20 percent of the middle-aged UK South Asian population may have a very severe vitamin D deficiency, a new study in the British Journal of Nutrition reports. Such deficiency can lead to health problems such as osteomalacia (softening of the bones) and other chronic diseases. Vitamin D helps regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate
Month: August 2020
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during a signing event for an executive order on “hiring American” in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, August 3, 2020. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters President Donald Trump insisted Monday that shutting down the United States in an attempt to curb the coronavirus would cause more
A mother’s own breast milk has infection-fighting factors and nutrients to help fuel growth and development in babies and may be easier to digest than formula. Providing this nourishment is particularly important for infants born prematurely, both while they are receiving care in a hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and after they are able
President Donald Trump said Monday the U.S. may have a coronavirus vaccine available to the public ahead of the administration’s goal of the end of the year or early 2021. “We’re balancing speed and safety and we’re on pace to have a vaccine available this year, maybe far in advance of the end of the
Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Aug 3 2020 Compared with adults, children and adolescents are less sensitive to the sweet taste and need 40% more sucrose in a solution for them to detect the taste of sugar, a new study found. Along with higher taste-detection thresholds, both children and adolescents prefer significantly more concentrated levels of
The U.S. is in a “new phase” of its battle against the coronavirus, which is “extraordinarily widespread” in both urban and rural communities, White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx warned on Sunday. Meanwhile, Congress is still in disagreement over extended unemployment benefits as part of further virus relief. Lawmakers will continue negotiations this week. The
One of the immune system’s oldest branches, called complement, may be influencing the severity of COVID disease, according to a new study from researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Among other findings linking complement to COVID, the researchers found that people with age-related macular degeneration — a disorder caused by overactive complement — are
Adriana Cardenas, a medical technologist processes test samples for the coronavirus at the AdventHealth Tampa labs on June 25, 2020 in Tampa, Florida. Octavio Jones | Getty Images Across much of the U.S., concerned citizens are lining up to get tested for the coronavirus, only to wait a week or longer for their results to
A study conducted by researchers in Finland suggests that children who are exposed to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in schools are unlikely to transmit the virus further and play any significant role in the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The team’s study of exposure incidents in two different schools in Helsinki
Adm. Brett Giroir, director of the U.S. coronavirus diagnostic testing, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 30, 2020. Kevin Dietsch | Reuters Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health who coordinates the administration’s coronavirus testing, said Sunday that there is no evidence
The CDC statistics are alarming. More than one-third of adults in the U.S. are obese. You likely know that obesity can increase your risk of diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart attack. But you might not know that it also increases your risk of a condition called obesity hypoventilation syndrome, or OHS.
Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Jul 29 2020 Boston Medical Center’s StreetCred program has been named to the second cohort of the Aspen Family Prosperity Innovation Community, an Aspen Institute initiative for breakthrough innovations and collaborations that position families to reach educational success, economic prosperity, and health and well-being. The launch of this community, Ascend, could
Deborah Birx, coronavirus response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, speaks after a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing at the Department of Health and Human Services on June 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. Joshua Roberts | Getty Images Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, said on Sunday that the
Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Aug 1 2020 The Emergency Committee on COVID-19, convened by the WHO Director-General under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR), held its fourth meeting on 31 July. In its statement following the meeting, published today, it expressed “appreciation for WHO and partners’ COVID-19 pandemic response efforts, and highlighted the anticipated lengthy
Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Jul 31 2020 Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) tracks glucose levels of people with type I or type II diabetes through a device that monitors levels throughout the day. These devices improve control of blood sugar levels by alerting patients when their levels go too high or low, but patients need to
Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz. Bill Clark | CQ Roll Call | Getty Images Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva tested positive for Covid-19, his office announced on Saturday. Grijalva, a Democrat whose district includes parts of the Phoenix and Tucson areas, as well as much of the state’s border region with Mexico, is self-isolating in the Washington,
Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Jul 31 2020 Researchers led by a team at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science have devised a new therapeutic approach to treating a rare but deadly neurodegenerative genetic disease in children. The study, published this week in Nature Medicine, addresses the urgent need to discover treatments for Batten disease,
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a speech during a visit to the Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies’ Innovation Center, a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant where components for a potential coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine candidate are being developed, in Morrrisville, North Carolina, U.S., July 27, 2020. Carlos Barria | Reuters The hunt is on for a vaccine for Covid-19,
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Robert Redfield wears a face mask while he waits to testify before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on the Trump Administration’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S. June 23, 2020. Kevin Dietsch | Reuters The head of
A new study by researchers at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Brookhaven National Laboratory and published on the preprint server medRxiv* in July 2020 discusses the effect of a factor called persistent contact heterogeneity on the final epidemic size of COVID-19. The researchers say that using estimates based on this measure reduces the herd
Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Aug 1 2020 A study by scientists from the University of Southampton has examined the chances of catching COVID-19 in a train carriage carrying an infectious person. Chinese high-speed rail. Image Credit: Rickyd / SHutterstock Based on high-speed routes in China, researchers from WorldPop found that for train passengers sitting within
Adm. Brett Giroir, director of the U.S. coronavirus diagnostic testing, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 30, 2020. Kevin Dietsch | Reuters A report claiming the Trump administration scrapped plans for a national coronavirus testing strategy to make Democratic governors in some of
As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to wreak havoc across the globe, it has been thought that children mostly seemed to be spared by severe illness. In the majority of cases, children infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) only develop a mild illness, with some tagged as asymptomatic. Now, new evidence
A coronavirus relief agreement in Congress remained in doubt early Friday, just as extended unemployment benefits are set to end and new economic data showed a U.S. economy buckling under the pandemic’s weight. The Commerce Department said gross domestic product from April to June plunged 32.9% on an annualized basis, the biggest quarterly plunge in activity