Nine months after the coronavirus emerged, there’s still a remarkable lack of understanding about why the severity and course of COVID-19 vary for different people. Part of the problem is that we haven’t prioritized gathering and reporting data in enough…
Read More
Adolescent girls at risk for self-injury can be identified using a short psychological profile
A study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) reports on three key factors found amongst adolescents that could be used to predict the first occurrence of nonsuicidal self-harm, over a 3 year period….
Read More
Doctors studying why obesity may be tied to serious COVID-19
In the early days of the pandemic, doctors noticed something about the people severely ill from COVID-19: Many were obese. The link became more apparent as coronavirus swept across the globe and data mounted, and researchers are still trying to…
Read More
Plasmin could be the link between COVID-19 comorbidities and serious illness
Why is the COVID-19 virus more dangerous in people with comorbidities? Sadis Matalon, Ph.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and colleagues in Texas and San Francisco asked that question in a hypothesis paper published online in Physiological Reviews….
Read More
For COVID-19 survivors, virus test 1 month out may be needed
(HealthDay)—You tested positive for COVID-19 and dutifully quarantined yourself for two weeks to avoid infecting others. Now, you’re feeling better and you think you pose no risk to friends or family, right? Not necessarily, claims a new study that shows…
Read More
Negative side effects of opioids could be coming from users’ own immune systems
In addition to possibly developing opioid use disorder, those who take opioids long term, including patients who have been prescribed the drugs for pain relief, can develop chronic inflammation and heightened pain sensitivity. Scientists now report in a pilot study…
Read More
Aging memories may not be ‘worse,’ just ‘different’
“Memory is the first thing to go.” Everyone has heard it, and decades of research studies seem to confirm it: While it may not always be the first sign of aging, some faculties, including memory, do get worse as people…
Read More
Fewer opioid prescriptions in the UK look likely, and the consequences could be dire
Painkillers such as morphine have transformed the way pain can be controlled—but there are drawbacks, not least the risk of overdose or becoming dependent. The havoc and misery caused by over-prescribing these drugs in the US has seen hundreds of…
Read More
Study suggests embryos could be susceptible to coronavirus
Genes that are thought to play a role in how the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects our cells have been found to be active in embryos as early as during the second week of pregnancy, say scientists at the University of Cambridge…
Read More
Signs your freckles need to be checked out by a doctor
If you have a love/hate relationship with your freckles, it may be time to change your thinking. After all, they call them beauty marks for a reason — and some women are even drawing on fake freckles. But what causes…
Read More