The bill, which would enhance penalties for people wearing masks while committing crimes, would also prohibit wearing masks in public for medical reasons.

Republican senators in North Carolina passed a bill Wednesday revoking a pandemic-era law allowing for masks to be worn in public for health concerns. 

The legislative proposal, dubbed the "Unmasking Mobs and Criminals" bill, was passed along party lines 30-15, despite outcries from some Senate Democrats to tweak it, allowing for the exception of using masks in public for anyone who feels their health or the health of their loved ones is compromised without them. 

In March a farm worker who reported no contact with sick or dead birds, but who was in contact with dairy cattle, began showing symptoms in the eye and samples were collected by the regional health department to test for potential influenza A. Experts have now confirmed the first case of highly pathogenic avian influenza transmission from a mammal (dairy cow) to a human.

Study identifies 618 proteins linked to 19 types of cancer, which could lead to much earlier detection

Proteins in the blood could warn people of cancer more than seven years before it is diagnosed, according to research.

Scientists at the University of Oxford studied blood samples from more than 44,000 people in the UK Biobank, including over 4,900 people who subsequently had a cancer diagnosis.

They compared the proteins of people who did and did not go on to be diagnosed with cancer and identified 618 proteins linked to 19 types of cancer, including colon, lung, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and liver.

The study, funded by Cancer Research UK and published in Nature Communications, also found 107 proteins associated with cancers diagnosed more than seven years after the patient’s blood sample was collected and 182 proteins that were strongly associated with a cancer diagnosis within three years.

​The authors concluded that some of these proteins could be used to detect cancer much earlier and potentially provide new treatment options, though further research was needed.​

New research being presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Venice, Italy (12-15 May) has for the first time quantified the impact of different aspects of childhood obesity on long-term health and life expectancy.

The modeling by stradoo GmbH, a life sciences consultancy in Munich, Germany, presented by Dr. Urs Wiedemann, of stradoo, and colleagues at universities and hospitals in the UK, Netherlands, France, Sweden, Spain, U.S. and Germany, found that age of onset, severity and duration of obesity all take their toll on life expectancy.

The development of obesity at a very young age was found to have a particularly profound effect.

For example, a child living with severe obesity (BMI Z-score of 3.5) at the age of four, who doesn't subsequently lose weight, has a life expectancy of 39 years—about half of the average life expectancy.

Sales of raw milk appear to be on the rise, despite years of warnings about the health risks of drinking the unpasteurized products — and an outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows. 

Since March 25, when the bird flu virus was confirmed in U.S. cattle for the first time, weekly sales of raw cow’s milk have ticked up 21% to as much as 65% compared with the same periods a year ago, according to the market research firm NielsenIQ.

That runs counter to advice from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which calls raw milk one of the “riskiest” foods people can consume.

“Raw milk can be contaminated with harmful germs that can make you very sick,” the CDC says on its website.

As of Monday, at least 42 herds in nine states are known to have cows infected with the virus known as type A H5N1, federal officials said. 

The virus has been found in high levels in the raw milk of infected cows. Viral remnants have been found in samples of milk sold in grocery stores, but the FDA said those products are safe to consume because pasteurization has been confirmed to kill the virus.

Researchers say semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, could be biggest medical breakthrough since statins

A weight loss injection could reduce the risk of heart attacks and benefit the cardiovascular health of millions of adults across the UK, in what could be the largest medical breakthrough since statins, according to a study.

It found that participants taking the medication semaglutide, the active ingredient in brands including Wegovy and Ozempic, had a 20% lower risk of heart attack, stroke, or death due to cardiovascular disease.

The study, presented at the European Congress of Obesity (ECO) and led by researchers at University College London, also found that semaglutide brought about cardiovascular benefits for its participants, regardless of their starting weight or the amount of weight that they had lost. It suggests that those with mild obesity or who have lost only a small amount of weight could have an improved cardiovascular outcome.

Common infections will kill millions if drug resistance through misuse of antibiotics is not curbed, says England’s ex-chief medical officer

The Covid-19 pandemic will “look minor” compared with what humanity faces from the growing number of superbugs resistant to current drugs, Prof Dame Sally Davies, England’s former chief medical officer, has warned.

Davies, who is now the UK’s special envoy on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), lost her goddaughter two years ago to an infection that could not be treated.

She paints a bleak picture of what could happen if the world fails to tackle the problem within the next decade, warning that the issue is “more acute” than climate change. Drug-resistant infections already kill at least 1.2 million people a year.

“It looks like a lot of people with untreatable infections, and we would have to move to isolating people who were untreatable in order not to infect their families and communities. So it’s a really disastrous picture. It would make some of Covid look minor,” said Davies, who is also the first female master of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Finding that clearance of fluid in mice brains is lower in sleep and anaesthesia runs counter to dominant view in neuroscience

The restorative effect of a good night’s rest is widely recognised and the popular scientific explanation has been that the brain washes out toxins during sleep.

However, new findings suggest this theory, which has become a dominant view in neuroscience, could be wrong. The study found that the clearance and movement of fluid in the brains of mice was, in fact, markedly reduced during sleep and anaesthesia.

