Архив рубрики: Здоровье Америка

Vitamin D does a lot for your body, supporting strong bones, muscle movement, your immune system, and more. Taking a vitamin D supplement may seem like a quick and easy way to boost these benefits—but doctors say there are a few things to know first.

“There’s no question that vitamin D is essential for good health,” says Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who researches vitamin D supplementation. “The question is: Do we really need to take supplements?”

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Vitamin D supplements are mostly recommended when you’re deficient. In the U.S., 35% of adults are vitamin D deficient, according to the National Library of Medicine. People who are obese, over 65, or have darker skin may be more at risk for deficiency—and about 50% to 60% of nursing home residents and patients in hospitals are vitamin D deficient.

Here’s what experts say about taking vitamin D.

The many sources of vitamin D

Vitamin D ..

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is no longer recommending the COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant women and healthy children, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a video on his X account on May 27. “We’re now one step closer to realizing President Trump’s promise to Make American Healthy Again,” said Kennedy, who was flanked by Dr. Martin Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, head of the National Institutes of Health.

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The announcement reverses previous CDC advice. At the time of the announcement, the CDC’s webpage still contained its earlier recommendation that everyone ages six months and older get vaccinated, and that “getting the 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine is especially important if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant, or might become pregnant in the future.”

Public-health experts immediately pushed back ..

Amino acid supplements have soared in popularity in recent years. Social-media influencers peddle them with promises that they’ll build muscle, enhance athletic performance, promote weight loss, boost metabolism, and improve mental focus. But they’re not right for everyone. Here’s what to know about the trendy supplements.

What are amino acids?

Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and there are a total of 20. Nine essential amino acids—histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine—are available only through foods or supplements. “You can’t store amino acids in your body, so if you have a diet that’s unhealthy, you’re not going to get all the amino acids your body needs,” says Joan Salge Blake, a clinical professor of nutrition at Boston University and host of the nutrition and health podcast Spot On!

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There are also 11 non-essential amino acids—alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic ..

That glistening swimming hole might look—and feel—refreshing on a sweltering day. But writhing in pain from stomach cramps, nausea, and vomiting? Staring at the bathroom ceiling instead of the blue, sunny sky? Not so much.

Jumping into even the prettiest and clearest rivers, lakes, creeks, and other natural bodies of water can expose you to a cesspool of unpleasant and invisible fellow swimmers—most commonly bacteria, viruses, and parasites. “These germs are microscopic, so you’re not going to be able to tell they’re there,” says Bill Sullivan, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Indiana University School of Medicine and author of Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are. “Swimming is a great, fun activity—don’t get me wrong. But you do need to be mindful that there are dangers that lurk out there.”

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That’s especially true for certain people. If you’re mostly healthy, you’ll fare better than some; ..

A new federal report issued by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission portrays children’s health as in alarming decline due to poor diet, chemical exposures, over-medicalization, a lack of physical activity, and much more. Certain industry groups, the American health care system, and parental choices are largely blamed—while socioeconomic factors that research has shown affects many of these issues are barely mentioned.

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President Donald Trump requested the report in a February executive order establishing the MAHA Commission, whose primary mission is to address childhood chronic diseases. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. chairs the commission.

The group’s report presents four main drivers of chronic childhood illness, laying particular blame on the food children eat and their daily habits. It takes aim at ultra-processed foods, citing a 2021 study that found that nearly 70% of an American’s child’s calories come from this category, ..

TC, HDL, LDL: There’s an alphabet soup of cholesterol types to know about. Relatively new on the scene is Lp(a), or lipoprotein(a). Though it was first described by a Norwegian physician in 1963, this unique form of “bad” cholesterol remained under the radar until fairly recently. Now, it’s being discussed and measured in people’s bloodwork on a more widespread basis.

“Over the past decade, new scientific knowledge improved our understanding of the Lp(a) role in heart disease risk,” explains Dr. Ahmet Afsin Oktay, a cardiologist with the Rush University System for Health in Chicago. “As a result, providers have become more aware of how measuring Lp(a) levels can help form a more personalized risk assessment for heart disease.”

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Here’s what you need to know about Lp(a) and the new medical advances bringing us closer to treating elevated levels.

What is Lp(a), and why is it important?

It’s similar in structure to low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholest..

Dr. Jeffrey Hurless still remembers the young patient who showed up for a podiatry appointment complaining about a large blister on the bottom of his big toe. The sore spot was red, swollen, and painful—and the boy and his mother had no idea what had caused it. As the patient reclined in an exam chair, Hurless began to deroof the blister, which means removing its top layer of skin. Then the surprise hit. Literally.

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“I’m working on this boy’s foot pretty close to my face, probably a foot away, and I’m gently going a little deeper, and then a little deeper,” recalls Hurless, a podiatrist and foot and ankle surgeon at Neuhaus Foot & Ankle in Nashville. “All of a sudden, a plastic toothpick literally shot out of his foot under such pressure that it went over my right shoulder and hit the wall behind me.”

Everyone in the exam room erupted into cheers: Good riddance to the interloper! At first, the boy was stumped by the toothpick’s presence. Then he remem..

The Pandemic Agreement, just adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO), is a landmark for global public health. Had such an agreement been in place before 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic would have looked very different. The agreement now means that when the next pandemic begins brewing, the world will be much better equipped to mitigate or even prevent it.

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What exactly will the agreement do?

In a nutshell, 124 countries have pledged to prevent, prepare for, and respond to future pandemics. The countries that formally ratify the agreement will be bound to uphold a number of commitments including investing in health infrastructures, sharing intellectual property, and engaging in technology transfer.

One of the biggest benefits promises to be the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System. This will require U.N. member states to share information and data about potential pandemic viruses, including sequencing of new viruses or variants, as well as sh..

On May 20, the federal government announced a major shift in how it plans to review and recommend COVID-19 vaccines for Americans. Among the changes: when manufacturers want to update the vaccine each year to target the latest variants, they will be required to conduct additional studies to show the effectiveness of the vaccine in people who are not at high risk of severe COVID-19.

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Since 2023, federal health officials have recommended an annual COVID-19 shot for most people, and vaccine makers have not needed to conduct additional tests on each year’s updated vaccine. It’s similar to the way the annual flu shot is updated to target the newest influenza strains, without new studies to re-confirm the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine.

Here’s how COVID-19 vaccine guidance is changing in the U.S.

For people at high risk of severe COVID-19

The process of reviewing and recommending yearly updates to the COVID-19 vaccine would remain essentially th..

If you’re like a lot of people, you’re finding it harder and harder to stomach climate change—literally. A warming world leads to all manner of health problems, including increased risk of cardiovascular disease, exacerbation of pulmonary conditions like asthma and COPD, and mental health problems including depression and anxiety. Increasingly, however, climate change is being implicated in a range of illnesses of the gut, such as diarrheal diseases, irritable bowel syndrome, intestinal infection, and more. While the mechanism behind the increase in pulmonary disease in a warmer world is more or less direct—breathing hot, dirty, sooty air isn’t good for anyone’s lungs—the gut connection is more nuanced and multifactorial, involving crop growth, contaminated water supplies, droughts, heat waves, malnutrition, and the microbiome of the soil. None of this is good for us; all of it can affect any of us. Here’s what you need to know about the climate-gut connection.

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