27May
2020
WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Intravenous (IV) artesunate received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat adults and children with severe malaria, the agency announced Tuesday.
This approval marks the first for severe malaria since the marketing of quinine was discontinued in early 2019. Before the current approval, U.S. patients with severe malaria and those with uncomplicated malaria who were not able to take oral medications were treated with IV artesunate under an investigational new drug protocol through the FDA Expanded Access program.
About 2,000 cases of malaria are diagnosed in the United States each year, and about 300 of those cases are severe, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The FDA notes...
27 May 2020
WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Fatter wallets lead to fatter people, according to a new study.
Researchers examined the link between nations' wealth and their obesity rates. They discovered citizens get plumper as their country gets richer.
"As most people currently live in low- and middle-income countries with rising incomes, our findings underscore the urgent need for effective policies to break -- or at least weaken -- the relationship between income growth and obesity," said study co-author Debabrata Talukdar. He's a professor of marketing at the University at Buffalo School of Management, in New York.
His team analyzed 40 years of data from 147 countries. They found that a 1% increase in per capita income is associated with a 1.23% rise in obesity among men and a...
27 May 2020
WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Spring showers bring … pollen.
That's the surprising discovery made by researchers when they measured tree pollen fragment concentrations during and after spring rains of varying intensity in Iowa City between April 17 and May 31, 2019.
Rain fell on 28 days of the study period, which is prime tree pollen season. There were light rains, thunderstorms, and a severe storm that spawned a tornado.
The researchers found that pollen fragments can hang in the air for as long as 11 hours after heavy rains, and can get deep into the lungs and worsen spring allergies.
"Our results show that while pollen grains decrease substantially during rain, peak concentrations of submicron pollen fragments occur during rain events and then persist for several...
27 May 2020
WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- E-cigarettes can damage more than your lungs: New research shows that only a few months of vaping might also trigger gum disease.
"Vaping is such a big assault on the oral environment, and the change happens dramatically and over a short period of time," said study senior author Dr. Purnima Kumar, a professor of periodontology at Ohio State University.
She and her team collected plaque samples from under the gums of 123 young and healthy people who had no current signs of oral disease: 25 smokers, 25 nonsmokers, 20 e-cigarette users, 25 former smokers using e-cigarettes and 28 people who smoked cigarettes and vaped.
The samples from the daily e-cigarette users had high levels of infection-causing bacteria that put them at high risk for a...
27 May 2020
WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Even if a vaccine against the new coronavirus is developed, only half of Americans say they'd get it, a new survey finds.
It also found that 31% weren't sure if they'd get vaccinated, and about 1 in 5 said they wouldn't get vaccinated.
Of those who'd refuse a vaccine, 7 in 10 cited safety concerns, according to the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
"I am not an anti-vaxxer," Melanie Dries, 56, of Colorado Springs, Colo., told the AP. But, she said, "to get a COVID-19 vaccine within a year or two ... causes me to fear that it won't be widely tested as to side effects."
Others wouldn't hesitate to get the shot.
"I'm definitely going to get it," said Brandon Grimes, 35, of Austin, Texas. "As a father who takes...
27 May 2020
WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- After people have a hip or knee replacement surgery, doctors expect these patients will get relief from joint pain, get around easier and once again enjoy the activities they love.
Now, a new study shows that patients' partners -- and thereby their marriage -- also reaped the benefits of the surgery.
"It was obvious that [patients] have less suffering and they can be more active and they can travel more," said study author Dr. Michael Tanzer, Jo Miller chair of orthopaedic research at McGill University Health Center in Montreal. "But that it actually improved their marital life and their relationship and their family life is not something I could have predicted beforehand."
Tanzer did have reason to suspect this could be true for some...
27 May 2020
WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- It was already known that genetics can play a role in drinking problems, but now researchers have identified additional gene variants that could help identify many more at-risk people.
The team conducted a genome-wide analysis of more than 435,000 people of European ancestry to look for shared gene variants among people with problem drinking.
The researchers pinpointed 19 new gene variants, along with 10 previously known ones, according to the study published May 25 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
"The new data triple the number of known genetic risk loci associated with problematic alcohol use," said study senior author Joel Gelernter, a professor of psychiatry, genetics and neuroscience at Yale University School of Medicine.
For the...
27 May 2020
WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A child with an uncle or aunt with autism appears to have a more than doubled risk of being diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder themselves, a new U.S. government-funded study reports.
Roughly 3% to 5% of children with an aunt or uncle with autism can also be expected to have some form of autism, compared with just 1.5% of children overall, according to the study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
However, researchers portray this as reassuring news for a person with a brother or sister with autism who is thinking about starting a family.
A couple who've had one child with autism have a 20% to 50% chance that later siblings also will be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), said study co-author Dr. John...
WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Many patients with heart failure might live years longer if they were on a combination of newer medications, a study suggests.
Researchers estimate...
WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2020 (American Heart Association News) -- Chris Dier understands how trauma can follow you for a lifetime.
In 2005, he was entering his senior year of high school, looking...