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Following an approval granted Monday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday signed off on new COVID boosters for Americans. “We have more tools than ever to prevent the worst outcomes from COVID-19,” CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said in an agency news release announcing the approval. “[The] CDC is now recommending updated COVID-19 vaccination for everyone 6 months and older to better protect you and your loved ones.” Hours earlier, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) had voted to support the boosters for all Americans aged 6 months and older. The COVID shots from Pfizer and Moderna will join the flu shot and newly approved RSV shots as part of a three-pronged public health strategy to tame the spread of all three viruses this coming winter. The updated COVID vaccines are each fully approved for those 12 and older and are authorized under emergency use for individuals 6 months through 11 years of age. “Vaccination remains critical to public health and continued protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said Monday in an agency news release. “The public can be assured that these updated vaccines have met the agency’s rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness and…  read on >  read on >

For decades, sick people have been taking essentially worthless over-the-counter cold remedies to clear their stuffy noses, a key advisory panel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday. The panel voted unanimously that nonprescription oral medications containing phenylephrine — including Sudafed PE, Vicks Sinex and Benadryl Allergy Plus Congestion — don’t do anything to ease congestion. The committee’s ruling could prompt the FDA to pull all oral decongestants containing phenylephrine from store shelves, leaving cold sufferers with limited options to relieve their misery. “I feel this drug in this oral dose should have been removed from the market a long time ago,” said Jennifer Schwartzott, the patient representative on the panel, the Associated Press reported. “Patients require and deserve medications that treat their symptoms safely and effectively, and I don’t believe that this medication does that.” Phenylephrine has been available in cold remedies since the 1970s, and can be taken as a liquid, pill or nasal spray. Tuesday’s decision does not include the nasal spray version. Medications with phenylephrine took on more prominence after the highly effective decongestant pseudoephedrine became harder to purchase in 2005, as part of legislation aimed at combatting the meth epidemic. More than 242 million bottles or packages of phenylephrine-containing cold remedies were sold in 2022, compared with about 51 million cold products containing pseudoephedrine, FDA briefing documents for…  read on >  read on >

Bolstering the notion that a strong body equals a strong mind, new research indicates that the more inactive seniors are, the higher their risk for dementia. The finding stems from a look at the onset of dementia among nearly 50,000 Brits. All were at least 60 years old when information about typical daily activity routines was entered into the UK Biobank database at some point between 2006 and 2010. Their risk for dementia was then tracked for an average of about seven years. “We looked into whether sitting too much can increase the risk of getting dementia,” said lead author David Raichlen, a professor of biological sciences and anthropology at the University of Southern California. “Turns out, if you’re sedentary for over 10 hours a day, there’s a higher risk.” Compared to spending nine hours a day on the proverbial couch, 10 hours of inactivity were associated with an 8% higher risk for dementia among seniors. And more inactivity was even riskier: Seniors who clocked 12 hours a day of inactivity — be it at one stretch, or over 24 hours — saw their risk for dementia spike by 63%. Those who sat around for 15 hours a day had a stunning 320% increase in dementia risk. The study doesn’t prove inactivity causes dementia, Raichlen stressed. It could be that other issues that might lead…  read on >  read on >

Certain combinations of bacteria found in dust in children’s day care settings may have an impact on their young lungs. Researchers are trying to understand whether attending day care can affect children’s lung health. Their aim is to lower the risk of asthma. “We find mixtures of different bacteria and other microbes living everywhere — outside, inside our homes, on our skin and even inside our bodies. These communities of bacteria, known as microbiota, can have beneficial or harmful effects on our health,” said Dr. Annabelle Bédard, a researcher at Inserm (the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research) in Paris, France. “Young children will come into contact with the bacteria living in day care centers via their skin and mouths and by breathing them in. So we might expect this exposure to have an impact on children’s developing lungs via the different microbiota that arise in children’s airway, gut or skin,” Bédard said in a news release from the European Respiratory Society. The findings are scheduled for presentation at the society’s annual meeting this week in Milan, Italy. In the United States, 6 million children — about 1 in 12 — have asthma, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is a serious disease causing wheezing, difficulty breathing and coughing. For this study, researchers used an adapted vacuum cleaner…  read on >  read on >

Seniors, pick up those knitting needles, some paintbrushes or that favorite novel, because new research suggests that having a hobby is linked to having lower depression in older people. Hobbies might include anything from gardening to playing games, arts and crafts, volunteering, reading or being part of a club, according to the study, which spanned numerous countries and included more than 93,000 people ages 65 and older. “Our study shows the potential of hobbies to protect older people from age-related decline in mental health and well-being. This potential is consistent across many countries and cultural settings,” said lead author Karen Mak, of University College London’s Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care. Data came from people who had enrolled in five studies in the United States, Japan, China, England and 12 other European countries. Researchers analyzed data spanning four to eight years, finding that having a hobby was linked to decreases in depressive symptoms and increases in happiness and life satisfaction. Although this observational study couldn’t prove cause-and-effect, it nevertheless suggests there might be an association between hobbies and happiness, according to the study. The results remained even after adjusting for other factors such as partnership status, employment and household income. “Of the four outcomes, life satisfaction was most strongly linked to hobby engagement. Hobbies may contribute to life satisfaction in our later years through many…  read on >  read on >

