(NEW YORK) — A 14-year-old student has created a new kind of soap that he hopes could potentially be used to treat skin cancer someday.
Heman Bekele, a high school student in Fairfax, Virginia, says it costs only $8.50 to create a batch of 20 bars of the soap, which he calls Skin Cancer Treating Soap, or SCTS.
“People might not have the equipment or have the facilities to be able to treat this disease,” Heman told ABC News about the innovation, which he said could eventually be used in the early stages of skin cancer if proven to be effective. “A bar of soap is just so simple, so affordable, so accessible in comparison to these modern new skin cancer treatments.”
According to Heman, who created the soap in 8th grade, when skin cancer cells develop, they weaken dendritic cells in the body that boost human immune responses, allowing the cancer to take over. He said SCTS contains agents that could potentially reactivate dendritic cells that help eliminate the cancer cells.
“It does this as a sort of a compound-based bar of soap,” he said. “It’s charged with different cancer fighting chemicals. And the main one, there is this drug called imidazoquinolines.”
Heman earned the title of America’s Top Young Scientist and a $25,000 prize last month after his innovation won first place in the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, an annual competition that gives 5th through 8th grade students “the chance to change their world for the better with a single innovative idea,” according to the 3M Young Scientist Lab.
“He is an incredibly bright, passionate and focused young man,” Deborah Isabelle, Heman’s mentor for the 3M Young Scientist Challenge and a product engineering specialist at 3M, said about him in a statement. “Heman is both compassionate and charismatic, which are great traits for a scientist. With his curiosity and determination, I have no doubts he will change the world for the better.”
When asked the likelihood of SCTS actually treating skin cancer, Isabelle replied that it was possible, but it would need to undergo typical clinical trials that could take between five and 10 years. At this point, Heman said he has not performed any physical trials, instead using digital molecular testing, secondary data analysis and formulaic computations to reach his results.
According to Isabelle, there are topical creams that treat skin cancer, but they are more expensive than SCTS, and use different ingredients and formulations.
Heman was born in Ethiopia and moved to the U.S. at age 4. He said he remembers the toll poverty took on many of the people in Ethiopia and how they would live, work and toil under the glaring sun. According to the young scientist, those images stuck with him, leaving him to wonder how constant exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun were affecting the people of his homeland.
“This isn’t even an issue that’s strictly in Ethiopia. It’s an issue that’s worldwide,” Heman said. “So, then, when they do end up developing issues like skin cancers, it’s really just incredibly difficult for them to be able to afford the cures.”
For now, Heman said he has a five-year plan: At the end of it, he hopes to have created a nonprofit organization where he can provide equitable and accessible skin cancer treatment to as many people as possible. But to accomplish his goal, he would have to get his treatment through clinical trials, obtain a provisional patent and have it certified by the Food and Drug Administration, he said.
When asked by ABC News what motivates him to reach for such lofty goals, Heman responded, “I think I can condense that answer into one word, and it all revolves around it: It’s ‘impact’ — making sure the science that you’re working on can have a direct impact on the world or make it a better place, in one way or another.”
(NEW YORK) — After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, supporters of abortion rights came out on top in every statewide ballot measure on abortion. And even in races where abortion was only implicitly on the ballot, abortion rights generally won out.
This year, abortion is literally on the ballot once again, and this time, all eyes are on Ohio.
So far in 2023, we have less data on how voters are feeling about abortion more than a year removed from the Dobbs decision. The closest thing to a vote on abortion rights was an August ballot measure in the Buckeye State that technically dealt with requirements for passing constitutional amendments but was popularly framed as a battle over abortion. Supporters of abortion rights won that fight, but that was far from the main act — rather, it was preparation for a Nov. 7 ballot measure that could enshrine abortion rights into Ohio’s Constitution.
Polling indicates that Ohio voters generally support abortion rights. But that doesn’t mean the proposed constitutional amendment is guaranteed to pass. The messaging war leading up to next week’s election has complicated the question, with opponents framing it as “too extreme.”
Currently, abortion is permitted in Ohio through the first 21 weeks of pregnancy. But that’s only because the courts have temporarily blocked the state’s six-week abortion ban, which briefly went into effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and would effectively ban almost all abortions in the state. If it passes, next week’s ballot measure would obviate that ban, protecting the right to abortion up through fetal viability — or about 24 weeks of pregnancy — as well as medical providers who perform abortions.
