The COVID-19 pandemic may feel like it’s been going on forever, but it’s important to keep up safety measures, a mental health expert says. Dr. Olusinmi Bamgbose, a psychiatrist at Cedars-Sinai in Southern California — an area that’s facing an unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases — offered some tips for keeping up with pandemic safeguards and some theories about why people may be backsliding into unsafe behaviors. “People definitely have pandemic fatigue,” said Bamgbose, who is on the Cedars-Sinai Reproductive Psychology team. “I think people miss their families and miss doing what they want to do. I think they want their life to feel normal again, so they’re looking for ways to go and do that.” Among the reasons people are making riskier choices is peer pressure, Bamgbose said. “You might be faced with people around you who are pressuring you to push your boundaries, like a mother who wants you to come over for a holiday dinner where several people are coming over and getting together inside,” Bamgbose said. “It can be very difficult to stick to your guns and say, ‘I don’t feel comfortable doing that.’” Confirmation bias also plays a role. If a person engages in risky behavior and doesn’t get COVID-19, or gets the virus and has a mild case, they’re more likely to do the same behavior again, she explained…  read on >  read on >

If you’re a Black man, your risk of getting prostate cancer is 75% higher than it is for a white man, and it’s more than twice as deadly. Now, research is helping to bring genetic risks for people of various racial and ethnic groups into focus. In doing so, dozens more risk factors that could better help pinpoint the odds of developing prostate cancer have been uncovered. And that could potentially lead to better screening protocols and earlier detection for men of all races, experts said. “The potential utility of this is that it can be used to define men who are at elevated risk of developing prostate cancer,” said lead author Christopher Haiman, professor of preventive medicine at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. “This is knowledge that men could find out, I hate to say it, but at birth,” he added. More likely, men would get this information later in life, Haiman said, but clinicians could use it to determine when blood tests to screen for prostate cancer should begin and how often screening should occur. Researchers from the USC Center for Genetic Epidemiology in Los Angeles and the Institute of Cancer Research in London led the study. They noted that past prostate cancer studies included an overrepresentation of white men, making it more difficult…  read on >  read on >

The COVID-19 pandemic may feel like it’s been going on forever, but it’s important to keep up safety measures, a mental health expert says. Dr. Olusinmi Bamgbose, a psychiatrist at Cedars-Sinai in Southern California — an area that’s facing an unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases — offered some tips for keeping up with pandemic safeguards and some theories about why people may be backsliding into unsafe behaviors. “People definitely have pandemic fatigue,” said Bamgbose, who is on the Cedars-Sinai Reproductive Psychology team. “I think people miss their families and miss doing what they want to do. I think they want their life to feel normal again, so they’re looking for ways to go and do that.” Among the reasons people are making riskier choices is peer pressure, Bamgbose said. “You might be faced with people around you who are pressuring you to push your boundaries, like a mother who wants you to come over for a holiday dinner where several people are coming over and getting together inside,” Bamgbose said. “It can be very difficult to stick to your guns and say, ‘I don’t feel comfortable doing that.’” Confirmation bias also plays a role. If a person engages in risky behavior and doesn’t get COVID-19, or gets the virus and has a mild case, they’re more likely to do the same behavior again, she explained…  read on >  read on >

If you’re a Black man, your risk of getting prostate cancer is 75% higher than it is for a white man, and it’s more than twice as deadly. Now, research is helping to bring genetic risks for people of various racial and ethnic groups into focus. In doing so, dozens more risk factors that could better help pinpoint the odds of developing prostate cancer have been uncovered. And that could potentially lead to better screening protocols and earlier detection for men of all races, experts said. “The potential utility of this is that it can be used to define men who are at elevated risk of developing prostate cancer,” said lead author Christopher Haiman, professor of preventive medicine at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. “This is knowledge that men could find out, I hate to say it, but at birth,” he added. More likely, men would get this information later in life, Haiman said, but clinicians could use it to determine when blood tests to screen for prostate cancer should begin and how often screening should occur. Researchers from the USC Center for Genetic Epidemiology in Los Angeles and the Institute of Cancer Research in London led the study. They noted that past prostate cancer studies included an overrepresentation of white men, making it more difficult…  read on >  read on >

