Category Archives: Science & Health

Science and health issues or matters. Find health items for virus COVID-19 in this category.

Current Affairs, Science & Health

How Do We Better Treat Chronic Pain? – The New York Times

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The Pain Brain – Millions of Americans are living with chronic pain. A quiet revolution in research and treatment is finding new ways to help them heal.

By Erik Vance and others…

From article…

Even before the pandemic, about one in five Americans suffered from chronic pain.

After a year and a half filled with anxiety, grief and often sedentary behavior, that number has only increased. It is, of course, impossible to talk about chronic pain (typically defined as pain lasting longer than six months) in America without confronting another pandemic: opioid addiction.

With so few pain treatments available, many patients see their only options as continued anguish or risking a new, different sickness. In 2020 more than 93,000 people died from drug overdose, with about 70 percent caused by opioids. And opioids don’t always address the pain; only one in four chronic pain patients find enduring relief from painkillers.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Source: How Do We Better Treat Chronic Pain? – The New York Times

Current Affairs, Science & Health

What is the perfect bed time? New study reveals best time for sleep – Deseret News

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Falling asleep at a specific time might protect you from heart problems

By Herb Scribner @HerbScribner Nov 12, 2021, 11:00pm MST

Falling asleep at a specific time might protect you from heart problems
Illustration by Alex Cochran, Deseret News

Scientists may have identified the perfect bedtime to protect your heart — 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Per NBC News, scientists recently reviewed data from 88,000 adults who tracked their sleep patterns for six years.

They found that there was a 12% greater risk for heart disease in those who went to sleep from 11 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. There was a 25% higher risk of developing the cardiovascular disease for those who fell asleep past midnight. There was a 24% decreased risk in those who fell asleep before 10 p.m.

Source: What is the perfect bed time? New study reveals best time for sleep – Deseret News

Current Affairs, Food & Drink, Pleasures, Science & Health, Times They Are A-Changing

Longevity: Research on how diet and exercise can help – The Washington Post

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By Matt Fuchs, October 11, 2021 at 8:00 a.m. EDT

Valter Longo, a biochemist at the University of Southern California, received lessons in longevity from a trio of 100-year-olds in Villagrande Strisaili in Sardinia, Italy. (Gianni Pes)

Death comes for us all. But recent research points to interventions in diet, exercise and mental outlook that could slow down aging and age-related diseases — without risky biohacks such as unproven gene therapies.

A multidisciplinary approach involving these evidence-based strategies “could get it all right,” said Valter Longo, a biochemist who runs the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.

Source: Longevity: Research on how diet and exercise can help – The Washington Post

Current Affairs, Food & Drink, Politics, Science & Health

Maine passes nation’s 1st ‘right to food’ amendment | AP News

By PATRICK WHITTLE, Nov 3rd, 2021

FILE- Chickens follow Heather Retberg at her family’s farm, Sept. 17, 2021, in Penobscot, Maine. On Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, Maine voters will decide whether to pass the nation’s first “right to food” constitutional amendment. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine voters passed the nation’s first “right to food” constitutional amendment on Tuesday.

A statewide referendum asked voters if they favored an amendment to the Maine Constitution “to declare that all individuals have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being.”

It was an experiment not tried before by any state.

Source: Maine passes nation’s 1st ‘right to food’ amendment

Current Affairs, Politics, Science & Health, Times They Are A-Changing

Alabama woman nearly killed by COVID while pregnant: ‘It all could have been prevented if I had gotten a vaccination’ | al.com

Updated: Oct. 19, 2021, 2:30 p.m. | Published: Oct. 19, 2021, 10:56 a.m.

Amanda Harrison holds her baby, Lake, outside her mother’s home in Phenix City, Ala., on Monday, Oct. 18, 2021. Harrison was put on a ventilator and later life support after becoming ill with COVID-19 in her third trimester of pregnancy. Doctors delivered Lake at 32 weeks and put Harrison on a type of life support called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to save her. Harrison, who was unvaccinated, is urging pregnant women to get vaccinated for COVID-19. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)AP

Sometimes when she’s feeding her infant daughter, Amanda Harrison is overcome with emotion and has to wipe away tears of gratitude.

She is lucky to be here, holding her baby. Harrison was 29 weeks pregnant and unvaccinated when she got sick with COVID-19 in August.

Her symptoms were mild at first, but she suddenly felt like she couldn’t breathe. Living in Phenix City, she was intubated and flown to a hospital in Birmingham, where doctors delivered baby Lake two months early and put Harrison on life support.

Source: Alabama woman nearly killed by COVID while pregnant: ‘It all could have been prevented if I had gotten a vaccination’ – al.com

Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Memories & History, Politics, Science & Health, Travel

Review: Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams call for action in ‘Book of Hope’ : NPR

Published October 19, 20217:28 AM ET, By Barbara J. King

Damian Dovarganes/AP

In Mombasa on the coast of Kenya is a place called Haller Park. People flock there to see 180 indigenous species of plants and trees, and a variety of animals including hippos and giraffes.

In The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams (Gail Hudson is an additional author), discuss the park as an example of how our injured Earth can be restored and healed.

At one point the park was “a monstrous five-hundred-acre scar where almost nothing grew” because a cement company created a quarry that ravaged the land. The company’s CEO decided to repair the damage and slowly, year by year, with horticultural tending and introduction of wild animals, the area was transformed.

Source: Review: Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams call for action in ‘Book of Hope’ : NPR