More research shows COVID-19 vaccines are safe for young adults
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What you need to know
- Myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, is most commonly caused by a viral infection like COVID-19, not by vaccination.
- In line with previous research, a recent CDC study found no association between COVID-19 vaccination and sudden cardiac death in previously healthy young people.
- A COVID-19 infection is much more likely to cause inflammation of the heart muscle than a COVID-19 vaccine, and those cases are typically more severe.
Since the approval of the first COVID-19 vaccines, anti-vaccine advocates have raised concerns about heart muscle inflammation, also called myocarditis, after vaccination to suggest that vaccines are unsafe. Theyโve also used concerns about myocarditis to spread false claims that vaccines cause sudden deaths, which is not true.
Research has consistently shown that cases of myocarditis after vaccination are extremely rare and usually mild, and a new study from the CDC found no association between sudden cardiac death and COVID-19 vaccination in young adults.
Read on to learn more about myocarditis and what the latest research says about COVID-19 vaccine safety.
What is myocarditis?
Myocarditis is inflammation of the myocardium, or the middle muscular layer of the heart wall. This inflammation weakens the heartโs ability to pump blood. Symptoms may include fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, rapid or irregular heartbeat, and flu-like symptoms.
Myocarditis may resolve on its own. In rare cases, it may lead to stroke, heart failure, heart attack, or death.
What causes myocarditis?
Myocarditis is typically caused by a viral infection like COVID-19. Bacteria, parasites, fungi, chemicals, and certain medications can also cause myocarditis.
In very rare cases, some people develop myocarditis after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, but these cases are usually mild and resolve on their own. In contrast, a COVID-19 infection is much more likely to cause myocarditis, and those cases are typically more severe.
Staying up to date on vaccines reduces your risk of developing myocarditis from a COVID-19 infection.
Are COVID-19 vaccines safe for young people?
Yes. COVID-19 vaccines have been rigorously tested and monitored over the past three years and have been determined to be safe for everyone 6 months and older. A recent CDC study found no association between COVID-19 vaccination and sudden cardiac death in previously healthy young adults.
The benefits of vaccination outweigh any potential risks. Staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccines reduces your risk of severe illness, hospitalization, death, long COVID, and COVID-19-related complications, such as myocarditis.
The CDC recommends people 65 and older and immunocompromised people receive an additional dose of the updated COVID-19 vaccine this springโif at least four months have passed since they received a COVID-19 vaccine.
For more information, talk to your health care provider.
This article first appeared on Public Good News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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What Actually Is Epigenetics?
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And how can we make use of this?
Upon the genes…
Much like an epidemic is upon the people (epi+demos), epigentics is “upon the genes”. Or more specifically, the study of how DNA interacts with molecules that switch genes on or off without changing the DNA sequence itself.
The thing to understand here is that DNA is like a recipe book, while epigenetic molecules determine which recipes are used, when they are used, and how much of each protein is produced.
The rest, well, let’s give a little glossary:
- Gene expression: genes are expressed when DNA is transcribed into RNA, which ribosomes translate into proteins that determine a cell’s structure and function.
- Chemical tags: epigenetic regulation commonly occurs through small chemical tags attached to DNA or the proteins around which DNA is wrapped, collectively called the epigenome.
- Gene silencing: chemical tags such as methyl groups can reduce gene expression by blocking transcription machinery or tightening DNA, making genes inaccessible while leaving the DNA sequence unchanged.
- Gene activation: other chemical tags loosen DNA, making genes easier to transcribe and increasing production of their associated proteins.
This has far-reaching consequences, because although your body contains about 200 different cell types with nearly identical genomes, each has its own unique epigenome that determines its function.
This can all be (and usually is) influenced from the outside; for example, diet, chemical exposures, medications, and other environmental factors can alter epigenetic tags, creating an ongoing interaction between genes and the environment. And this in turn is important, because harmful epigenetic changes can contribute to disease, for example by silencing genes that produce tumor-suppressing proteins.
Even social experiences can also affect the epigenome! A good example is how in a classic rat study, pups receiving insufficient maternal care developed methylation of stress-regulating genes, reducing their ability to cope with stress.
