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Study shows health anxieties have increased as a result of ongoing pandemic

New research into people's coping strategies faced with COVID-19 highlights the mental health toll for those shielding

4 Aug 2020

Researchers to test the effectiveness of intervention that addresses barriers to breastfeeding

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.

4 Aug 2020

Estrogen modestly protective against COVID-19?

Almost from the beginning, scientists have been struck by the disproportionately higher numbers of men and older adults who have developed severe COVID-19 disease compared to younger individuals and women. Prior research has shown that in 37 of the 38 countries from which sex-stratified data was available, males were at a higher risk of death. Also, post-menopausal women are at increased risk of severe COVID-19. However, the biological underpinnings of this have been less visible.

4 Aug 2020

Researchers develop implantable radio-frequency transmitter chip for biomedical devices

Purdue University innovators are working on inventions to use micro-chip technology in implantable devices and other wearable products such as smart watches to improve biomedical devices, including those used to monitor people with glaucoma and heart disease.

4 Aug 2020

Despite COVID-19 pressures, hospitals are maintaining emergency cardiac services in majority of cases

The death rate for patients who experienced what is normally a lower-risk heart attack rose sharply during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in England, according to an analysis of NHS data.

4 Aug 2020

Researchers develop efficient and more sensitive method to test heavy metals in foods and water

Finding out if the food and water we consume are safe from toxic and carcinogenic metals can now be much faster and simpler.

4 Aug 2020

New peptide molecule offers hope for emphysema

Emphysema is a progressive, debilitating lung disease in which the lung's breathing sacs, or alveoli, enlarge, get thinner, and eventually are destroyed as the cells die off. It can be fatal, and there is currently no cure.

4 Aug 2020

Researchers initiate multiple studies to identify coronavirus-related heart problems

COVID-19 is shown to impact the heart and, in some cases, have long-lasting cardiac effects. To discover the extent to which COVID-19 affects the heart, cardiologists and researchers with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have begun multiple studies.

4 Aug 2020

Researchers identify unique fungi species during COVID-19 pandemic

A major comprehensive study on Herpomycetales and Laboulbeniales, two orders of unique ectoparasitic fungi associated with insects and other arthropods (class Laboulbeniomycetes) in Belgium and the Netherlands was published in the open-access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal MycoKeys.

4 Aug 2020

Penis microbiome is reservoir for bacterial vaginosis-associated bacteria

Previous studies have pointed out that the reproductive microbiomes of partners might be exchanged in bacterial vaginosis (BV). Now, a team of researchers at the University of Illinois in Chicago compared the microbiota of couples before and after the development of BV.

4 Aug 2020

Broad range of therapeutics are being evaluated for Parkinson's disease

A review of currently registered clinical trials of agents targeting Parkinson's disease (PD) reveals that there is a broad pipeline of both symptomatic and potentially disease-modifying therapies currently being evaluated.

4 Aug 2020

ALKBH5 enzyme shows promising target for cancer immunotherapy

Cancer immunotherapy - a treatment that better enables a patient's own immune system to attack tumors - has shown great potential against some cancers. Yet immunotherapy doesn't work against all tumor types, and many patients who initially respond later develop resistance and relapse.

4 Aug 2020

Targeting LDL cholesterol to reduce heart disease risk now questioned

For many years, health experts have warned that high levels of bad cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein (LDL) are critical drivers for the development of cardiovascular disease. Now, a new study claims that decades of research have failed to show benefit of targeting the bad cholesterol to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

4 Aug 2020

Researchers outline areas of opportunity in COVID-19-related bioethics studies

The diverse situations experienced by health-care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic often present serious ethical challenges.

4 Aug 2020

Non-adherence to prescription medicines is more common in younger U.S women

For patients, especially those living with chronic conditions, nonadherence to prescription medicines due to cost is a common problem.

4 Aug 2020

How COVID-19 lockdown affected the heart

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in August 2020 shows that heart rate variability assessments, used to evaluate the health of the heart and blood vessels, are useful in identifying changes in health and well being throughout lockdown related to COVID-19.

4 Aug 2020

Five alternative methods of SARS-CoV-2 suppression

The current pandemic has proved to be challenging to control without stringent and comprehensive non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs), relying mostly on isolation and contact tracing of cases, along with social distancing. However, strategies like these have a huge human cost in terms of restriction of social interactions, resulting in depressive tendencies, disruption of economic activity, and loss of educational resources.

3 Aug 2020

Zika virus mutation responsible for quick spread, birth defects uncovered

A multidisciplinary team from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has uncovered a Zika virus mutation that may be responsible for the explosive viral transmission in 2015/2016 and for the cause of microcephaly (babies with small heads) born to infected pregnant women.

3 Aug 2020

Low-income communities lack access to ICU beds

A new Penn Medicine study sheds light on yet another reason why the coronavirus pandemic is disproportionately killing the poor: Residents in low-income neighborhoods lack access to intensive care unit (ICU) beds.

3 Aug 2020

Study identifies possible therapeutic treatment for COVID-19

Yunjeong Kim and Kyeong-Ok "KC" Chang, virologists in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University, have published a study showing a possible therapeutic treatment for COVID-19.

3 Aug 2020