Brain fog and other long COVID symptoms are the focus of new small treatment studies - The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Institutes of Health is beginning a handful of studies to test possible treatments for long COVID, an anxiously awaited step in U.S. efforts against the mysterious condition that afflicts millions.

Monday’s announcement from the NIH’s $1.15 billion RECOVER project comes amid frustration from patients who’ve struggled for months or even years with sometimes-disabling health problems — with no proven treatments and only a smattering of rigorous studies to test potential ones.

“This is a year or two late and smaller in scope than one would hope but nevertheless it’s a step in the right direction,” said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of Washington University in St. Louis, who isn’t involved with NIH’s project but whose own research highlighted long COVID’s toll. Getting answers is critical, he added, because “there’s a lot of people out there exploiting patients’ vulnerability” with unproven therapies.

Scientists don’t yet know what causes long COVID, the catchall term for about 200 widely varying symptoms. Between 10% and 30% of people are estimated to have experienced some form of long COVID after recovering from a coronavirus infection, a risk that has dropped somewhat since early in the pandemic.

“If I get 10 people, I get 10 answers of what long COVID really is,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said.

That’s why so far the RECOVER initiative has tracked 24,000 patients in observational studies to help define the most common and burdensome symptoms –- findings that now are shaping multipronged treatment trials. The first two will look at:

— Whether taking up to 25 days of Pfizer’s antiviral drug Paxlovid could ease long COVID, because of a theory that some live coronavirus, or its remnants, may hide in the body and trigger the disorder. Normally Paxlovid is used when people first get infected and for just five days.

— Treatments for “brain fog” and other cognitive problems. They include Posit Science Corp.’s BrainHQ cognitive training program, another called PASC-Cognitive Recovery by New York City’s Mount Sinai Health System, and a Soterix Medical device that electrically stimulates brain circuits.

Two additional studies will open in the coming months. One will test treatments for sleep problems. The other will target problems with the autonomic nervous system — which controls unconscious functions like breathing and heartbeat — including the disorder called POTS.

A more controversial study of exercise intolerance and fatigue also is planned, with NIH seeking input from some patient groups worried that exercise may do more harm than good for certain long COVID sufferers.

The trials are enrolling 300 to 900 adult participants for now but have the potential to grow. Unlike typical experiments that test one treatment at a time, these more flexible “platform studies” will let NIH add additional potential therapies on a rolling basis.

“We can rapidly pivot,” Dr. Amy Patterson with the NIH explained. A failing treatment can be dropped without ending the entire trial and “if something promising comes on the horizon, we can plug it in.”

The flexibility could be key, according to Dr. Anthony Komaroff, a Harvard researcher who isn’t involved with the NIH program but has long studied a similarly mysterious disorder known as chronic fatigue syndrome or ME/CFS. For example, he said, the Paxlovid study “makes all sorts of sense,” but if a 25-day dose shows only hints of working, researchers could extend the test to a longer course instead of starting from scratch.

Komaroff also said that he understands people’s frustration over the wait for these treatment trials, but believes NIH appropriately waited “until some clues came in about the underlying biology,” adding: “You’ve got to have targets.”

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Leprosy could be endemic in Central Florida, CDC says. What to know about the disease. - CBS News

Leprosy — also known as Hansen's disease — is becoming endemic in the southeastern United States, rising evidence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.  

A recently published research letter from the CDC says Central Florida accounted for 81% of cases reported in Florida and almost one-fifth of cases reported across the U.S.  According to the National Hansen's Disease Program, 159 new cases were reported in the U.S. in 2020.

"Leprosy has been historically uncommon in the United States; incidence peaked around 1983, and a drastic reduction in the annual number of documented cases occurred from the 1980s through 2000," the letter's authors wrote. "However, since then, reports demonstrate a gradual increase in the incidence of leprosy in the United States. The number of reported cases has more than doubled in the southeastern states over the last decade."

This isn't the first time we've seen Florida make headlines for leprosy cases. In 2015, experts blamed armadillos for higher than normal leprosy cases in the state. 