When you have COVID-19, when are you most infectious? Researchers are getting closer to an answer, with a new study finding that folks exhale the highest amounts of virus during the first eight days of their illness. Scientists found that patients exhale quite a bit of virus during the first several days — as many as 1,000 copies of airborne virus per minute. Those levels drop steeply by day eight, however, when a person exhales only about two copies per minute. “This information speaks directly to when someone with COVID-19 should isolate; when they are more likely to infect other people by breathing out virus into the air around them; and when they become much less likely to spread the infection,” lead study author Gregory Lane, a senior research project manager at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago, said in a university news release. The study’s aim was to figure out “how much virus a patient is exhaling into the environment over the course of their infection and for how long,” study co-author Christina Zelano added in the news release. She’s an assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern. The study authors invented and utilized a portable, non-invasive device to collect breath samples. “The vast majority of research on viral loads over the course of a COVID-19 infection has been based on nasal or…  read on >  read on >

Young people who vape are more likely to experience chronic stress, though it isn’t clear whether it was the stress that brought on the vaping or the vaping that caused the stress, investigators say. “Research is starting to show how vaping affects young people’s physical and mental health,” said Dr. Teresa To, a senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto. “Our previous research has shown that those who vape are more likely to suffer an asthma attack. In this study we were particularly interested in the relationship between vaping, mental health and quality of life among young people,” To said in a news release from the European Respiratory Society. For the new research, investigators used the data from the Canadian Health Measures Surveys, a national survey that included 905 people between 15 and 30 years of age. About 13% said they had used e-cigarettes. Researchers found that young people who vape were more likely to be physically active but were also more likely to report experiencing extreme chronic stress in their lives. “Chronic stress can lead to mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. It’s important for young people experiencing chronic stress to be given support early on to help them avoid resorting to unhealthy coping mechanisms like vaping or smoking,” To said. “Vaping is not an effective way to…  read on >  read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday gave the green light to new COVID boosters for Americans, setting the stage for the updated vaccines to become available within days. The COVID-19 shots from Pfizer and Moderna will join the flu shot and newly approved RSV shots as part of a three-pronged public health strategy to tame the spread of all three viruses this coming winter. The updated COVID vaccines are each fully approved for those 12 and older and are authorized under emergency use for individuals 6 months through 11 years of age. “Vaccination remains critical to public health and continued protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in an agency news release. “The public can be assured that these updated vaccines have met the agency’s rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality. We very much encourage those who are eligible to consider getting vaccinated.” One infectious diseases expert said the approvals matter most to vulnerable Americans. “Having an updated booster that more closely matches circulating strains is an important tool for high-risk individuals, who still remain at risk for severe disease, hospitalization and death,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar with Johns Hopkins’ Center for Health Security in Baltimore. Next up? The Advisory…  read on >  read on >

As this summer has shown, the massive smoke plumes generated by wildfires can dirty the air of regions many miles away. Now a new study is raising the question of whether that pollution is contributing to suicides in rural America. Researchers found a correlation between air pollution from “drifting” wildfire smoke and a rise in U.S. counties’ suicide rates. The connection was not seen everywhere, however: It was concentrated in rural counties, and among certain groups with a relatively heightened suicide rate to begin with: white, working-age men without a college education. For every 10% increase in wildfire air pollutants, the study found, a rural county’s monthly suicide rate rose by 1.5%, on average. The study was published Sept. 11 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It cannot prove that dirty air is to blame. And experts said it’s unclear exactly what is going on. But the findings add to evidence tying air pollution — and more broadly, climate change — to mental health consequences. Recent studies have linked exposure to heavy air pollution to aggression and increased risks of depression, anxiety and even dementia. And there is some understanding for why “junk in the air” might harm not only physical health, but mental health, too, according to David Molitor, the lead researcher on the new study. Tiny particles in air pollution, including…  read on >  read on >

Could an algorithm take your job someday? Concerns about artificial intelligence, or AI, are plaguing U.S. workers, according to a new American Psychological Association poll. Some workers are uncomfortable with the way their employers are tracking them, while others worry that AI will make their jobs obsolete. “Employers interested in investing in artificial intelligence systems must also invest in their employees, educating them about the role of AI and provide opportunities for feedback,” said Arthur Evans Jr., chief executive officer of APA. “The workplace is changing rapidly. Open and honest communication from employers can help relieve employees’ anxieties about the unknown and improve overall well-being, which is associated with higher organizational performance,” Evans said in an association news release. The APA poll surveyed more than 2,500 employed adults in the second half of April. Nearly 2 in 5 workers polled said they were worried that AI might one day make some or all of their job duties obsolete. About 64% of those who said they were worried about AI also said they felt tense or stressed during the workday, compared to 38% of those who were not worried about AI. Workers with a high school education or less were significantly more likely than those with a four-year college degree to be worried that their jobs would become obsolete — 44% to 34%. About 50% of…  read on >  read on >