It’s been a busy week in health news – from Covid-19 public health and Fox’s global health emergency to a new era Over-the-counter birth control pills.
But that’s not all that happened at Safe Place. Here’s something else you may have missed from Yahoo News Partners.
The study says that bats may hold the key to fighting disease and aging
as if The study was published on ThursdayResearchers have identified a protein in bats that explains their longevity and immunity to some viruses as having “therapeutic potential” for humans.
Bats are “unusually long-lived for small mammals,” with some living up to 40 years, reports the Telegraph.
A team of scientists in Singapore and China discovered that this is thanks to a modified version of the protein “bat ASC2” that inhibits inflammation in bats. When researchers genetically engineered mice to carry the protein, the mice showed the same anti-inflammatory response as the bats. Human cells tested in the lab also became stronger.
Lin-Fa Wang, who led the study, told The Telegraph that bat ASC2 holds the key to longevity and may also reduce death from viruses in humans.
“It may not be the only reason because biology is not as simple as one molecule or one pathway. “However, suppressing overall inflammation plays a role in healthy aging in bats,” Wang said.
New blood donation laws allow more gay men to donate in America
Gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships can donate blood without having sex, according to new guidelines finalized Thursday by the Food and Drug Administration. The Associated Press reported. The FDA announced the change plan in January, and the new approach will be implemented by blood banks starting this week.
It’s the latest in a number of blood donation restrictions on gay and bisexual men that have been rolled back over the past few years. In the year In 2015, the FDA imposed a lifetime ban on donations, replacing it with a mandatory one-year abstinence before donating blood. In the year In 2020, that one-year requirement will shorten to three months.
Instead of a blanket ban, all donors are now screened with a new questionnaire that assesses their risk for HIV. “Donors who report having had anal sex with new partners in the past three months will not be able to donate until the next day,” the Associated Press reported.
A first-time guide to teens and social media
Tuesday, American Psychological Association (APA) He issued the first advisory to parents, teachers, technology companies and others aimed at managing young people’s use of social media, Fox News reported.
of Health advice on social media use during adolescence Such as “establishing social media boundaries and limits”, “social media literacy” for teenagers and reducing the risk of teenagers engaging in “illegal or psychologically abusive behavior” on social media leading to self-harm. For children ages 10 to 14, the APA recommends that adults review their children’s social media and provide ongoing discussion and coaching about its content.
“Help your child choose to share only what they want people to see online, to have a positive view of their life and appearance,” APA science officer Mitch Prinstein said in a Q&A on the organization’s website.
About half of teenagers report at least one problem with social media use, Prinstein said, and warning signs include “not stopping even when they want to, lying to keep using social media and not keeping up with daily activities, schoolwork or relationships,” according to Fox News.
Artificial intelligence could lead to faster and more accurate heart failure diagnosis.
A The study was published on Thursday It suggests that an algorithm developed using artificial intelligence (AI) can provide faster and more accurate heart disease diagnoses.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh compared the current experimental methods to one “The algorithm, called CoDE-ACS, was able to rule out heart attacks in more than twice the number of patients, with 99.6% accuracy,” The Independent reported.
The algorithm was developed using data from 10,038 patients in Scotland who had suspected heart attacks. Using patient data such as age, sex, medical history and troponin levels, it produces a score ranging from 0 to 100 to predict whether the individual will have a heart attack.
They say that being able to rule out heart attacks more quickly will relieve pressure on emergency rooms and reduce hospital admissions by identifying patients whose pain is due to heart failure.