Health & Fitness

Israeli lab says it has made safe a powerful — but toxic — cancer treatment – The Times of Israel
Health & Fitness

Israeli lab says it has made safe a powerful — but toxic — cancer treatment – The Times of Israel

Israeli scientists say they have found a way to safely administer an immunotherapy drug thought capable of saving many lives, but hitherto considered too toxic for widespread use. The team from the Weizmann Institute of Science says it has created a new version of the medicine, adding in a specially created antibody to make it safe. In a new peer-reviewed study, researchers say a mouse experiment indicated that the new drug is both safe and effective. Among scientists, boosting the effectiveness of the CD40 receptor — a protein molecule that stimulates the immune system — is seen as one viable way to fight many solid tumor cancers. Synthetic antibodies exist that do exactly this and strengthen the CD40 receptor’s function. But when given in low concentrations they do...
Microplastics have been found in air, water, food and now … human blood – USA TODAY
Health & Fitness

Microplastics have been found in air, water, food and now … human blood – USA TODAY

New research has found evidence of plastic in the bloodstream of humans for the first time. Microplastics, microscopic pieces of plastic, have been found in water, air, fish and foods. Microplastics occur from the breakdown of paints and plastic products, including single-use objects such as plates and shopping bags. Plastic – it's in your blood. And we know so because researchers have just found microscopic plastic particles flowing in our bloodstream for the first time. Previous research had found we inhale and ingest enough microscopic pieces of plastic to create a credit card each week. But until now, scientists didn't know whether those particles were entering the bloodstream. "It's the first step for proper risk assessment … (of) the internal concentrations of plastic particles," ...
What to Know About the Artificial Sweetener and Cancer Study – Gizmodo
Health & Fitness

What to Know About the Artificial Sweetener and Cancer Study – Gizmodo

Photo: effrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group (Getty Images) The long-running argument over the harms and benefits of artificial sweeteners will be further complicated by new research out this week. The results of a large observational study suggest that higher consumption of artificial sweeteners is linked to a higher risk of cancer. Importantly, though, this sort of data cannot show a direct cause-and-effect relationship between the two, only a correlation. The study was conducted by researchers in France, primarily from the nutritional epidemiology research team based at Sobonne Paris Nord University. They analyzed data from the NuriNet-Santé project, a population study that has been following the health and lifestyle habits of French adults since 2009, largely th...
Controversial New Study Links Artificial Sweeteners to Cancer Yet Again – ScienceAlert
Health & Fitness

Controversial New Study Links Artificial Sweeteners to Cancer Yet Again – ScienceAlert

Consuming artificial sweetener could increase the risk of developing cancer, a large-scale study suggested Thursday, but experts not involved in the research said it was not enough proof to consider changing current health advice.   Sweeteners are consumed by millions every day in products like diet soda, partly as a way to avoid weight gain from sugar – but how healthy these substitutes are themselves has long been a matter of controversy. To assess the cancer risk of sweeteners, researchers analyzed the data of more than 100,000 people in France who self-reported their diet, lifestyle and medical history in intervals between 2009-2021 as part of the NutriNet-Sante study. They then compared consumption to the rate of cancer, while adjusting for other variables such as smoking, poor ...
BA.2 more severe for children, Hong Kong study finds, though serious outcomes uncommon – CNN
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BA.2 more severe for children, Hong Kong study finds, though serious outcomes uncommon – CNN

CNN  —  A new study on the severity of the BA.2 strain of the coronavirus in children in Hong Kong found that it was more serious for children compared with other variants or compared with parainfluenza or influenza. However, in absolute numbers, the research counted a small number of deaths and other serious outcomes, and the findings may be less applicable to the US, where there has been more Covid-19 transmission and thus more population-level immunity. The findings are considered preliminary because they come from a preprint, or a study that has not been scrutinized by outside researchers or published in a medical journal. They have also not been confirmed by other studies, which makes them...
COVID BA.2 subvariant increasing in LA County, health officials say – KABC-TV
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COVID BA.2 subvariant increasing in LA County, health officials say – KABC-TV

