Архив рубрики: Здоровье Америка

There’s no proven cure for a cold, but many people have remedies they swear by when they’re feeling under the weather. (Chicken soup or citrus fruit, anyone?) One common strategy is taking tablets or lozenges that contain zinc, a natural mineral that helps the immune system fight back against bacteria and viruses.

But many experts don’t recommend that people pop zinc tablets at the first sign of a sniffle. Dr. Katharine DeGeorge, a family-medicine physician at the University of Virginia who has studied cold remedies, is one of them. “Some people might benefit,” she says. “But that comes at a cost—a monetary cost, and a risk of adverse events, too.”

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Zinc users do have some science to back their decision. Some research suggests that zinc may stop the cold virus from binding to cells in the body and copying itself, potentially shortening the length of an illness. (Some scientists have researched whether zinc has the same effect against other viruses, s..

If you want to excel at pickleball, cake-decorating, or playing the piano, you’ll probably sign up for a class or enlist an instructor. But what about talking? Communication is one of the cornerstones of successful personal and professional life—yet many of us never receive any formal training on how to do it well.

“We copy what our parents do, and then what our teachers and friends do,” says Raele Altano, a communication coach who also dispenses tips to her social-media following. “We assume that’s the standard—it definitely comes from our upbringing.”

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That can lead to a lot of blunders, from hijacking the conversation to shutting down when things don’t go our way. Investing time in learning to better communicate, meanwhile, can improve the way we represent and advocate for ourselves, Altano says, while also boosting confidence. “It impacts all areas of life, whether it’s dating, asking for a raise, presenting in a public-speaking environment,” or e..

If you want to excel at pickleball, cake-decorating, or playing the piano, you’ll probably sign up for a class or enlist an instructor. But what about talking? Communication is one of the cornerstones of successful personal and professional life—yet many of us never receive any formal training on how to do it well.

“We copy what our parents do, and then what our teachers and friends do,” says Raele Altano, a communication coach who also dispenses tips to her social-media following. “We assume that’s the standard—it definitely comes from our upbringing.”

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That can lead to a lot of blunders, from hijacking the conversation to shutting down when things don’t go our way. Investing time in learning to better communicate, meanwhile, can improve the way we represent and advocate for ourselves, Altano says, while also boosting confidence. “It impacts all areas of life, whether it’s dating, asking for a raise, presenting in a public-speaking environment,” or e..

NEW YORK — A pig at an Oregon farm was found to have bird flu, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday. It’s the first time the virus has been detected in U.S. swine and raises concerns about bird flu’s potential to become a human threat.

The infection happened at a backyard farm in Crook County, in the center of the state, where different animals share water and are housed together. Last week, poultry at the farm were found to have the virus, and testing this week found that one of the farm’s five pigs had become infected.

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The farm was put under quarantine and all five pigs were euthanized so additional testing could be done. It’s not a commercial farm, and U.S. agriculture officials said there is no concern about the safety of the nation’s pork supply.

But finding bird flu in a pig raises worries that the virus may be hitting a stepping stone to becoming a bigger threat to people, said Jennifer Nuzzo, a Brown University pandemic res..

Climate change is increasingly disrupting people’s sleep.

High nighttime temperatures led to 5% more hours of sleep lost worldwide over the past five years compared to the period between 1986 and 2005, according to the latest edition of the Lancet’s study of climate and health. It marks the first time the prestigious medical journal has examined this metric. Sleep loss peaked in 2023, the hottest year on record, when there was a 6% rise.

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The eighth annual Lancet Countdown on health and climate change report, authored by 122 global experts, found that high temperatures, drought and heavy rainfall are increasingly impacting people’s health. In 2023, a record 512 billion potential hours of labor were lost globally due to high temperatures. Heat-related deaths in people over the age of 65 reached the highest levels on record, 167% higher in the 1990s.

“This isn’t just about extreme weather events,” said Jeremy Farrar, chief scientist at the World Heal..

Organ and cell transplants are potentially life-saving treatments for a variety of medical conditions, but their success depends on how long the transplanted cells or tissues can survive in their new host. Drugs that suppress the immune system to minimize rejection must strike a delicate balance between being powerful enough to hold back the recipient’s immune system from destroying the donated material, without being too potent to cause toxic reactions.

In a study presented at the Summit on Stem Cell Derived Islets in Boston, researchers report on encouraging results using an experimental immunosuppressive drug in people with Type 1 diabetes. People with the disease no longer make enough insulin in their pancreas to break down sugar in the foods they eat, and have to monitor their blood sugar levels and inject themselves with insulin for the rest of their lives. In some cases, the insulin shots become ineffective and patients need more aggressive treatment: usually a transplant of is..

If you already head to the doctor’s office once a year for an annual physical: good job. If you don’t, let this be your reminder to go ahead and book that appointment—and perhaps let go of some of your anxiety surrounding your check-up.

And yes, you should schedule an annual physical exam even if you feel relatively healthy. “Many of us may only visit a doctor when we are sick, but having a primary care doctor and an annual physical is important,” says Dr. Heather Viola, an assistant professor of medicine and primary care physician at Mount Sinai Doctors-Ansonia in New York City. “It’s important to establish a relationship with a physician that you trust, and this starts with yearly well visits.”

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Here’s who should schedule an annual physical, what to expect at the appointment, and how to ease anxiety leading up to your yearly exam.

Why should you get an annual physical?

One of the reasons doctors advocate so strongly for annual physicals is because..

Seniors and people who are immunocompromised should get not just one but two COVID-19 shots this respiratory virus season. That’s the new recommendation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

People in these groups should get the vaccines six months apart in order to stay protected against the disease, the agency’s vaccine group recently agreed.

Here’s what to know about the new advice.

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Why the need for more than one shot this season?

The recommendation follows a summer COVID-19 surge that led to more hospitalizations among the most vulnerable Americans. While rates are currently low, health experts are concerned they could spike again during the holiday season, when people travel more and gather in larger groups. The guidance went a step further for people who are immunocompromised due to conditions like cancer; they can receive three or more doses during this respiratory disease season, depending on how weakened their im..

At this point in election season, you might be as interested in voting your outspoken uncle out of the family as you are in casting your ballot for the next president of the United States. Differing political views can rip family members apart, making everyone feel like they’re walking on eggshells in the lead-up to Nov. 5.

“There’s a lot of stress that people carry knowing everybody is feeling tense about this,” says Jenna Glover, chief clinical officer with the mental health app Headspace. “Some people have actually lost relationships, and it’s important to acknowledge how that impacts our mental health.”

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With that in mind, we asked experts exactly what to say to the relative whose politics you despise in order to keep (or restore) family peace.

“I won’t be talking about politics today.”

You know what they say: Never talk about religion, politics, or money in mixed company. Setting a clear boundary is one of the most effective ways to preemptivel..

In 2019, when I was working as a reporter for the Washington Post, I “came out” as faceblind. I was a little concerned about telling everyone that I have prosopagnosia—a rare neurological disorder that makes it difficult for me to recognize faces—because I fretted that people would think that it made me bad at my job. That didn’t happen, thank goodness, but I did get some alarming emails from people who told me not to be so open about my disorder. “You might get targeted by a stalker or a mugger,” one reader wrote.

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It didn’t seem likely that a criminal would specifically target me after reading my article—I mean, newspaper readership is not exactly off the charts. But then I wrote an entire book on the topic, and I have been making the media rounds talking about how, for instance, I once thought that my own reflection was a woman with a poor sense of personal space. So, at the urging of my worried family, I recently called Jennifer Storey, a criminolo..