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Two new studies by related research groups have found that adults who live a heart-healthy lifestyle, as measured by the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) cardiovascular health scoring, tend to live longer lives free of chronic disease. The preliminary studies are being presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2023, held in Boston, February 28-March 3, 2023. The meeting offers the latest science on population-based health and wellness and implications for lifestyle and cardiometabolic health.

When the COVID-19 pandemic closed down local public libraries in early 2020, another kind of library not only flourished but also proved crucial in the fight against the novel coronavirus: the antibody library.

Together with multiple sclerosis (MS) experts, biostatisticians and clinicians from across the globe, a UK HealthCare neurologist has helped compile an essential list of MS medications for patients in resource-poor settings.

Detailed images of illness, death and canceled activities; these were some of the common themes of children’s drawings during the COVID-19 pandemic. A new study from Uppsala University, in which researchers studied 91 drawings made by children aged between four and six, shows that the pandemic affected the children significantly and that they had extensive knowledge about the disease.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have developed a method for predicting fall accidents and cognitive illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease by reading a person’s walking pattern with the aid of a radar sensor. The small sensor can be attached to furniture, walls and ceilings, both in the home and in a health care setting.

As of Feb. 24, Atlanta’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated 25 million illnesses, 280,000 hospitalizations and 18,000 deaths from the flu this season. With that in mind, the CDC also reported that influenza activity is low nationwide as of Feb. 18. The virus certainly made an impact this year, but cases are now dwindling.

Following a link to bacterial infections, the CDC and FDA advised against using EzriCare Artificial Tears in early 2023. The bacteria in question, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is a common cause of corneal ulcers, said Kevin Mundy, M.D., clinical associate professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at Michigan Medicine’s Kellogg Eye Center.

Using Burt’s Bees to get buzzed? Bad idea.

A group of University of Pittsburgh researchers has given new meaning to “knowing your ABCs.” In a new study, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the team showed that a type of immune cell called age-associated B cells, or ABCs, are important drivers of lupus and that targeting these cells in a mouse model reduced disease, pointing the way to new therapies.

Despite COPD’s pervasiveness, it is generally assumed that the main instigator in its development is tobacco smoking. The 2023 Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease or GOLD report is proposing a new definition of COPD, one that acknowledges the key pathogenic role of tobacco smoking but accounts for other factors that also contribute to COPD. The report is now available online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.