVID-19 vaccines to migrants entering the U.S. from the southern border. (CNN) The World Health Organization is examining rare reports of sudden hearing problems -- such as tinnitus or loss of hearing -- following COVID-19 vaccination. (NBC News) London police doled out multiple fines for lockdown parties at Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Downing Street residence and other government facilities. (Axios) As Shanghai tests all its citizens for COVID-19, it's finding that the vast majority are asymptomatic or presymptomatic. (Reuters) After the introduction of vaccines in the U....

A large cohort study found that babies born to men who took metformin during the period of sperm development were at increased risk for birth defects, specifically genital defects in boys. These finding suggest that men with diabetes who are taking metformin should talk to their doctors about whether they should switch to another treatment when trying to conceive a child. However, because diabetes control also affects sperm quality, discontinuing metformin treatment could also affect birth outcomes. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine. Diabetes increasingly occurs in people of reproductive age, compromises sperm quality, and is associated with impaired male fertility. Some diabetes drugs may also affect male reproductive health. Researchers from the Univ...

Jane's experience may sound rare, but Prof Mark Caulfield, the president-elect of the British Pharmacological Society, said "99.5% of us have at least one change in our genome that, if we come across the wrong medicine, it will either not work or it will actually cause harm."

Scientists are investigating a possible increase in diabetes cases since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Diabetes is a condition in which the body cannot control sugars in the blood. The scientists want to find out if COVID-19 has a connection with the increase or if it is a coincidence. Increase in diabetes A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently examined two large U.S. insurance databases. The databases included information about new diabetes cases from March 2020 through June 2021. The study found that diabetes was more common in children who had had COVID-19. The report did not look at the difference between Type 1 diabetes, which usually starts in childhood, and Type 2, the kind tied to being overweight. Rates of both kinds o...

Men in their 60s face a higher risk of dying from heart attacks or strokes on muggy summer evenings, according to a study. Researchers found just a 1C (1.8F) rise in average night-time temperatures in June and July was linked to an up to 5 per cent spike in deaths from the conditions.  The study of more than 40,000 heart-related deaths in the UK over 15 years found the risk only affected men in 60 to 65, but not women.  The scientists said their findings were worrying in the face of global warming, when summer nights are expected to get hotter. Hot weather is known risk factor for heart health, particularly for those with pre-existing cardiovascular conditions. This is due to the organ having to work extra hard to maintain the body's regular temperature, which can impact factors like bloo...

Fact: a terrible night’s sleep (or an all nighter) can leave you feeling awful the next day. Unfortunately, more than 60 million Americans suffer from poor sleep and over one third of Americans don’t get at least the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep each night. Clearly, the importance of sleep is not spoken about nearly enough, says Melissa Snover, registered nutritionist, and CEO and founder of Nourished. Sleep is how your body rejuvenates and restores itself. That’s why we need to “wake up to the importance of sleep, pun intended,” says Abhinav Singh, M.D., M.P.H., facility director at the Indiana Sleep Center. “It is vitally important for the entire body, head to toe. Every organ system relies on repairing and restoring itself while sleeping.” A lack of sleep, or sleep de...

Heart disease A 1C rise in summer night temperature linked to 3.1% increase in risk of CVD mortality among men aged 60 to 64, study says Mon 28 Mar 2022 18.30 EDT Men in their early 60s have a higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease on warmer than usual summer nights, according to new research.Previous studies have focused on the potential for warm spells of weather that involve extreme or sustained periods of high temperatures to coincide with surges in deaths and hospitalisations due to heart conditions. However, until now, findings related to age and gender have been inconsistent.Researchers from the University of Toronto in Canada set out to examine any possible link between high summer temperatures at night and increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths among people ag...

A "game-changing" antibiotic could save millions of lives worldwide from drug-resistant superbugs, a new study suggests. The breakthrough, made by UK scientists, involved the development of new versions of the molecule teixobactin, which is thought to be capable of killing bacteria without damaging the tissue of the mammals it was tested on. A team of researchers was able to use it to successfully eradicate methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus - a so-called superbug known as MRSA, which is resistant to several widely used antibiotics - in a study on mice. Read more: UK unveils plans to fight threat of 'antibiotic apocalypse' Image: Global health officials have repeatedly warned about the rise of drug-resistant bacteria due to the mi...

The World Health Organization is examining rare reports of hearing loss and other auditory issues following Covid-19 vaccinations. In a newsletter posted on its website, the international public health agency said that it has been made aware of sudden hearing problems, particularly tinnitus, or ringing of the ears, that may be associated with Covid vaccines. Full coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic The WHO reported 367 cases of tinnitus and 164 cases of hearing loss globally among people who had received a Covid-19 vaccine, usually within a day of the shot. That's out of more than 11 billion doses of Covid vaccine given worldwide, so the hearing problems seem to be extremely rare. People who reported tinnitus ranged in ages from 19 to 91, and nearly three-quarters were women. The reports ca...

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