The second ‘Issue 1’ in 4 months
You might remember that Ohio held an election on something called “Issue 1” in August. But that was a different Issue 1 from the one on the ballot next week.
In Ohio, proposed constitutional amendments approved for a statewide vote are listed as “issues,” as are referenda on laws signed by the governor. “Issue 1” is simply a moniker describing the issue up for a vote. In August, that issue was a proposed constitutional amendment that required 60 percent approval from voters for all future constitutional amendments, rather than the status quo of a simple majority.
As Republicans in the Ohio Legislature were pressing for a higher threshold to amend the state constitution, a coalition of groups — including state chapters of the ACLU and Planned Parenthood — was mobilizing to pass a constitutional amendment of their own to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. In July, the group, Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, submitted 700,000 signatures — far more than the 413,446 required for a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment to appear on the ballot.
However, state law stipulates that at least 125 days separate the date the petition was filed and the actual vote on the measure. So the ballot measure, titled The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety, was put on the November ballot and labeled that election’s Issue 1.
In August, voters rejected the first Issue 1 — the amendment that would have increased the threshold for passing future amendments to 60 percent. As a result, November’s Issue 1 — the one enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution — needs only a majority of the vote to pass.
The amendment versus the ballot language
The proposed amendment guarantees, among other things, the “right to make and carry out one’s reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion.”
However, that’s not the exact language voters will see on the ballot. Ohio law gives a state Ballot Board, chaired by the secretary of state, the power to finalize the language that will appear on the ballot. Members appointed by Republicans, along with Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, approved the ballot language over Democratic members’ objections.
Even though the language in the constitution itself would appear as proposed (and be posted at polling locations), the text on the ballot summary uses language like “unborn child” instead of “fetus.” The ballot also summarizes the portion of the amendment stating that “abortion may be prohibited after fetal viability” by reversing its premise, saying it would “always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of viability if, in the treating physician’s determination, the abortion is necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s life or health.” Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights filed a complaint with the state Supreme Court over the language, but the court affirmed the Ballot Board’s language with one minor adjustment, ordering the Ballot Board to clarify that references to “citizens of the State of Ohio” actually just referred to “the state.”
How campaigns are framing their messages
Groups leading the charge to get the amendment passed are airing ads that emphasize the role of the state government in decisions around abortion — making the case that Ohio’s six-week ban, which makes no exceptions for cases of rape, is extreme. One ad featured a couple that found out their fetus would not be able to survive, prompting the mother to seek an abortion out of state. “An abortion was our only option,” the father says. “But the government here in Ohio took that decision away from us.”
In another ad, a Columbus reverend calls abortion “a private, family decision.” He says that Issue 1 “gives families the freedom to make their own decisions, without judgment and without the government getting involved.”
On the other side, opponents of the amendment are moderating their tone compared to what we’ve seen in other elections across the country. There are fewer ads accusing the opposing side of murdering unborn children and more ads showing mild-mannered women and couples calling Issue 1 “too extreme.” In one ad, a woman described as an “Ohio mom” says that “even pro-choice people” agree “that late-term abortion shouldn’t be allowed,” arguing that the law is “too extreme for Ohio.”
Gov. Mike DeWine and his wife Fran also star in an ad, speaking directly to the camera. “Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, Issue 1 is just not right for Ohio,” Gov. DeWine says, while Fran DeWine caps off the ad by saying, “Issue 1 just goes too far.”
Some groups opposed to the amendment have also framed Issue 1 as a parents’ rights issue, arguing that it would allow minors to have abortions without consulting their parents despite the fact that parental rights are not targeted in the proposed amendment. And others have gone so far as to argue that Issue 1 would open the door for children to receive gender affirmation surgery without parents’ consent, though that doesn’t appear in the amendment, either.
What do the polls say?
The limited public polling that’s available indicates that there’s a good chance the constitutional amendment will pass, although it’s far from guaranteed. With turnout so hard to predict in an off-year election, even polling that shows the issue passing could very well be missing the mark.
For example, Baldwin Wallace University conducted a poll Oct. 9-11 that found 58 percent of Ohio voters would vote “yes” on the proposed amendment, 34 percent would vote no, and 8 percent were undecided. Not surprisingly, 89 percent of Democratic voters said they would vote yes, but so did 51 percent of independents and 40 percent of Republicans. That poll also found that only 6 percent of voters thought abortion should always be illegal, while just 24 percent said it should always be legally permitted. Overall, 55 percent of respondents agreed that abortion should either always be legal or legal with exceptions, while 37 percent said it should be always illegal or illegal except in cases of rape or to save the life of the mother.