Here's what to know about the disease amid new numbers:

What is leprosy?

Leprosy, now known as Hansen's disease, is an age-old bacterial disease that affects the skin and nerves.

It occurs when bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae attacks the nerves, which can become swollen under the skin.

Leprosy is a bacterial disease that attacks the skin and nerves / Getty Images

"This can cause the affected areas to lose the ability to sense touch and pain, which can lead to injuries, like cuts and burns. Usually, the affected skin changes color," the CDC's website explains. In advanced cases, people can become disfigured and lose fingers and toes to the disease.

Long feared as a highly contagious, devastating condition — and the subject of biblical stories depicting it as a curse from God — knowledge around leprosy has grown and we now know it's treatable.

Still, stigma around the disease remains.

"Those suffering from it are isolated and discriminated against in many places where the disease is seen," the CDC notes.

The World Health Organization says more than 200,000 new cases are reported every year in more than 120 countries. In the United States, about 150 people get infected annually, according to the CDC.

What causes leprosy?

Leprosy is typically spread through extended close contact with an untreated infected person. 

Casual contact does not lead to infection — you can't catch leprosy from shaking hands, hugging or sitting next to someone during a meal or on the bus, the CDC states.

"It is not known exactly how Hansen's disease spreads between people. Scientists currently think it may happen when a person with Hansen's disease coughs or sneezes, and a healthy person breathes in the droplets containing the bacteria," the organization's website reads. "Prolonged, close contact with someone with untreated leprosy over many months is needed to catch the disease."

Leprosy symptoms

It takes time to develop signs of the disease due to the slow-growing nature of the bacteria. The CDC says symptoms of leprosy to the skin include: 

• Discolored skin patches
• Skin growths
• Thick, stiff or dry skin
• Painless ulcers on the soles of feet
• Painless swelling or lumps on the face or earlobes
• Loss of eyebrows or eyelashes

Symptoms to the nerves include:

• Numbness of affected areas of the skin
• Muscle weakness or paralysis
• Enlarged nerves
• Eye problems that may lead to blindness

If left untreated, advcanced signs may develop, including:

• Paralysis and crippling of hands and feet
• Shortening of toes and fingers due to reabsorption
• Ulcers on the bottoms of the feet
• Blindness
• Nose disfigurement

Is there a treatment for leprosy?

Hansen's disease can be treated with a combination of typically two to three antibiotics.

"Treatment usually lasts between one to two years," the CDC says. "The illness can be cured if treatment is completed as prescribed."

Early diagnosis is also key, since treatment can cure the disease and prevent it from getting worse, but treatment does not reverse nerve damage that may have already occurred, the organization notes. 

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Georgia resident dies from rare brain-eating amoeba, health officials say - CNN

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A Georgia resident who was likely infected while swimming in a freshwater lake or pond has died from a rare brain eating amoeba infection, the Georgia Department of Public Health said.

“A Georgia resident has died from Naegleria fowleri infection, a rare infection which destroys brain tissue, causing brain swelling and usually death,” the health department said in a news release Friday. “The individual was likely infected while swimming in a freshwater lake or pond in Georgia.”

A handout photomicrograph provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) depicts the characteristics associated with a case of primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a rare brain infection due to Naegleria fowleri parasites, a brain-eating amoeba.

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2-year-old Nevada boy dies from brain-eating amoeba likely contracted at natural hot spring

Naegleria fowleri is an amoeba that lives in soil and warm freshwater lakes, rivers, ponds and hot springs. It is not found in salt water, properly treated drinking water or swimming pools, according to the release.

“Prior to this newly confirmed case of Naegleria fowleri infection, there have been five other cases reported in Georgia since 1962,” the release said.

From 1962 to 2021, only four out of 154 people in the United States survived a brain-eating amoeba infection, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Earlier this month, the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health said a 2-year-old boy died from a brain-eating amoeba infection likely contracted at a natural hot spring. In February, Florida officials said a resident died from the amoeba after a sinus rinse with tap water.

