What you need to know about FLiRT, an emerging group of COVID-19 variants

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What you need to know

  • COVID-19 wastewater levels are currently low, but a recent group of variants called FLiRT is making headlines.
  • KP.2 is one of several FLiRT variants, and early lab tests suggest that it’s more infectious than JN.1.
  • Getting infected with any COVID-19 variant can cause severe illness, heart problems, and death.

KP.2, a new COVID-19 variant, is now dominant in the United States. Lab tests suggest that it may be more infectious than JN.1, the variant that was dominant earlier this year.

Fortunately, there’s good news: Current wastewater data shows that COVID-19 infection rates are low. Still, experts are closely watching KP.2 to see if it will lead to an uptick in infections.

Read on to learn more about KP.2 and how to stay informed about COVID-19 cases in your area.

Where can I find data on COVID-19 cases in my area?

Hospitals are no longer required to report COVID-19 hospital admissions or hospital capacity to the Department of Health and Human Services. However, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) estimates the number of COVID-19 infections in a community based on the amount of COVID-19 viral particles detected in local wastewater.

View this map of wastewater data from the CDC to visualize COVID-19 infection rates throughout the U.S., or look up COVID-19 wastewater trends in your state.

What do we know so far about the new variant?

Early lab tests suggest that KP.2—one of a group of emerging variants called FLiRT—is similar to the previously dominant variant, JN.1, but it may be more infectious. If you had JN.1, you may still get reinfected with KP.2, especially if it’s been several months or longer since your last COVID-19 infection.

A CDC spokesperson said they have no reason to believe that KP.2 causes more severe illness than other variants. Experts are closely watching KP.2 to see if it will lead to an uptick in COVID-19 cases.

How can I protect myself from COVID-19 variants?

Staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccines reduces your risk of severe illness, long COVID, heart problems, and death. The CDC recommends that people 65 and older and immunocompromised people receive an additional dose of the updated COVID-19 vaccine this spring.

Wearing a high-quality, well-fitting mask reduces your risk of contracting COVID-19 and spreading it to others. At indoor gatherings, improving ventilation by opening doors and windows, using high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, and building your own Corsi-Rosenthal box can also reduce the spread of COVID-19.

This article first appeared on Public Good News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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  • How can I stop overthinking everything? A clinical psychologist offers solutions

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    As a clinical psychologist, I often have clients say they are having trouble with thoughts “on a loop” in their head, which they find difficult to manage.

    While rumination and overthinking are often considered the same thing, they are slightly different (though linked). Rumination is having thoughts on repeat in our minds. This can lead to overthinking – analysing those thoughts without finding solutions or solving the problem.

    It’s like a vinyl record playing the same part of the song over and over. With a record, this is usually because of a scratch. Why we overthink is a little more complicated.

    We’re on the lookout for threats

    Our brains are hardwired to look for threats, to make a plan to address those threats and keep us safe. Those perceived threats may be based on past experiences, or may be the “what ifs” we imagine could happen in the future.

    Our “what ifs” are usually negative outcomes. These are what we call “hot thoughts” – they bring up a lot of emotion (particularly sadness, worry or anger), which means we can easily get stuck on those thoughts and keep going over them.

    However, because they are about things that have either already happened or might happen in the future (but are not happening now), we cannot fix the problem, so we keep going over the same thoughts.

    Who overthinks?

    Most people find themselves in situations at one time or another when they overthink.

    Some people are more likely to ruminate. People who have had prior challenges or experienced trauma may have come to expect threats and look for them more than people who have not had adversities.

    Deep thinkers, people who are prone to anxiety or low mood, and those who are sensitive or feel emotions deeply are also more likely to ruminate and overthink.

    Woman holds her head, looking stressed
    We all overthink from time to time, but some people are more prone to rumination.
    BĀBI/Unsplash

    Also, when we are stressed, our emotions tend to be stronger and last longer, and our thoughts can be less accurate, which means we can get stuck on thoughts more than we would usually.

