Safety of the Messenger RNA Vaccines for COVID-19 (Pfizer and Moderna)
Results from clinical trials of the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines showed about 95 percent effectiveness in preventing COVID-19 infections, and they were given Emergency Use Authorizations (EUA) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on December 13 and December 20, 2020. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says...
COVID-19 Precautions May Affect Other Respiratory Infections in the Future
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that we may need to continue social distancing and hand washing for years to come. The significant reduction in non-COVID-19 respiratory infections this year could decrease the number of people who are immune to other respiratory viruses, and increase the frequency and severity of other respiratory infections in the future.
Diabetes: A New Explanation
No matter how much insulin the pancreas makes, eating sugar causes the liver to make excess ChREBP that prevents the liver from responding to insulin and the liver then converts extra calories to sugar as well as the fat that it normally produces.
Lifestyle Changes to Lower Blood Pressure
A study of 14,392 individuals with high blood pressure, followed for 5-10 years, found that those who adopted a healthful lifestyle along with taking medication had a much lower risk for suffering heart attacks and lived significantly longer than those who treated their high blood pressure just with drugs.
Cholesterol Absorbed from Food
Having high blood levels of cholesterol increaes your chances of getting a heart attack, but your blood cholesterol level is influenced far more by how many calories you eat than by how much cholesterol is in the food you eat.
New Drug May Slow Down Alzheimer’s Disease
A study of 856 patients with a mild, early form of Alzheimer’s disease, found that a new drug called BAN2401 may reduce the amount of amyloid plaques in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. The drug reduced the amount of Beta-amyloid in sticky plaques that form around nerves in the brain to prevent messages being sent from one nerve to another.
More Links Between Cancers and Sugar
The evidence is getting stronger that taking in too much sugar increases your risk for cancers as well as for heart attacks, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. A study from M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston shows how sugar may cause cancers to start and then to spread to other parts of the body (Cancer Research, Jan. 1, 2016).
Lyme Disease May Be Transmitted Between Humans
An international team of research scientists and practicing doctors from Canada, the United States and Australia report that the bacterium that causes Lyme disease is found in 100 percent of the vaginal secretions of women and half of the semen of men suffering from Lyme disease.
Prostate Cancer and Heart Attacks Share Lifestyle Factors
A study of 90,494 U.S. veterans with prostate cancer found that more than half suffered from uncontrolled risk factors for heart attacks. Men who suffer from prostate cancer have a very high rate of heart attack risk factors and heart disease.
Total Body Scans
CAT scans of the body are high-speed, highly sensitive X-rays that can find tiny tumors, weak spots on blood vessels that make them bulge out like balloons, and calcified areas that may be indicative of heart disease.
Most Type II Diabetics Should Lose Weight, Even If They Are Not Overweight
Most type II diabetics are overweight, but about 15 percent are not overweight. A study presented on September 23, 2022 at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting in Stockholm found that 70 percent of normal-weight type II diabetics went into remission when they lost 10 percent of their body weight.
Mitral Valve Prolapse
One in ten Americans suffers from mitral valve prolapse and the vast majority have no symptoms and will never know that they have it. Valves are located in your heart to keep blood from backing up. With aging, some of these valves can stretch and fail to close completely, so they allow a small...
Excess Fat in Your Liver Increases Risk for Heart Attacks, Strokes and Dementia
Having excess fat in your liver is associated with increased risk for a heart attack. A review of 36 studies on 5,802,226 middle-aged individuals with 99,668 cases of heart attacks, in a median follow-up period of 6.5 years, found that those with fatty liver disease had 1.5 times the incidence of heart attacks as the general population.
How Sugar Can Fill Your Liver with Fat
A study this month shows how people who eat a lot of sugar can develop a liver full of fat that can lead to diabetes. When your blood sugar rises too high, the insulin released by your pancreas converts the sugar to a type of fat called triglycerides. HDL (good) cholesterol then carries the triglycerides to your liver where they are stored to cause a fatty liver.
Cancer Treatment Should Include Heart Attack Prevention
Chemotherapy and radiation used to treat cancers can help to prolong lives, but these treatments can also increase heart attack risk. The American Heart Association recently recommended that patients receiving chemotherapy or radiation to treat breast cancers should be made aware that these treatments increase heart attack risk and that all people being treated for cancer should be on a lifestyle program to prevent heart attacks.