Signs and symptoms of infection are initially severe headaches, fever, nausea and vomiting and they can progress to a stiff neck, seizures, hallucinations, and coma. The infection is treated with a combination of drugs, including the antibiotic azithromycin, the antifungal fluconazole, the antimicrobial drug miltefosine and the corticosteroid dexamethasone.

CNN’s Sarah Dewberry and Jacqueline Howard contributed to this report.

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2 Metro Detroit residents test positive for mosquito-borne virus: What to know - WDIV ClickOnDetroit

Michigan has identified the state’s first two human cases of a mosquito-borne virus in 2023.

A person from Macomb County and a person from Oakland County tested positive for Jamestown Canyon Virus (JCV).

JCV and other mosquito-borne viruses are transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito. Most people who get the virus have no symptoms of illness, but some become ill two to 14 days after the bite.

Symptoms of JCV include high fever, confusion, muscle weakness, headache, and fatigue. In rare cases, JVC can cause severe disease in the brain and/or spinal cord including encephalitis and meningitis.

There were 10 cases of JVC in Michigan between 2012 and 2021 that were reported to the CDC. According to Michigan, there were 12 JVC-positive mosquito pools in 2022 and one human JCV case.

So far this summer, mosquito pools from Bay, Saginaw, and Washtenaw counties have tested positive for JCV. West Nile Virus has been found in mosquitoes collected in Kalamazoo, Wayne, and Washtenaw counties. The state said the risk for mosquito-borne illness peaks in August and September.

“It only takes one bite from an infected mosquito to cause a severe illness, so we advise using insect repellent and wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants when outdoors during times when mosquitoes are active,” said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, MDHHS chief medical executive “It’s a good idea to take extra precautions during peak mosquito-biting hours, which are from dusk to dawn.”

Preventing mosquito bites

Michigan officials suggest taking the following steps to prevent mosquito bites:

• When used as directed, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellents with one of the active ingredients below are proven safe and effective, even for pregnant and breastfeeding women: DEET, Picaridin (known as KBR 3023 and icaridin outside the US), IR3535, Oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE), Para-menthane-diol (PMD), and 2-undecanone.
• Wear light-colored, long-sleeved shirts and long pants when outdoors. Apply insect repellent to clothing to help prevent bites.
• Maintain window and door screening to help keep mosquitoes outside.
• Empty water from mosquito breeding sites around the home, such as buckets, unused kiddie pools, old tires or similar sites where mosquitoes lay eggs.

Mosquitoes lay eggs in or near standing water

Mosquitoes need standing water to reproduce. That’s why you should empty, scrub or cover any items that hold water.

Standing water is often found in old tires, buckets, planters, toys, pools, birdbaths, flower pot saucers or trash containers.

Mosquitoes can complete their life cycle in about a week. The CDC recommends using an outdoor insect spray made to kill adult mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are often found in dark, humid areas.

Can’t remove standing water? Larvicides are an option

If you’re unable to remove the standing water where you live then you’ve got one other option: Larvicides.

Larvicides work by killing mosquito larvae and pupae before they grow into pesky adults. According to the CDC, if you use larvicides correctly they do not harm people, pets or the environment.

Larvicides come in liquids, tablets, bits, pellets, granules and briquettes. You use them by applying them where mosquitoes lay eggs (that means anywhere that holds standing water). That can include buckets and rain barrels, fountains, gutters or downspouts, non-chlorinated swimming pools, pool covers that collect water, tires and tree holes.

Use larvicides to treat standing water that will not be used for drinking and cannot be covered, dumped or removed.

--> Everything you need to know about ‘Mosquito Dunks’: What is Bti? How does it work? Is it safe?

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Mysterious meat allergy passed by ticks may affect hundreds of thousands in US, CDC estimates - CNN

CNN  — 

Ken McCullick died in an emergency room on August 12, 2021.