    Being run down or physically unwell can also mean our thoughts are harder to tackle and manage.

    Acknowledge your feelings

    When thoughts go on repeat, it is helpful to use both emotion-focused and problem-focused strategies.

    Being emotion-focused means figuring out how we feel about something and addressing those feelings. For example, we might feel regret, anger or sadness about something that has happened, or worry about something that might happen.

    Acknowledging those emotions, using self-care techniques and accessing social support to talk about and manage your feelings will be helpful.

    The second part is being problem-focused. Looking at what you would do differently (if the thoughts are about something from your past) and making a plan for dealing with future possibilities your thoughts are raising.

    But it is difficult to plan for all eventualities, so this strategy has limited usefulness.

    What is more helpful is to make a plan for one or two of the more likely possibilities and accept there may be things that happen you haven’t thought of.

    Think about why these thoughts are showing up

    Our feelings and experiences are information; it is important to ask what this information is telling you and why these thoughts are showing up now.

    For example, university has just started again. Parents of high school leavers might be lying awake at night (which is when rumination and overthinking is common) worrying about their young person.

    Man lays awake in bed
    Think of what the information is telling you.
    TheVisualsYouNeed/Shutterstock

    Knowing how you would respond to some more likely possibilities (such as they will need money, they might be lonely or homesick) might be helpful.

    But overthinking is also a sign of a new stage in both your lives, and needing to accept less control over your child’s choices and lives, while wanting the best for them. Recognising this means you can also talk about those feelings with others.

    Let the thoughts go

    A useful way to manage rumination or overthinking is “change, accept, and let go”.

    Challenge and change aspects of your thoughts where you can. For example, the chance that your young person will run out of money and have no food and starve (overthinking tends to lead to your brain coming up with catastrophic outcomes!) is not likely.

    You could plan to check in with your child regularly about how they are coping financially and encourage them to access budgeting support from university services.

    Your thoughts are just ideas. They are not necessarily true or accurate, but when we overthink and have them on repeat, they can start to feel true because they become familiar. Coming up with a more realistic thought can help stop the loop of the unhelpful thought.

    Accepting your emotions and finding ways to manage those (good self-care, social support, communication with those close to you) will also be helpful. As will accepting that life inevitably involves a lack of complete control over outcomes and possibilities life may throw at us. What we do have control over is our reactions and behaviours.

    Remember, you have a 100% success rate of getting through challenges up until this point. You might have wanted to do things differently (and can plan to do that) but nevertheless, you coped and got through.

    So, the last part is letting go of the need to know exactly how things will turn out, and believing in your ability (and sometimes others’) to cope.

    What else can you do?

    A stressed out and tired brain will be more likely to overthink, leading to more stress and creating a cycle that can affect your wellbeing.

    So it’s important to manage your stress levels by eating and sleeping well, moving your body, doing things you enjoy, seeing people you care about, and doing things that fuel your soul and spirit.

    Woman running
    Find ways to manage your stress levels.
    antoniodiaz/Shutterstock

    Distraction – with pleasurable activities and people who bring you joy – can also get your thoughts off repeat.

    If you do find overthinking is affecting your life, and your levels of anxiety are rising or your mood is dropping (your sleep, appetite and enjoyment of life and people is being negatively affected), it might be time to talk to someone and get some strategies to manage.

    When things become too difficult to manage yourself (or with the help of those close to you), a therapist can provide tools that have been proven to be helpful. Some helpful tools to manage worry and your thoughts can also be found here.

    When you find yourself overthinking, think about why you are having “hot thoughts”, acknowledge your feelings and do some future-focused problem solving. But also accept life can be unpredictable and focus on having faith in your ability to cope. The Conversation

    Kirsty Ross, Associate Professor and Senior Clinical Psychologist, Massey University

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  • We looked at genetic clues to depression in more than 14,000 people. What we found may surprise you

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    The core experiences of depression – changes in energy, activity, thinking and mood – have been described for more than 10,000 years. The word “depression” has been used for about 350 years.

