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People who’ve recovered from severe COVID-19 may have stronger long-term immune protection from reinfection than those with milder illness, researchers report. They examined blood samples from 39 COVID-19 patients and 10 people who hadn’t been exposed to the virus (their blood samples were given pre-pandemic). In all, they analyzed the expression of individual genes of more than 80,000 CD8+ T-cells. CD8+ T-cells are immune cells that destroy virus-infected host cells, and “memory” CD8+ T-cells protect the body from reinfection by many types of viruses. Of the COVID-19 patients, 17 had milder illness and weren’t hospitalized, 13 had been hospitalized, and nine ended up in intensive care. The researchers were surprised to find that patients with milder COVID-19 had weaker CD8+ T-cell responses. The strongest CD8+ T-cell responses were in severely ill patients who required hospitalization or intensive care. “There is an inverse link between how poorly T-cells work and how bad the infection is,” study co-author Dr. Christian Ottensmeier said in a news release from the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California. He’s a professor at the University of Liverpool in the U.K. and an adjunct professor at the La Jolla institute. The researchers found that CD8+ T-cells in people with mild COVID-19 had signs of T-cell “exhaustion,” in which cells receive so much immune system stimulation to combat viruses that they become less… read on > read on >

Exercise programs that are standard for heart attack survivors can also benefit people who’ve suffered a stroke, a new pilot study suggests. Researchers found that a three-month cardiac rehabilitation program improved fitness levels and muscle strength in 24 stroke survivors. While the study was small, the researchers said it offers evidence of what’s intuitive: People recovering from a stroke benefit from regular, structured exercise. Cardiac rehab programs have long been offered to people with heart disease. Yet insurance does not cover the therapy for stroke patients. That’s partly because after a stroke, the emphasis is often on rehab for any disabilities a patient might have, said Elizabeth Regan, a clinical assistant professor of physical therapy at the University of South Carolina, in Columbia. “We haven’t thought enough about the importance of cardiovascular endurance for stroke patients,” she said. After a stroke, people are often in a deconditioned state, so working on fitness and muscle strength is vital. Beyond that, Regan said, exercise can help lower their risk of having another stroke. Unfortunately, research shows that most stroke survivors do not exercise regularly. Regan said that cardiac rehab, which includes supervised exercise, might help people gain the self-confidence they need to exercise on their own. To study the question, she and her colleagues recruited two dozen stroke survivors. They ranged in age from 33 to 81,… read on > read on >

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 27, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Retired doctors and nurses are being called to the front lines of the U.S. coronavirus vaccination effort, the White House COVID-19 Response team announced Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is amending its rules to allow retired health professionals to administer COVID-19 vaccine shots, said Jeff Zients, the White House COVID-19 Response coordinator. The rules, drafted under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, will also be adapted to allow licensed doctors, nurses and health practitioners to administer shots across state lines, Zients said. “We need to increase the number of places where people can get vaccinated, and also at the same time increase the number of vaccinators,” Zients said. “This action by HHS today will help get more vaccinators in the field.” The team also went over other strategies being implemented to increase vaccination rates across the United States, including: Planning the launch of 100 community vaccination centers across the country during February. Arranging to supply vaccines directly to pharmacies. Standing up mobile vaccination clinics to reach under-served communities. Speeding up the production of low-dead-space syringes that can squeeze an extra sixth dose out of Pfizer vaccine vials. “I want to level with the public. We are facing two constraining factors,” said Andrew Slavitt, senior advisor to the White House COVID-19 Response team.… read on > read on >

