Americans are losing sleep over worries about money, a new survey reveals. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) polled about 2,000 U.S. adults, finding that 69% reported lost sleep due to concerns about job security and 75% were kept up with thoughts about whether the United States would enter a recession. “Persistent, anxious thoughts can make it difficult to fall asleep and impact sleep quality, so it’s understandable that a substantial number of Americans are losing sleep during this period of economic instability, inflation and job market insecurity,” said Dr. Susheel Patil, sleep medicine physician and spokesperson for the AASM. Still, suffering prolonged sleep disturbances can have some negative side effects in work and life, including decreased productivity, impaired decision-making and an increased risk of mental and physical health issues, according to the AASM. This anxiety can worsen at night, just when someone should be winding down. The AASM suggests measures to improve slumber, including keeping a regular sleep schedule by going to bed and waking at the same times each day, including weekends and holidays. Some other tips include: Try to get at least seven hours of sleep a night. Make your bedroom a peaceful sanctuary, with limited noise and distractions. It should be quiet, dark and cool. Only use your bed for sleeping, not watching TV or reading. Your nightly routine should…  read on >  read on >

Toilet bowls reveal much about the health of a community, alerting scientists to coming outbreaks of flu and other seasonal viruses, researchers say. “Just one flush can hold a lot of information,” said Kristine Du, co-author of a new Canadian study. “Wastewater surveillance equips public health experts, clinicians, policymakers and the public with community-based, objective data to inform health and safety decisions against the flu and RSV,” said Du, a lab technician at the University of Calgary School of Medicine. “Knowing what viruses are coming down the pike can help prepare individuals and communities appropriately,” she added in a university news release. Du and her colleagues found that the clinical cases of influenza A and B, as well as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) correlated closely with virus positivity rates from wastewater surveillance in Calgary. Wastewater surveillance rose in prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this new research builds on that. The study included data from weekly collections of 24-hour composite wastewater samples from three treatment plants in Calgary between March 2022 and April 2023. The samples were then compared to clinical data for total cases and test positivity rates across Calgary and Alberta. The researchers found that influenza A peaked in Calgary’s wastewater between November and December 2022. Influenza B peaked between February and April 2023. RSV’s peak was between November 2022 and February 2023.…  read on >  read on >

The signs of climate change are everywhere, from raging wildfires to flash flooding to soaring temperatures. Now, a new study warns that things could get worse, with scientists reporting that even small increases in global temperatures will make some parts of the Earth too hot for humans to endure. “As long as we continue to put greenhouse gases emissions into the atmosphere, we’re going to continue warming,” said study author Daniel Vecellio, a postdoctoral research scholar at the George Mason University’s Virginia Climate Center. “The take-home message is that we want to keep global warming to as much of a minimum as we can,” said Vecellio, who conducted the research while at Penn State University. “The easiest thing to say, but I guess as we see the hardest thing to do is to accelerate our reductions in greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible in order to stave off these worst effects.” In the study, scientists used lab-measured, physiologically-based temperature thresholds at a range of air temperatures and relative humidity. The team modeled global temperature increases ranging from 1.5 degrees Celsius (C) to 4 degrees C (2.7 degrees F to 7.2 degrees F) above what temperatures were when the industrial revolution began. The Paris Agreement, signed by 196 nations from around the world in 2015, aims to limit those increases to 1.5 C. The threshold…  read on >  read on >

A California bill would have made free condoms available for high schoolers, but it was vetoed Sunday by Gov. Gavin Newsom because of cost. California has a budget deficit of $30 billion, Newsom noted in his veto of Senate Bill 541. This bill, plus several other measures lawmakers passed, would have increased state budget costs by $19 billion. “This bill would create an unfunded mandate to public schools that should be considered in the annual budget process,” the Democratic governor wrote. If the bill had been allowed to go through, it would have required public schools with grades 9 through 12 to make condoms available and free for all students. Those with grades 7 through 12 would have been required to allow condoms to be available as part of educational or public health programs. The state has 1.9 million high school students in more than 4,000 schools, the Associated Press reported. Under the bill, retailers would also have not been allowed to refuse to sell condoms to youth. The bill would have helped “youth who decide to become sexually active to protect themselves and their partners from [sexually transmitted infections], while also removing barriers that potentially shame them and lead to unsafe sex,” said the bill’s author, State Sen. Caroline Menjivar, a Democrat from Los Angeles, the AP reported. Newsom said programs that increase access…  read on >  read on >