Older Adults and Covid-19 | CDC

“Among adults, the risk for severe illness from COVID-19 increases with age, with older adults at highest risk. Severe illness means that the person with COVID-19 may require hospitalization, intensive care, or a ventilator to help them breathe, or they may even die.

Full story at Source: >Older Adults | CDC

“your risk of getting severely ill from COVID-19 increases as you get older. In fact, 8 out of 10 COVID-19-related deaths reported in the United States have been among adults aged 65 years and older.

“The best way to protect yourself and to help reduce the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 is to:

• Limit your interactions with other people as much as possible.
• Take >precautions to prevent getting COVID-19 when you do interact with others.

“If you start feeling sick and think you may have COVID-19, get in touch with your healthcare provider within 24 hours

“the more people you interact with, the more closely you interact with them, and the longer that interaction, the higher your risk of getting and spreading COVID-19.

• If you decide to engage in public activities, continue to protect yourself by practicing everyday preventive actions.
• Keep these items on hand and use them when venturing out: a cloth face covering, tissues, and a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol, if possible.
• If possible, avoid others who are not wearing cloth face coverings or ask others around you to wear cloth face coverings.

For full extensive details continue at CDC site source link above

Study Suggests Regular Exercise Can Prevent Coronavirus Patients From Developing Severe Complications

Full story at Source: >Study Suggests Regular Exercise Can Prevent Coronavirus Patients From Developing Severe Complications

“Regular exercise can possibly prevent coronavirus patients from developing severe complications like acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), according to a new study. The study, which was published by Zhen Yan, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, shows that medical research findings “strongly support” the possibility that exercise can prevent or at least reduce the severity of ARDS.

“According to the study, between 3 and 17 percent of all COVID-19 patients will develop ARDS, while available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between 20 and 42 percent of all patients hospitalized with COVID-19 will develop ARDS.

“In his research, Yan studied a powerful antioxidant that is released throughout the body when exercising, which showed to help prevent disease, such as ARDS. The antioxidant is known as “extracellular superoxide dismutase” (EcSOD), which is created naturally by our muscles, but Yan’s studies discovered an increase in production when exercising.

“These findings strongly support that enhanced EcSOD expression from skeletal muscle or other tissues/organ, which can be redistributed to lung tissue, could be a viable preventative/therapeutic measures in reducing the risk and severity of ARDS,” Yan’s study says…

(Continue reading full story at source above)

 

Coronavirus symptoms: Think you have COVID-19? Here’s what to do – CBS News

>Almost half of coronavirus patients have digestive symptoms, study finds

“The first thing to do is match your symptoms to those experienced by COVID-19 patients“,… Fever, a dry cough, and shortness of breath are the three most common symptoms … Headaches, body aches, sore throat and fatigue sometimes occur but are more often associated with the flu … A runny nose rarely occurs with COVID-19, and sneezing is not a symptom of the virus.

“Next, assess the severity of your symptoms. Don’t just rush to the hospital. If you can still breathe reasonably well or your fever responds to over-the-counter remedies like acetaminophen (Tylenol), you should call your family doctor to discuss your best options for care,

“If your symptoms are mild, you can reach out to your primary care physician, and if you feel like you can manage at home, folks are advised to self-quarantine. “Don’t just head to your doctor’s office before calling first. Set up an appointment so they can meet you in the parking lot, give you a face mask, and bring you into the office by a route that will expose the fewest people to illness

.”The official suggestion is that face masks don’t protect you from others,” … “They protect others from you. “If possible, your doctor will test you for the coronavirus. …People who don’t have a primary care doctor should reach out to their local health department for guidance on their symptoms and testing … Local public health officials also should be able to tell you about other options for testing in your area.

“The current turnaround time for a COVID-19 test is two days …At this point, people who don’t have symptoms are not being tested …People who are sick enough to need to go to the hospital — for example, they cannot readily draw breath or feel like they are going to pass out — should either call 911 or visit their closest emergency department …

“Those in high-risk groups — seniors and people with compromised immune systems — also should consider heading to the emergency department, …

“People who are sick at home should monitor their symptoms, get rest and stay hydrated, …The best way to fight coronavirus is to never get infected in the first place. According to experts, that’s best done by frequent hand washing, avoiding people who are sick, and “social distancing,” or avoiding large groups.

Read more at Source: >Coronavirus symptoms: Think you have COVID-19? Here’s what to do – CBS News

Fake News About Coronavirus Is Spreading. We Need A Vaccine Against Misinformation: Goats and Soda : NPR

Fake Facts Are Flying About Coronavirus. Now There’s A Plan To Debunk Them

>(4 min podcast) Misinformation Around The Coronavirus

>(4 min podcast) COVID-19 Myths Debunked
>Dr. Seema Yasmin is here to debunk some of these bogus claims. She’s a clinical assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University and author of the forthcoming book “Debunked.”

