Category: Health News

Retraining the Brain to Treat Chronic Back Pain

More than 25 million people in the U.S. live with chronic pain. This is pain that lasts for more than three months. The most common type of chronic pain is chronic back pain. Often, no physical cause for this pain can be found. In these cases, it may stem from brain changes that persist after…


Melatonin: What You Need To Know

Melatonin is a hormone that your brain produces in response to darkness. It helps with the timing of your circadian rhythms (24-hour internal clock) and with sleep. Being exposed to light at night can block melatonin production. Research suggests that melatonin plays other important roles in the body beyond sleep. However, these effects are not…


Vaccines Much Less Effective Against Omicron, but Boosters Restore Some Protection: Studies

The two most preferred COVID-19 vaccines in the United States are much less effective against the Omicron virus variant, a trio of new studies out Friday found. The effectiveness of two doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines dropped dramatically against both infection and hospitalization after Omicron became dominant in the United States late…


Physician Speaks out Against ‘Vaccine Mandates for All’ — Especially Children and Those With Natural Immunity

Commentary Dr. Marty Makary, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and editor-in chief of MedPage Today, is pushing back against the growing drumbeat for mass vaccinations and COVID vaccine mandates. In an interview with U.S. New & World Reports, Makary said mandating vaccines for “every living, walking American” is not well-supported by science. Makary also expressed concerns about the two-dose…


Some People With Macular Degeneration May Not Need Shots in the Eye

As many as a third of people with “wet” age-related macular degeneration, a blinding retinal disease, may someday be able to safely stop eye injection therapy without further vision loss, a preliminary study shows. The findings fall short of setting a timeline for ending treatment or predicting precisely which patients can stop injections, the researchers…


Alcohol Consumption Increased the Most During Lockdown – New Research

When the UK was placed into its first COVID lockdown in March 2020, many of us may have been tempted to reach for a drink. The country was about to enter an extraordinary period, with no idea of what would happen next, how bad things might get or when it might end. It was unheard…


Heavy Drinkers Increased Their Alcohol Consumption the Most During Lockdown – New Research

When the UK was placed into its first COVID lockdown in March 2020, many of us may have been tempted to reach for a drink. The country was about to enter an extraordinary period, with no idea of what would happen next, how bad things might get or when it might end. It was unheard…


No Amount of Alcohol Consumption Is Good for the Heart: Report

No amount of alcohol consumption—not even a moderate amount—is good for the heart, the World Health Federation (WHF) said on Thursday. In a new policy brief titled “The Impact of Alcohol Consumption on Cardiovascular Health: Myths and Measures,” WHF is pushing back on the widespread belief that drinking a daily glass of wine may be beneficial….


How Quickly Can People Recover From Covid-19?

Researchers have mapped immune responses from one of Australia’s first COVID-19 patients, showing the body’s ability to fight the virus and the timing of recovery from the infection. Researchers were able to test blood samples at four different time points in an otherwise healthy woman in her 40s, who presented with COVID-19 and had mild-to-moderate…


Is the Covid Casedemic Over?

Commentary A lot of people have noticed the rapid decline in reported COVD-19 cases starting on Jan. 8, 2021 (see below chart from CDC). According to an OP-Ed in the Wall Street Journal by Professor Marty Makary at Johns Hopkins, this rapid decline means “Herd Immunity” will be attained by April and Covid will be…