Category: Health News

(HealthDay)—Eating well and exercising regularly can be a challenge for anyone. But for those with autism spectrum disorder or intellectual disabilities, that challenge is exponentially greater.

Many young men and women with autism and intellectual disabilities face a significantly higher risk for obesity, and all the health complications that follow.

Yet, a small, new pilot study suggests that a diet and exercise program tailored to such individuals—and offered in a group environment with family support—can halt weight gain or even trigger notable weight loss.

The program paired U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommendations with “goal-setting to make progress towards eating more healthy foods and engaging in physical activity,” explained study lead author Laura Nabors.

“We also encouraged helping with preparing meals with family, and shared information about health with the family to promote family health,” Nabors added. She’s a professor with the University of Cincinnati (UC) School of

With periods, pregnancies and pap smears in the rearview mirror, menopausal women may stop tending to health below their waist. Worse yet, they may accept that pain is their new companion during exercise, sex and everyday life.

“This is a forgotten population, and these women often think vaginal discomfort is common as they age and something they just have to deal with,” said Dr. Sarah Boyd, a urogynecologist at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. “The most important thing we can do is provide education—you do not have to live with this.”

After menopause, women’s estrogen levels decrease, which can cause vaginal atrophy—thinning of the vaginal walls. Hallmark symptoms are vaginal pain, dryness, sexual dysfunction and bleeding.

Women who have had pelvic radiation and chemotherapy may experience these symptoms much earlier in life, Boyd said.

“More than 60% of women experience these symptoms, and

An influential panel of advisers to the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention convened on Wednesday to debate which Americans should get COVID-19 booster shots and when—a question that has proved more contentious than the Biden administration apparently expected.

The meeting came days after a different advisory group—this one serving the Food and Drug Administration—overwhelmingly rejected a sweeping White House plan to dispense third shots to nearly everyone. Instead, that panel endorsed booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine only for senior citizens and those at high risk from the

It’s well known that obesity is linked to the development of numerous diseases in humans. Heart disease, diabetes, and other ailments are extremely common in obese individuals. However, it’s not fully clear how body organs specifically deteriorate and lose functionality from chronic obesity. In a recent article published in Nature, a group of researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) used mouse model experiments to examine how a high-fat diet or genetically induced obesity can affect hair thinning and loss. The authors found that obesity can lead to depletion of hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) through the induction of certain inflammatory signals, blocking hair follicle regeneration and ultimately resulting in loss of hair follicles.

Normally, HFSCs self-renew every hair follicle cycle. This is part of the process

University of Minnesota Medical School graduate students analyzed and summarized literature on the health effects of chemical demonstration control agents, such as tear gas, including the studies which informed existing exposure guidelines. Their study shows that, despite frequent use around the world, there have been few studies that look into the long-term health and environmental effects of tear gas exposure.

“Tear gas and other chemical demonstration control agents (DCAs) have long been used on the civilian population, even though they have been banned in warfare,” said Jennifer Brown, lead author and a neuroscience graduate student at the U of M Medical School. “Most of the published research on these chemicals was done in the 1960s and 1970s and has not been updated, though the DCAs and their methods of deployment have continued to evolve. In our research, we gave special attention to repeated exposure or

Australia’s second-largest city will exit its coronavirus lockdown in late October if vaccine targets are met under an official roadmap released Sunday.

About five million people in Melbourne have been under stay-at-home orders since August 5, the sixth lockdown they have endured so far during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Officials in Victoria state, which includes Melbourne, announced those orders would be lifted when 70 percent of over-16s are fully vaccinated. They projected that target would be reached around October 26.

“Lockdown will end. The (limited) reasons to leave your home and the curfew will no longer be in place,” Victoria premier Dan Andrews said, adding that a raft of restrictions would still be enforced.

Restaurants and pubs will be allowed to reopen but only with a maximum of 50 fully vaccinated people seated outdoors, while a ban on visitors to homes will remain in place.

But once