Ohio Northern University also conducted a poll Oct. 16-19 testing how Ohio voters responded to the proposed amendment when given two versions of the same question: one using the “unborn child” wording that will appear on the ballot and the other using the official language of the proposed amendment. In both cases, the amendment received a majority of the vote, but by vastly different margins. The version that included the language as it will appear on the ballot garnered 52 percent support, which could translate to a close election. But the version that used the language of the amendment itself garnered 68 percent. The poll also found that 65 percent of Ohio voters believe that abortions should be mostly legal.
Other polling since the Dobbs decision affirms that a majority of Ohio voters support abortion rights. Exit polls from the 2022 election race found that 58 percent of Ohio voters thought abortion should be legal and 37 percent believed it should be illegal.
But voters don’t necessarily see abortion — or Issue 1 — as a yes-or-no question on whether abortion should be legal. The 58 percent of voters who, in 2022 exit polling, said that abortion should be legal were split between saying it should be legal in all cases (27 percent) and saying it should be legal in most cases (31 percent). DeWine has said that, should Issue 1 be defeated, he would add exceptions for rape and incest into Ohio’s existing law. It’s a tacit admission that the law currently on the books is regarded as too extreme, as DeWine argues that Issue 1 is too extreme in the opposite direction.
There are other issues complicating the vote, including the existence of the two separate Issue 1s. In August, “no” was the pro-abortion-rights side; in November, it’s the anti-abortion-rights side. It might be confusing for some voters that, if they voted against an amendment a few months ago, then they should vote for a similarly titled amendment now.
Then there’s the theory that it’s harder to get voters to support changing an existing law than it is to convince them to keep the status quo. A 2019 study published in State Politics & Policy Quarterly found “strong evidence that voters will psychologically prefer arguments that oppose, rather than support,” ballot measures. Joshua Dyck and Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz, the authors of the study, argued that voters possess a built-in “negativity bias,” meaning that, regardless of how informed a voter is on an issue or how clearly the ballot language states it, arguments against a ballot measure are more effective than arguments in favor of one. In Ohio, that could mean supporters of abortion rights have a tougher task in the November election, when they need people to vote to affirmatively amend the constitution, than in August, when the pro-abortion-rights position was a vote for the status quo.
Whatever the outcome, political pundits on the day after the election are virtually guaranteed to frame the vote as an indicator of the political power of abortion rights messaging. And while the vote will certainly reflect Ohio voters’ views on abortion rights, it’s not quite that simple. The language on the ballot, the messaging of TV ads and the existence of the August ballot measure all complicate the idea that this vote is a straightforward measure of support for abortion rights. Plus, who turns out in an off-year election in a single state will be quite different from the turnout we can expect in the 2024 general election. The vote in Ohio next week may be a tea leaf ahead of the 2024 election, but it’s not a crystal ball.
(NEW YORK) — Infant mortality rates in the United States increased last year for the first time in two decades, according to new federal provisional data.
For the report, published early Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Vital Statistics, researchers looked at birth/infant death data collected through the National Vital Statistics System.
Provisional data showed there were 5.6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022, which is 3% higher than the rate of 5.44 per 1,000 live births in 2021.
Although rates have been declining over the last several years, this marks the first year-to-year increase in more than two decades when the rate rose from 6.8 deaths per 1,000 in 2001 to 7.0 deaths in 2002.
The neonatal mortality rate — infant deaths at less than 28 days of life — also rose 3% from 3.49 per 1,000 live births in 2021 to 3.58 in 2022 and the postneonatal mortality rate — infant deaths between 28 and 364 days of life — grew 4% from 1.95 per 1,000 to 2.02 over the same period.
Dr. Tracey Wilkinson, an associate professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine who is an expert on women’s access to reproductive health care, told ABC News she’s not surprised by the findings and that she sees a couple of reasons for the increase in infant mortality rates.
One is maternity care deserts — where’s there a lack or absence of maternity care — which limits the ability to care for infants properly. The second is limiting of access to abortion, particularly following the Supreme Court decision of Dobbs v. Jackson in June 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
“Any pregnancy that is intended and planned tends to be a healthier outcome and healthy infant outcome,” Wilkinson, who was not involved in the report, said. “So, when you remove the ability for people to decide if and when to have families and continue pregnancies, ultimately, you are having more pregnancies continue that don’t have all those factors in place.”