A racist mortgage appraisal practice used in the United States decades ago has resulted in less green space in some urban neighborhoods today, researchers say. Those so-called “redlined” neighborhoods have higher rates of air and noise pollution, racial segregation and poverty — all of which can contribute to poorer health. In the 1930s, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) gave neighborhoods nationwide risk grades that were based on racial makeup and other factors. “Hazardous” areas — often those whose residents included people of color — were outlined in red on HOLC maps. In the decades since, these neighborhoods have seen less private and public investment and have remained segregated. “Though redlining is now outlawed, its effects on urban neighborhoods persist in many ways, including by depriving residents of green space, which is known to promote health and buffer stress,” said study first author Anthony Nardone, a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco. Senior author Joan Casey called for action to remedy the problem. “Future policies should, with the input of local leaders, strive to expand availability of green space, a health-promoting amenity, in communities of color,” she said. Casey is an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. For the study, the researchers examined the relationship between HOLC risk grades and… read on > read on >

Too much screen time can make your toddler more distractible, British researchers warn. The use of smartphones and tablets by babies and toddlers has soared in recent years. “The first few years of life are critical for children to learn how to control their attention and ignore distraction, early skills that are known to be important for later academic achievement,” said lead author Tim Smith, a professor at the Center for Brain and Cognitive Development at Birkbeck, University of London. “There has been growing concern that toddler touchscreen use may negatively impact their developing attention, but previously there was no empirical evidence to support this,” Smith added. To learn more, Smith’s team studied toddlers with different levels of touchscreen usage, assessing them at 12 months, 18 months and 3.5 years of age. At each visit, the toddlers did computer tasks while an eye-tracker measured their attention. Objects appeared in different locations of the computer screen, and researchers monitored how quickly the children looked at the objects and how well they ignored distracting objects. Toddlers with high daily touchscreen use were quicker to look when objects appeared and were less able to resist distraction than those with little or no daily screen time, the study found. Main researcher Ana Maria Portugal, an associate research fellow at Birkbeck University of London, said the team could not conclude,… read on > read on >

Could something as simple as taking a low-dose aspirin once a day guard against pregnancy loss among women who have already suffered miscarriages? New research suggests that’s the case, though exactly how low-dose aspirin helps stave off miscarriages is not fully understood yet. But “aspirin is anti-inflammatory and in a certain subset of women, miscarriage may be the result of an underlying inflammation,” noted study author Ashley Naimi, an associate professor of epidemiology at Emory University in Atlanta. In his study of more than 1,200 women aged 18 to 40 who had a history of one or two miscarriages, those women who took low-dose aspirin (81 milligrams) five to seven days a week were more likely to get pregnant, stay pregnant and deliver a live baby. The same was seen among women who took aspirin at least four days a week. The study was published Jan. 25 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The new findings run counter to a previous analysis of the same data, which found no difference in pregnancy loss among women who took aspirin or dummy pill while trying to conceive. When the researchers went back to the data and looked at whether women stuck to the daily aspirin regimen or not, they found that consistency appeared to be linked to the findings. “Aspirin in this group of women could play… read on > read on >

New research reveals why Black Americans might be more vulnerable to colon cancer than white people are. The researchers examined age-related “epigenetic” changes in colon tissue. These changes affect how genes work. The investigators found that in both Black and white people, one side of the colon ages biologically faster than the other. But the side that ages faster is different, depending on race. In Black Americans, the right side of the colon ages much faster than the left side, which could contribute to their increased colon cancer risk, make them more likely to develop cancer on the right side of the colon, and to have the cancer at a younger age, according to the authors of the study published recently in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. In white people, the left side of the colon ages faster and they’re more likely to develop cancer on that side. The study is the first to find that the two sides of the colon age differently. “These findings highlight the importance of colon-sidedness to biology of colorectal cancer,” said study co-leader Graham Casey, from the University of Virginia’s Center for Public Health Genomics. “The fact that the colon biology of people of African and European ancestry differ further highlights the critical importance of more research involving participation of people of African descent,” Casey added in… read on > read on >

