How To Go Helth

Staying home as much as possible and away from other people through the spring could save some 30,000 lives, according to a model from the IHME

The E484K mutation is already causing misery in Manaus, Brazil, a city of 2 million people that sits in the Amazon rainforest.

Brazil, like the U.S., fell short last year in its efforts to ease the COVID-19 crisis. Like former President Donald Trump, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro downplayed the risk of the virus, and many people there declined to follow public health recommendations like wearing masks or social distancing.

As a result, Manaus was so hard-hit during its surge of cases last spring that scientists who studied blood samples there estimated that more than 75% of the population might have been infected. As cases dropped over the summer, many wondered whether so many people in Manaus had developed antibodies against the virus that they had achieved some community protection, or herd immunity, against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Cases began to climb again in December, and once again, hospitals were overwhelmed. Some emergency rooms ran out of oxygen, and patients suffocated for lack of treatment.

The second surge baffled researchers and sent them searching for answers. When they looked at the genetic instructions for the coronavirus that was causing the new wave of infections, they could see those blueprints had changed significantly from the original “wild type” virus.

Viruses change all the time. As they copy themselves and jump from host to host, they make mistakes in this copying process, called mutations. Sometimes those mutations give the virus important advantages that help it dominate other forms of the virus.

This new flavor, or variant, of the coronavirus found in Manaus — called P.1 — had 17 key changes, compared to the original.

One of these, the N501Y mutation, is also present in the variant first identified in the U.K., which has made the virus more contagious and caused another surge in cases there. It seems to help the virus bind more easily to doors on our cells called ACE2 receptors.

People with this mental illness are known to be at greater risk for contracting COVID-19, but the new study shows they are also more likely to die from this virus.

“Old age is still the most important risk factor for dying of COVID-19, but in our study, schizophrenia surpassed even heart, lung and kidney disease,” said study author Dr. Donald Goff, director of the Institute for Psychiatric Research at NYU Langone in New York City.

“We believe that people with schizophrenia should be prioritized in terms of receiving COVID 19 vaccinations and encouraged to observe safety precautions,” said Goff, who is also a psychiatry professor at NYU Langone.

Symptoms of schizophrenia include hallucinations, delusions and disorganized thinking. The illness often first appears in the late teens to early 30s, and people with schizophrenia are known to die earlier than people without it, according to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

In the study, people with schizophrenia were nearly three times more likely to die from COVID-19, compared to individuals without the illness, and this held even after researchers took other factors that affect risk of dying from COVID into account.

“The higher risk was expected, but the magnitude was unexpected,” Goff said.

And the increased chance of dying is not tied to risks known to travel with mental illness such as higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and smoking.

Crohn’s & Colitis UK: “Back to Work with an Ostomy,” “”Find Solutions to Problems That Can Occur with an Ostomy,” “Living with a Stoma,” Sexual Relationships and IBD,” “Travel and IBD.”

United Ostomy Associations of America: “Managing Humidity and Extending Pouch Wear Times with an Ostomy,” “No Stress Air Travel with an Ostomy.”

Justan Singh, Crohn’s & Colitis Australia ambassador, Sydney, Australia.

Lauren Beach, patient, South Boston, MA.

Danni Little, patient, Detroit, MI.

Omma Ahmed, blogger, London, England.

Source - howtogohealthy

New CDC modeling shows the new strain could cause more than half of new infections in this country by March, even as the U.S. races to deploy vaccines

“It’s not necessarily what’s going to happen everywhere, but this is the kind of path that we expect to see,” said study author Michael Johansson, PhD, a member of the CDC’s COVID-19 Response Team.

The new strain has key gene changes to its spike protein that help the virus pass more easily from person to person. It is estimated to be about 50% more contagious than the main versions of the coronavirus circulating now. It was first detected in the U.K. and has forced England, Ireland, and Wales into another round of tight lockdowns as patients overwhelm hospitals there.

