Lifestyle « Weekly Gravy

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 >

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 >

Millionaires, rejoice! It turns out that money can, in fact, buy happiness. And a new study suggests more is better, with well-being rising as earnings grow. “Having more money gives people a greater sense of control over life,” said study author Matthew Killingsworth. The finding stems from more than 1.7 million real-time reports of well-being from more than 33,000 U.S. adults. They were prompted by their cellphones to answer the question “How do you feel right now?” at random times during their waking hours. Previous research had suggested that an annual income of more than $75,000 might not improve people’s day-to-day lives, and that notion has been widely circulated. But this study appears to disagree. Seen from a moment-by-moment angle, Killingsworth said, the data show “evidence that happiness rises continuously, far above $75,000,” which means there’s reason to believe that more money really does improve people’s lives. “If you have more money, you can choose how to spend your time and how to direct your life,” said Killingsworth, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, in Philadelphia. Stress reduction This study found that a sense of control accounted for as much as 74% of the apparent link between greater income and greater well-being. People who earn more spend less time stressing out about bills, Killingsworth noted. The study found that… read on > read on >

Stem cell transplants may have long-lasting benefits for some people with aggressive cases of multiple sclerosis, a new study suggests. Italian researchers found that among 210 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who received a stem cell transplant — with cells from their own blood — two-thirds saw no worsening in their disability 10 years out. That included 71% of patients with relapsing-remitting MS, the most common form of the disease. The sustained level of effectiveness is “pretty dramatic,” said Bruce Bebo, executive vice-president of research programs for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. At the same time, there are important caveats, said Bebo, who was not involved in the study. For one, the patients were not part of a clinical trial that directly tested stem cell transplants against standard MS medications. They all underwent transplants at various Italian medical centers between 1997 and 2019. So it’s unclear exactly how such transplants measure up against the most effective MS drugs now available. Beyond that, Bebo said there are ongoing questions about which MS patients are the best candidates for a transplant, and the optimal timing for it. Those are no small matters, since a stem cell transplant is a major undertaking, he pointed out. “And it’s not reversible, like a medication you can change when it’s not working,” Bebo said. MS is a neurological disorder caused by a… read on > read on >