What to do with this information: while many epigenetic changes are stable, they are not always permanent. Healthy habits, including a balanced diet, regular exercise, and limiting exposure to contaminants, may promote a healthier epigenome over time.
For more on all of this, enjoy:
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Peopleโs mental health goes downhill after repeated climate disasters โ itโs an issue of socialย equity
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Across Australia, communities are grappling with climate disasters that are striking more frequently and with greater intensity. Bushfires, floods and cyclones are no longer one-off events. And this pattern is predicted to worsen due to climate change.
As it becomes more common to face climate disasters again and again, what does this mean for the mental health and wellbeing of people affected?
In a new study published today in the Lancet Public Health, we found experiencing repeated disasters leads to more severe and sustained effects on mental health compared to experiencing a single disaster.
What we did in our study
We drew on ten years of Australian data (2009โ19) from the nationally representative Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey.
Specifically, our study involved data from 1,511 people who experienced at least one disaster. We tracked them from the year before the first disaster, at the first disaster, and, where applicable, each subsequent disaster, and a few years after each disaster.
We also included 3,880 people who did not experience disasters during this time but shared similar demographic, socioeconomic, health and place-based characteristics for comparison.
We measured exposure to climate disasters based on whether respondents reported a weather-related disaster (for example, flood, bushfire or cyclone) damaged or destroyed their home in the previous year.
The mental health outcomes were measured using two questionnaires commonly administered to assess depression and anxiety disorders (the 5-item mental health inventory) and psychological distress (the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale).
Cumulative effects
Our results show mental health declines became more severe with repeated disasters.
The graph below plots the mental health trajectories for everyone in our study who experienced at least one disaster, and the control group who did not experience any disasters. We looked at a maximum of three disasters in the study due to data availability.
It shows experiencing one disaster led to a decline in mental health during the disaster year, followed by a recovery to pre-disaster levels in the post-disaster period.
However, with repeated disasters, mental health trajectories declined further and it took longer to recover to pre-disaster levels.
We also found experiencing an additional disaster close to a previous disaster (for example, one or two years apart) was linked to greater mental health declines than disasters that were spaced further apart.
Some risk factors
We observed that certain factors consistently shaped mental health outcomes. For instance, having social support was consistently a protective factor, while having a long-term health condition consistently increased the risk of poorer mental health. This was true regardless of the number of disasters someone experienced.
On the other hand, some risk factors became stronger with each disaster. In particular, households with lower incomes, those in rural areas, and younger people appeared to experience greater effects of cumulative disasters.
There are some limitations to our research. For example, the data we had did not detail the type or severity of each disaster. It also was limited in what it could tell us about the mental health effects of three or more disasters.
Nonetheless, our study provides novel insights into the mental health consequences of multiple climate disasters. This highlights the need for better support for communities facing an increasing number of emergencies.
Our findings also align with other studies that have observed increasing risk to mental health with multiple disasters.
At the same time, our findings add a new perspective by showing how trajectories can change over time. Peopleโs mental health often recovers to pre-disaster levels after a single disaster, but repeat disasters can delay or halt this recovery.
Why might repeated disasters lead to worse mental health?
Repeated disasters, especially when they occur in close succession, can lead to cumulative stress driven by trauma and uncertainty. This can create a reinforcing cycle. People already facing social disadvantages โ such as poor health and low income โ are more likely to be exposed to disasters. In turn, these events disproportionately affect those facing existing disadvantages.
The result is a compounding effect that can contribute to worsening mental health outcomes and slower recovery over multiple disasters. This means disasters are an issue of social equity and must be considered in efforts to reduce poverty and improve social outcomes, as well as health outcomes.
Repeated disasters in particular can drain financial, social and community resources. They can exacerbate existing strain on household savings, disrupted social ties due to displacement, and reduced access to services after disasters โ especially in rural areas.
What can we do to support people through multiple disasters?
We need to transform the way we think about disasters. Itโs estimated children born today will experience up to seven times the number of extreme weather events across their lifetimes than someone born in 1960.
We are starting to get a better picture of what people need to recover from climate disasters. Our research points to the need for clinical services (for example, GPs) to screen for past disaster exposures in mental health assessments.
