Lifestyle « Weekly Gravy

Love to cuddle up? It might bring a ‘mind meld,’ too, new research shows. People in close physical contact appear to have synchronized brain patterns, a revolutionary new MRI technique has revealed. A functional MRI scan of two people cuddling under a blanket showed that their brains appeared to be falling into similar patterns of action and response, as they took turns gently tapping the other’s lips, a Finnish research team reports. “In general terms, it shows how the brains of two individuals become ‘tuned in’ together during this kind of elementary human interaction,” said senior researcher Lauri Nummenmaa, head of the Human Emotion Systems laboratory at the University of Turku in Finland. Research of this sort could be valuable in dealing with conditions where people have trouble with social interactions, he said. “Such processes are disrupted in numerous conditions, such as autism spectrum disorder, and understanding the elementary mechanisms of sociability will help us in understanding these conditions better,” Nummenmaa said. Here’s how participants were positioned in the scanner: It’s not surprising that the 10 couples in the study — either friends or romantic partners — appeared to have had synchronized brain responses, said Tiffany Field, director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami. “There’s this intimacy that generates similar patterns of physiological and biochemical responses, and this is a good… read on >

As many states began to reopen their economies on Monday, a new internal report from the Trump administration predicts that will come at a cost: There will be 200,000 new coronavirus cases and 3,000 deaths every day by the end of May. Those projections, based on data collected by various government agencies, are way up from the current levels of 30,000 new cases and 1,750 deaths a day, The New York Times reported. Troubling predictions came from more than one source on Monday: A forecasting model from University of Washington researchers also raised its projections to more than 134,000 American deaths from COVID-19 by early August, the Times reported. That’s a doubling from the 60,000 total deaths that was previously predicted, an increase that the researchers said partly reflects “changes in mobility and social distancing policies,” the Times reported. All of the numbers illustrate a grim fact: Even though the country has essentially been in lockdown for the past seven weeks, the coronavirus prognosis hasn’t really changed. Still, 27 states had loosened at least some social distancing restrictions by Monday, a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis shows, the Times reported. But only 20 of those states meet the reopening criteria from the Trump administration. The remaining seven — Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska and Wyoming — are still showing increases in daily infections and… read on >

While health experts continued to call for a national strategy to test more Americans for coronavirus, President Donald Trump on Monday announced a “blueprint” for boosting testing capacity as some states began reopening their economies. But the national guidance says states must develop their own testing plans and rapid-response programs while the White House provides “strategic direction and technical assistance,” and helps “align laboratory testing supplies and capacity with existing and anticipated laboratory needs,” the Washington Post reported. Trump was joined at the media briefing by some major retailers who said they had ramped up both testing and the production of medical supplies. They predicted they would doubling both their rate of testing and the number of sites that would be available to the public in the next month. Admiral Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health, told CBS News that the Trump administration is prepared to send all 50 states enough tests to screen 2 % of their population per month for the virus, roughly 6.6 million people. By Sunday, the United States had conducted about 5.5 million tests, according to the Covid Tracking Project, which compiles those figures from individual states. But that number is only equivalent to about 1.7 % of the U.S. population, the Post reported. In contrast, Germany increased testing earlier than the United States did and had tested 2.5… read on >

Young people who pull themselves out of poverty may be no better off when it comes to their heart health, a new study suggests. Researchers found that “upwardly mobile” U.S. adults tended to be less stressed and depressed than peers who spent their whole lives below the poverty line. Unfortunately, it did not make a difference in their cardiovascular health. They were just as likely to have conditions like obesity and elevated blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol, the study found. The results might sound surprising, said Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist and volunteer expert with the American Heart Association. After all, both higher income and better mental health have been consistently linked with better physical health. “But I can think of a few reasons for the findings,” said Goldberg, who was not involved in the study. “When you consider it, these are people who work very hard,” she said. “They may be really focused on their jobs, at the expense of other things. They may have no time for exercise, or end up eating a lot of grab-and-go foods.” Compared with people whose income stays low, Goldberg said, they may be less worried about money and security — and, therefore, in better mental shape. But that doesn’t necessarily mean their lifestyles are healthy. Lead researcher Gregory Miller agreed that lack of time for exercise… read on >

Work stress may increase your risk for ending up in the hospital with peripheral artery disease, a new study suggests. Peripheral artery disease (PAD) occurs when cholesterol or other fatty substances accumulate in blood vessels away from the heart — usually in the legs — and restrict blood flow. Left untreated, PAD increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. Previous studies have linked work stress to other types of artery-clogging disease, but few have specifically examined PAD. This new study assessed the association between work stress and hospital treatment for PAD. The results were published April 28 in the Journal of the American Heart Association. “Our findings suggest that work-related stress may be a risk factor for peripheral artery disease in a similar way as it is for heart disease and stroke,” lead study author Katriina Heikkilä said in a journal news release. She’s a senior researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Researchers analyzed the health records of 139,000 men and women who took part in 11 studies conducted between 1985 and 2008 in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom. Participants were ages 39-49 on average, and had no history of PAD when the studies began. Over an average 13 years of follow-up, 0.2% to 1.8% of the participants were hospitalized for PAD. The risk was 1.4 times higher among those… read on >