Heart disease risk factors are common among men with breast cancer, a new, small study finds. Researchers analyzed the medical records of 24 male breast cancer patients, aged 38 to 79. Half had a family history of breast cancer. Nearly 8 in 10 of the patients had invasive ductal carcinoma, which is the most common type of breast cancer and occurs when cancer starts in the breast ducts and spreads into surrounding breast tissue. About 9 in 10 of the patients were overweight, 58% had high blood pressure and 54% had high cholesterol. All patients had a mastectomy, 4% received anthracycline chemotherapy, 8% received HER2-targeted therapy, 16% received radiation and 71% received hormone therapy. Six of the men were diagnosed with a secondary primary malignancy and three with a third primary malignancy. An abnormally increased heart rate (tachyarrhythmia) was already present in 8% of patients and developed in 13% of patients while undergoing treatment. Two patients had decreased ejection fraction (a decrease in how much blood the heart pumps out with each beat), and two patients developed heart failure after treatment. The study was presented Monday as part of the American College of Cardiology’s (ACC) Advancing the Cardiovascular Care of the Oncology Patient Virtual course. Such research is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. “Due to the rarity of male breast cancer, there… read on > read on >

Kids aren’t scared when surgical staff wear personal protective equipment (PPE), and many feel reassured by use of the gear, researchers say. Anxiety is common before, during and after surgery, and can result in complications such as pain and delayed recovery. Concerns have been raised that seeing staffers wearing PPE such as hoods, masks and gowns during the coronavirus pandemic might increase anxiety among kids having surgery. To see whether that is true, researchers assessed 63 children, ages 2 to 16, for anxiety before surgery. Half had none, and there were no significant differences in anxiety levels between those who received a sedative and those who didn’t, the study found. That suggests that PPE didn’t have a greater effect on non-sedated children than on those who were given a sedative to manage their anxiety, according to researchers at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, England. They also asked youngsters who were scheduled for day surgery how they felt about PPE. Sixty-five percent said it made them feel safe and happy. None said it made them feel anxious. Researchers also found that parents overestimated their children’s fear of PPE. The findings were presented at the winter meeting of the Association of Anaesthetists, held online last week. Research presented at meetings is typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. The authors said their findings were… read on > read on >

TUESDAY, Jan. 26, 2021 (HealthDay News) – – “You snooze, you lose” may not be true when it comes to your brain: A new study finds that napping in the afternoon may actually boost mental agility. The study couldn’t prove cause and effect, but a midday nap was associated with a rise in “locational awareness,” verbal fluency and working memory, the Chinese researchers reported Jan. 25 in the journal General Psychiatry. “Among the things that are good for you and fun, you can now count daytime naps,” said Dr. Gayatri Devi, a neurologist specializing in memory disorders at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “We know that healthy sleep habits are protective for dementia and this study suggests that at least for some, midday naps may be of benefit in keeping the brain healthy,” said Devi, who wasn’t involved in the new research. He stressed, however, that “more studies are needed to confirm this preliminary finding.” The new study was led by Dr Lin Sun, of the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Center at the Shanghai Mental Health Center, in Shanghai. Sun’s team collected data on more than 2,200 people at least age 60 who lived in Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Xian. In all, more than 1,500 took regular afternoon naps, which were no more than two hours long, and 680 did… read on > read on >

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Worse COVID Illness May Mean Stronger Immune Protection After

Exercise Rehab Should Include Stroke Survivors, Study Suggests

Retired Doctors, Nurses Will Be Approved to Give COVID Vaccine, White House Says

Legacy of Racist Neighborhood ‘Redlining’: Fewer Healthy Green Spaces Today

Do Touchscreens Make Your Toddler More Distractible?

For Women Who’ve Miscarried, Aspirin Before, During Pregnancy Could Improve Outcomes

Discovery Could Explain Why Black Americans More Prone to Colon Cancer

Male Breast Cancer Patients Face Higher Heart Risks

Kids Aren’t Scared by Medical Workers’ PPE, Study Finds

Midday Nap Could Leave You Smarter: Study