If you have asthma, you are among those at greatest risk in the coronavirus pandemic and must take precautions, the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) says. It’s important to keep your asthma well-controlled, so continue your medications. No asthma medications — including inhaled corticosteroids and biologics — have been shown to increase the risk of getting COVID-19, according to the ACAAI. And, the group added, if you do get the virus, there’s no information that asthma medications will make your infection worse. The ACAAI recommends contacting your allergist if you have any questions, have trouble breathing or your asthma symptoms become more severe. Other people at higher risk from the coronavirus include the elderly, and people with immunodeficiency or other chronic conditions that weaken the immune system. For now, the ACAAI is advising those with asthma or who may have immunodeficiency to continue with treatments. Nebulizers should be used and cleaned properly. It’s important that your asthma remains well-controlled. So far, 80% of coronavirus cases are mild and last for a limited time. Symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath. The ACAAI is advising people to follow these U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations: Stay at least 6 feet away from people who are sick. Don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth. Wash your hands often with soap and…  read on >

Schools are closing. Sports and other activities have been cancelled. Everything is changing. In the midst of this chaos, how do parents keep kids from stressing too much? “For families, this is truly now hitting home,” said psychologist Robin Gurwitch, from Duke University and the Center for Child and Family Health, in Durham, N.C. “Families now need to think about how to manage having children at home for extended periods of time. First, families need to set up a schedule and a routine. Keeping as much routine as possible is important,” she said. But Gurwitch added that it’s important to be flexible, too. “Things change quickly and anxieties are running very high. Parents will have to be more patient and attentive to their child’s needs,” she said. And, what about the elephant in the room — should you talk to your child specifically about coronavirus? Dr. Eric Herman, a clinical psychologist at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, said, “It’s going to be hard to tell kids that everything is going to be fine when we’re closing schools. They have to think that something big is going on.” Herman said to let them ask questions, and to really listen and respond to the specific questions they’re asking. Gurwitch recommended a more proactive approach: “Ask children what they know. Ask, ‘What do you think about this?’…  read on >

People often turn to music to boost their mood or relieve stress. And new research suggests there may be science supporting that practice. The study found that listening to 30 minutes of music a day eased chest pain and anxiety in people who had recently had a heart attack. “Based on our findings, we believe music therapy can help all patients after a heart attack. It’s also very easy and inexpensive to implement,” study author Dr. Predrag Mitrovic said in an American College of Cardiology news release. Mitrovic is a professor of cardiology at the University of Belgrade School of Medicine in Serbia. The researchers aren’t suggesting music as someone’s only treatment, however. Music was used along with standard heart medications. Dr. Guy Mintz, director of cardiovascular health at the Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., reacted to the findings. “Music therapy may be striking the right key, giving patients further benefit beyond standard therapy,” he said. “Thirty minutes a day of listening to music reduced anxiety, pain sensation and pain distress.” About 700,000 people survive heart attacks every year in the United States. Around one in nine survivors have episodes of chest pain and anxiety within 48 hours of their heart attack, the news release said. Patients are often given a variety of medications to prevent future heart issues and reduce chest…  read on >

Using past weather data to predict climate change-linked increases in extreme weather events may underestimate how often they’ll occur, with potentially serious consequences, a Stanford University study says. It found that predictions based solely on historical records underestimated by about half the actual number of extremely hot days in Europe and East Asia, as well as the number of extremely wet days in the United States, Europe and East Asia between 2006 and 2017. In some cases, the actual number of extreme events was much larger than predicted, said climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh. He’s a senior fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment. “When I first looked at the results, I had this sinking feeling that our method for analyzing these extreme events could be all wrong,” Diffenbaugh said in a university news release. “As it turned out, the method actually worked very well for the period that we had originally analyzed — it’s just that global warming has had a really strong effect over the last decade.” The findings — published March 18 in the journal Science Advances — highlight how even slight increases in global warming can cause large increases in the risk of extreme weather events, particularly heat waves and heavy rainfall. “We are seeing year after year how the rising incidence of extreme events is causing significant impacts on people…  read on >

U.S. immigration policies may put Hispanic teens’ mental and physical health at risk, researchers say. Of 547 U.S.-born Hispanic kids surveyed in Atlanta, one-quarter had a parent, aunt, uncle or other family member who was detained or deported in 2017 or 2018. Participants were questioned twice, six months apart. Compared to other middle school- and high school-aged youth, those with a detained or deported family member had more than twice the risk of suicidal thoughts. They also were nearly three times more likely to report early alcohol use, and were also more likely to have engaged in risky behaviors, such as aggression or truancy. “This study found that among kids with a deportation or detention in the family, 28% later reported thinking of killing themselves sometimes or often; 18% said they had consumed alcohol and 23% had engaged in a high level of risky behavior,” said study author Kathleen Roche. She’s an associate professor of prevention and community health at George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. “The findings are worrisome because these kinds of risks during the early teen years often result in problems well into adulthood,” she added in a university news release. The study was published March 16 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. “Our study offers the first direct scientific evidence indicating that current U.S. immigration policies might contribute to serious mental and…  read on >

