This is not a good time to have hypochondria. For folks who routinely obsess about their health, the coronavirus crisis could greatly magnify their distress. But there’s some good news for them in this era of sheltering-in-place. While in-person talk therapy is the gold standard for helping hypochondria patients overcome a crippling fear of health threats, a new study suggests online therapy can be just as effective. Prior research suggests “that people who typically worry much about their health react more strongly to health-related threats, such as that of a pandemic,” said Erland Axelsson, the study author. And if so, the ability to access online treatment options could prove invaluable to such patients, he said. The study of more than 200 Swedes was conducted between 2014 and 2020. Although it pre-dates COVID-19, it could offer much-needed reassurance to patients who may view online treatment as their safest option under the current circumstances. “We found that ‘cognitive behavior therapy’ (CBT) — which is the most researched and widely recommended treatment for health anxiety — can be delivered as a text-based treatment via the internet with effects on par with face-to-face treatment,” said Axelsson, a clinical psychologist and postdoctoral researcher at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. He noted that hypochondria — also called “health anxiety disorder” — involves an excessive preoccupation with health that lasts for six…  read on >

(HealthDay News) — All 50 states have started reopening their economies as of Wednesday, more than two months after the new coronavirus first forced America into lockdown. Connecticut will be among the last states to return to business, when its stay-at-home order lifts and stores, museums and offices are allowed to reopen, The New York Times reported. States in the Northeast and on the West Coast, as well as Democratic-led states in the Midwest, have moved more slowly toward reopening, the Times reported. But a number of states in the South opened earlier and more expansively, albeit with social distancing restrictions in place, the newspaper said. On Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a 60-page document that gave more detailed guidance for schools, businesses, transit systems and other industries hoping to reopen safely amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Times reported. New data shows the number of new coronavirus cases in the country has begun to drop in recent days. Still, the U.S. case count now exceeds 1.5 million. More than 1,000 Americans died from COVID-19 almost every day this past week, as the U.S. death toll neared 92,000 on Wednesday, the Times reported.. According to the Times, in New York state case counts have dropped over the last month, and they have also plunged in hard-hit Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Some…  read on >

(HealthDay News) Young to middle-aged asthmatics who are hospitalized for COVID-19 are likely to be on a ventilator longer than patients without asthma, new research reports. Patients with asthma who were between 20 and 59 years of age needed a ventilator to help with breathing five days longer than patients without asthma in that age group, researchers reported. “Among the patients who developed severe respiratory symptoms requiring intubation [the use of a ventilator], asthma was associated with a significantly longer intubation time in the younger group of patients who would seemingly have a better disease course than patients over the age of 65,” said lead author Dr. Mahboobeh Mahdavinia. She’s chief of allergy and immunology in the Department of Internal Medicine at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “Our findings suggest that younger individuals with asthma may require extra attention, as they could develop a sustained pulmonary failure with COVID-19 infection, leading to prolonged mechanical ventilation,” Mahdavinia said in a hospital news release. For the study, the research team looked at 935 patients with COVID-19. Of those, 241 had asthma. The researchers found that asthma resulted in longer times on a ventilator for 18- to 64-year-old patients, but not for those 65 and older. Hospital stays were also longer. Asthma, however, wasn’t linked with a greater risk of premature death or with acute respiratory distress…  read on >

Obesity makes COVID-19 worse and may lead to deadly blood clots in the lungs, a new study finds. The researchers said that obese patients with COVID-19 may have nearly three times the risk of developing what is known as a pulmonary embolism. “Clinicians can utilize our findings to aid in determining which patients should have evaluation for pulmonary embolism with pulmonary CT angiography, as the symptoms for COVID-19 and pulmonary embolism overlap,” said lead researcher Dr. Neo Poyiadi, from the department of diagnostic radiology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. “Early detection of pulmonary embolism can allow prompt treatment with anticoagulation and minimize clinical problems,” he said. Hospitalized obese patients with COVID-19 should be evaluated for increases in clotting indicated by a rising D-dimer — a blood test for clotting. According to the study, 22% of 328 patients suffering from COVID-19 who had a CT scan angiography had a pulmonary embolism. Researchers also found that patients taking statins to lower cholesterol before coming down with COVID-19 were less likely to have a pulmonary embolism. “Further studies are needed to determine if statins have a protective effect against pulmonary embolism in COVID-19 patients,” Poyiadi said. Poyiadi added that a recent study suggests that COVID-19 patients should be placed on blood thinners to prevent clotting. Obesity may make COVID-19 worse because it’s associated with an increase in…  read on >

