Some recent items related to health issues.
Mortality risk was reduced by 50% for older adults who increased
their daily steps from around 3,000 to around 7,000,
according to new medical research.
...
Walking strengthens your heart, improves bone density, relaxes your mind,
and helps with muscle-building and pain management.
One indicator is better performance on tests of memory and thinking (or "cognitive") skills. Of 141 participants who completed a series of these cognitive tests, those with higher levels of small HDL particles in their cerebrospinal fluid had better scores. And that was independent of age, sex, education or whether they carried the APOE4 gene, which boosts Alzheimer's risk.
Arshia Khan asked a group of older adults in Minnesota what they would
like in a nursing home, and their answer surprised her. They wanted
standup comedy, but not just any comedy: They wanted off-color jokes.
...
There followed a risqué joke about the robot's relationship with
its charging plug, and another about an unhappy date with a Tesla
(too conceited). After each, the robot giggled. "I went on a date
with a Roomba last week," the robot said, gesticulating with its arms.
Pause. "It totally sucked."
Later this year, pending approval from the university's institutional review board, 16 of Dr. Khan's robots will go to eight nursing homes around the state - though without the off-color jokes.
A puzzling phenomenon: Patients report a rebound of COVID-19 symptoms after taking the antiviral Paxlovid.
Through the magic of Twitter, the truth actually became obvious
in real time — no puzzle-solving needed. The FDA was well aware of this
rebound in viral loads in a substantial proportion of people treated
with Paxlovid, around days 10-14 after starting treatment.
For some reason, though, they didn’t think to tell us doctors about it.
It’s not in the
Fact Sheet for Health Care Providers,
and there is only one line even vaguely referencing this possibility in the
Fact Sheet for Patients:
Talk to your healthcare provider if you do not feel better
or if you feel worse after 5 days.
Early in the pandemic, the World Health Organization stated that SARS-CoV-2 was not transmitted through the air. That mistake and the prolonged process of correcting it sowed confusion and raises questions about what will happen in the next pandemic.