Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

Hopes for robust, long-term antibody protection after a bout of COVID-19 have been dampened by a new study that finds the protection may only last a few months. Still, experts noted that the body’s immune system has more than one way to defend against viruses it has already encountered, so the findings don’t dash hopes for a vaccine. “Infection with this coronavirus does not necessarily generate lifetime immunity,” Dr. Buddy Creech, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, told the Associated Press. But antibodies are only part of the immune system’s armamentarium, added Creech, who wasn’t part of the new research. The study was published July 21 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers led by Dr. Otto Yang, of the University of California, Los Angeles, sought to determine the “half-life” of antibodies generated by contact with the new SARS-CoV-2 virus. Half-life means the time it takes for half of the antibodies to disappear. Yang’s group took blood samples from 34 people who had all recovered from a mild case of COVID-19. Twenty were women and 14 were men, and they averaged 43 years of age. Based on blood tests collected up to 119 days after the onset of symptoms, the researchers said the half-life of antibodies linked with SARS-CoV-2 infection was just 36 days — just over a month. At that… read on >

Most American parents know that sunscreen is important for their children, but there are gaps in their knowledge of its proper use, a new survey finds. The majority of the more than 1,100 parents of children aged 5 to 12 said they’ve at least sometimes used sunscreen on their kids, and that sunscreen is very important in preventing sunburns and skin cancer. However, the survey found that 11% of parents don’t have a specific minimum sun-protection factor (SPF) they use and 3% said they don’t use sunscreen for their child. Parents said they consider several factors in deciding whether to use sunscreen, including how long their child will be outside, what their child is wearing, their child’s complexion and skin tone, whether their child will be around water and how hot it is. Nearly half of parents take into account whether it is a sunny or cloudy day, according to the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, from Michigan Medicine at the University of Michigan. “Parents should be aware that UV rays from the sun can reach their children on cloudy and hazy days, not just on bright and sunny days. Children need protection, regardless of the amount of sunshine,” poll co-director and pediatrician Dr. Gary Freed said in a university news release. The survey also found that parents decide whether to… read on >

People with a history of concussion may face increased risks of certain psychological and neurological conditions, a large new study suggests. The study of more than 186,000 Canadians found that those who suffered a concussion were more likely to develop any of several conditions, including: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); depression or anxiety; Parkinson’s disease; or dementia. Their risks were roughly 40% to 70% higher, compared to people who did not sustain a concussion during the 25-year study period. The researchers stressed that the vast majority of people in the study — concussed or not — did not develop Parkinson’s, dementia or ADHD. Depression and anxiety disorders were more common across the board, with a higher prevalence in the concussion group. “We’re not trying to scare people or have parents keep their kids out of sports,” said lead researcher Marc Morissette of the Pan Am Clinic Foundation in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Beyond that, the findings do not necessarily mean that concussions, per se, were to blame, said Dr. Sean Rose. Rose, who is co-director of the Complex Concussion Clinic at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, was not involved in the study. He said research like this can point to a correlation between concussion and later disease risks — but cannot prove cause and effect. It’s difficult, Rose said, to account for all the other variables that could… read on >

Smoking significantly increases a woman’s risk of potentially deadly brain aneurysms, a new study warns. An aneurysm is a weakened, bulging section of an artery. If an aneurysm ruptures, it can cause fatal bleeding. The study included 545 women, aged 30 to 60, who had brain scans at five large teaching and research hospitals in the United States and Canada between 2016 and 2018. The scans showed that 152 of the women had brain aneurysms that hadn’t ruptured. Compared to nonsmokers, the risk of aneurysm was four times higher in women who smoked, and seven times higher in those who smoked and had high blood pressure. The most common reason for a brain scan among the women was persistent headache, which occurred in 62.5% of those with an aneurysm, compared with 44% of those without an aneurysm, the study authors said. Most of the aneurysms were located in the carotid artery, which is the main blood vessel that leads to the brain. Women with brain aneurysms were heavier smokers than those with normal brain scans (average of 20 versus 12 cigarettes a day) and had smoked for longer (29 years versus 20 years, on average). One-third of the women with brain aneurysms had surgery or other invasive procedures, while two-thirds were placed on monitoring, according to the study published online July 27 in the Journal… read on >

With several potential COVID-19 vaccines now in clinical trials, U.S. policymakers need to plan for the next hurdle: Ensuring Americans actually get vaccinated. That’s according to a new report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. It lays out recommendations for winning the public’s trust of any future vaccine, and helping them access it as easily as possible. The U.S. government’s so-called Operation Warp Speed has laid its goal out: Deliver 300 million doses of a safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021. As of July 11, 22 vaccines were in some stage of human clinical trials, according to The New York Times coronavirus vaccine tracker. The race to develop a safe, effective vaccine against the new coronavirus has been record-setting. Normally, vaccines take years to move from initial research to approval. In this case, scientists got a boost from having the genetic makeup of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) in hand early in the pandemic. Some of the leading vaccine candidates, including the Moderna Inc. vaccine now in clinical trials, are based on that genetic information. “But it’s one thing to make a clinically successful vaccine,” said Monica Schoch-Spana, a senior scientist with the Hopkins center. “It’s another to make it socially acceptable.” Exactly how Americans will greet a COVID-19 vaccine is unknown, but polls have suggested many will be wary. In… read on >