She added, “Furthermore, we are hearing over and over again, women with non-viable fetuses with diagnoses that mean that they will not survive outside of the womb for any significant period of time, being forced to continue those pregnancies. And so that will also contribute to infant mortality because once those infants are born, they’re counted in these numbers.”
A recent analysis from ABC News and Boston Children’s Hospital found more than 1.7 million women, nearly 3% of women of reproductive age in the U.S., live in a county without access to abortion and with no access to maternity care.
The CDC report also looked at infant mortality rates when broken down by race/ethnicity of the mother.
Data showed increases in this rate among almost all ethnicity groups, except for Asian women, but the only statistically significant increases were for infants born to American Indian/Alaskan Native women and white women.
For American Indian/Alaskan Native women, the rate increased from 7.46 infant deaths per 1,000 to 9.06 deaths in 2022. For white women, the rate rose from 4.36 per 1,000 to 9.06.
“Disparities in health care and outcomes exist in everything,” Wilkinson said. “When you have restrictions to health care access, that always impacts minoritized communities more and what this data is showing is that now it’s also impacting non-minoritized communities like white women.”
When broken down by state, the report showed significant increases in the infant mortality rate in four states — Georgia, Iowa, Missouri and Texas — in 2022 compared with 2021 and a decrease in one state, Nevada.
Mortality rates also increased significantly for two of the 10 leading causes of death: maternal complications and bacterial sepsis.
Wilkinson said in her state of Indiana, and likely others, hospitals have been closing their labor & delivery wards, meaning many centers are lacking the capacity of people providing care for labor and delivery.
“You’re gonna have people delivering at hospitals that don’t have the expertise to take care of moms that get sick during pregnancy and delivery and infants that gets sick very soon after delivery, which is what I think of as bacterial sepsis of newborns,” she said.
She also added that in many states that have limited access to abortion and other reproductive health care, OB/GYNs may leave, which dwindles the number of experts available to care for pregnant patients in life-threatening situations, which could lead to even higher rates of infant mortality.
“As OBs decide to leave and not practice in certain areas, their ability to staff these hospitals decreases,” she said. “Not to ding any of my colleagues, but like emergency room doctors and internal medicine doctors are not experts in this field, but they might be the only people at that hospital when somebody presents in an obstetrical emergency.”
(NEW YORK) — Halloween brings spooky seasonal activities that fear and thrill seekers flock to. While many may think of fear as a largely negative reaction, doctors say it can stimulate the same centers of the brain as happiness and is positively reinforced by social bonding when it’s experienced without a threat of real danger.
Below, two doctors break down the science of being scared and explain why fear can be so much fun.
The body reacts to fear with a primitive fight-flight-or-freeze response
When someone is experiencing fear, hormones and neurotransmitters are released that allow the body to react quickly — called the “fight-flight-or-freeze” response. This is considered an evolutionary adaptation for survival when early humans were evading threats, such as predatorial animals.
“[Fear] kicks off a reaction of stress hormones and neurotransmitters, namely adrenaline and dopamine, that then follows and goes down the body and sort of kicks in that fight, flight, freeze reaction,” Dr. Michele Bedard-Gilligan, Ph.D., a specialist in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at UW Medicine who studies fear, said in a UW Medicine blog post.
“In our bodies, that’s going to feel like shakiness and racing heart and sweaty, and all of those sorts of reactions that we need to react quickly and either escape the danger, or fight back, or freeze, if that’s the best thing that’s going to keep us safe,” Bedard-Gilligan said.
The same part of the brain that reacts to fear also responds to happiness
People who seek out scary experiences for fun aren’t “wired differently.” In fact, the same part of the brain that reacts to fear, also responds to pleasurable experiences associated with joy or happiness. This can tie fear and fun together when it’s known that what’s causing the fear response is not actually dangerous.
“There’s this real interplay between our stress hormones and our feel-good hormones,” Dr. Leah Croll, M.D., a board-certified neurologist and assistant professor at Temple University, told ABC News.
“Once the body or brain has recognized that the immediate stressor is no longer posing a threat, then the adrenaline stops working and essentially, you’re left with this euphoric rush of dopamine and serotonin,” Croll said.