(HealthDay News) — Nearly 36,000 American lives would have been spared if strict social distancing measures had been enacted across the country just one week earlier than they were, new estimates suggest. And if those measures had been imposed two weeks before most people started staying home, about 54,000 COVID-19 deaths would have been avoided by early May, Columbia University disease models show, The New York Times reported. The U.S. coronavirus death toll stretched past 93,000 on Thursday, with more than 1.5 million cases. “It’s a big, big difference,” Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia and leader of the modeling team, told Times. “That small moment in time, catching it in that growth phase, is incredibly critical in reducing the number of deaths.” On the economic front, another round of weekly jobless claims delivered more bad news: 2.4 million filed for unemployment, bringing the total jobless number for the past nine weeks to more than 38 million. Meanwhile, all 50 states have started reopening their economies, more than two months after the new coronavirus first forced America into lockdown. States in the Northeast and on the West Coast, as well as Democratic-led states in the Midwest, have moved more slowly toward reopening, the Times reported. But a number of states in the South opened earlier and more expansively, albeit with social distancing restrictions in place,…  read on >

As coronavirus pandemic restrictions are lifted, many Americans will face physical and mental health challenges — including fear and anxiety — as they return to work. “Uncertainty and unpredictability can really create an unhealthy amount of fear and stress, especially when it’s sustained over such a long period of time,” said Dr. K. Luan Phan, head of psychiatry and behavioral health at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. “Challenges will remain as businesses reopen, and the typical workplace will look very different following this pandemic,” he said in an OSU news release. Phan said it’s essential to find new ways to work as a team while maintaining your distance from colleagues and preventing the spread of infection. Infection precautions such as taking each worker’s temperature on arrival, providing face masks, keeping work stations at least 6 feet apart and wiping down surfaces can make everyone feel safer and less anxious. “Physical and mental health are closely intertwined. While you practice good hygiene and physical distancing in the office, you should also practice stress-reduction,” said Bernadette Melnyk, dean of the College of Nursing and OSU’s chief wellness officer. For instance, she suggests taking five deep, abdominal breaths as you wash your hands for at least 20 seconds. “Doing this at least five times a day can reduce anxiety and even lower your blood pressure,”…  read on >

(HealthDay News) — The coronavirus crisis has pushed almost 3 million more Americans into the ranks of the unemployed, according to new statistics released Thursday. At the same time, the World Health Organization warned that the new virus could be here to stay. In the past eight weeks, a whopping 36 million Americans have lost their jobs as the country went into lockdown to try and slow the spread of COVID-19. The statistics served as a grim reminder of the economic carnage the coronavirus pandemic has wrought so far, with no end in sight. “It is important to put this on the table: This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away,” Mike Ryan, the head of the WHO emergency response team, said Thursday, the New York Times reported. And as many states across America continued to move through reopening plans, the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a stay-at-home order extension issued by Gov. Tony Evers, the Washington Post reported. Some Wisconsin counties and major cities, including Milwaukee, still plan to keep their local restrictions in place, the newspaper reported. Even as the country’s top health officials testified to Congress on Tuesday about the dangers of reopening too quickly, a new report shows millions more Americans are now venturing out in public. About 25…  read on >

Sense of smell most often diminishes by the third day of infection with the new coronavirus, and many patients also lose their sense of taste at the same time, a new study finds. The findings may help identify patients most likely to benefit from antiviral treatment, according to the researchers. “The relationship between decreased sense of smell and the rest of the COVID-19 is something to be aware of. If someone has a decreased sense of smell with COVID-19, we know they are within the first week of the disease course and there is still another week or two to expect,” said principal investigator Dr. Ahmad Sedaghat of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. His team examined characteristics and symptoms of 103 patients in Switzerland who were diagnosed with COVID-19 over six weeks. The patients were asked how many days they had COVID-19 symptoms and also about the timing and severity of lost or reduced sense of smell, along with other symptoms. At least 61% of the patients reported reduced or lost sense of smell, and the average onset for this was 3.4 days, according to the study. The findings were published online recently in the journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. Problems with sense of smell were more likely to occur in younger patients and women. “We also found in this study that the…  read on >