“I got lucky and there was this young nurse … I was one of her first CPR patients, and she would not give would not give up and saved my life.

adult tick (Ixodes scapularis) on grass

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There are ‘more ticks in more places’ — here’s how to avoid these bloodsuckers

“I’m grateful for that,” McCullick said, his voice choked with emotion at the memory.

The 66-year-old musician from Brooksville, Florida, said his heart stopped after he got the blood thinner heparin in the hospital.

Heparin is made from pig intestines and contains a sugar called alpha-gal that McCullick is deathly allergic to, although neither he nor his doctors knew it at the time.

“I flatlined and died on the table,” McCullick said, adding that it took seven minutes to get his heart started again.

Alpha-gal syndrome is a reaction to a sugar found in red meat and dairy products, and it’s caused by the bite of a lone star tick. It may now be the 10th most common food allergy in the United States, affecting up to 450,000 people, according to estimates published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is also one of the least recognized.

Lack of awareness, lack of diagnosis

Scientists have only recently begun to understand alpha-gal syndrome.

Lone star ticks, and perhaps other kinds of parasites, transmit a sugar known to scientists by its unwieldy formal name: galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, or alpha-gal.

“We think that they have an enzyme in their saliva that can produce alpha-gal,” said Dr. Scott Commins, associate chief for allergy and immunology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, who has spent his career researching alpha-gal and is a co-author on the new studies published today by the CDC.

When these ticks bite someone, the alpha-gal passes through the skin, which has its own immune sentries waiting to pounce on foreign invaders. Being exposed this way appears to put the body on high alert for this sugar, which is found in non-primate mammals and in products made from them. People with alpha-gal syndrome must often avoid red meat like beef, pork and lamb, dairy products and a slew of less-obvious products like gel capsules and sometimes makeup.

Ken McCullick believes he got alpha-gal allergy from a tick bite on his forehead in 2018. It took four years for doctors to diagnose it.

courtesy Ken McCullick

People can live with alpha-gal by adjusting their lifestyle — but that’s only if they know they have it. Getting a diagnosis can be difficult because many doctors aren’t aware of the syndrome.

A study published Thursday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report surveyed 1,500 doctors and nurse practitioners in the US and found that 42% said they’d never heard of the allergy. Another third of respondents said they were not confident about their ability to diagnose or manage a patient with alpha-gal allergy.

Surveys of alpha-gal patients have found that most have a significant delay between their first symptoms and their diagnosis.

A black-legged tick.

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This could be the peak of tick season – and tick-borne diseases are on the rise

McCullick, who thinks he got alpha-gal syndrome from a tick he pulled off his forehead in 2018, wasn’t diagnosed until 2022.

Alpha-gal isn’t like a typical food allergy, in which the physical reaction to an offending food starts seconds to minutes after eating it.

Instead, people with alpha-gal allergy tend to become ill four to six hours after having red meat or dairy, so they don’t always connect their symptoms to what they’re eating. Reactions can include hives, shortness of breath or even life-threatening anaphylaxis.

“I went to bed every night not knowing if I was going to wake up in the morning. And every time I couldn’t catch my breath and every time my heart skipped a beat, I didn’t know what was going to happen,” McCullick said.

“The future didn’t seem very bright, and I can relate it to maybe being a soldier in a foxhole with shells coming down all around. You just don’t know when your last breath is going to be, and it was psychologically devastating, actually. And that’s not just me; there’s thousands and thousands of cases just like mine,” he said.

Diagnoses on the rise

Researchers haven’t had a good idea how many Americans might have alpha-gal syndrome.

Until 2022, one commercial lab ran most alpha-gal testing in the US: Viracor in Lenexa, Kansas. For the new study, epidemiologists at the CDC analyzed anonymous testing data from this lab for blood tests run from 2017 through 2022. Providers ordered nearly 300,000 tests for alpha-gal during this period, and 30% of them — roughly 90,000 — were positive.

Deer tick on human skin

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Babesiosis, a tickborne disease, is on the rise in Northeast, according to CDC report

Adding those test results to the results of earlier studies, the study authors deduced that there were 110,000 suspected cases of alpha-gal syndrome diagnosed in the US from 2010 to 2022.