    Given this long history, it may surprise you that experts don’t agree about what depression is, how to define it or what causes it.

    But many experts do agree that depression is not one thing. It’s a large family of illnesses with different causes and mechanisms. This makes choosing the best treatment for each person challenging.

    Reactive vs endogenous depression

    One strategy is to search for sub-types of depression and see whether they might do better with different kinds of treatments. One example is contrasting “reactive” depression with “endogenous” depression.

    Reactive depression (also thought of as social or psychological depression) is presented as being triggered by exposure to stressful life events. These might be being assaulted or losing a loved one – an understandable reaction to an outside trigger.

    Endogenous depression (also thought of as biological or genetic depression) is proposed to be caused by something inside, such as genes or brain chemistry.

    Many people working clinically in mental health accept this sub-typing. You might have read about this online.

    But we think this approach is way too simple.

    While stressful life events and genes may, individually, contribute to causing depression, they also interact to increase the risk of someone developing depression. And evidence shows that there is a genetic component to being exposed to stressors. Some genes affect things such as personality. Some affect how we interact with our environments.

    What we did and what we found

    Our team set out to look at the role of genes and stressors to see if classifying depression as reactive or endogenous was valid.

    In the Australian Genetics of Depression Study, people with depression answered surveys about exposure to stressful life events. We analysed DNA from their saliva samples to calculate their genetic risk for mental disorders.

    Our question was simple. Does genetic risk for depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD, anxiety and neuroticism (a personality trait) influence people’s reported exposure to stressful life events?

    Girl or teenager leaning against wall, hand across face, looking down
    We looked at the genetic risk of mental illness to see how that was linked to stressful life events, such as childhood abuse and neglect. Kamira/Shutterstock

    You may be wondering why we bothered calculating the genetic risk for mental disorders in people who already have depression. Every person has genetic variants linked to mental disorders. Some people have more, some less. Even people who already have depression might have a low genetic risk for it. These people may have developed their particular depression from some other constellation of causes.

    We looked at the genetic risk of conditions other than depression for a couple of reasons. First, genetic variants linked to depression overlap with those linked to other mental disorders. Second, two people with depression may have completely different genetic variants. So we wanted to cast a wide net to look at a wider spectrum of genetic variants linked to mental disorders.

    If reactive and endogenous depression sub-types are valid, we’d expect people with a lower genetic component to their depression (the reactive group) would report more stressful life events. And we’d expect those with a higher genetic component (the endogenous group) would report fewer stressful life events.

    But after studying more than 14,000 people with depression we found the opposite.

    We found people at higher genetic risk for depression, anxiety, ADHD or schizophrenia say they’ve been exposed to more stressors.

    Assault with a weapon, sexual assault, accidents, legal and financial troubles, and childhood abuse and neglect, were all more common in people with a higher genetic risk of depression, anxiety, ADHD or schizophrenia.

    These associations were not strongly influenced by people’s age, sex or relationships with family. We didn’t look at other factors that may influence these associations, such as socioeconomic status. We also relied on people’s memory of past events, which may not be accurate.

    How do genes play a role?

    Genetic risk for mental disorders changes people’s sensitivity to the environment.

    Imagine two people, one with a high genetic risk for depression, one with a low risk. They both lose their jobs. The genetically vulnerable person experiences the job loss as a threat to their self-worth and social status. There is a sense of shame and despair. They can’t bring themselves to look for another job for fear of losing it too. For the other, the job loss feels less about them and more about the company. These two people internalise the event differently and remember it differently.

    Genetic risk for mental disorders also might make it more likely people find themselves in environments where bad things happen. For example, a higher genetic risk for depression might affect self-worth, making people more likely to get into dysfunctional relationships which then go badly.

