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As Americans continue to grapple with the effects of long COVID, the Biden administration on Monday announced the creation of a new office focused on research about the condition that will be part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Office of Long COVID Research and Practice will lead the U.S. response to long COVID, which incudes trials that have already been launched, the HHS said in an agency news release. “As our nation continues to make strides in combating COVID-19, it is crucial that we address the impact of long COVID and provide resources to those in need,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “Last year, President Biden called on HHS to coordinate the response to long COVID. The official establishment of the Long COVID Coordinating office and the launch of the RECOVER clinical trials solidifies this issue as an ongoing priority.” The $1.15 billion RECOVER research program is meant to better understand, treat and prevent long COVID; as many as 23 million Americans have developed the condition, according to HHS estimates. Research has identified 12 possible symptoms of long COVID, including worsening of health after mental or physical activity, fatigue, brain fog and dizziness, changes in taste or smell, thirst and changes in sexual desire or capacity. It can also include gastrointestinal symptoms, heart palpitations, chronic cough, chest pain and abnormal… read on > read on >

Pediatricians have suspected it for years, and now a new study may be proving them right: Cold air really can help ease children’s croup symptoms. Croup is a common childhood illness that usually starts as an ordinary cold. It arises when the infection causes swelling around the voice box (larynx) and wind pipe (trachea), leading to some distinctive croup symptoms: a cough that sounds like a seal’s bark and a high-pitched “creaky” or whistling noise when a child inhales (what doctors call stridor). Fortunately, most cases of croup are mild. And pediatricians have long told parents they can try some old-fashioned tricks for milder croup symptoms: running a hot shower and standing with their child in the steamy bathroom; standing in front of an open refrigerator freezer, or wrapping their child in blankets and going outside in the chilly air for a bit. “The common denominator there is the moist air,” said Dr. Mike Patrick, an emergency medicine physician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “Indoor air, especially in the winter, is dry.” He said pediatricians were giving that advice back when he was a resident almost 30 years ago. There is a basis for it, Patrick and other pediatricians said. There is a “classic” croup scenario where a child develops worsening symptoms at night and worried parents rush the child to the ER.… read on > read on >

TUESDAY, Aug. 1, 2023 (HealthDay News) – It’s well known that smoking in pregnancy can harm a developing baby’s growth. Now, a new study suggests that using e-cigarettes may be more effective that traditional nicotine replacement therapy, such as patches, in helping pregnant women kick the habit and reduce the risk of low birthweight. “E-cigarettes seem more effective than nicotine patches in helping pregnant women to quit smoking and because of this, they seem to also lead to better pregnancy outcomes,” said researcher Peter Hajek, director of the health and lifestyle research unit at Queen Mary University of London. “The evidence-based advice to smokers already includes, among other options, a recommendation to switch from smoking to e-cigarettes. Such a recommendation can now be extended to smokers who are pregnant as well,” Hajek said in a university news release. Researchers studied this in 1,140 pregnant women who were trying to stop smoking. Half of the women received e-cigarettes. The others were given nicotine patches. Both approaches were equally safe, according to the study. The study found that fewer women in the e-cigarette group had children with low birthweight, which can lead to poorer health later in life. Researchers said was most likely because e-cigarettes were more effective in reducing the use of conventional cigarettes. Women later reported whether they had quit smoking. Some women had quit… read on > read on >

Children who have a chronic immune system disease that can prevent them from eating may eventually have a new treatment, decades after the condition was first identified. “Parents and doctors may not be aware of this, but this is a very prominent and serious disease in the pediatric population, and it is increasing in number because it is directly related to food allergens, which are also on the rise,” said lead study author Dr. Anil Mishra, director of the Eosinophilic Disorder Center at the Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. “In this study, we show that after treating the disease in animals, the disease is gone and completely in remission,” he said in a university news release. Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) can be triggered by food or airborne allergies. This causes eosinophils, which are white blood cells, to build up in the lining of the esophagus. This reaction causes the esophagus to shorten and the esophageal wall to thicken, which can make it difficult to swallow and cause food to get stuck in the throat. The study, conducted in mice, found that the disease is caused by interleukin-18 (IL-18), a protein involved in the innate immune response. It can cause inflammation if produced in excess. An allergen entering the body activates a pathway that leads to the release of pro-inflammatory proteins like IL-18 and… read on > read on >

A micronutrient in human breast milk may provide significant benefit to developing newborn brains, according to new research that sheds light on the link between nutrition and brain health. Scientists looked at this sugar molecule in rodents and in human neurons. They said the micronutrient, called myo-inositol, may lead to improved infant formulas. “The current research does indicate that for circumstances where breastfeeding is not possible, it may be beneficial to increase the levels of myo-inositol in infant formula,” said study co-author Thomas Biederer. Myo-inositol may also play a part in the aging brain, according to the research conducted at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University in Boston. “Forming and refining brain connectivity from birth is guided by genetic and environmental forces as well as by human experiences,” Biederer, a senior scientist on the neuroscience and aging team at the HNRCA, said in a Tufts news release. He is also a faculty member at the Yale School of Medicine. “As a neuroscientist, it’s intriguing to me how profound the effects of micronutrients are on the brain,” Biederer said. “It’s also amazing how complex and rich human breast milk is, and I now think it is conceivable that its composition is dynamically changing to support different stages of infant brain development.” The researchers compared human milk samples collected… read on > read on >