With the lack of awareness among health care providers, the researchers adjusted their data under the assumption that between 20% and 78% of cases probably go undiagnosed. This led to them to estimate that between 96,000 and 450,000 Americans may have been affected by alpha-gal syndrome since 2010.

The numbers stunned Commins. “The number of potential cases is far beyond what we thought,” he said.

“If the projection and estimate of nearly 450,000 cases is even approximately correct, this is the number 10 allergy in the country behind sesame, which is number nine and affects roughly half a million people,” Commins said.

And the numbers weren’t steady over time. “Every year, we see an increased number of suspected cases that are captured in this lab-based surveillance,” said study author Dr. Johanna Salzer, the epidemiology team lead for rickettsial diseases at the CDC.

Salzer said it’s unclear whether cases are going up because of increased awareness and testing for the syndrome or for another reason, such as tick populations flourishing in the higher temperatures caused by climate change.

“I think it could certainly be both,” Salzer said.

Salzer and her team also mapped the locations of the positive tests and found that they were concentrated in a belt of states in the middle of the US that spans the South, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. This is much the same region where lone star ticks are known to cause other diseases such as the bacterial illness ehrlichiosis.

‘This disease doesn’t have to be deadly’

Before McCullick knew to avoid certain animal products, he was rushed to the emergency room repeatedly with life-threatening allergic reactions that caused heart palpitations, shortness of breath and dangerously low blood pressure. Often, he was treated for heart attacks.

Alpha-gal also affects the way his body processed cholesterol, clogging the arteries around his heart.

Sometimes, just breathing in a place where someone is cooking meat, like a steakhouse, can cause a reaction, he said.

“I would eat some ice cream, and it would hurt my throat and my esophagus down my chest so bad. They felt like a charley horse that would not go away,” McCullick said.

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“And then it gives you severe heartburn, feels like a hiatal hernia,” he said. “Then it gets down in your stomach, and it feels like a roll of barbed wire the rolling around in your intestines.”

This cycle of eating and anaphylaxis continued until McCullick spoke to an agent from his health insurance company. After reviewing his records, the agent told him that the pattern of hospitalizations looked familiar.

“He said, ‘you know, you sound like what happened to me.’ He said, ‘I’m allergic to beef and pork. And you should get checked out to see if you’re allergic to beef or pork,’ ” McCullick said.

A lightbulb went off. He realized he was getting sick every time he ate red meat. After researching online, he was convinced, and he saw an allergist who made the diagnosis.

“So my diagnosis was by chance, basically, and with a lot of research on my own and a lot of help from friends,” McCullick said.

“This disease doesn’t have to be deadly if we just know about it,” McCullick said. “A lot of people could be saved just from the knowledge that needs to get out there.”

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AI Unlocks Olive Oil's Potential in Alzheimer's Battle - Neuroscience News

Summary: Researchers have utilized artificial intelligence to uncover the promising potential of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) in combating Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

By integrating AI, chemistry, and omics research, the study identified specific bioactive compounds in EVOO that could contribute to the treatment and prevention of AD. Ten phytochemicals within EVOO, such as quercetin, genistein, luteolin, and kaempferol, were found to exhibit potential impacts on AD protein networks.

The study adds to the growing evidence for the neuroprotective effects of a Mediterranean diet, rich in EVOO, in mitigating dementia and cognitive decline.

Key Facts:

1. The study utilized artificial intelligence to analyze the interaction between bioactive compounds in extra virgin olive oil and Alzheimer’s disease pathways.
2. Ten specific phytochemicals, including quercetin, genistein, luteolin, and kaempferol, were identified as having the highest likelihood of impacting AD protein networks.
3. The research supports the neuroprotective effects of a Mediterranean diet, rich in EVOO, which has been associated with a reduced risk of dementia and cognitive decline.

Source: Temple University

A recent study has used artificial intelligence (AI) to reveal the remarkable potential of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

Researchers combined AI technology, chemistry, and omics research to identify specific bioactive compounds in EVOO that show promising effects in treating and preventing AD.