Emergency services need to plan services to reach at-risk groups during disasters. They also need to ensure recovery planning considers the effects of past disasters, for example by making sure support programs are not just tied to one disaster, but can be used across multiple.
The current approach to emergency services that looks at โone disaster at a timeโ doesnโt work anymore. As the climate continues to change, we urgently need to consider the effects of multiple disasters in public health, welfare and disaster services.
Ang Li, ARC DECRA and Senior Research Fellow, NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Housing, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne and Claire Leppold, Research Fellow, Disaster, Climate & Adversity Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Taking The Gamble Out Of Antidepressants
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…and other items from this week’s health news:
Melancholy, blood, and signs
Sounds like it could be a headline for our Halloween edition, but no!
The problem: as it stands, major depressive disorder often requires a prolonged trial-and-error process with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and potentially other kinds of antidepressants, meaning many patients spend many weeks or months on medications that donโt improve their symptoms.
The solution: researchers (Dr. Eleni Tzavara et al.) have found that a blood-based circular RNA marker known to its friends as “CDR1as” can predict how people with major depressive disorder respond to sertraline (most doctor’s go-to first-try antidepressant, despite it having a famously high hit to miss ratio).
- How it works: CDR1as is an RNA enriched in the brain that is stable in blood, crosses the bloodโbrain barrier, and is sensitive to synaptic activity and neuronal receptor signaling.
- What they did: Dr. Tzavara and her team measured baseline CDR1as levels in whole blood from two independent cohorts in the EMBARC and ANTARES studies before treatment with sertraline, and compared future responders with non-responders.
- What they found: baseline CDR1as levels differed between people who later responded to sertraline and those who didnโt, and changes in CDR1as after treatment were linked to long-term remission. Further, CDR1as predicted response and remission with SSRI treatment, but not with placebo or bupropion, suggesting the marker may be specific to serotonin-based therapies.
So, this may mean a lot of people will no longer have to suffer for longer while potentially getting adverse side effects for a medication that won’t work for them specifically!
Read in full: A blood marker could predict how people respond to antidepressants
Related: Antidepressants: Personalization Is Key!
Soon, more American women will have cardiovascular disease than not
A newly-released statement from the American Heart Association warns that by 2050, nearly 60% of women in the US are projected to have high blood pressure, more than 60% obesity, and over 25% diabetes, all key contributors to heart disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and stroke.
Not only that, but it isn’t just tied to the nature of an aging population (as the US population is), but rather, nearly one in three women aged 22โ44 are expected to have some form of CVD, diabetes in this group is projected to rise from 6% to nearly 16%, and more than one third are expected to have high blood pressure.
โOne in every three women will die from cardiovascular diseaseโmaybe it’s your grandmother, or your mother or your daughterโ
~ Dr. Stacey E. Rosen, President of the American Heart Association & Executive Director of the Katz Institute for Womenโs Health
Read in full: American Heart Association warns 60% of US women will have cardiovascular disease by 2050
Related: Heart Health vs Systemic Stress
“Not addicted, but”
In the category of “I could quit anytime” beliefs, you would think that something that results in episodes of abdominal pain paired with screaming and vomiting would be something quickly desisted. Of course, we might still choose to take it if it were somehow necessary for life, or perhaps if it bestowed us with particularly impressive superpowers.
But for a mostly recreational drug whose main medical uses are primarily against pain and against anxiety, those benefits seem moot when the result is pain and screaming and vomiting.
But according to research, analyzing 188 million US emergency visits found Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome cases rose from 4.4 per 100,000 visits in 2016 to 33.1 per 100,000 in just 4 years.
The reason for the rise: while cause and effect hasn’t been proven, scientists believe it is due to the much higher potency of THC available these days, compared to the much lower-strength cannabis products available previously.
The cure is simple: stop taking cannabis.
The outcome, however? Well, mostly people don’t do that.
Read in full: Screaming, vomiting, and daily weed: The rise of “scromiting” among chronic cannabis users
Related: How Much THC Is Safe?
Take care!