Healthful Diet Helps to Prevent Colon Cancer
A study published this week shows that vegetarians who eat fish have a 43 percent reduced risk for developing colon cancer, compared to people who eat meat (JAMA Internal Medicine, March 9, 2015). Researchers analyzed the diets of nearly 78,000 men and women. During an average seven years of follow-up, they identified 380 cases...
Excess Weight Linked to Larger Plaques
Being overweight is associated with having larger plaques in the arteries leading to the heart and a marked increase and progression of these arterial plaques that cause heart attacks, even if a person does not have the risk factors that predict increased risk for diabetes and heart attacks.
Duct Tape for Warts
A study from Cincinnati Children's Hospital showed that common duct tape is significantly more effective in curing common warts than the standard treatment of liquid nitrogen.
Many Cases of COVID-19 Come from People with No Symptoms
People with no symptoms transmit more than half of all cases of COVID-19, according to a model developed by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This reinforces the importance of following the CDC's basic guidelines: wear a mask, wash your hands, and stay socially distant.
Frostbite
You should never suffer from frostbite: painful freezing that can cause permanent loss of skin, and can be followed by loss of fingers, ears, toes, or even arms and legs. You get plenty of warning before your skin starts to freeze. First your fingers feel cold and then your skin starts to burn or itch.
Healthful Lifestyle Linked to Lower Death Rate in Parkinson’s Disease
In the largest prospective study yet on the subject, researchers followed 1251 participants in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and the Nurses' Health Study who developed Parkinson's Disease. (JAMA Netw Open, Aug 19, 2022;5(8):e2227738). The average age at diagnosis was 73.4 years. During the 32-34 years of follow up, 942 patients died. They found that compared with those who had the worst before-and-after lifestyles, those with the healthiest eating and exercise regimens prior to diagnosis reduced their all-cause death rates by 49 percent.
Treatment of Low Back Pain
Your choices for treatment of back pain are surgery, steroid injections, pain medications, exercise strengthening and stretching programs, or techniques that place external force on the back such as deep massage, manipulation and passive stretching. Because surgery has such a high failure rate, it is usually recommended only when there is danger of permanent injury such as loss of feeling, loss of muscle control or intractable pain.
New COVID-19 Vaccine Appears to Be More Protective
More than 450 people are still dying every day from COVID-19. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Communicable Disease Center (CDC) have authorized the new bivalent COVID-19 vaccines as a single booster dose at least two months after primary or booster vaccination, for anyone over 12 years of age).
Colon Cancer May Be Caused by Bacteria
More than 1.3 million North Americans have had colorectal cancer, a disease associated with lifestyle factors that encourage cancer-causing bacteria to thrive in your colon. A new study shows that 992 people who were already diagnosed with colon cancer that had spread beyond the colon, who changed to a healthier diet and exercise program, had a 42 percent lower risk of dying over the next seven years compared to those who did not change their lifestyles.
Daily Aspirin is Beneficial Primarily for People at High Risk for a Heart Attack
The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has advised against people aged 60 and older taking aspirin for primary heart attack prevention because of their increased risk for bleeding into the brain or gastrointestinal tract.
Making Vaccines to Stop the COVID-19 Pandemic
The only way that scientists are going to end this current pandemic is to develop vaccines and immunize enough people to reach immunity in about 40 percent of the population from the vaccines or by having been infected with the disease.
Impotence Often Precedes a Heart Attack
Impotence often precedes a heart attack by three to five years. A review of the scientific literature found that men who are impotent have a 59 percent increased risk for heart attacks, a 34 percent increased risk for a stroke, and a 33 percent increased risk for dying from any cause. One study showed that impotent men were twice as likely to develop heart disease.
Depression or Tiredness: Low Thyroid Function?
More than nine million North Americans suffer from low thyroid function, but many people are not diagnosed or treated because they have never been tested. One million people take thyroid replacement pills, but some are not being treated properly because they are taking only one thyroid hormone when they need two to really feel better.
Protecting Yourself from COVID-19
As businesses and activities are re-opening, many people have decided to relax their precautions to avoid infection with COVID-19. If you are a person who is at high risk for complications from this virus, I believe that you should continue to be on guard.
Hepatitis C
If you are tired, feel sick and have muscle and joint pains, part of your evaluation should include a blood test for hepatitis C, even if all liver function tests are normal.