The findings identified ten EVOO phytochemicals with the highest likelihood of impacting AD protein networks. Credit: Neuroscience News

The article titled “Alzheimer’s disease: using gene/protein network machine learning for molecule discovery in olive oil” appears in Human Genomics.

AD imposes a significant burden on individuals and society, but EVOO’s neuroprotective effects have garnered attention. The Mediterranean diet, rich in EVOO, has been associated with a reduced risk of dementia and cognitive decline.

Harnessing the power of AI, researchers aimed to uncover the secrets behind EVOO’s therapeutic potential for AD.

The study utilized network machine learning and graph neural networks to analyze how bioactive compounds in EVOO interact with the complex pathways involved in AD.

The findings identified ten EVOO phytochemicals with the highest likelihood of impacting AD protein networks. Compounds like quercetin, genistein, luteolin, and kaempferol exhibited promising effects on AD pathogenesis.

About this AI an Alzheimer’s disease research news

Author: Luís Rita
Source: Temple University
Contact: Luís Rita – Temple University
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News

Original Research: Open access.
“Alzheimer’s disease: using gene/protein network machine learning for molecule discovery in olive oil” by Luís Rita et al. Human Genomics

---

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease: using gene/protein network machine learning for molecule discovery in olive oil

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) poses a profound human, social, and economic burden. Previous studies suggest that extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) may be helpful in preventing cognitive decline.

Here, we present a network machine learning method for identifying bioactive phytochemicals in EVOO with the highest potential to impact the protein network linked to the development and progression of the AD.

A balanced classification accuracy of 70.3 ± 2.6% was achieved in fivefold cross-validation settings for predicting late-stage experimental drugs targeting AD from other clinically approved drugs.

The calibrated machine learning algorithm was then used to predict the likelihood of existing drugs and known EVOO phytochemicals to be similar in action to the drugs impacting AD protein networks.

These analyses identified the following ten EVOO phytochemicals with the highest likelihood of being active against AD: quercetin, genistein, luteolin, palmitoleate, stearic acid, apigenin, epicatechin, kaempferol, squalene, and daidzein (in the order from the highest to the lowest likelihood).

This in silico study presents a framework that brings together artificial intelligence, analytical chemistry, and omics studies to identify unique therapeutic agents.

It provides new insights into how EVOO constituents may help treat or prevent AD and potentially provide a basis for consideration in future clinical studies.

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Adopting 8 healthy habits could add decades to a person's life - News-Medical.Net

A new study involving over 700,000 U.S. veterans reports that people who adopt eight healthy lifestyle habits by middle age can expect to live substantially longer than those with few or none of these habits. The eight habits are: being physically active, being free from opioid addiction, not smoking, managing stress, having a good diet, not regularly binge drinking, having good sleep hygiene, and having positive social relationships.

According to the results, men who have all eight habits at age 40 would be predicted to live an average of 24 years longer than men with none of these habits. For women, having all eight healthy lifestyle factors in middle age was associated with a predicted 21 additional years of life compared to women with none of these habits.

We were really surprised by just how much could be gained with the adoption of one, two, three, or all eight lifestyle factors. Our research findings suggest that adopting a healthy lifestyle is important for both public health and personal wellness. The earlier the better, but even if you only make a small change in your 40s, 50s, or 60s, it still is beneficial."

Xuan-Mai T. Nguyen, health science specialist at the Department of Veterans Affairs and rising fourth-year medical student at Carle Illinois College of Medicine

Nguyen will present the findings at NUTRITION 2023, the flagship annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition held July 22–25 in Boston.

For the study, scientists used data from medical records and questionnaires collected between 2011-2019 from 719,147 people enrolled in the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program, a large, nationally representative study of U.S. veterans. The analysis included data from adults age 40-99 and included 33,375 deaths during follow-up.