(American Heart Association News) — Pandemic. Politics. An upending of life at a level that few Americans have ever experienced. And all of it amplified by social media. The ever-shifting news has some people constantly checking their phones for updates – and others saying they’re ready to walk away from their feeds entirely. “It’s really the perfect recipe for anxiety and panic,” said licensed clinical psychologist Debra Kissen of Chicago. And stress, it should be noted, may be a factor in heart disease. But Kissen, CEO of Light on Anxiety CBT Treatment Center, and others say anxiety can be managed – and social media, used properly, doesn’t have to send you on a mental-health spiral. It also can help you find balance. Kissen acknowledged the coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented because of the way uncertainty has crept into “every little nook and cranny” of life. People worry: Is your neighbor’s cough going to be the one? Is that touch going to be what does you in? Will I get infected in the supermarket? Your brain’s response to such uncertainty is the very definition of anxiety, she said. “Anxiety is all about a future ‘what if?’” Kissen said. “Is something bad going to happen, and what can I do to protect myself?” In the face of a visible threat, your brain can choose a course of action…  read on >

Could clues to future health emergencies be found in Facebook posts? Maybe so, according to a new study that discovered there are changes in users’ posts before they seek emergency care. For the study, researchers analyzed the Facebook posts and medical records of more than 2,900 patients at a U.S. urban hospital, including 419 who’d had a recent emergency department visit for problems ranging from chest pain to pregnancy-related issues. Analysis of Facebook posts from as early as 2.5 months before those patients’ emergency visits revealed that most had changes in their language before seeking emergency care. Specifically, they were less likely to post about leisure or use words like “play,” “fun” and “nap,” and less likely to use internet slang and informal language such as “u” instead of “you,” the findings showed. The closer they got to their emergency department visit, the patients’ Facebook posts increasingly focused on family and health. There was also increased use of anxious, worrisome and depressed language, according to the study published March 12 in the journal Nature Scientific Reports. The study suggests that social media posts may offer clues about health problems and could potentially be used to identify and help people, the researchers said. “The better we understand the context in which people are seeking care, the better they can be attended to,” said study author Sharath…  read on >

Suicidal thoughts have haunted nearly one of every 10 pre-teens in the United States, a new study reveals. About 8.4% of children aged 9 or 10 said they’d temporarily or regularly harbored thoughts of suicide, researchers report. Importantly, only around 1% of children that age reported a suicide attempt or planning their suicide. But suicidal thoughts at that age are a warning sign of a future filled with woe, said senior researcher Dr. Sophia Frangou, a professor of psychiatry with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City. “When you think of how young they are, 8% is quite a startling number,” Frangou said. “Thinking of killing yourself, and that life isn’t worth it, when you’re 9 is pretty extreme.” Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 10- to 14-year-olds, researchers said in background notes, and these sorts of thoughts paint a picture of a troubled childhood. “Being so seriously unhappy so early in life is a sign of vulnerability for adverse mental health outcomes in adulthood,” Frangou noted. “It’s not just about suicide.” For this study, Frangou and her colleagues analyzed data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study, which is tracking the growth and health of nearly 12,000 children across the United States. Children and their caregivers filled out reports that included questions related to suicidal…  read on >

A test that can detect the genetic “fingerprint” of prostate cancer in blood could improve diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of the disease, researchers say. The test checks for prostate cancer DNA in blood in order to provide the earliest evidence that prostate cancer is active. This could help doctors monitor tumor behavior, determine if cancer has spread (“metastasized”) and choose the most appropriate treatment, according to the team at University College London Cancer Institute in the United Kingdom. The study was published March 9 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. The next step is to assess whether this test could be used along with, or replace, the current prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, according to the study authors. “Metastatic prostate cancer — the most dangerous late stage of the disease — can vary substantially in its treatment response and clinical progression,” lead author Dr. Anjui Wu said in a college news release. “We urgently need biomarkers that will help us determine how far along each patient’s cancer is, to determine the best course of treatment,” he explained. Corresponding author Gerhardt Attard, a professor at the institute, said researchers are testing the technique in a patient trial. The aim is to see if it can complement or replace the PSA test. “We believe the increased sensitivity and additional information we derive will significantly improve the outcomes of…  read on >