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Germ-X Hand Sanitizer, Original, 32 Fluid Ounce (Pack of 4), 128 Fl Ounce
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- Germ-x Original hand Sanitizer kills 99.99% of many common harmful germs and bacteria in as little as 15 seconds. Whether you're at home or on the job, our original formula is by your side wherever you need it most.
Amazon Basic Care Night Time Sleep Aid Liquid, Helps You Fall Asleep, Relieves Occasional Sleeplessness, 12 Fluid Ounces
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Can You Drink Alcohol After Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine? Here’s What Doctors Recommend
You might want to postpone that celebratory drink.
If you're due to get your COVID-19 shot soon, you might have lots of questions about what you should and shouldn't do before and after the vaccine—such as whether it's safe to celebrate finally receiving your shot with a few drinks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released guidelines for people who've been newly vaccinated, but while they recommend avoiding OTC pain meds (like ibuprofen and Tylenol) before the vaccine—and talking to your doctor about taking the meds to relieve any discomfort after the vaccine)—there's no mention of alcohol.
In the UK, experts recently advised people to avoid drinking alcohol in the days leading up to and after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. "You need to have your immune system working tip-top to have a good response to the vaccine, so if you're drinking the night before, or shortly afterwards, that's not going to help," Sheena Cruickshank, PhD, an immunologist at the University of Manchester, told UK Metro.
And a Russian health official went a lot further last month, telling people who received the country's Sputnik V vaccine that they should abstain from alcohol for two months. However, the developer of the Sputnik V vaccine, Alexander Gintsburg, PhD, later said this advice is far too extreme. Tweeting from the official Sputnik V account, Gintsburg advised refraining from alcohol for three days after each injection. Gintsburg added that this guidance applies to all vaccines.
In the US, there's no official government recommendation on drinking alcohol before or after any of the three COVID-19 vaccines. But research on the Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson vaccines didn't ask trial participants to avoid alcohol, and there's no mention of people having issues after drinking in the trial results. Nor do the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccination guidance for the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines make any reference to alcohol.
However, while there's no evidence that drinking alcohol affects the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine or causes any unwanted health effects, the doctors we spoke to advise against drinking alcohol immediately after receiving the shot.
"Vaccine side effects include muscle aches and pains and feeling under the weather. Compounding that with the side effects of alcohol runs the risk of making you feel worse," Tania Elliott, MD, clinical instructor of medicine at NYU Langone Health, tells Health.
Jagadeesh Reddy, MD, infectious disease specialist with Providence Mission Hospital in Orange County, California, agrees. "Though there is no data on this, it is advisable to abstain or reduce alcohol intake for the first 48-72 hours after vaccination as this is the usual period one might expect common and usually mild after effects of vaccination, like fatigue, muscle aches, injection site pain, etc," Dr. Reddy tells Health.
Tuesday, April 6, 2021
17 Weird Things That May Affect Your Heart Disease Risk
Research suggests that your cardiovascular health could be influenced by where you live, how many kids you have, and more.
Your forehead wrinkles
Preliminary research presented at the 2018 annual conference of the European Society of Cardiology found people who have more deep lines across their foreheads than what’s typical for their age might be more likely to die from heart disease.
“You can't see or feel risk factors like high cholesterol or hypertension," study author Yolande Esquirol, associate professor of occupational health at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse in France, said in a statement. "We explored forehead wrinkles as a marker because it's so simple and visual. Just looking at a person's face could sound an alarm, then we could give advice to lower risk."
The altitude where you live
A study published in January 2017 in the journal Frontiers in Physiology found that people living at high altitudes (between 457 and 2,297 meters) had a lower risk of developing metabolic syndrome—a cluster of heart-disease risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity—than those who lived at sea level.
There’s less oxygen in the air at higher altitudes, which may help the heart and lungs function more efficiently, the authors speculate. The possible connection is “interesting,” says Mary Ann Bauman, MD, a spokesperson for the American Heart Association's Go Red For Women movement (who was not involved in any of the studies noted here), “but requires more study to determine if there is a true association.”