“It sounded like a Nobel prize-winning idea,” said Prof Nick Franks, a professor of biophysics and anaesthetics at Imperial College London, and co-lead of the study.

“If you are sleep-deprived, countless things go wrong – you don’t remember things clearly, hand-eye coordination is poor,” he added. “The idea that your brain is doing this basic housekeeping during sleep just seems to make sense.”

However, there was only indirect evidence that the brain’s waste-removal system ramps up activity during sleep, Franks said.

In the latest study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, researchers used a fluorescent dye to study the brains of mice. This allowed them to see how quickly the dye moved from fluid-filled cavities, called the ventricles, to other brain regions and enabled them to measure the rate of clearance of the dye from the brain directly.

The first recipient of a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died nearly two months after he underwent the procedure, his family and the hospital that performed the surgery said Saturday.

Richard “Rick” Slayman had the transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital in March at the age of 62. Surgeons said they believed the pig kidney would last for at least two years. 

The transplant team at Massachusetts General Hospital said in a statement it was deeply saddened by Slayman’s passing and offered condolences to his family. They said they didn’t have any indication that he died as a result of the transplant.

The variant, called KP.2, now makes up the largest share of new infections in the U.S.

Disease experts anticipate a small uptick in Covid cases this summer, as a new variant spreads. 

The KP.2 variant represents 28% of Covid infections in the U.S., up from just 6% in mid-April, according to data released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

KP.2 became dominant at the end of April — meaning it accounts for the largest share of new cases — outpacing the JN.1 variant, which took over in the winter.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15508914

Exclusive: Biden to put tariffs on China medical supplies - sources

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report Thursday about three cases of infections apparently linked to stem-cell treatments American patients received in Mexico. 

The CDC issued the report Thursday on infections of Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM), which it described as “difficult-to-treat” and “intrinsically drug-resistant” and “rapidly growing.” 

All three patients detected at two Colorado hospitals remain in treatment. The infections were apparently acquired during stem-cell injections carried out at two different clinics in the Mexican border state of Baja California located 167 miles (269 km) apart. 

In the past, Americans and Mexicans have been infected apparently because some doctors in Mexico were taking multiple doses of anesthetics from a single vial due to shortages or other problems, though it was not clear if that was a possible cause in the most recent outbreak reported Thursday.

A Canadian study has found that refraining from social media for a week can have a positive impact on one's body image. Online beauty ideals are most harmful to young women who try to achieve unhealthy body shapes.

For many young people on social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, it's hard to escape the beauty ideals and standards that are circulating, and these trends can be dangerous. At the moment, what seems to be "in" are a slim waist, round buttocks, and skinny legs.

Ten years ago, the "thigh gap" was all the rage. This is a space between the inner thighs that remains visible when women stand upright with their feet touching. Also known as "legging legs," its proponents argue that anyone can achieve the look — with enough dieting and exercise.

Though for most women with a healthy body weight it is considered dangerous to aspire to having a thigh gap, not everybody seems aware of this.

…

Research has consistently shown that social media can have an impact on users' self-esteem. A recent study by York University in the Canadian city of Toronto explored the effects of taking a break from social media for a short period of time. It found that the self-esteem and body images of women who stopped using social networks for just one week were significantly improved.

Researchers saw a sharp increase among teenagers but noted that the overall number of cases in that age group are very low.

Colorectal cancer rates have been rising for decades among people too young for routine screening, new research finds.

Routine screening is recommended every 10 years starting at age 45; the new study focused on rates of the disease in children and adults ages 10 to 44, using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cases of colorectal cancer were on the rise in all age groups, the researchers found.

“It means that there is a trend,” said Dr. Islam Mohamed, an internal medicine resident physician at the University of Missouri-Kansas City who led the research. “We don’t know what to make of it yet, it could be lifestyle factors or genetics, but there is a trend.”

Alzheimer’s disease may be inherited more often than previously known, according to a new study that paints a clearer picture of a gene long known to be linked to the common form of dementia.

The authors of the study, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, say that this might even be considered a distinct, inherited form of the disease and that different approaches to testing and treatment may be needed.

Among people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, researchers recognize familial forms of the disease and sporadic cases. Most cases are thought to be sporadic, which develop later in life. Familial forms, caused by mutations in any of three genes, tend to strike earlier and are known to be rare, accounting for about 2% of all Alzheimer’s diagnoses, or about 1 in 50 cases.

Under the new paradigm, 1 in 6 cases of Alzheimer’s would be considered to be inherited, or familial.

While no psychedelic-based therapy has been approved yet in the U.S., Lykos Therapeutics studied MDMA, more commonly called ecstacy or molly, in two late-stage studies.

The Food and Drug Administration's panel of independent advisers will on June 4 deliberate whether they should recommend approval for the first MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, Lykos Therapeutics said on Monday.

This would be the first FDA panel of outside experts to review a potential new PTSD treatment in 25 years.

PTSD is a disorder caused by very stressful events and can significantly disrupt patients’ lives.

Decades of studies has shown that psychoactive ingredients, whether derived from cannabis, LSD or magic mushrooms, have long captivated mental health researchers in their quest for treatments.