“The kind of scare and surviving that kind of scare leads us to feel good. We feel confident, right? That feels like, ‘Look, we did it,'” Bedard-Gilligan said. “For many of us, that feels fun and exciting to kind of have that type of reaction, particularly when it’s happening in a space that we know is actually not objectively dangerous.”
The fun of frightening experiences may be enhanced by social bonding
“There is a real social aspect to fear,” Croll said.
Socialization is known to positively enhance experiences, and doctors say this can hold true even when that experience is scary, helping people feel closer to one another and bond faster.
“Serotonin, when it’s released as part of our reward circuit with dopamine, will ultimately also trigger the release of oxytocin, which is a chemical that makes you feel closer to other people,” Croll said. “You’re sort of stimulating these warm and fuzzy type of feelings towards one another with the stress response.”
Doctors say this is the same reason why people often laugh when coming out of a haunted house or when they get off of a rollercoaster, and having a scary shared experience can positively reinforce the fun of it.
“I think watching other people’s reactions influences our own reactions, watching other people get scared at the same things that we’re getting scared at, or watching them react bigger or smaller than us, those are often sort of social-building and connection-building and really are sort of, I think, key reinforcing human interactions,” Bedard-Gilligan said.
Still, doctors say that thrill-seeking isn’t going to be enjoyable for everyone, and among those who do enjoy a fright night, there are normal variations in the level of enjoyment people will experience.
(NEW YORK) — Consumers are being warned against using more than two dozen eye drop products sold over-the-counter at major retailers including CVS, Target and Rite Aid.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the eye drop products were manufactured in a facility with “insanitary conditions” and carry a “potential risk of eye infections that could result in partial vision loss or blindness.”
“These products are intended to be sterile. Ophthalmic drug products pose a potential heightened risk of harm to users because drugs applied to the eyes bypass some of the body’s natural defenses,” the FDA said in a news release Friday. “FDA recommended the manufacturer of these products recall all lots on October 25, 2023, after agency investigators found insanitary conditions in the manufacturing facility and positive bacterial test results from environmental sampling of critical drug production areas in the facility.”
The impacted products are marketed under the brands CVS Health, Leader (Cardinal Health), Rugby (Cardinal Health), Rite Aid, Target Up&Up and Velocity Pharma, according to the FDA, which shared a full list of the 26 products on its website.
The federal agency says consumers should “immediately stop using” the products and dispose of them properly, which includes either dropping off the product at a drug take back site or following the FDA’s steps to dispose the product in the trash.
The FDA also says that consumers should not purchase any of the 26 impacted products if they see them on store shelves.
The agency noted it has not yet received any reports of eye infections caused by the eye drop products, but is encouraging health care professional and patients to report any “adverse events or quality problems.”
Target, Rite Aid and CVS are removing the eye drop products from their stores and websites, according to the FDA.
Products branded as Leader, Rugby and Velocity “may still be available” in stores and online and consumers should not purchase those products, the FDA said.
Cardinal Health, the company behind the brands Rugby and Leader, told ABC News it is working to “initiate a recall” of its impacted products.
“FDA notified us of a possible eye infection risk affiliated with some of our Rugby Laboratories and Leader branded eye care products, and immediately upon being notified, we placed all identified impacted eye drop products in our inventory on hold and contacted Velocity Pharma, the supplier of the impacted eye drop products,” Cardinal Health said in a statement. “We are in the process of working with Velocity Pharma and FDA to initiate a recall of all impacted Rugby Laboratories and Cardinal Health Leader branded eye drop products to further safeguard public health and safety.”
The statement continued, “We take FDA’s consumer notification regarding the risk of using impacted Rugby Laboratories and Leader branded eye drop products very seriously. We are working with Velocity Pharma, the supplier of the impacted eye drop products to gain additional insight regarding the unsanitary conditions identified by the FDA at the manufacturing facility.”
Rite Aid confirmed to ABC News that it is removing its impacted products from stores, saying in a statement, “Due to safety concerns identified by the FDA, we are removing the applicable Rite Aid branded products from our store shelves.”
CVS told ABC News the company is offering customers a full refund if they purchased an impacted product.
“Upon receiving notification by FDA, we’ve immediately stopped the sale in-store and online of all products supplied by Velocity Pharma within the CVS Health Brand Eye Products portfolio,” CVS said in a statement. “Customers who purchased these products can return them to CVS Pharmacy for a full refund. We’re committed to ensuring the products we offer are safe, work as intended and satisfy customers, and are fully cooperating with the FDA on this matter.”
