Smoking isn’t good for you. But e-cigarettes, with their sleek, USB bodies and mango-flavored cartridges, promised a sweeter, safer future. No tar, no combustion, no problem. But that picture is getting more complicated. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced it is opening an investigation into the health effects of smoking e-cigarettes after nearly 100 teenagers in 14 states reported lung illnesses related to vaping. The cases, which were primarily reported among teenagers and young adults, were so severe that some patients were hospitalized and put on ventilators. So a study out today in the journal Radiology comes not a moment too soon. In it, researchers show that inhaling e-cigarette vapor—just the vapor, without any nicotine or flavorings—has an immediate, negative impact on the vascular system. E-cigarettes first appeared on the market in 2007 and in the years since, vaping among teens has skyrocketed. The CDC estimates that one in five high … [Read more...] about Vaping May Harm Your Blood Flow—Even Without Nicotine
Reduced blood flow to brain
Daylight saving time: Health risks and how to adjust to losing an hour of sleep
Daylight saving time arrives this weekend, which means it's once again time to move the clocks ahead an hour. The change, which takes effect at 2 a.m. this Sunday, will cost millions of Americans an hour of sleep and leave many of us feeling extra groggy. Health experts say there can also be some more serious consequences. "The main impact of daylight savings time is the loss of sleep and the need to 'shift' the timing of sleep after the clocks change. This has two consequences," Dr. M. Safwan Badr, a pulmonologist atDMC's Detroit Receiving Hospital, told CBS News. "First, missing an hour of sleep makes people sleepy, especially if their sleep time is already short the week before. Furthermore, It takes most people several nights to shift their circadian rhythms and get their sleep back on track."The disruption in sleep patterns can have a number of effects on your health.Mood, memory, and concentrationPerhaps the most common and noticeable way the loss of sleep affects people is … [Read more...] about Daylight saving time: Health risks and how to adjust to losing an hour of sleep
Researchers Closer to New Alzheimer’s Therapy With Brain Blood Flow Discovery
By discovering the culprit behind decreased blood flow in the brain of people with Alzheimer's, biomedical engineers at Cornell University have made possible promising new therapies for the disease. You know that dizzy feeling you get when, after lying down for an extended period, you stand up a little too quickly? That feeling is caused by a sudden reduction of blood flow to the brain, a reduction of around 30 percent. Now imagine living every minute of every day with that level of decreased blood flow. People with Alzheimer's disease don't have to imagine it. The existence of cerebral blood flow reduction in Alzheimer's patients has been known for decades, but the exact correlation to impaired cognitive function is less understood. "People probably adapt to the decreased blood flow, so that they don't feel dizzy all of the time, but there's clear evidence that it impacts cognitive function," said Chris Schaffer, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Cornell University. A … [Read more...] about Researchers Closer to New Alzheimer’s Therapy With Brain Blood Flow Discovery
How Does a Person Freeze to Death?
This week's polar vortex has brought bitter cold — even Arctic-like temperatures — to parts of the Upper Midwest and Eastern U.S., and this frigid air may have you feeling like you could "freeze to death." Indeed, when temperatures dip this low, frostbite and hypothermia are real health concerns. Weather officials have warned of dangerous and even life-threatening wind chills through Thursday (Jan. 31). [7 Crazy Things That Happen Only When It's Really Cold] However, death from the cold can happen even if the body isn't literally frozen. Core temperature drop A person's core body temperature usually hovers around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius). Hypothermia occurs when core body temperature dips to around 95 F (35 C) or lower. Surprisingly, people can experience hypothermia in relatively cool, but not freezing, air temperatures — around 30 to 50 F (minus 1 to 10 C) — particularly if they are wet, such as from rain, sweat or submersion in cold … [Read more...] about How Does a Person Freeze to Death?
The Flu Is Tied to an Increased Risk of Stroke and Ruptured Arteries
Two new studies have found a link between the flu and an increased risk of two serious conditions: stroke and rupture of the neck arteries. The studies both used a database of patient records in New York state to examine whether having flu-like symptoms — such as fever, cough, body aches and fatigue — was tied to an increased risk of either stroke or a condition called "cervical artery dissection" (CAD). The latter condition occurs when there is a tear in one of the arteries of the neck, and this tear allows blood to leak into the layers of the artery wall. CAD itself is tied to an increased risk of stroke. In the first study, researchers from Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons analyzed data from nearly 31,000 people who were hospitalized with an ischemic stroke in 2014. (An ischemic stroke is a stroke caused a blockage in blood flow to an area of the brain.) The study found that having flu-like symptoms increased the overall likelihood of … [Read more...] about The Flu Is Tied to an Increased Risk of Stroke and Ruptured Arteries