>Mythbusters (WHO)

>Videos: Advice for the public

>What really works to keep coronavirus away? 4 questions answered by a public health professional

>Coronavirus: it’s time to debunk claims that vitamin C could cure it

“The coronavirus outbreak has sparked what the World Health Organization is calling an “infodemic” — an overwhelming amount of information on social media and websites. Some of it’s accurate. And some is downright untrue.The false statements range from a conspiracy theory that the virus is a man-made bioweapon to the claim that more than 100,000 have died from the disease (as of this week, there are more than 3800 reported fatalities world wide).

“WHO is fighting back. In early January, a few weeks after China reported the first cases, the U.N. agency launched a pilot program to make sure the facts about the newly identified virus are communicated to the public. The project is called EPI-WIN — short for WHO Information Network for Epidemics.”

We need a vaccine against misinformation,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, head of WHO’s health emergencies program, at a WHO briefing on the virus in February.”

(3 minute podcast) Continue reading at Source: >Fake News About Coronavirus Is Spreading: ‘We Need A Vaccine Against Misinformation’ : Goats and Soda : NPR

Telemedicine: The Doctor Is Online, but at What Cost?

The CDC recently suggested the use of telemedicine whenever there is a national health disaster like the possible pandemic of the coronavirus.

>See Web Page on Telemedicine

The AMA now endorses telemedicine as long as there is a valid patient/physician relationship, through at minimum a face-to-face examination (The new policy allows that the “face-to-face examination” could occur virtually…

For patients well known to their physicians, follow-up telemedicine visits might be advantageous. For example, an orthopedic surgeon who has recently repaired a broken hip in a nursing home patient could inspect healing with the help of a competent on-site assistant and video camera, saving a difficult, painful, and expensive patient transport to the office.

It’s a win/win situation for everyone: less trouble for the patient, a quick visit from the doctor via video software, and more time for the orthopedic surgeon to do cases in the operating room or evaluate patients in the office who require hands-on care…

The success of an e-visit also depends upon patients making the right complaint. How many times has your doctor said, “I understand that you have pain in your (fill in the blank), but what’s really bothering you?” In all likelihood, this type of nuance goes out the window in most telemedicine consults…

Although virtual consultations may result in satisfactory outcomes for simple medical problems, such as colds and urinary tract infections—perhaps even with cost savings compared with an in-person visit—it is unclear how many important diagnoses will be missed owing to the lack of a real-life, face-to-face interaction.

See more at Source: Telemedicine: The Doctor Is Online, but at What Cost?

NPR: For Older Cancer Patients, Geriatric Assessments Help Doctors Tailor Treatment : Shots – Health News

“Geriatric assessment is an approach that clinicians use to evaluate their elderly patients’ overall health status and to help them choose treatment appropriate to their age and condition. The assessment includes questionnaires and tests to gauge the patients’ physical, mental and functional capacity, taking into account their social lives, daily activities and goals.

The tool can play an important role in cancer care, according to clinicians who work with the elderly. It can be tricky to predict who will be cured, who will relapse and who will die from cancer treatment. Geriatric assessments can help physicians better estimate who will likely develop chemotherapy toxicities and other serious potential complications of cancer treatment, including death.

Geriatric assessment includes an evaluation by a physical therapist, a psychological assessment, a cognitive exam and a complete physical and medical history. The doctor takes all these factors into account and tallies a score for their patient to help guide their decision-making about the patient’s treatment.

Although the geriatric assessment is not 100% accurate, “it’s better than the clinician eyeball test,” says Supriya Gupta Mohile, a geriatric oncologist and professor of medicine at the University of Rochester. “If I didn’t do a geriatric assessment and just looked at a patient I wouldn’t have the same information,” she says.

More at Source: NPR: For Older Cancer Patients, Geriatric Assessments Help Doctors Tailor Treatment : Shots – Health News | Evernote Web

We Just Got More Evidence Our Leading Hypothesis About Alzheimer’s Could Be Wrong

 

JAN 2020

“The leading hypothesis on the cause of Alzheimer’s is looking shaky, following a new study that tracked the disease’s early progress in hundreds of volunteers.For more than 30 years, amyloid plaques have been primary suspects in the cause of dementia. While the potentially toxic accumulations of protein still seem to be related, this research is part of a growing body of evidence that suggest they’re actually latecomers to the disease rather than an early trigger.”

Source: >We Just Got More Evidence Our Leading Hypothesis About Alzheimer’s Could Be Wrong