How many kids you have
Women who get pregnant more than once have an increased risk of later developing atrial fibrillation, also known as a-fib, according to a study in the journal Circulation. A-fib is a quivering or irregular heartbeat that can lead to blood clots, stroke, and other complications. In the study, women with four or more pregnancies were 30% to 50% more likely to develop a-fib compared to women who had never been pregnant.
The study authors say they don’t want to discourage women from having children, only that more research is needed to understand the connection. “We know that during pregnancy the heart gets larger, there are hormonal changes, the immune system is revved up,” says Dr. Bauman. “So maybe these same sorts of changes can also contribute to heart disease.”
Delivering a preemie
Another study in Circulation also found a link between heart disease and childbirth: Women who’d delivered a premature baby (before 37 weeks gestation) had a 40% greater risk of later developing cardiovascular disease, compared to those who’d had full-term pregnancies. Those who’d had a very early delivery, before 32 weeks, had double the risk of those who’d gone full-term.
Premature delivery isn’t a cause of heart disease, say the authors, but it is an important predictive factor. In fact, it may be a useful tool to identify young women at high risk for heart problems later in life.
Eating breakfast
People who regularly eat a morning meal tend to have lower rates of heart disease, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure, according to a scientific statement from the American Heart Association.
“There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that eating breakfast is important to cardiovascular health,” says Dr. Bauman. “When you skip this important meal, your risk of diabetes, elevated cholesterol, weight gain, and obesity all increase.”
Vaping
Electronic cigarettes are somewhat safer than the real thing, but they're far from harmless. An editorial in JAMA notes that e-cigarettes still contain chemicals such as formaldehyde and acetone, which can affect blood pressure regulation, promote blood clots, and accelerate the formation of plaque in the arteries.
E-cigarettes aren’t well regulated, says Dr. Bauman, so it’s not easy to know what other toxins they might be hiding. Plus, they contain nicotine. “Nicotine is a stimulant,” she says, “so we know it can increase heart rate and blood pressure.”
Being fat-shamed
How good you feel about your body may affect your ability to take care of your heart. In a study in the journal Obesity, overweight women who had higher levels of “weight-bias internalization”—meaning they applied negative stereotypes about obesity to themselves—were more likely to have metabolic syndrome than those with low levels.
The results show that shaming people into getting healthy simply doesn’t work, say the researchers—and it may actually hurt them physically, not just emotionally. Instead of buying into the stigma, they say, challenge it by building confidence and working toward achievable goals.
Lifting weights
You know doing cardio is good for your heart (just look at the name!), but there’s a growing body of evidence that strength training has important benefits for your ticker, as well. In a study published in December 2016 in the American Journal of Physiology, just one session of interval weight training improved blood vessel functioning in participants.
“We really recommend a mix of cardio, strength, and stretching,” says Dr. Bauman—“in part, because you avoid injuries that way, and in part because doing all three helps you get your best sustained effort.”
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Shoulder pain
In a study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, people with more heart disease risk factors—including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes—were also more likely to suffer from shoulder pain or rotator cuff injuries.
Researchers aren’t sure why this association exists, but they say that treating high blood pressure and other risk factors might also help relieve shoulder discomfort. Earlier studies have also found that people who suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome, Achilles tendonitis, and tennis elbow also have an increased risk of heart disease.
Your level of education
The more years of school people had completed, the less likely they were to have a heart attack in a 2016 Australian study published in the International Journal for Equity in Health. Adults with no educational qualification had more than double the risk of heart attack, compared to those with a college degree.
Getting a good education can impact heart health by influencing where people live, what type of jobs they get, how much money they make, and what food and lifestyle choices they make, the study authors say.
Stress
Having a more active amygdala—the area of the brain triggered during stressful situations—is linked to a higher risk of heart disease and stroke, according to a study published in December 2016 in The Lancet. Researchers believe that, when activated, this brain region also triggers inflammation in the arteries.
Experts have long suspected that stress can raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, says Dr. Bauman. “We don’t have a direct link yet, but we do know that chronic stress increases the release of epinephrine, or adrenaline, in your system, and we know that can lead to hypertension,” she says.
In summary, eating well, staying active, not smoking, and watching your weight are still the big factors you should focus on to reduce your heart-disease risk, says Dr. Bauman. “But certainly an overall pattern of moderation—and attention to the mind-body connection, which involves stress-related issues—is, overall, the best way to protect your heart,” she adds.