    Middle aged man looking sad, leaning on sofa, staring into distance
    If two people lose their jobs, one with a high genetic risk of depression the other at low risk, both will experience and remember the event differently. Inside Creative House/Shutterstock

    What does our study mean for depression?

    First, it confirms genes and environments are not independent. Genes influence the environments we end up in, and what then happens. Genes also influence how we react to those events.

    Second, our study doesn’t support a distinction between reactive and endogenous depression. Genes and environments have a complex interplay. Most cases of depression are a mix of genetics, biology and stressors.

    Third, people with depression who appear to have a stronger genetic component to their depression report their lives are punctuated by more serious stressors.

    So clinically, people with higher genetic vulnerability might benefit from learning specific techniques to manage their stress. This might help some people reduce their chance of developing depression in the first place. It might also help some people with depression reduce their ongoing exposure to stressors.

    If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

    Jacob Crouse, Research Fellow in Youth Mental Health, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney and Ian Hickie, Co-Director, Health and Policy, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  • Health Hacks from 20 Doctors

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    Doctor Mike’s Approach

    You may be used to Tuesday’s expert insights column, where we break down the work or research of a medical expert. Doctor Mike, the creator of the video below, has put us to shame, interviewing 20 experts and condensing it into one, sub 12-minute video.

    In short, Doctor Mike has interviewed medical professionals and asked them to share a unique piece of advice, specific to their field, that’s easy to incorporate into your daily routine. He calls them Health Hacks (hey, that sounds similar to our Life Hacks section).

    We aren’t going to list out all 20—you’ll have to watch the video for that—but here are a few of our favourites

    Toenail Fungus Treatment

    Dr. Dana Brems, a podiatrist, reveals that Vicks VapoRub has antifungal properties, and thus can be used on toenails affected by fungus.

    Water Intake Myth

    Dr. Rena Malik, a urologist, debunks the myth that everyone needs to drink eight glasses of water daily, advising people to drink when thirsty and monitor urine color for hydration.

    (You can see what we’ve written on this subject here, as well as here).

    Natural Lip Plumper

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    Toothbrushing Technique:

    Dr. Winters, an orthodontist, explains that brushing teeth at a 45-degree angle towards the gums is more effective than the common side-to-side method. See our thoughts on this here and here.

    Want more tips? Watch them all in the video below:

    How was the video? If you’ve discovered any great videos yourself that you’d like to share with fellow 10almonds readers, then please do email them to us!

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Related Posts

  • Cranberry juice really can help with UTIs – and reduce reliance on antibiotics
  • Brussels Sprouts vs Broccoli – Which is Healthier?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Our Verdict

    When comparing sprouts to broccoli, we picked the sprouts.

    Why?

    First let’s note that we have an interesting comparison today, because these two plants are the exact same species (and indeed, also the exact same species as cabbage, cauliflower. and kale)—just a different cultivar. All of these plants and more are simply cultivars of Brassica oleracea.

    Them being the same species notwithstanding, there are nutritional differences:

    In terms of macros, sprouts have slightly more protein, carbohydrates, and fiber, whereas broccoli has slightly more water weight. An easy win for sprouts here.

    In the category of vitamins, sprouts have more of vitamins A, B1, B3, B6, C, E, and K, while broccoli has more of vitamins B2 and B5. Another easy win for sprouts.

    When it comes to minerals, sprouts again lead with more copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and potassium, while broccoli has more calcium and selenium.

    A note on oxalates: while oxalates are not a problem for most people, it is important to be mindful of them if one has kidney problems. You may know that spinach (a fellow green vegetable high in vitamins and minerals, as well as being a fellow oleracea, albeit of a different genus, so not the same species for once) is high in oxalates, but these two Brassica oleracea we compared today are amongst the lowest in oxalates (source 1 | source 2), making them an ideal way to get vitamins, minerals, and fiber on an oxalate-controlled diet.

    Since both are also high in polyphenols, especially kaempferol and quercetin, we’ll mention that sprouts have more lignans while broccoli has more flavonoids. In short: they’re both very good, just different.