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Lymphatic Drainage Massage vs Bloating
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Sometimes, the solution can be as simple as moving the bad stuff away:
A massage that’s flush with benefits
Preparation: apply oil or moisturizer (she uses coconut oil in the video) to help your hands glide smoothly over your skin. This is not just for comfort; it also help the process, since you want to be moving lymph (and some other fluids and even a little soft tissue) under the skin; you will gain no benefits from simply moving the skin itself (as will happen if there is too much friction to glide).
Then…
- Lightly press the lymph nodes located between the hips about 20 times.
- Draw a rainbow-shaped motion from one lymph node to the next, repeating about 20 times to get things moving.
- Use the outside edge of your hand to slide downwards 20 times, moving everything toward the lymph nodes.
- Push fluid from each side of the waist downward towards the lymph nodes 20 times on each side.
For more on all of this plus a visual demonstration, enjoy:
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Your Science-Based Guide To Losing Fat & Toning Up
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This health coach researched the science and crunched the numbers so that you don’t have to:
Body by the numbers
Let’s get mathematical:
Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) consists of:
- Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): 70% of daily calorie burn (basic body functions, of which the brain is the single biggest calorie-burner)
- Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT): 15% (the normal movements that occur as you go about your daily life)
- Exercise Activity: 5% (actual workouts, often overestimated)
- Thermic Effect of Food (TEF): 10% (energy needed for digestion)
Basic BMR estimate:
- Women: body weight (kg) ร 0.9 ร 24
- Men: body weight (kg) ร 24
But yours may differ, so if you have a fitness tracker or other gadget that estimates it for you, go with that!
Note: muscle burns calories just to maintain it, making muscle mass crucial to increasing one’s BMR.
And now some notes about running a caloric deficit:
- Safe caloric deficit: no more than 500 calories/day.
- Absolute minimum daily intake: 1,200 calories (women), 1,500 calories (men) (not sustainable long-term).
- Tracking calories is useful but not always accurate.
- Extreme calorie restriction slows metabolism and can lead to binge-eating.
- Your body will adjust to calorie deficits over time, making long-term drastic deficits ineffective.
Diet for fat loss & muscle gain:
- Protein Intake: 1.5โ2g per pound of body weight.
- Aim for 30g of protein per meal (supports muscle & satiety).
- Protein has a higher thermic effect (20-30%) than carbs (5-10%) & fats (2-4%), meaning more calories are burned digesting protein.
- Fats are essential for hormone health & satiety (0.5โ1g per kg of body weight).
- Carbs should be complex (whole grains, vegetables, fruits, etc.).
- Avoid excessive simple carbs (sugar, white bread, white pasta, etc) to maintain stable hunger signals.
- Hydration is key for appetite control & metabolism (often mistaken for hunger).
Exercise for fat loss & muscle gain:
- Resistance training (3-5x per week) is essential for toning & metabolism.
- Cardio is NOT necessary for fat loss but good for overall health.
- NEAT (non-exercise movement) burns significant calories (walking, taking stairs, fidgeting, etc.).
- “Hot girl walks” & daily movement can significantly aid weight loss.
- Women wonโt get โbulkyโ from weight training unless they eat like a bodybuilder (i.e. several times the daily caloric requirement).
Some closing words in addition:
Poor sleep reduces fat loss by 50% and increases hunger. High stress levels lead to fat retention and cravings for unhealthy foods. Thus, managing stress & sleep is as important as diet & exercise for body transformation!
For more on all of this (plus the sources for the science), enjoy:
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How To Lose Weight (Healthily) โ our own main feature about such; we took a less numbers-based, more principles-based, approach. Both approaches work, so go with whichever suits your personal preference more!
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Probiotics & Gas/Bloating
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Itโs Q&A Day at 10almonds!
Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!
In cases where weโve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future tooโthereโs always more to say!
As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, weโll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, weโll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!
So, no question/request too big or small ๐
โI read about probiotics and got myself some from amazon but having started them, now I have a lot of gas, is this normal?โ
As Tom Jones would say: it’s not unusual.
However, it’s also not necessary, and it is easy enough to get past!
And probiotics certainly have their place; see: How Much Difference Do Probiotic Supplements Make, Really?