So far, there are just 76 known cases in the U.S., representing less than 0.3% of all COVID cases here. But the strain is so contagious that these cases are expected to double each week until this version of the virus becomes the chief cause of new infections.

As this super strain takes hold, scientists fear it will cause devastating spikes in case counts and deaths. The surges will come as many hospitals are already operating past their breaking points, causing fatality rates to soar as patients who once might have survived fall prey to a shortage of resources to treat them, including a dearth of staff, equipment, and beds.

The CDC’s new modeling indicates the B.1.1.7 strain could account for a majority of COVID cases in the U.S. in March. In a “what if” scenario, the modeling shows total COVID cases surging again in late April, and reaching a peak of more than 200,000 cases a day if no one gets vaccinated.

Of course, vaccines are being shipped to states now, making that worst-case scenario unlikely.

Vaccination of at least 1 million people in the U.S. each day wouldn’t stop the spread entirely, but it should cut the number of new daily cases at the peak by half — from an estimated 200,000 to 100,000.

That pace of vaccination has not yet been achieved in the U.S. As of Jan. 14, CDC data showed the U.S. had not yet given 10 million doses, fewer than half the doses that were expected to be administered by the end of last year.

The CDC’s modeling also showed that vaccination was most effective when paired with stricter adherence to measures that stop the spread of the virus, such as hand-washing, wearing masks, and social distancing. If the public was more aggressive in following those rules as the U.S. ramps up its vaccination campaign, it could slash the expected peak by more than two-thirds.

“We really understand that people are tired, and for some it’s getting harder and harder to social distance and wear their masks, but we have to do what we can now,” Johansson says. “We’re far from being out of the woods.”

“Our results support prioritizing heart failure patients for COVID-19 vaccination once it is available,” said researcher Dr. Amardeep Dastidar, a consultant interventional cardiologist at North Bristol NHS Trust and Bristol Heart Institute in England. “In the meantime, heart failure patients of all ages should be considered a high-risk group and be advised to maintain social distance and wear a face mask to prevent infection.”

Heart failure is the progressive weakening of the heart’s ability to pump blood and can cause breathlessness, ankle swelling and fatigue. Sudden and severe worsening of symptoms is a medical emergency that requires hospitalization.

In an analysis that included 283 patients admitted to a single hospital with acute heart failure, the researchers found a substantial but statistically insignificant drop in admissions for acute heart failure during the pandemic.

In the eight weeks before COVID, 164 patients were admitted, compared with 119 patients after COVID, according to the study published Jan. 7 in the journal ESC Heart Failure.

“This finding may reflect public concerns about social distancing at the start of the national lockdown, delayed reporting of symptoms, and anxiety regarding hospital attendance,” Dastidar said in a journal news release. “In support of these explanations, our data demonstrate an increase in referrals during the later weeks of lockdown in line with U.K. media reports encouraging patients to seek medical attention if needed.”

The number of deaths of patients with acute heart failure nearly doubled during the pandemic. Some 11% of patients in the before-COVID group died within 30 days, compared with 21% of the after-COVID group, the researchers found.

“This may suggest a direct interaction or susceptibility to worse outcomes for acute heart failure patients with superimposed COVID infection,” Dastidar said. “It is noteworthy that our region had very low rates of COVID info.

By Carmen Heredia Rodriguez, Kaiser Health News

Krissy Williams, 15, had attempted suicide before, but never with pills.

The teen was diagnosed with schizophrenia when she was 9. People with this chronic mental health condition perceive reality differently and often experience hallucinations and delusions. She learned to manage these symptoms with a variety of services offered at home and at school.

But the pandemic upended those lifelines. She lost much of the support offered at school. She also lost regular contact with her peers. Her mother lost access to respite care — which allowed her to take a break.

On a Thursday in October, the isolation and sadness came to a head. As Krissy’s mother, Patricia Williams, called a mental crisis hotline for help, she said, Krissy stood on the deck of their Maryland home with a bottle of pain medication in one hand and water in the other.

