Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

New Year’s resolutions can be a fickle thing. They are a time-honored way to promise improvements to yourself and your behavior, a “fresh start” to the new year. But if chosen poorly, a resolution also can be a source of anxiety, disappointment and hopelessness. “They tap into the abiding American spirit of relentless self-improvement, and that can be so relentless that it translates into additional stress,” said John Norcross, chair of psychology with the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania and author of “Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions.” About one in four Americans cite their resolutions as a source of anxiety heading into the new year, according to a new poll by the American Psychiatric Association. Choosing an appropriate resolution — and realistic ways to follow through on it — can help relieve some of that stress, experts say. Resolutions tend to focus on a few specific areas — health, money and relationships, Norcross said. “The number one difficulty we encounter is that people make truly unrealistic, grandiose expectations,” Norcross said. Still, it makes sense that people would set lofty goals for themselves as the year turns, said Dr. Rebecca Brendel, president of the American Psychiatric Association. “There’s this temptation when the year switches from 2022 to 2023, then it’s a fresh start and everything in the past is all history,” Brendel… read on > read on >

While getting a COVID-19 vaccine provides antibodies against the coronavirus, getting a booster shot creates a longer-lasting antibody response, according to new research. “These results fit with other recent reports and indicate that booster shots enhance the durability of vaccine-elicited antibodies,” said senior researcher Dr. Jeffrey Wilson of the University of Virginia (UVA) Health division of asthma, allergy and immunology, in Charlottesville. “Although only about half of the U.S. population that is eligible for a booster has received one, it is increasingly clear that boosters enhance the protection that is conferred by the primary series mRNA vaccines alone,” Wilson said in a university news release. In the study of almost 350 volunteers, getting an mRNA booster (from drugmakers Pfizer or Moderna) made for longer-lasting antibodies for all recipients, the investigators found. That was even true for those who had recovered from a COVID-19 infection. The researchers worked with 117 UVA employee volunteers who had a booster shot and another 228 volunteers who had just a primary vaccine series of two shots. The study results revealed similar antibody levels in both groups about one week to 31 days after their shots. The boosted antibodies then lasted longer. “Our initial thought was that boosters would lead to higher antibody levels than the primary vaccine series, but that was not what we found,” said co-author Samuel Ailsworth. “Instead,… read on > read on >

One of the hallmarks of a COVID-19 infection has been a lost sense of smell after the infection ends. In a new study, researchers blame an ongoing immune assault on the olfactory nerve cells — cells found at the top of the nasal cavity — and a decline in the number of those cells. The study was led by a team at Duke Health in Durham, N.C. “One of the first symptoms that has typically been associated with COVID-19 infection is loss of smell,” said senior study author Dr. Bradley Goldstein, associate professor of head and neck surgery at Duke. “Fortunately, many people who have an altered sense of smell during the acute phase of viral infection will recover smell within the next one to two weeks, but some do not,” Goldstein said in a university news release. “We need to better understand why this subset of people will go on to have persistent smell loss for months to years after being infected with SARS-CoV-2,” he added. For the study, researchers from Duke, Harvard Medical School in Boston and the University of California, San Diego, analyzed olfactory tissue samples from 24 biopsies, including nine patients with long-term loss of smell after COVID-19. This approach — paired with sophisticated single-cell analyses in collaboration with Dr. Sandeep Datta at Harvard — revealed a widespread inflammatory response in… read on > read on >

Getting around in winter works best if you’re taking good care of the feet that take you places. Orthopedic specialists at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City say they often see an uptick in avoidable injuries and foot problems during the winter. They offered some tips for winterizing your feet. First, make sure your winter shoes and boots still fit. “Our feet change as we get older, and footwear that fit us last year may now be too tight,” said Dr. Mark Drakos, an orthopedic foot and ankle surgeon at HSS Long Island and the main hospital in Manhattan. “Squeezing your feet into shoes that are too snug can lead to foot pain, blisters, bruises and other problems.” Drakos recommends shopping for new shoes and boots in the late afternoon or evening because feet get larger throughout the day. Take along the socks you plan to wear in cold weather. Thicker socks require more room. Don’t forget good traction, which can help keep you on your feet on snowy or icy ground. “It may seem like common sense, but the first winter storm of the season often catches people off guard, and we tend to see more injuries,” said Dr. Andrew Elliott, an orthopedic foot and ankle surgeon at HSS in Manhattan and Paramus, N.J. Elliott recommends keeping a spare pair… read on > read on >

The key to keeping skin soft in winter: Moisturize. “Skin tends to be drier when the weather is less humid, so individuals should moisturize at least twice a day, if not more often,” according to Dr. Vicky Zhen Ren, a dermatologist and assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Ren offered some tips for getting that moisture back into skin. Use an ointment or cream rather than a lotion. Lotions have higher water content and not as much of the agents that prevent dry skin. Apply creams after a shower or bath to lock in the moisture. Choose lukewarm water temperatures instead of hot showers or baths. Limit them to five to 10 minutes. A humidifier at home during the dry season can help. Just be sure to keep it clean. Wear clothing that protects the skin from the wind and cold. Creams that contain urea, lactic acid, ammonium lactate or alpha hydroxy acids may be beneficial for skin that is thick or scaly. However, these may also be irritating if the skin is fissuring or cracking. Anyone can get dry skin. People who have eczema may be especially susceptible to weather changes. Keep track of your skin habits because some symptoms can be a sign of cancer or thyroid, kidney or liver disease. If you’re taking good care of your skin and… read on > read on >