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Although overall COVID-19 case rates remain relatively low, the BA.2 subvariant of the virus was continuing to spread in Los Angeles County, with health officials reporting a sharp rise in the percentage of cases on Thursday attributed to the offshoot of the Omicron variant, which fueled a winter surge in infections. According to the county Department of Public Health, the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron accounted for 14.7% of all specially-sequenced cases from the week ending March 5 - more than double the 6.4% rate from the previous week. Experts have suggested that BA.2 is at least 30% more contagious than the Omicron variant, which was already substantially more easily spread than the original COVID-19 virus. "Although most of our metrics continue to improve, the coun...
US tuberculosis rates went up more than 9% in 2021 after plummeting early in pandemic, study shows – CNN
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US tuberculosis rates went up more than 9% in 2021 after plummeting early in pandemic, study shows – CNN

CNN  —  Tuberculosis cases in the United States rose 9.4% in the past year after falling almost 20% in 2020, though the latest rates are still significantly lower than before the pandemic, according to a new study. The study, published Thursday in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, analyzed CDC data to quantify and characterize trends in tuberculosis cases. According to the report, cases increased from 7,173 to 7,860 in 2021. This follows a 19.9% drop in cases between 2019 and 2020. However, 2021 cases are still 12.6% lower than they were in 2019. Before the pandemic, case rates dropped an average of 1% to 2...
Have COVID-19 symptoms? 3 major reasons to take a COVID test – Deseret News
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Have COVID-19 symptoms? 3 major reasons to take a COVID test – Deseret News

There are still plenty of reasons to get a COVID-19 test as coronavirus cases remain low. The backdrop: Experts warned that symptoms from the omicron variant’s subvariant — called BA.2 — might be mistaken for springtime allergies, according to CBS News. Dr. Celine Gounder, a clinical assistant professor of medicine and infectious diseases at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told CBS News that it’s hard to tell the difference between COVID-19 and allergies. Getting a test, she said, is the best way to remain safe and sure about why you’re experiencing symptoms. The reasons: Officials with the West Piedmont Health District told WDBJ7-TV in Roanoke, Virginia, that there are some fundamental reasons to get a COVID-19 test right now, even as COVID...
Los Angeles BA.2 Covid Cases Jump 130% In One Week As More Transmissible Omicron Variant Spreads Across U.S. – Deadline
Health & Fitness

Los Angeles BA.2 Covid Cases Jump 130% In One Week As More Transmissible Omicron Variant Spreads Across U.S. – Deadline

Los Angeles County Public Health officials announced today that the county of 10 million people had finally begun to experience a trend that has already hit many parts of the United States: a rapid rise in the number of Covid cases attributed to the more transmissible Omicron BA.2 variant. Per L.A. County: Although the current sequencing sample represents a small fraction of all cases, it indicates that between February 27- March 5, 14.7% of sequenced cases were the BA.2 Omicron sub-lineage in LA County. This is an increase from 6.4% of sequenced cases in the prior week. Just last week, the county’s director of Public Health, Barbara Ferrer, described the increases in BA.2 as “a gradual growth.” Things seem to have changed. The ascent from 6.4% of sequenced cases to 14.7...
Omicron is trouncing the argument for “natural immunity” to COVID – Ars Technica
Health & Fitness

Omicron is trouncing the argument for “natural immunity” to COVID – Ars Technica

Enlarge / A 13-year-old celebrates getting the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Hartford, Connecticut, on May 13, 2021. Covid-19 Coverage View more stories So-called "natural immunity" against COVID-19 has always been a dodgy argument for avoiding vaccination during the pandemic. But amid omicron, natural immunity is clearly rubbish. Unvaccinated people who recover from an omicron coronavirus variant infection are left with paltry levels of neutralizing antibodies against omicron. They also have almost no neutralizing antibodies against any of five other coronavirus variants, including delta. People who were vaccinated before getting an omicron infection, however, have strong protection against all five variants, and they have some of the h...