ABC News also reached out to Target and Velocity Pharma for comment.
(NEW YORK) — The issue was first brought to the FDA’s attention when health officials in North Carolina were investigating elevated blood lead levels in four children and found that the WanaBana apple cinnamon pouches could be the common source.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) subsequently analyzed “multiple lots” of the WanaBana apple cinnamon fruit puree pouches and detected “extremely high concentrations of lead,” according to the FDA warning.
“The FDA has reviewed and supports NCDHHS’s analytical findings and found that analytical results at this level could result in acute toxicity,” the FDA advisory declares, adding that they shared the findings with WanaBana, which has “agreed to voluntarily recall all WanaBana apple cinnamon fruit puree pouches regardless of expiration.”
The products were sold at retailers including Sam’s Club, Amazon and Dollar Tree.
“Parents and caregivers of toddlers and young children who may have consumed WanaBana apple cinnamon fruit puree pouches should contact their child’s healthcare provider about getting a blood test,” the FDA urged.
Experts say it can be difficult to detect lead exposure in kids, because sometimes there are no obvious signs. However, the FDA says symptoms of short-term lead exposure can include headache, abdominal pain and vomiting, with longer-term exposure symptoms also potentially including fatigue, irritability, constipation, muscle aches or a sensation of prickling/burning, and more.
Lead exposure can only be properly diagnosed via a blood sample, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The FDA says anyone who notices possible lead poisoning symptoms should contact their doctor immediately.
“No safe blood lead level in children has been identified,” according to the CDC . “Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to negatively affect a child’s intelligence, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement,” the agency stated, adding that lead exposure happens when a child contacts it by “touching, swallowing, or breathing in lead or lead dust.”
(NEW YORK) — Older adults who received last year’s COVID booster and a high-dose version of the flu vaccine in the same visit may have a potential increased risk of stroke, according to a new study funded by the Food and Drug Administration.
Experts urged that the results were preliminary and may be explained by other factors such as the fact that older adults are already at a higher risk for stroke due to their age.
“There is no need for panic, and emphatically no need to stop giving COVID and flu shots at the same time to older adults,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, while he reiterated that more research is needed.
The results were also not yet peer-reviewed, meaning it hasn’t been vetted in the normal scientific process.
“These data should be considered by patients and their physicians, but there is no reason for alarm. The increased risk of stroke appears to be small and must be balanced against the known benefit of these vaccines in elderly individuals,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Last year, health authorities noted a safety signal for ischemic stroke in adults over the age of 65 after receiving the bivalent COVID vaccine, prompting further research.
“Additional data are needed before we can consider these findings definitive. It is good that the FDA has made these safety data available to inform the public,” Barouch said.
There was about a 20-35% increased stroke risk in older adults that received both shots in the same visits, according to the study.
“I don’t know that the risk is very meaningful on an individual patient basis,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security.
Infection from COVID and flu also have been shown to increase risk of stroke as well as a host of other life-threatening outcomes linked to respiratory illnesses like pneumonia, according to Chin-Hong.
The Food and Drug Administration told ABC News in part of a statement that they remain, “confident in the safety, effectiveness and quality of the COVID-19 vaccines that the agency has authorized and approved.”
“The review conducted in this preprint paper is part of our ongoing safety surveillance efforts, which utilize a variety of data sources,” the statement continued.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reiterated that current vaccine guidance remains the same.
“The COVID-19 vaccines meet the FDA’s and CDC’s very high safety standards. Hundreds of millions of people in the United States have safely received COVID vaccines under the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history,” the agency said in part of a statement.
Experts reiterated patients should turn to their health care provider to learn about the benefits and potential risks of vaccination. Older adults choosing to get both the flu and COVID shot at the same time for convenience or in two separate visits are both reasonable decisions, Adalja explained.
“For now, I will not dissuade my mom from getting both the high dose flu shot or the COVID shot, even at the same time,” Chin-Hong said.
“Ultimately we need ongoing data in other countries and in future years to inform best practice,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — Walking 10,000 steps per day is known to improve a person’s health, but reaching that goal can be difficult for many, considering it’s the equivalent of walking around 5 miles.
Now, new research is showing more efficient ways to get similar health benefits without devoting at least an hour per day to walking.