Women under age 65 with coronary artery disease are more likely to die if they live in rural areas of the United States, and premature deaths among them have surged, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed nationwide data on premature deaths from coronary artery disease between 1999 and 2017. While premature deaths decreased overall, they remained consistently higher in rural areas — regardless of sex, race or age group. Roughly 20% of Americans live in rural areas. Deaths have not risen among men overall, but the rate in those 55 to 64 stopped improving in small to medium towns in 2011, and in rural areas in 2008, the study found. In rural areas, death rates due to coronary artery disease rose 11.2% for 55- to 64-year-old women between 2010 and 2017. They also rose 11.4% among 45- to 54-year-old women between 1999 and 2017. The study was published April 22 in the Journal of the American Heart Association. “Women living in rural areas of the United States have for the first time suffered an increase in premature deaths from coronary artery disease. This is in stark contrast to their urban counterparts, who have experienced a virtually uninterrupted reduction in premature coronary artery disease deaths,” said senior author Dr. Federico Moccetti. Moccetti, a former research fellow at Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland, is now… read on >

(HealthDay News) — Lawmakers were poised to pass a $484 billion deal on Thursday that would replenish a small business loan program that has run out of funding and direct more money to hospitals and COVID-19 testing. The Senate has already passed the measure, and the House is now expected to do the same, the Washington Post reported. The legislation would add $310 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, the Post reported. It would also boost a separate small business emergency grant and loan program by $60 billion, and direct $75 billion to hospitals and $25 billion to a new coronavirus testing program. Passage of the stimulus package might take some of the sting out of the latest unemployment numbers, with 4.4 million more Americans being added to jobless roles on Thursday. So far, more than 26 million Americans are out of work due to the coronavirus crisis. Despite the pain that battling the new coronavirus has exacted upon the economy of the United States, a new Associated Press poll finds Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of stay-at-home orders and other efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The survey, released Wednesday by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, also finds a majority of Americans say it won’t be safe to lift those measures anytime soon. Sixty-one percent of Americans said stay-at-home… read on >

Dozens of drugs are being investigated for their value in treating COVID-19, as desperation drives doctors and researchers to look for something that could battle the virus and save lives. “There are really no FDA-approved medications for the treatment of COVID-19, unfortunately,” said Ashley Barlow, a pharmacy resident with the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. “We’re doing the best we can to try and ramp up studies, but since we’re doing it in such a quick period of time there are a lot of flaws we have to take into consideration.” The COVID-19 drugs being tried and tested fall into two general categories, explained Dr. Rajesh Gandhi, director of HIV clinical services and education at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston: Antivirals aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus inside the bodies of infected people. Immune system medications that limit the damage the body does to itself while fighting off the coronavirus. “There are drugs we believe can help pull people through the natural evolution of this infection and can really make a difference,” Gandhi said. “Right now, the jury is still out on some of these things that have been proposed. That’s why we need to have clinical trials that will provide an answer.” Remdesivir Many of the drugs proposed to treat COVID-19 are already approved for other conditions, and can be… read on >

Sparse traffic on U.S. roads during the coronavirus pandemic has spawned a spike in speeding and other types of reckless driving, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) says. Here are some examples. Police in Colorado, Indiana, Nebraska and Utah have clocked drivers going more than 100 miles per hour on highways. In Los Angeles, cars are going as much as 30% faster on some streets, prompting changes to traffic lights and pedestrian walk signals. In New York City, automated speed cameras issued 24,765 speeding tickets on March 27 — nearly double the number issued daily a month earlier — despite far fewer cars being on the road. Some states have lower crash rates but more serious crashes. Car crash death rates are on the rise in Massachusetts, and pedestrian deaths are on the rise in Nevada and Rhode Island. Car crashes and related deaths in Minnesota are more than double what they were at the same time period in previous years, and half of the deaths were due to speeding or careless/negligent driving. “While COVID-19 is clearly our national priority, our traffic safety laws cannot be ignored,” GHSA executive director Jonathan Adkins said in a news release from the association. “Law enforcement officials have the same mission as health care providers — to save lives.” If you must drive, he said, “buckle up, follow the… read on >

(HealthDay News) — The U.S. House passed a $484 billion deal on Thursday that would replenish a small business loan program that has run out of funding. The bill also directs more money to hospitals and COVID-19 testing. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill into law on Friday, the Washington Post reported. As of Friday, U.S. coronavirus cases passed 867,000, including almost 45,000 deaths. The legislation passed Thursday would add $310 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, the Post reported. It would also boost a separate small business emergency grant and loan program by $60 billion, and direct $75 billion to hospitals and $25 billion to a new coronavirus testing program. Passage of the stimulus package might take some of the sting out of the latest unemployment numbers, with 4.4 million more Americans added to jobless rolls on Thursday. So far, more than 26 million Americans are out of work due to the coronavirus crisis. Despite the pain that battling the new coronavirus has exacted on the economy of the United States, a new Associated Press poll finds Americans remain overwhelmingly in favor of stay-at-home orders and other efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The survey, released Wednesday by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, also finds a majority of Americans say it won’t be safe to lift… read on >