It might seem like your toddler or preschooler has a nose that is always runny, but experts say that’s normal. “Children under 6 years of age average six to eight colds per year, with symptoms lasting an average of 14 days,” said Dr. Maria Mejia, an associate professor of family and community medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “It’s very normal for children to contract illnesses frequently as their immune systems build.” Most of these colds happen between September and April, Mejia added. Children enrolled in day care or school are simply exposed to a lot of pathogens, viruses and bacteria, which their less developed immune systems just can’t fight off. “A general rule of thumb is that if your child gets better after a week to 10 days, it was most likely a cold,” Mejia noted in a Baylor news release. “If their symptoms persist longer and/or seem to come on after exposure to certain substances or during seasonal changes, allergies are probably to blame.” When a child does appear to have symptoms consistent with an allergy, the primary care provider may recommend visiting an allergist or ear, nose and throat specialist. Children who show signs of a virus should immediately see a doctor if they display one or more of a variety of symptoms, including refusing to drink anything for a… read on > read on >

Elon Musk swears by the weight-loss drug Wegovy, and Kim Kardashian is rumored to have used it to shed 16 pounds in three weeks to squeeze into a vintage gown once worn by Marylin Monroe. But the intense public demand for Wegovy has triggered a shortage of the diabetes version of the injectable medication, known as Ozempic. That’s leaving patients with the blood sugar disease in a real bind. Made by Novo Nordisk, semaglutide (Ozempic) has been on the market since 2017 to help manage type 2 diabetes. But in June 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved semaglutide to treat weight loss under the brand name Wegovy. Ever since Wegovy arrived on the market, Novo Nordisk has struggled to meet demand, experts said. Unfortunately, people who want to drop pounds and can’t find Wegovy are getting doctors to write them off-label prescriptions for Ozempic, eating into supplies of a drug that’s vital in the treatment of diabetes. “We’ve heard reports of people really struggling to fill their prescriptions,” said Dr. Robert Gabbay, chief science and medical officer for the American Diabetes Association. “I still see patients at the Joslin Diabetes Center, and I can tell you that some of my patients have said, oh, yeah, you know, I had to go to lots of different pharmacies to finally find it. It’s been a… read on > read on >

Researchers think they’ve figured out why people can become reinfected with COVID-19, despite immunity gained from either vaccination or a previous infection. It turns out that antibodies produced in the nose — the first line of defense against respiratory viruses like COVID — decline faster than antibodies found in the bloodstream, British scientists say. Nasal antibodies tend to drop nine months after COVID-19 infection, while antibodies in the blood last at least a year, according to findings published online Dec. 19 in the journal eBioMedicine. The study also found that vaccination is very effective in creating and boosting blood-borne antibodies that protect against severe disease, but had very little effect on nasal antibodies. “Before our study, it was unclear how long these important nasal antibodies lasted. Our study found durable immune responses after infection and vaccination, but these key nasal antibodies were shorter-lived than those in the blood,” said lead researcher Dr. Felicity Liew, from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London. “While blood antibodies help to protect against disease, nasal antibodies can prevent infection altogether. This might be an important factor behind repeat infections with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its new variants,” Liew added in a college news release. The new study evaluated nearly 450 people hospitalized with COVID-19 between February 2020 and March 2021, before the emergence of the Omicron… read on > read on >

Groups of whales, dolphins and porpoises are regularly stranded in shallow waters around the coasts of the United Kingdom. Researchers wanted to understand why, so they studied the brains of 22 toothed whales — or “odontocetes” — that were stranded in Scottish coastal waters. The study included five species — Risso’s dolphins, long-finned pilot whales, white-beaked dolphins, harbor porpoises and bottlenose dolphins. The research showed that four of the stranded animals from different dolphin species had some brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease in humans. “These are significant findings that show, for the first time, that the brain pathology in stranded odontocetes is similar to the brains of humans affected by clinical Alzheimer’s disease,” said lead researcher Dr. Mark Dagleish of the University of Glasgow. “While it is tempting at this stage to speculate that the presence of these brain lesions in odontocetes indicates that they may also suffer with the cognitive deficits associated with human Alzheimer’s disease, more research must be done to better understand what is happening to these animals,” Dagleish said in a university news release. The researchers said their results could support the “sick-leader” theory. This means that healthy dolphins would find themselves in dangerously shallow waters after following a confused or lost group leader. While stranded odontocetes can sometimes be moved to deeper waters by teams of experts, others die.… read on > read on >

Humans have continued to evolve after splitting from chimpanzee ancestors nearly 7 million years ago, according to a new study that found 155 new genes unique to humans that suddenly arose from tiny sections of DNA. Some of the new genes date back to the ancient origin of mammals, according to the researchers. They suspect a few of these “microgenes” have links to human-specific diseases. “This project started back in 2017 because I was interested in novel gene evolution and figuring out how these genes originate,” said study author Nikolaos Vakirlis, a scientist at the Biomedical Sciences Research Center Alexander Fleming in Vari, Greece. “It was put on ice for a few years, until another study got published that had some very interesting data, allowing us to get started on this work.” For this new study, published Dec. 20 in Cell Reports, his team created an ancestral tree to compare humans to other vertebrate species using previously published genetic data. The investigators tracked the relationship of these genes across evolution and 155 popped up from regions of unique DNA. New genes can arise from duplication in the genome, but these started from scratch. “It was quite exciting to be working in something so new,” said senior author Aoife McLysaght, a scientist at Trinity College Dublin, in Ireland. “When you start getting into these small sizes… read on > read on >