Taking the stairs is one way, according to a study of over 450,000 adults.
The study, published in the medical journal Atherosclerosis, found that climbing five flights of stairs per day — or around 50 steps — lowered the risk of cardiovascular disease by 20%.
In addition, the same benefits are found when the climbing is broken up into smaller segments throughout the day, versus climbing five flights at once, the study found.
“If you choose one flight of stairs, you go up it two to three times a day,” said ABC News medical correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton, an emergency medicine physician, who was not involved in the study. “If you’re working in an office, choose a bathroom that’s on a different floor.”
Sutton noted that in addition to helping to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, climbing stairs can also help reduce the risk of diabetes and can help improve muscle strength.
Another study, published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, echoed the findings that short bursts of activity can do the body good.
The study found that just 20 to 25 minutes per day of vigorous movement — activities like walking briskly, jogging and cycling — can help a person live longer.
On the flip side, people who spend most of their day sedentary, either lying or sitting down with less than 20 minutes of activity, had an increased mortality risk of as much as 40%, the study found.
“It’s just an example that movement is a true key to longevity,” Sutton said of the study, in which he was not involved. “And it only takes a couple of minutes a day just to get that benefit.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends that adults get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week, which is the equivalent of 30 minutes a day, five days per week.
The CDC also recommends that adults get two days of muscle strengthening activity per week.
And the CDC also says adults do not have to do all 30 minutes of exercise daily at one time, noting, “You can spread your activity out during the week and break it up into smaller chunks of time.”
(NEW YORK) — While there have been warnings about the state of children and teenagers’ mental health over the past several years, a new report says another age demographic is suffering even more.
Adults ages 18 to 25 are nearly twice as likely as teenagers to suffer from anxiety and depression, according to data released Tuesday by the Making Caring Common project, an initiative of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.
The project’s survey of more than 700 young adults found that more than half said financial worries and the pressure to achieve had “negatively influenced their mental health.”
In addition, 58% of respondents said they lacked “meaning or purpose in their lives.”
Dr. Richard Weissbourd, a psychotherapist on the faculty of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, who directed the study, told ABC News’ Deborah Roberts that young adults are experiencing a “high rate of loneliness.”
“I think it’s a world that seems off the rails to them. I think it’s unclarity about their job prospects,” Weissbourd said of the obstacles young people face. “And I think social media turbocharged us all of this.”
In addition to finding that young adults lack meaning in their lives, the survey also found that 34% of respondents reported feeling loneliness and 44% reported feeling a sense of not mattering to others.
Audrey McNeal, a 21-year-old college student studying political science, told Roberts that while she and other people her age may have more access to connection than ever thanks to the internet, it’s not the same emotionally as connecting with people in-person.
“I remember my parents telling me about bowling leagues and being able to go to the mall and then doing things like that in real life,” said McNeal. “But now when you meet someone, you exchange Instagrams.”
McNeal said that she and other young people around her age feel the pressure of “a lot of things that can make us overwhelmed and stressed out.”
For Daria Paulis, a 23-year-old who works in a research lab, that pressure includes figuring out logistics like where she can afford to live.
Tarun Amasa, who is also in his early 20s, said he feels the pressure of trying to start his life in a time when “everyone is super ambitious.”
“Everyone is super ambitious and that creates a little bit of a toxic environment where people feel like it’s a very comparative space,” he told ABC News.
Despite the statistics and the odds that young people face, Weissbourd said it is not all bad news for this next generation.
One benefit, he said, is that even with their high rates of mental health struggles, young adults are more willing to speak out about the issue of mental health, which makes a difference.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 5% of adults age 18 and older report regular feelings of depression, while around 12% report regular feelings of anxiety or worry.
“I think this is a very psychologically aware generation,” Weissbourd said. “They’re very articulate about their feelings, and they may break the stigma about mental health that we have in this country.”
The young people Roberts spoke with said they too have “major hope” in their generation.
“It’s how people make connections, right,” Paulis said of speaking openly about mental health. “It’s like, ‘You have anxiety? Oh my gosh, me too.'”
Added Amasa, “Everyone really is more used to showing their emotions on their sleeve. I think that’s a really good step in the right direction.”
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
(NEW YORK) — For decades, scientists have been studying why some people experience prolonged illnesses in the wake of even mild infections. Now, due to the millions of people suffering from a similar phenomenon after COVID-19 infection, new funding and research efforts are beginning to unlock some of the mysteries that can help explain long flu, long cold and long COVID.
