CNN – Health

By Brenda Goodman, CNN From the early days of the pandemic, doctors noticed that in severe cases of Covid-19 — the ones that landed people in the hospital on ventilators with shredded lungs — most of the internal wreckage wasn’t being directly inflicted by the virus itself but by a blizzard of immune reactions triggered

By Jen Christensen, CNN Covid-19 has become a chronic condition for tens of millions of people — and an expensive one, as well. Long Covid — a condition marked by lingering symptoms that can involve multiple bodily systems — has cost a cumulative $386 billion in lost wages, savings and medical expenses in the US

By Brenda Goodman, CNN Maybe BA.2 really is the “stealth variant.” The Omicron subvariant caused as many as 3 in 4 cases of Covid-19 in the United States last week, according to the latest genomic surveillance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but so far, there are no signs of a looming

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN An additional 42 genes connected to the development of Alzheimer’s disease have been uncovered in the largest study of genetic risk for Alzheimer’s to date. “This is a landmark study in the field of Alzheimer’s research and is the culmination of 30 years’ work,” study co-author Julie Williams, center director at

By Jen Christensen, CNN A fourth dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine seems to offer short-lived protection against infection overall, but protection against severe illness did not wane for at least several weeks, according to a new study. The study, published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, looked at the health records of

By Virginia Langmaid, CNN A new study found that women in the US face the highest rates of preventable and maternal mortality when compared with women in 10 other wealthy nations. According to data collected by the Commonwealth Fund and published Tuesday, American women have an avoidable mortality rate of 198 per 100,000, the highest

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN Advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration are scheduled to meet Wednesday to get a clearer picture of what the future of Covid-19 booster shots might look like. Just last week, the FDA expanded the emergency use authorization of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to allow adults 50 and older

By Jessica DuLong, CNN In recent years, public figures openly sharing their mental health struggles have helped lift fellow sufferers out of silent shame and stigma. A few decades earlier, the introduction of new medications to treat depression and anxiety disrupted the depiction of mental health problems as a personal failing in favor of an

By John Bonifield, CNN US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced a sweeping review of the nation’s lead public health agency Monday. The review will evaluate the CDC’s structure, systems and processes, Walensky told CDC staff in an email. Starting April 11, Jim Macrae, an administrator with the US Department

By Tasnim Ahmed, CNN Pandemic hospitalization rates are at new lows, the vast majority of US counties have low community levels of the coronavirus, and as of March 25, all 50 states have lifted mask requirements. But is there a cost to lifting restrictions and trying to return to a pre-pandemic normal? In a new

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN Interest in using wastewater surveillance to monitor Covid-19 continues to grow in the United States, as the values of the early detection tool come into clearer focus. In September 2020, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the National Wastewater Surveillance System, investing millions of dollars in an effort

By Kristen Rogers, CNN For some people, coffee jump-starts their bowel movements in addition to their energy. Despite the drink’s popularity, there isn’t a lot of research on why coffee sends many people running to the bathroom within minutes of consuming it. “In some cases, as with coffee and bowel movements, there likely just hasn’t

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN Pregnant women who were exposed to cannabis products that contained THC and CBD were more likely to have children with increased fat mass and blood sugar levels at age 5, a new pilot study found. “There’s this misconception that cannabis is safe,” said study author Brianna Moore, an assistant professor at

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN The stories of sleeping pills gone wrong are legendary. Ask any flight attendant, and you’ll hear amusing tales of people sleepwalking, taking off their clothes or even standing up and peeing into the neighboring airline seat. The use of sleeping pills can also be deadly. Up to a half a million