Keeping up with all the latest health news can be a dice roll. Fortunately, we have what you need. Here are the most eye-catching stories this week from Yahoo News partners.
““Crapsules”…may offer new hope to patients”
A clinical trial funded by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research is testing whether pills made from freeze-dried poo from healthy people could help people with advanced liver disease, Sky News has reported.
People with cirrhosis – a condition involving severe scarring and liver damage – have higher levels of ‘bad’ gut bacteria that make them more susceptible to infections. The researchers hope that pills containing feces containing “good” bacteria from healthy individuals will improve the gut health of patients with cirrhosis and reduce the need for antibiotics.
“‘Crapsules,’ which don’t taste or smell like their name suggests, may offer new hope to cirrhosis patients who are out of treatment options,” said Debbie Shawcross. , a professor at King’s College London and the trial’s chief researcher. said.
About 300 patients are expected to take part in the trial, with participants randomly assigned to either a freeze-dried stool capsule or a placebo tablet every three months for two years.
Even ‘safe’ levels of pollution can lead to changes in child’s brain development
A study published this week found that exposure to levels of certain pollutants considered regulatory safe could contribute to changes in a child’s brain function over time, The Hill reported.
Higher concentrations of ozone were linked to increased connections in the cortex of the brain – which is responsible for processes such as thought, memory, consciousness and emotion – but fewer connections between the cortex and other brain regions such as the amygdala, which is associated with emotional processing, and the hippocampus, which plays a role in long-term memory.
The researchers said they hope regulators will take these findings into account when setting air quality standards in the future.
“On average, air pollution levels are quite low in the United States, but we’re still seeing significant effects on the brain,” said study author Devyn Cotter, a doctoral student at the Keck School of Medicine from the University of Southern California, in a statement. . “This is something policy makers should take into account when considering whether to tighten current standards.”
Study indicates daily use of low-dose aspirin may increase risk of anemia in healthy older adults
A team of researchers from Australia, New Zealand and the United States have found that healthy adults aged 65 and over who take a low dose of aspirin daily appear to be at increased risk of anemia – a condition that develops when the body produces too few healthy red blood cells, which can lead to fatigue, shortness of breath, or irregular heartbeat.
The study published on Tuesday involved a group of 19,114 healthy elderly people who were randomly given 100 mg of aspirin or a placebo. The researchers concluded that people in the aspirin group appeared to have increased cases of anemia and reduced levels of ferritin (an iron storage protein) and hemoglobin, Fox News reported.
Nearly half of older adults in the United States take aspirin for preventative purposes, “including to thin the blood to fight cardiovascular disease and prevent strokes,” Fox News reported. The study researchers suggested that elderly patients who regularly take low-dose aspirin should be monitored by their doctors for anemia.
All adults under 65 should be screened for anxiety, health panel says
The US Task Force on Preventive Services recommended for the first time on Tuesday that all adults under the age of 65 be screened for anxiety even if they have no symptoms.
The task force is an independent group of volunteer health experts whose advice can influence insurance company reimbursements, but doctors are not required to follow the group’s recommendations. This most recent recommendation specifically identified pregnant and postpartum adults as people who should be screened, but noted that there was not enough evidence to support screening in adults 65 and older.
Anxiety screenings are usually done through questionnaires during a doctor’s visit, and “doctors want to know how often in the past two weeks a patient has been easily annoyed or irritable, bothered by worries out of control or feeling so agitated that it’s hard to sit still,” NBC News reported.
But experts point out that while screening tools can help open up a conversation about anxiety and anxiety symptoms, the screening tool alone is not enough to diagnose a patient with the condition.