According to Dr. Todd Ellerin, chief of infectious diseases at South Shore Health, about 8 million people suffer from complications of long COVID, which can include a fast heart rate, brain fog and chronic shortness of breath that persist months after initial infection.
However, post-viral illness is not a new phenomenon. Long COVID raises awareness of many other infectious diseases that are associated with post-viral illness, including infectious mononucleosis and Lyme disease.
“Regardless of the virus, an individual can continue to experience symptoms weeks or even months after the acute phase of the initial infection,” Dr. Syra Madad, an infectious disease epidemiologist, said.
These symptoms are significant enough that they can impact an individual’s quality of life, whether it’s going out to work, going out for social events or simply being able to do daily activities.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is another post-viral illness that was prevalent long before the COVID era. It’s defined as debilitating fatigue that lasts at least six months, with the exclusion of alternate causes of fatigue.
“The first thing that’s important is to actually recognize the illness is real,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University’s Division of Infectious Diseases. Historically, patients with chronic fatigue syndrome were regarded with great skepticism — even by doctors.
Many of these syndromes appear as “invisible” illnesses, Ellerin said. “There’s a disconnect between the findings and what the patient is complaining about. When we do testing of blood or imaging or X-rays, everything comes back normal. We don’t know the exact causes of these syndromes, we don’t know exactly what to treat with, and it’s frustrating.”
“Imagine being in bed for 18 hours a day,” Ellerin continued. “That’s what we’re talking about. It’s hard to look patients in the eyes and know that you don’t know how to cure their problem.”
Despite decades of frustration, new research funding set aside for long COVID patients is offering hope for the future and can help guide therapeutics.
According to Ellerin, it’s important to put a name to the diagnosis, even in the midst of uncertainty.
“If you don’t put a name on it, then how are you going to define it, and if you can’t define it, how are you going to research it?” Ellerin asked.
Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania recently found that long COVID patients had different levels of chemicals in their body compared to those who had recovered, the most significant of which were levels of serotonin.
“Reduced serotonin levels, that’s an association. That doesn’t mean it’s the answer, but maybe if we replace their serotonin, maybe they’ll do better,” Ellerin said.
In the meantime, effective therapies can help patients feel better. That could include lung exercises, heart exercises, pain management, physical therapy and mental health therapy.
The emergence and severity of long COVID has led not only to scientific research but to the creation of many clinics across the United States, one of them at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Patients are eligible to be seen in the clinic if they are at least 8 weeks from their initial COVID diagnosis. Approximately 60% of patients are self-referred. Long COVID experts partner with consultants in pulmonary/sleep medicine, cardiology, neurology and physical medicine, as well as rehabilitation, physical and occupational therapy, and mental health therapy.
According to Schaffner, treatments are largely “supportive,” targeting symptoms. For aches and pains, physical therapy has helped patients cope and respond rapidly. For brain fog, patients are given various psychological exercises and short-term memory training to help them concentrate and focus on tasks.
For patients with unexplained exercise limitations, Dr. Michael Risbano, assistant professor of medicine, at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, can perform Advanced Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing (ACPET), a minimally invasive procedure performed at the cardiac catheterization lab. This test helps find different causes and treatments for exercise limitation in patients with long COVID and can help them get back to their baseline level of physical function.
For many of these post-viral diseases, experts said it’s important to reduce the risk of developing illness in the first place by staying up to date on vaccinations.
“I don’t think people appreciate that enough. These vaccines are not just for your acute phase of infection, but even in the long run, it’s decreasing your chances of experiencing some long chronic issues,” Madad said.
COVID-19 and flu vaccines are available and recommended for the upcoming winter respiratory virus season. RSV shots are also available for older adults, infants and some pregnant women.
In the meantime, Madad said it’s important for doctors to stay up to date on the best way to care for patients with post-viral illness.
“There are patients that are really debilitated because of this,” Ellerin said. “We’re talking about millions and millions of people around the world.”
And as doctors continue to search for effective treatments, Shaffner said, “It is important for physicians to recognize disease, be empathetic with patients, and let them know that you as a doctor will be there with them, caring for them as best as you can. That comforts the patients. That’s something they can almost literally hold on to.”
Krupa V. Patel, M.D., is a resident physician in anesthesiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
