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For Maximum Effectiveness, De-Stress and Get Healthy Before Your COVID Shot

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Not many people have had the opportunity to get the COVID-19 vaccine yet. But while you wait your turn, there are some steps you can take to give the vaccine — whichever brand you get — a boost when it’s available to you. An Ohio State University review of 49 vaccine studies dating back 30 years examined how stress, depression and healthy behaviors, such as exercise, can affect immune response to a vaccine. Although it’s not realistic to entirely transform your health and habits in a few weeks or months, there are some steps everyone can take — even last-minute ones — to make a difference. Those include getting good sleep as well as exercise in the days before and after you get your shot, said the review’s senior author, Janice Kiecolt-Glaser. She is director of Ohio State’s Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, in Columbus. “There are several things that are really reasonable and relatively easy,” she said. Pandemic-related stress may have set people back when it comes to maintaining the behaviors that keep them healthier, the study authors noted. Recent data from around the world have revealed higher rates of depression and anxiety, more insomnia, increased alcohol sales and more overeating, according to the review. The studies in this review looked at the effects of psychological factors and behaviors on immune response to a…  read on >  read on >

FDA Approves First Once-a-Month HIV Therapy

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The first monthly shots to treat adults with HIV were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday. “Currently, the standard of care for patients with HIV includes patients taking daily pills to adequately manage their condition. This approval will allow some patients the option of receiving once-monthly injections in lieu of a daily oral treatment regimen,” said Dr. John Farley, director of the Office of Infectious Diseases in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Having this treatment available for some patients provides an alternative for managing this chronic condition,” he added in an agency news release. One expert said the shots will likely be welcomed by HIV patients. The shots “will enhance quality of life” to need treatment just once a month, Dr. Steven Deeks, an HIV specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told CBS News. “People don’t want those daily reminders that they’re HIV-infected.” Another expert agreed. “Even people who are taking one pill once a day … reported improvement in their quality of life to switch to an injection,” Dr. Judith Currier, an HIV specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, told CBS News. She consults for ViiV Healthcare, the company behind the long-acting treatment, and wrote a commentary accompanying one study of the drug published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine. Not…  read on >  read on >

For Maximum Effectiveness, De-Stress and Get Healthy Before Your COVID Shot

By | | Add a Comment

Not many people have had the opportunity to get the COVID-19 vaccine yet. But while you wait your turn, there are some steps you can take to give the vaccine — whichever brand you get — a boost when it’s available to you. An Ohio State University review of 49 vaccine studies dating back 30 years examined how stress, depression and healthy behaviors, such as exercise, can affect immune response to a vaccine. Although it’s not realistic to entirely transform your health and habits in a few weeks or months, there are some steps everyone can take — even last-minute ones — to make a difference. Those include getting good sleep as well as exercise in the days before and after you get your shot, said the review’s senior author, Janice Kiecolt-Glaser. She is director of Ohio State’s Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, in Columbus. “There are several things that are really reasonable and relatively easy,” she said. Pandemic-related stress may have set people back when it comes to maintaining the behaviors that keep them healthier, the study authors noted. Recent data from around the world have revealed higher rates of depression and anxiety, more insomnia, increased alcohol sales and more overeating, according to the review. The studies in this review looked at the effects of psychological factors and behaviors on immune response to a…  read on >  read on >

FDA Approves First Once-a-Month HIV Therapy

By | | Add a Comment

The first monthly shots to treat adults with HIV were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday. “Currently, the standard of care for patients with HIV includes patients taking daily pills to adequately manage their condition. This approval will allow some patients the option of receiving once-monthly injections in lieu of a daily oral treatment regimen,” said Dr. John Farley, director of the Office of Infectious Diseases in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Having this treatment available for some patients provides an alternative for managing this chronic condition,” he added in an agency news release. One expert said the shots will likely be welcomed by HIV patients. The shots “will enhance quality of life” to need treatment just once a month, Dr. Steven Deeks, an HIV specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told CBS News. “People don’t want those daily reminders that they’re HIV-infected.” Another expert agreed. “Even people who are taking one pill once a day … reported improvement in their quality of life to switch to an injection,” Dr. Judith Currier, an HIV specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, told CBS News. She consults for ViiV Healthcare, the company behind the long-acting treatment, and wrote a commentary accompanying one study of the drug published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine. Not…  read on >  read on >

Immune System May ‘Remember’ Infections From Previous Coronaviruses

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Previous coronavirus infections might prime the immune system to fight the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19, a new study suggests. There are numerous types of coronaviruses, including many harmless ones that cause mild upper respiratory infections similar to the common cold. Besides SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — other deadly coronaviruses include MERS-CoV, which caused a 2012 outbreak in Saudi Arabia of Middle East respiratory syndrome, and SARS-CoV-1, the first pandemic coronavirus that caused the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak. The authors of the new study investigated how coronaviruses affect the human immune system and also took a closer look at the workings of the antibody response. “Our results suggest that the COVID-19 virus may awaken an antibody response that existed in humans prior to our current pandemic, meaning that we might already have some degree of pre-existing immunity to this virus,” said study senior author John Altin. He’s an assistant professor in the infectious disease branch at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, in Flagstaff, Ariz. The findings could help scientists develop new diagnostic techniques and treatments, assess the effectiveness of convalescent plasma, and design new vaccines or monoclonal antibody therapies that can protect against mutations that may occur in the COVID-19 virus, according to the researchers. The study was published Jan. 19 in the journal Cell Reports Medicine. “Our findings…  read on >  read on >

