Body

Individuals with genetic high cholesterol, heart disease or both, who were infected with COVID-19 had more heart attacks according to new research by the FH Foundation. While previous studies have speculated about poorer outcomes if a person with genetic high cholesterol - called familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) contracts COVID-19, this study from the FH Foundation's national healthcare database is the first to demonstrate higher heart attack rates in the real world.

BOSTON - Although everyone can benefit from exercise, the mechanistic links between physical fitness and overall health are not fully understood, nor are the reasons why the same exercise can have different effects in different people. Now a study published in Nature Metabolism led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) provides insights related to these unanswered questions.

Bethesda, MD (May 27, 2021) -- Crohn's disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes inflammation (pain and swelling) in the gastrointestinal tract, can cause daily health problems, frequent hospitalizations and surgery when not adequately controlled. While there is no cure for Crohn's disease, there are treatments that can help patients live a symptom-free life.

Higher percentage of patients treated with nivolumab and ipilimumab in clinical trial reach the six-and-a-half-year survival mark than those treated with either drug alone.

An estimated one in seven Ohio women of adult, reproductive age has visited a crisis pregnancy center, a new study has found.

In a survey of 2,529 women, almost 14% said they'd ever attended a center. The prevalence was more than twice as high among Black women and 1.6 times as high among those in the lowest socioeconomic group, found a research team from The Ohio State University. Their study appears in the journal Contraception.

A breast cancer therapy that requires just one shot of radiotherapy is as effective as traditional radiotherapy, and avoids potential damage to nearby organs, according to a paper by UCL experts.

The results, published in the British Journal of Cancer, mean that eight out of ten patients who receive the treatment, TARGIT-IORT, will not need a long course of post-operative external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). These results strengthen and expand previously published outcomes.

Poor sleep impacts the risk of long-term cognitive decline in Hispanic/Latino middle aged and older adults differently than it does in non-Hispanic adults, according to research led by University of Miami Miller School of Medicine neurology faculty and the largest long-term study of U.S. Hispanic/Latinos to date.

DALLAS, May 27, 2021 -- Adults who have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) were more than three times as likely to have an ischemic stroke later in life compared to adults who do not have OCD, according to new research published today in Stroke, a journal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association.

Each city has its own unique microbiome, a "fingerprint" of viruses and bacteria that uniquely identify it, according to a new study from an international consortium of researchers that included a team from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM). The international project, which sequenced and analyzed samples collected from public transit systems and hospitals in 60 cities around the world, was published today in the journal Cell.

Urgent investment in new tools is needed to address major global losses of wheat crops which cost £22 billion per year.

Leading scientific experts are calling for governments around the world to come together and fund a new international research platform, to reduce the impact of major wheat pathogens and improve global food security.

Scientists at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) have identified the first blood biomarker for myocarditis, a cardiac disease that is often misdiagnosed as myocardial infarction. Nevertheless, the diagnosis of myocarditis continues to be challenging in clinical practice.

The study, led by Dr. Pilar Martín and published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, has detected the presence of the human homolog of micro RNA miR-721 in the blood of myocarditis patients.

Continuous skin-to-skin contact starting immediately after delivery even before the baby has been stabilised can reduce mortality by 25 per cent in infants with a very low birth weight. This according to a study in low- and middle-income countries coordinated by the WHO on the initiative of researchers at Karolinska Institutet published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The opioid epidemic is taking a deadly toll on people in disproportionate clusters from Cape Cod to San Diego, according to a new study by the University of Cincinnati.

Fatal opiate overdoses are most prevalent among six states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana and Tennessee. But researchers identified 25 hot spots of fatal opioid overdoses nationwide using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What The Study Did: This study included data from more than 11,000 emergency medical services (EMS) agencies in 49 states to describe racial/ethnic, social and geographic changes in EMS-observed overdose-associated cardiac arrests during the COVID-19 pandemic through 2020 in the United States.

Authors: Joseph Friedman, M.P.H., of the University of California, Los Angeles, is the corresponding author.

What The Study Did: Researchers analyzed each state's department of health website for accessibility and usability challenges. Findings suggest state health department COVID-19 vaccine website accessibility and usability challenges create frustration, may promote health disparities and contribute to overall ineffective and inequitable distribution.

Authors: Raj M. Ratwani, Ph.D., of the Medstar Health National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare in Washington, D.C., is the corresponding author.