Is male bisexuality real? According to a new review, the answer is a definitive “yes.” “The current study found very strong and consistent evidence that bisexual men do in fact tend to have bisexual arousal patterns,” noted study author J. Michael Bailey. “There is no longer reasonable doubt.” Bailey is a psychology professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. He and his colleagues came to their conclusion after poring over the findings of eight sexual orientation studies conducted between 2000 and 2019 at four different American, Canadian and British sites. “There has long been a controversy whether men who identify as bisexual are actually bisexual. The bisexual men and many others believe that they are,” Bailey explained. “However, some others — including some scientists and lay persons — have doubted this,” he noted. The reason: a belief that men who claim to be bisexual “are actually either heterosexual or homosexual, and that their claim to be bisexual is based on self-misunderstanding, perhaps due to social pressure not to admit exclusive homosexuality.” Skepticism of female bisexuality — though not the focus of the latest investigation — has largely been more muted, Bailey noted. But Caitlin Ryan, director of the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University, suggests that the controversy surrounding male bisexuality has proved problematic for those who identify as such. (A 2016 study… read on >

Ten risk factors may affect your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, a new Chinese study suggests. Focusing on these factors could help doctors develop guidelines for preventing Alzheimer’s, researchers say. The risk factors include mental activity, obesity in late life, depression, diabetes and high blood pressure. The need is urgent: Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia in older people. More than 5 million Americans 65 and older have the disease and the number is expected to nearly triple by 2050, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. For this study, researchers reviewed nearly 400 studies in search of ways to prevent it. Dr. Jin-Tai Yu, professor of neurology at Fudan University in Shanghai, led the search. His team proposed 21 prevention strategies that doctors could use in their practice. Nearly two-thirds of them target risk factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol and lifestyle. Researchers said 10 suggestions are supported by strong evidence. They include getting as much education as possible in early life; taking part in mentally stimulating activities, such as reading; and avoiding diabetes, stress, depression, head trauma and high blood pressure in midlife. Nine other suggestions had less evidence to support them. They included getting regular exercise and good quality sleep, maintaining a healthy body weight and good heart health in later life, not smoking and getting vitamin C in the… read on >

Even the sickest COVID-19 patients make T-cells to fight the infection, a new study finds. This means that a COVID-19 vaccine will have to cause the body to make T-cells along with antibodies, researchers say. The immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, was the same in American and Dutch patients in the study. “You want vaccine approaches to be grounded in observations from rather diverse settings to ensure that the results are generally applicable,” said study co-leader Alessandro Sette. He’s a professor and member of the La Jolla Institute (LJI) for Immunology’s Infectious Disease and Vaccine Center in La Jolla, Calif. Working with researchers in the Netherlands, his team followed 10 COVID-19 patients who had the most severe disease symptoms. All produced T-cells that worked with antibodies to try to kill the virus and stop the infection. The virus uses spike proteins to enter host cells and many studies are aimed at getting the immune system to recognize and attack this protein, according to an institute news release. Study first author Daniela Weiskopf, a research assistant professor at LJI, said, “This is good news for those making a vaccine using spike, and it also suggests new avenues to potentially increase vaccine potency.” The findings were published June 26 in the journal Science Immunology. More information For more on COVID-19, visit the U.S.… read on >

Life in lockdown has led many to overeat and gain weight, a phenomenon referred to as the “COVID-15.” But some small changes can get you back into shape, a weight management specialist suggests. “COVID-19 changed how we eat, what we eat and how we spend our day,” said Dr. Peter Jian, an assistant professor of family and community medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “Unfortunately, for some of us that meant less healthy choices,” Jian added in a Baylor news release. Jian offered these tips for working off the excess pounds and returning to a healthy lifestyle: Learn how to cook. Or start other new hobbies to keep active. “Use this time as an opportunity to focus on the things that we can do in order to improve our health,” Jian said. Stay physically active. If you’re afraid to go to the gym, try biking, hiking and walking outside. You can also join an online fitness program. Eat a healthy diet. Buy nutritious foods with curbside pickup or delivery. If you shop in person, choose foods placed at the front and side aisles, where the fresh and organic produce is available. Avoid prepackaged and processed foods. To lose weight, start small. Gradually introduce new eating and exercise habits. This makes changes easier to adjust to. Stay clear of fad diets. Many of… read on >

Want to make smoking less attractive to young people? Try taking menthol cigarettes off the market, a new analysis suggests. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned flavors in cigarettes in 2009 because flavors appeal to youth and young adults, and the agency recently announced that it also intends to ban menthol in cigarettes. To assess what effect a ban on menthol cigarettes would have, Georgetown University researchers reviewed 24 studies on the impacts of restrictions on flavors in cigarettes. Six of the studies examined menthol bans implemented across Canada, 12 assessed the potential effects of hypothetical menthol bans in Canada, the United States and Europe, and six looked at prior bans of non-menthol flavors in cigarettes in Canada and the United States. Based on their review, the researchers concluded that 11%-45% of current U.S. menthol smokers might quit smoking in response to a menthol cigarette ban, while 15%-30% of menthol smokers might switch to e-cigarettes. Menthol smokers quitting or switching to e-cigarettes are more likely to be young adults, and a menthol cigarette ban may reduce the number of youth who start smoking by 6%, according to the researchers. They also found that while overall compliance with the menthol ban in Canada was high, studies into non-menthol flavor bans in the United States found that some retailers continued to sell banned products. The review… read on >