Before Patricia could react, Krissy placed the pills in her mouth and swallowed.

Efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in the United States have led to drastic changes in the way children and teens learn, play and socialize. Tens of millions of students are attending school through some form of distance learning. Many extracurricular activities have been canceled. Playgrounds, zoos and other recreational spaces have closed. Kids like Krissy have struggled to cope and the toll is becoming evident.

Government figures show the proportion of children who arrived in emergency departments with mental health issues increased 24% from mid-March through mid-October, compared with the same period in 2019. Among preteens and adolescents, it rose by 31%. Anecdotally, some hospitals said they are seeing more cases of severe depression and suicidal thoughts among children, particularly attempts to overdose.

The increased demand for intensive mental health care that has accompanied the pandemic has worsened issues that have long plagued the system. In some hospitals, the number of children unable to immediately get a bed in the psychiatric unit rose. Others reduced the number of beds or closed psychiatric units altogether to reduce the spread of covid-19.

Source : Howtogohealthy

Source : howtogohealthy

Source : - howtogohealthy

Source : Howtogohealthy

When Deanne Bhamgara took a tumble off her electric scooter on a pier in San Diego, she didn’t make much of it at first. The fall left her sore, but she felt only little pain.

But over the next several days, she slowly began to hurt more and more.

”What started as a tingling sensation in my thighs had soon become sensitive to touch,” says Bhamgara, 28. The San Francisco resident later learned that the fall affected her lower back, tailbone, pelvic areas, and her hip joints. In a few days, Bhamgara’s pain had radiated to the rest of her back and to the thighs as well.

Almost all Americans get back problems at one time or another. You might sleep awkwardly or wrench your back while lifting something heavy. Or, like Bhamgara, you might hurt your back in an accident. But often, says physical therapist Eric Robertson, DPT, the culprit is too much sitting and not enough moving.

“We’re largely a sedentary society, and so that sedentary lifestyle is the primary thing that we have to work on,” says Robertson, who also is a spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). “So any sort of movement exercise, walking, working with a physical therapist to give you an individualized customized program is a great idea.”

When Bhamgara went to doctors, physical therapists, and chiropractors about what to expect with her recovery, they gave her conflicting opinions. It might take 6-12 weeks, she heard, or it could take a full year before she was back to normal.

I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) 10 years ago, the summer before my first grandchild was born. Before I went in to see my doctor, I knew something was going on. A couple of mornings, I couldn’t move my hands because they were so clenched and stiff. Fortunately, my doctor diagnosed my RA early, so before I would have gotten to a point where it was really difficult, I was already on a regimen of care.

I didn’t know much about RA at first, so I did lots of reading. The biggest thing that left an impression on me though was something my doctor said: “How you handle this determines how it progresses. You need to determine the path you want to be on.” I decided that I could either sit around and be sad that I have RA, or I could just say, “So I have RA. I need to still move on. There are a lot of things in my life that are good.” I made that choice early on, and it has worked for me.

Living With the Physical Effects

With RA, every single case is different, and it progresses differently too. On the outside, you’d never know I have it, and for the most part, it doesn’t impede what I do. RA used to affect mostly my hands, but I don’t have it there as much anymore. I credit that to all the sewing I do. (I’ve made 1,200 masks for our local hospitals in the last 10 months.) Now the joints in my feet are what’s affected the most. For the last 2 years, I’ve been feeling it in my shoulders, too.

I’ve had a few flares over the years where I wake up and can’t even get out of bed for a while. For the most part, I don’t have much pain in the morning, but I’m stiff and sore if I use a lot of joints during the day. I know now I need to stop doing something when I can tell it’s really wearing on that joint. But I also know you either use it or lose it — I have to move through a little bit of pain because if I don’t, my joints will get stiff and I’ll lose mobility.

As COVID Numbers Rise, So Does ‘Psychic Numbing’

Christmas Recipe: How to make a Yule Log