Exercise Doesn’t Boost Health If You Stay Obese, Study Finds

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The harmful effects of obesity on the heart can’t be undone by exercise, and it’s not possible to be “fat but healthy,” Spanish researchers warn. “Exercise does not seem to compensate for the negative effects of excess weight,” said study author Alejandro Lucia, a professor of exercise physiology at European University in Madrid. The study findings “refute the notion that a physically active lifestyle can completely negate the deleterious effects of overweight and obesity,” he said. Lucia and his colleagues analyzed data from nearly 528,000 working adults in Spain. The participants’ average age was 42 and close to 7 out of 10 were men. About 42% of these adults were normal weight; 41% were overweight, and 18% were obese. Most were inactive (63.5%); 12.3% got some but not enough exercise, and 24.2% were regularly active. About 30% of participants had high cholesterol; 15% had high blood pressure, and 3% had diabetes. No matter how active they were, however, overweight and obese people had a higher risk of heart disease than those whose weight was normal, according to the study, published Jan. 22 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. Compared to active people of normal weight, active obese people were about twice as likely to have high cholesterol, four times more likely to have diabetes, and five times more likely to have high blood pressure.…  read on >  read on >

Exercise Doesn’t Boost Health If You Stay Obese, Study Finds

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The harmful effects of obesity on the heart can’t be undone by exercise, and it’s not possible to be “fat but healthy,” Spanish researchers warn. “Exercise does not seem to compensate for the negative effects of excess weight,” said study author Alejandro Lucia, a professor of exercise physiology at European University in Madrid. The study findings “refute the notion that a physically active lifestyle can completely negate the deleterious effects of overweight and obesity,” he said. Lucia and his colleagues analyzed data from nearly 528,000 working adults in Spain. The participants’ average age was 42 and close to 7 out of 10 were men. About 42% of these adults were normal weight; 41% were overweight, and 18% were obese. Most were inactive (63.5%); 12.3% got some but not enough exercise, and 24.2% were regularly active. About 30% of participants had high cholesterol; 15% had high blood pressure, and 3% had diabetes. No matter how active they were, however, overweight and obese people had a higher risk of heart disease than those whose weight was normal, according to the study, published Jan. 22 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. Compared to active people of normal weight, active obese people were about twice as likely to have high cholesterol, four times more likely to have diabetes, and five times more likely to have high blood pressure.…  read on >  read on >

For Rising Number of People, Obesity Is a Literal Headache

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As worldwide obesity rates continue to soar, new research shows that growing numbers of people are developing a potentially blinding type of weight-linked headache that was once considered rare. Though the study was conducted in Wales, one U.S. expert said the same surge in these headaches is likely happening in this country and elsewhere, but he cautioned that just because someone is obese and has headaches doesn’t mean he or she have this rare headache, known as idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH). “Obese individuals are at greater risk for more frequent migraine, too,” noted Dr. Brian Grosberg, director of the Hartford HealthCare Headache Center in Connecticut. In the study, IIH rates increased sixfold in Wales between 2003 and 2017 — from 12 per 100,000 people to 76 per 100,000 people. During the same 15-year span, obesity rates in Wales rose from 29% of the population to 40%. “The considerable increase in IIH incidence” has several causes, but is likely “predominately due to rising obesity rates,” said study author William Owen Pickrell, a consultant neurologist at Swansea University. “The worldwide prevalence of obesity nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016, and therefore, these results also have global relevance.” His findings were published in the Jan. 20 issue of Neurology. IIH is a type of headache that occurs when the fluid around your brain and spinal cord builds up…  read on >  read on >

Exercise Doesn’t Boost Health If You Stay Obese, Study Finds

By | | Add a Comment

The harmful effects of obesity on the heart can’t be undone by exercise, and it’s not possible to be “fat but healthy,” Spanish researchers warn. “Exercise does not seem to compensate for the negative effects of excess weight,” said study author Alejandro Lucia, a professor of exercise physiology at European University in Madrid. The study findings “refute the notion that a physically active lifestyle can completely negate the deleterious effects of overweight and obesity,” he said. Lucia and his colleagues analyzed data from nearly 528,000 working adults in Spain. The participants’ average age was 42 and close to 7 out of 10 were men. About 42% of these adults were normal weight; 41% were overweight, and 18% were obese. Most were inactive (63.5%); 12.3% got some but not enough exercise, and 24.2% were regularly active. About 30% of participants had high cholesterol; 15% had high blood pressure, and 3% had diabetes. No matter how active they were, however, overweight and obese people had a higher risk of heart disease than those whose weight was normal, according to the study, published Jan. 22 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. Compared to active people of normal weight, active obese people were about twice as likely to have high cholesterol, four times more likely to have diabetes, and five times more likely to have high blood pressure.…  read on >  read on >

For Rising Number of People, Obesity Is a Literal Headache

By | | Add a Comment

As worldwide obesity rates continue to soar, new research shows that growing numbers of people are developing a potentially blinding type of weight-linked headache that was once considered rare. Though the study was conducted in Wales, one U.S. expert said the same surge in these headaches is likely happening in this country and elsewhere, but he cautioned that just because someone is obese and has headaches doesn’t mean he or she have this rare headache, known as idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH). “Obese individuals are at greater risk for more frequent migraine, too,” noted Dr. Brian Grosberg, director of the Hartford HealthCare Headache Center in Connecticut. In the study, IIH rates increased sixfold in Wales between 2003 and 2017 — from 12 per 100,000 people to 76 per 100,000 people. During the same 15-year span, obesity rates in Wales rose from 29% of the population to 40%. “The considerable increase in IIH incidence” has several causes, but is likely “predominately due to rising obesity rates,” said study author William Owen Pickrell, a consultant neurologist at Swansea University. “The worldwide prevalence of obesity nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016, and therefore, these results also have global relevance.” His findings were published in the Jan. 20 issue of Neurology. IIH is a type of headache that occurs when the fluid around your brain and spinal cord builds up…  read on >  read on >