If you’re a Black man, your risk of getting prostate cancer is 75% higher than it is for a white man, and it’s more than twice as deadly. Now, research is helping to bring genetic risks for people of various racial and ethnic groups into focus. In doing so, dozens more risk factors that could better help pinpoint the odds of developing prostate cancer have been uncovered. And that could potentially lead to better screening protocols and earlier detection for men of all races, experts said. “The potential utility of this is that it can be used to define men who are at elevated risk of developing prostate cancer,” said lead author Christopher Haiman, professor of preventive medicine at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. “This is knowledge that men could find out, I hate to say it, but at birth,” he added. More likely, men would get this information later in life, Haiman said, but clinicians could use it to determine when blood tests to screen for prostate cancer should begin and how often screening should occur. Researchers from the USC Center for Genetic Epidemiology in Los Angeles and the Institute of Cancer Research in London led the study. They noted that past prostate cancer studies included an overrepresentation of white men, making it more difficult…  read on >  read on >

If your children are well-behaved, do they stand a greater chance of having healthy, happy lives as adults? A new study says yes. After tracking just over 1,000 New Zealanders from birth to the age of 45, investigators found that kids who were goal-oriented and better able to restrain their thoughts, behavior and emotions turned out to have healthier bodies and brains by the time they hit middle age. “We found that as adults, at age 45, children with better self-control aged more slowly,” said study author Leah Richmond-Rakerd, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. “Their bodies and brains were healthier and biologically younger. We also found that they had developed more health, financial and social reserves for old age.” Why? Richmond-Rakerd said her team thinks it has to do with having “better emotional regulation to deal with life. They plan better so that they experience fewer crises and challenges. And their response to challenges is more measured and thoughtful when crises do arise.” James Maddux is a senior scholar with the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason University in Virginia. Though not a part of the study team, he suggested that the findings might stem from a youthful ability to delay gratification. “So many behaviors that contribute to poor health are the result of…  read on >  read on >

If you’re a Black man, your risk of getting prostate cancer is 75% higher than it is for a white man, and it’s more than twice as deadly. Now, research is helping to bring genetic risks for people of various racial and ethnic groups into focus. In doing so, dozens more risk factors that could better help pinpoint the odds of developing prostate cancer have been uncovered. And that could potentially lead to better screening protocols and earlier detection for men of all races, experts said. “The potential utility of this is that it can be used to define men who are at elevated risk of developing prostate cancer,” said lead author Christopher Haiman, professor of preventive medicine at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. “This is knowledge that men could find out, I hate to say it, but at birth,” he added. More likely, men would get this information later in life, Haiman said, but clinicians could use it to determine when blood tests to screen for prostate cancer should begin and how often screening should occur. Researchers from the USC Center for Genetic Epidemiology in Los Angeles and the Institute of Cancer Research in London led the study. They noted that past prostate cancer studies included an overrepresentation of white men, making it more difficult…  read on >  read on >

Blood plasma from people recovering from COVID-19 could help prevent severe illness in older patients newly infected with the virus, a small new Argentinian study finds. The findings give new hope to the notion that so-called “convalescent plasma” might have a role to play in treating COVID-19. Earlier studies had been disappointing, showing the treatment had little effect on people with severe, advanced cases of COVID-19. But the new trial of 160 patients was conducted in people infected with the new coronavirus who were not yet sick enough to require hospital care. Patients averaged 77 years of age. In the trial, 80 patients received plasma and 80 received a placebo treatment. According to the study authors, “severe respiratory disease developed in 13 of 80 patients (16%) who received convalescent plasma and 25 of 80 patients (31%) who received placebo.” In other words, the treatment cut in half the likelihood that a patient would go on to require supplemental oxygen to help them breathe, the authors said. But there were two key factors critical for donor plasma to be effective in curbing illness: It had to be given within 72 hours of the onset of symptoms, and the plasma must have a high concentration of disease-fighting antibodies. In the study, about 28% of volunteers who’d recovered from COVID-19 and donated their plasma had achieved the high…  read on >  read on >

Blood plasma from people recovering from COVID-19 could help prevent severe illness in older patients newly infected with the virus, a small new Argentinian study finds. The findings give new hope to the notion that so-called “convalescent plasma” might have a role to play in treating COVID-19. Earlier studies had been disappointing, showing the treatment had little effect on people with severe, advanced cases of COVID-19. But the new trial of 160 patients was conducted in people infected with the new coronavirus who were not yet sick enough to require hospital care. Patients averaged 77 years of age. In the trial, 80 patients received plasma and 80 received a placebo treatment. According to the study authors, “severe respiratory disease developed in 13 of 80 patients (16%) who received convalescent plasma and 25 of 80 patients (31%) who received placebo.” In other words, the treatment cut in half the likelihood that a patient would go on to require supplemental oxygen to help them breathe, the authors said. But there were two key factors critical for donor plasma to be effective in curbing illness: It had to be given within 72 hours of the onset of symptoms, and the plasma must have a high concentration of disease-fighting antibodies. In the study, about 28% of volunteers who’d recovered from COVID-19 and donated their plasma had achieved the high…  read on >  read on >