Getting the flu
Here’s another reason to get your annual flu shot: It may protect your heart too. A study published in January 2018 in the New England Journal of Medicine finds the risk of heart attack is six times greater in the week after being infected with the influenza virus than in the year before or after.
Little revs up your body’s immune response quite like the flu, explains Alfred Casale, MD, chair of the Geisinger Heart Institute in Danville, Pennsylvania. “All the body’s defense mechanisms, all of its inflammatory soldiers, get called into service to destroy the virus,” he says. But that process also leads to heart and blood vessel inflammation.
The flu shot may protect you because it “decreases the overall inflammatory affect on the heart,” he says.
Having breast cancer
Women who receive chemotherapy and radiation for breast cancer could be at greater risk for heart disease, even years after treatment, the American Heart Association warned in February 2018. The group’s cautionary message, published in the journal Circulation, finds breast cancer survivors, especially women 65 and older, are more likely to die from heart disease than breast cancer.
“We still want to treat the breast cancer, but there are consequences of the therapy that may be long term,” says William Frishman, MD, professor of medicine at New York Medical College and director of medicine at Westchester Medical Center. It’s important for women to be aware of the risks to their heart and ask questions about their treatment options, he adds.
Living through a natural disaster
When Mother Nature leaves a trail of devastation in her wake, hearts may suffer too. In one study, heart attack-related hospital admissions to Tulane Medical Center rose three-fold in the decade after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans compared with the two-year period before the epic 2005 storm. Another study revealed a sharp increase in heart attacks, strokes, and other heart woes in the weeks following Japan’s magnitude 9 earthquake in 2011.
While it’s too early to quantify Hurricane Maria’s toll on the people of Puerto Rico, anecdotal reports suggest the official death count includes folks who died from heart attacks in the aftermath of the 2017 disaster.
“It may be related to the underlying stress that people are under,” explains Dr. Frishman. And, if you already have heart disease, you may be at even greater risk during and after such events, he adds.
The holiday season
Heart attack deaths spike during the period between Christmas and New Year’s–and not because of cold and flu season. A study out of New Zealand, where it’s warm during the holidays, revealed a 4% increase in the rate of heart-related fatalities during the holidays compared with other times of the year.
Lots of holiday-related factors can put excess strain on the heart, whether that's consuming too many sweets and too much alcohol, dealing with stressful family members, or delaying medical care while traveling. Of course, most people cope with the harried holiday season just fine, Dr. Frishman notes, “but it still puts you at a greater risk if you’re chronically stressed.”
RELATED: 25 Ways to Fight Holiday Stress
Binge watching
While there’s little harm in occasionally streaming back-to-back episodes of your favorite show, if you develop a lifestyle of sitting for hours at a stretch, you could be setting yourself up for heart trouble. The American Heart Association recognizes prolonged sedentary time as an independent risk factor for heart attack and stroke.
“Inactivity is generally bad for you,” explains Dr. Casale. “It predisposes you to blood clots.” Plus, while you’re binging, you might end up snacking on junk food or drinking too much alcohol. Add those risks to existing concerns like genetics or obesity and “you’re starting to tip the scales against you,” he says.
Heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women in the United States, and more than 610,000 Americans die of it annually; that's one in every four deaths. If you know even just a little bit about heart health, then the key risk factors aren't all that surprising. They include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, being overweight, and a lack of exercise. But it turns out there may be more risk factors than you realize—many that aren't so obvious. Here are 17 weird things that may affect your heart disease risk, for better or for worse.
Snowstorms
Major snowstorms are a mess and, it turns out, a health menace. One study found hospital admissions for heart attacks, chest pain, and stroke fell on the day of a storm but spiked two days later. The exact cause isn’t clear, but the authors say one factor may be the strain of snow shoveling.
We don’t acknowledge how much physical exertion is involved in the snow-clearing process, Dr. Casale explains. Take your time, he suggests, or consider “paying the kid next door 10 bucks to do it.”
Asparagus Carbonara
Eggs make a silky sauce for the pasta in this classic dish. It gets a nutrition upgrade by swapping in whole-grain spaghetti for white pasta and trading bacon for smoky Gouda, which imparts that “meaty” flavor that bacon usually brings to the mix. Asparagus adds color, crunch, and vitamins and minerals.