    As ever, enjoy both! But if you’re going to pick one for total best nutritional density, it’s sprouts.

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Sprout Your Seeds, Grains, Beans, Etc ← sprout your Brassica oleracea, too!

    Take care!

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  • Kettlebell Swings Are Not What Most People Think They Are (They’re Better)

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    Commonly assumed to be mostly a shoulders-and-arms exercise, they’re actually mostly about the hips and core:

    From the hips

    Correctly executed kettlebell swings primarily strengthens muscles from the hamstrings and glutes the to abs and back; in other words, muscles whose strength is essential for power, posture, and injury prevention.

    The core in particular is not to be underestimated, with deep stabilizing muscles supporting posture, balance, and movement. Strengthening these areas can also help reduce lower back pain.

    How to do it correctly: start with your feet shoulder-width apart (this is important, if you like having knees) and grip the kettlebell with both hands. Hinge at your hips, lowering the kettlebell between your legs while keeping your back flat and core engaged. Then, drive your hips forward explosively to swing the kettlebell up to shoulder height before allowing it to return down with control. The most common mistake is using the arms to lift the kettlebell, but the real power should come from the hips to maximize benefits and prevent injury.

    Example workout: 30 seconds of kettlebell swings followed by 30 seconds of rest, repeated for 10 sets. This 10-minute routine provides a full-body workout that builds strength and endurance. As you progress, you can increase the weight, duration, number of sets, etc.

    Timeline of changes: within a few weeks of regular kettlebell swings, you should notice stronger glutes, better endurance, and improved posture. After a month, you may experience reduced lower back pain (if you had lower back pain) and more power in your everyday movements. By two to three months, visible muscle definition and fat loss are likely to become noticeable, along with increased overall strength.

    For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like:

    Body Sculpting with Kettlebells for Women – by Lorna Kleidman

    Take care!

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  • Keeping Your Kidneys Healthy (Especially After 60)

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Keeping your kidneys happy: it’s more than just hydration!

    Your kidneys are very busy organs. They filter waste products, balance hydration, pH, salt, and potassium. They also make some of our hormones, and are responsible for regulating red blood cell production too. They also handle vitamin D in a way our bodies would not work without, making them essential for calcium absorption and the health of our bones, and even muscular function.

    So, how to keep them in good working order?

    Yes, hydrate

    This is obvious and may go without saying, but we try to not leave important things without saying. So yes, get plenty of water, spread out over the day (you can only usefully absorb so much at once!). If you feel thirsty, you’re probably already dehydrated, so have a little (hydrating!) drink.

    Don’t smoke

    It’s bad for everything, including your kidneys.

    Look after your blood

    Not just “try to keep it inside your body”, but also:

    Basically, your kidneys’ primary job of filtering blood will go much more smoothly if that blood is less problematic on the way in.

    Watch your over-the-counter pill intake

    A lot of PRN OTC NSAIDs (PRN = pro re nata, i.e. you take them as and when symptoms arise) (NSAIDs = Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, such as ibuprofen for example) can cause kidney damage if taken regularly.

    Many people take ibuprofen (for example) constantly for chronic pain, especially the kind cause by chronic inflammation, including many autoimmune diseases.

    It is recommended to not take them for more than 10 days, nor more than 8 per day. Taking more than that, or taking them for longer, could damage your kidneys temporarily or permanently.

    Read more: National Kidney Foundation: Advice About Pain Medicines

    See also: Which Drugs Are Harmful To Your Kidneys?

    Get a regular kidney function checkup if you’re in a high risk group

    Who’s in a high risk group?

    • If you’re over 60
    • If you have diabetes
    • If you have cardiovascular disease
    • If you have high blood pressure
    • If you believe, or know, you have existing kidney damage

    The tests are very noninvasive, and will be a urine and/or blood test.

    For more information, see:

    Kidney Testing: Everything You Need to Know

    Take care!

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