(HealthDay News) – Millions of people live with acne, and it can take a dramatic toll on their quality of life, but is any one treatment better than the rest? Yes, suggests a new review of more than 200 studies. When researchers compared acne treatments, a clear winner emerged: oral isotretinoin, best known as Accutane. Isotretinoin is a high-dose vitamin A that targets the main causes of acne by shrinking oil-producing sebaceous glands, killing bacteria that can cause breakouts, preventing clogged pores and cooling inflammation. The study results are in line with what acne experts see every day in their practices. “Isotretinoin is the most predictably effective drug we have for the treatment of acne,” said Birmingham, Ala.-based dermatologist Dr. Julie Harper. She is the founding director and past president of the American Acne and Rosacea Society. “Not only does it clear acne, it also yields a long-lasting clearance in the majority of people who take it,” said Harper, who wasn’t involved in the study. Not everyone can or will take isotretinoin due to its potential side effects, she noted. While highly effective, isotretinoin does confer its fair share of side effects, namely a risk for severe birth defects and concern about liver problems and depression. “When treating acne without isotretinoin, we have to rely on combinations of agents with different modes of action,” she… read on > read on >

(HealthDay News) – For the fourth summer in a row, Americans are experiencing a COVID-19 surge, this one marked by a rise in hospital admissions, emergency room visits, test positivity rates and wastewater data. The good news: It’s unlikely that most cases will be severe or that the surge will be long-lasting, experts say. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting a rise in testing, though lab testing is not at the levels it was before the public health emergency ended in May. “I do see some early signs that we are heading into another wave. Of course, we don’t know what lies ahead. So, it may yet peter out,” Caitlin Rivers, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told CNN. “It doesn’t seem to be driven by a new variant, which I find encouraging,” Rivers added. Gene sequencing company Helix has seen cases rise 30% to 40% since June, CNN reported. The company has been helping the CDC track gene changes of the COVID virus. Numbers were at low levels before the recent rise, noted Shishi Luo, associate director of bioinformatics at Helix. “When we look at our data, we have noticed that since late June to the beginning of July and probably through now, there has been… read on > read on >

After the death of a parent, boys may have a tougher time than girls, a new study suggests. Young people who lose a parent before age 21 are at risk for poor mental health, lower income and unemployment in adulthood. Researchers say boys seem to be harder hit. The study was published July 25 in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. “Early parental death is strongly associated with a higher risk of children’s poor mental health in adulthood for both males and females, but the estimated odds ratios are usually quantitatively larger for males,” the authors, led by Petri Böckerman of the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, said in a journal news release. Böckerman and his colleagues collected data on nearly 1 million Finns born between 1971 and 1986. By age 31, about 15% had lost a parent. Nearly 12% lost their father; fewer than 5% lost their mother. Nearly 65,800 people lost a parent before age 21. They had higher odds of a hospital admission for mental health issues than those who lost a parent after age 30, the researchers found. Males appeared to be more vulnerable than females. Men were 70% more likely to be hospitalized as were 52% of women. Substance use disorders and intentional self-harm were the most common reasons for admission. Boys and young men who lost their moms… read on > read on >

When parents meet U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, one concern comes up time after time. “The most common question parents ask me is: ‘Is social media safe for my kids,’ ” Murthy said. “The answer is that we don’t have enough evidence to say it’s safe, and in fact, there is growing evidence that social media use is associated with harm to young people’s mental health.” Cyberbullying, cyberstalking, anxiety, inappropriate content, other social pressures, a distraction from school, and body image issues are but a few of the potential pitfalls. “We can’t just take away our kids’ phones or computers,” said Mari Radzik, a clinical psychologist in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). “It’s about figuring out how we can guide them in using and navigating these tools.” Here are tips parents can use to help teens ease the negative effects of social media: 1) Set rules: A federal law makes it illegal for children under 13 to have social media accounts, and legislation is being considered to protect kids’ information until they are 16. It’s best to put off social media for as long as possible, experts say. Parents should talk with their kids, reviewing rules and privacy settings, said pediatrician Dr. Jennifer Hartstein, who is part of the CHLA Care Network. If you’re unfamiliar… read on > read on >

Some medications may not treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) as effectively if patients carry a lot of excess belly fat, , new research shows. IBD includes illnesses such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Researchers say using the wrong anti-inflammatory drug for these patients could mean lower rates of remission. “Even though biologic medications have significantly improved outcomes for our patients with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, some people do not respond well to these therapies,” said Dr. Andres Yarur, a gastroenterologist at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. “In our study, we found that the patients with higher amounts of internal abdominal fat were less likely to improve and experience remission from their disease.” Unlike some anti-inflammatory drugs, biologics work by blocking targets that cause inflammation in the body. Researchers found that patients with higher levels of visceral fat had lower levels of the biologic medications in their blood after treatment and lower rates of steroid-free remission and bowel healing. Visceral fat is found deep within the abdomen, surrounding important organs, including the stomach, liver and bowels. “It seems the fat tissue on the inner side of the abdomen, in particular, impacts treatment, so we may need to use higher doses of the drugs to help these patients,” said researcher Dr. Gil Melmed, director of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Research at Cedars-Sinai. For the study, the… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Biden Administration Launches Office for Long COVID Research

Could Cold Air Help Settle a Case of Croup? New Study Says Yes

Vaping Might Beat Nicotine Patches in Helping Pregnant Women Quit Smoking

New Clues to Treating a Disease That Prevents Children From Swallowing, Eating

Key Ingredient in Breast Milk Could Do Wonders for Baby’s Brain

One Drug Clear Winner in Treating Acne: Review

As a Summer Surge of COVID Takes Hold, Don’t Mistake It for a Cold

Losing a Parent is Hard. Is It Harder for Boys?

Your Teen & Social Media: Experts Offer Tips to Parents

Belly Fat Can Hamper Effectiveness of Meds for Crohn’s, Colitis