A New Double Mutant Variant of COVID Was Detected in California—Here's What We Know So Far
How worried should you be? We asked top researchers.
A new COVID-19 variant that is thought to be behind rising COVID-19 cases in India has just been detected in California's Bay Area. The Stanford Clinical Virology Lab identified the so-called "double mutant" variant through genomic sequencing of coronavirus tests, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
India's Ministry of Health labeled the variant as a "variant of concern" in late March. This particular variant, which Indian health officials called a "double mutant" in a news release, has two mutations in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and has caused about 20% of new cases in India's Maharashtra region. "Such mutations confer immune escape and increased infectivity," the release said. "These mutations have been found in about 15-20% of samples and do not match any previously catalogued variants of concern." The Ministry of Health also said that officials in India are "continuing to further analyze the situation."
It's understandable to have questions after hearing this news. Is the double mutant variant more contagious that other types of COVID-19, and are you protected against it if you've had the vaccine? Here's what you need to know.
First, what is a double mutant COVID variant?
Just a quick recap: A variant is a change from a virus' original form. Viruses constantly change through mutation, and new variants of any virus—including COVID-19—are expected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Sometimes new variants pop up and disappear, and other times they persist and spread.
This new COVID variant is called a "double mutant" because "it has two mutations that researchers are interested in that are in the spike protein," infectious disease expert Amesh A. Adalja, MD, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Maryland, tells Health. The spike protein in SARS-CoV-2 is what the virus uses to latch onto your cells and replicate, he explains. (This particular variant contains the E484Q and L452R mutations, if you want to get really technical.)
What's unclear right now is whether the double mutant strain only has those two mutations—or if they're just the ones that researchers are interested in at this point.
How concerned should you be about the double mutant COVID variant?
The CDC has a special list of variants that the organization is keeping an eye on, with labeling to indicate how concerned the CDC is about any particular variant.
Right now the CDC lists variants like B.1.1.7, P.1 and B.1.351 as "variants of concern," which means they have evidence of being more contagious and causing more severe disease than the original SARS-CoV-2. However, this double mutant variant isn't on the list. Or, at least, it isn't on the list yet.
"At this point we don't know yet how concerning this double mutant is," Timothy F. Murphy, MD, senior associate dean for clinical and translational research at the University at Buffalo, tells Health. "Cases are increasing in India, but they're not spreading rapidly."
"Should we be concerned about this? Yes. But how much is unclear right now," he says.
It's worth noting, though: This isn't the only variant out there with two mutations. "Typically a variant has more than one mutation," William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, tells Health. That's especially true if a virus spreads more easily than others, which are usually the variants that scientists are the most interested in. In other words, the double mutant variant isn't technically the only double mutant variant out there—it's just a term that's been used to describe it.
Do the vaccines work against the double mutant COVID variant? What about treatments?
As of now, it doesn't seem like the double mutant variant lowers the effectiveness of vaccines or treatments, Dr. Schaffner says. However, he points out, it is more contagious than the original SARS-CoV-2. "It's going to make a contribution in creating more cases," he says. "Please, everyone, let's keep our masks on and [keep] social distancing while we're getting vaccinated."
Dr. Schaffner says the fact that the double variant made its way to the US from India shows the importance of vaccination on a global scale. "These variants can occur abroad and be imported into the United States," he says. "We have to vaccinate not only everyone in the US, but we're going to have to make a larger contribution to the reduction of the pandemic around the world. Otherwise, we'll keep having variants introduced back into this country."
While experts say it's a good idea to keep practicing COVID-19 precautions, they agree that people shouldn't panic over the double mutant COVID variant.
"There are tons of variants out there," Dr. Adalja says. "It's too early to say what the importance of this particular one will be."
The information in this story is accurate as of press time. However, as the situation surrounding COVID-19 continues to evolve, it's possible that some data have changed since publication. While Health is trying to keep our stories as up-to-date as possible, we also encourage readers to stay informed on news and recommendations for their own communities by using the CDC, WHO, and their local public health department as resources. To get our top stories delivered to your inbox, sign up for the https://healthpartnerr.blogspot.com/
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