What’s going on with your gas is…
We interrupt this article to bring back attention to our regular legal/medical disclaimer; please do remember that we can only speak in general health terms, cannot diagnose you, nor make any firm assurances about your health, nor prescribe treatment. What we can do is share information that we hope is educational, and if it helps you, so much the better. Always speak to your own doctor if you have concerns about your health.
Now, back to the article,,,
What’s going on with your gas is most probably what happens for a lot of people: you’ve just put a lot of bacteria into your gut, and congratulations, they survived (which is definitely not a given, more on that later, but their survival is what you wanted), and they are now thriving sufficiently that the output of their respiratory processes is tangible to youโin the form of abdominal bloating/gas.
Because your gut is a semi-closed system (literally there’s an opening at both ends, but it’s mostly quite self-contained in terms of its ecosystem, unless you have leaky gut syndrome, which is Very Badโข), this will generally fix itself within a few days at mostโperhaps it even has by the time you’re reading this.
How does it fix itself you wonder? Because there’s only enough resources to sustain so many bacteria, what happens when we take a probiotic supplement (or food) is initially an overload of more bacteria than the gut can support (because unless you recently took antibiotics, the gut is pretty much always running at maximum capacity, because the bacteria there have no evolutionary reason to leave room for newcomers; they just multiply as best they can until the resources run out), and then the excess (i.e., those that are in excess of how many your gut can support) will die, and then the numbers will be back to normal.
Note: the numbers will be back to normal. However, that doesn’t mean the probiotics did nothingโwhat you’ve done is add diversity, and specifically, you’ve made it so that percentage-wise, you now have slightly more “good” bacteria in the balance than you did previously.
So, unless there are factors out of the ordinary: this is all usually self-correcting quite quickly.
Tips to make things go as smoothly as possible
Firstly, pay attention to recommended doses. If you take one, and think “that was delicious; I’ll have six more” then the initial effect will be a lot more than six times stronger, because of the nature of how bacteria multiply (i.e. exponentially) within minutes of reaching your gut.
Again, this will normally self-correct, but there’s no reason to cause yourself discomfort unnecessarily.
Secondly, if you take probiotics and do not get even a little gas or abdominal bloating even just a little bit, even just briefly… Then probably one of two things happened:
- The probiotics were dead on arrival (i.e. the supplement was a dud, or a “live culture” product in fact died before it got to you)
- The probiotics were fine, but your gut wasn’t prepared for them, and they died upon arrival
The latter happens a lot, especially if the current gut health is not good. What your probiotics need to survive (and bear in mind, because of their life cycle, they need this in minutes of arrival, which is their multiply-or-die-out window), is:
- Fiber, especially insoluble fiber
- In a place they can get at it (i.e. it was the most recent thing you ate, and is not several feet further down your intestines)
- Not too crowded with competitors (i.e. you just ate it, not last night)
Thus, it can be best to take probiotics on a mostly-empty stomach after enjoying a fibrous snack.
See also: What Do The Different Kinds Of Fiber Do? 30 Foods That Rank Highest
And for that matter: Stop Sabotaging Your Gut โ this covers some common probiotics mistakes/problems
If you’d rather take them on an entirely empty stomach, look for probiotic supplements that come with their own prebiotic fiber (usually inulin); these are often marketed as “symbiotics”.
We don’t sell them, but here’s an example product on Amazon for your convenience ๐
Another thing to bear in mind is that there is (unless your case is unusual) no reason to take the same kind of probiotic for more than one course (i.e. one container of however many servings it has). This is because one of two things will be the case:
- The probiotic worked, in which case, you now have thriving colonies of the bacterial species that that supplement provided
- The probiotic didn’t work, in which case, why buy that one again?
So, if supplementing with probiotics, it can be good to do so with new brand each time, with a gap in between each for your gut to get used to the new order of things.
Finally, if you’re making any drastic dietary change, likely this will result in similar gut disturbances.
In particular, if you are moving away from foods that feed C. albicans (the bad fungus that puts holes in your gut), then it will object strongly, cause you to crave sugar/flour/alcohol/etc, give you mood swings, and generally remind you that it has its roots firmly embedded in your nervous system. If that happens, don’t listen to it; it’s just its death throes and it’ll quieten down soon.
You can read more about that here:
Making Friends With Your Gut (You Can Thank Us Later)
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