Overall, the results showed that low physical activity, opioid use, and smoking had the biggest impact on lifespan; these factors were associated with around a 30-45% higher risk of death during the study period. Stress, binge drinking, poor diet, and poor sleep hygiene were each associated with around a 20% increase in the risk of death, and a lack of positive social relationships was associated with a 5% increased risk of death.

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According to researchers, the findings underscore the role of lifestyle factors in contributing to chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease that lead to premature disability and death. The results also help to quantify the degree to which making healthy lifestyle choices can help people reduce their risk of such diseases and live longer.

"Lifestyle medicine is aimed at treating the underlying causes of chronic diseases rather than their symptoms," said Nguyen. "It provides a potential avenue for altering the course of ever-increasing health care costs resulting from prescription medicine and surgical procedures."

The estimated gain in life expectancy from adopting the eight healthy lifestyle factors grew slightly smaller with age but remained significant, meaning that adopting healthier habits at an older age can still help you live longer. "It is never too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle," said Nguyen.

As an observational study, the research does not definitively prove causality, Nguyen noted. However, the findings align with a growing body of research supporting the role of lifestyle factors in preventing chronic diseases and promoting healthy aging.

American Society for Nutrition

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These 8 habits could add up to 24 years to your life, study says - CNN

Editor’s note: Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN’s Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being.

CNN  — 

Want to live up to an additional 24 years? Just add eight healthy lifestyle choices to your life at age 40 and that could happen, according to a new unpublished study analyzing data on US veterans.

David McLain

Eating this food may be a reason why some people live to 100

Starting at age 50 instead? No problem, you could prolong your life by up to 21 years, the study found. Age 60? You’ll still gain nearly 18 years if you adopt all eight healthy habits.

“There’s a 20-year period in which you can make these changes, whether you do it gradually or all at once,“ said lead study author Xuan-Mai Nguyen, a health science specialist for the Million Veteran Program at the VA Boston Healthcare System.

“We also did an analysis to see if we eliminated people with type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, stroke, cancer and the like, does it change the outcome? And it really didn’t,” she said. “So, if you start off with chronic diseases, making changes does still help.”

What are these magical healthy habits? Nothing you haven’t heard before: Exercise, eat a healthy diet, reduce stress, sleep well and foster positive social relationships. On the flip side, don’t smoke, don’t drink too much and don’t become addicted to opioids.

“The earlier the better, but even if you only make a small change in your 40s, 50s or 60s, it still is beneficial,” Nguyen said. “This is not out of reach — this is actually something attainable for the general population.”

Lifestyle habits build on each other

The study, presented Monday at Nutrition 2023, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, looked at the lifestyle behaviors of nearly 720,000 military veterans between the ages of 40 and 99. All were part of the Million Veteran Program, a longitudinal study designed to investigate the health and wellness of US veterans.

Middle Eastern cuisine: freshly made hummous, a spread made from chickpeas and seasoned with sumac and oil. Served with flat bread.

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How to spice up your pantry the Mediterranean way

Adding just one healthy behavior to a man’s life at age 40 provided an additional 4.5 years of life, Nguyen said. Adding a second led to seven more years, while adopting three habits prolonged life for men by 8.6 years. As the number of additional lifestyle changes climbed so did the benefits for men, adding up to nearly a quarter century of extra life.

Women saw huge leaps in life span as well, Nguyen said, although the numbers added up differently than for men. Adopting just one healthy behavior added 3.5 years to a woman’s life, while two added eight years, three 12.6 years and embracing all the healthy habits extended a woman’s life by 22.6 years.

“Doing all eight had a synergistic effect, sort of an added boost to extend your life, but any small change made a difference,” Nguyen said.

After adjusting for age, body mass index, sex, race and ethnicity, marital status, education level and family income level, the study found “an 87% relative reduction in all-cause mortality for those who adopted all eight lifestyle factors compared to those who adopted none,” Nguyen said.

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“An important strength of this analysis was that the population was highly diverse by race, ethnicity, and SES (socioeconomic status),” said senior study author and leading nutrition researcher Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

The study could only show an association, not a direct cause and effect, and because it focused on veterans, the findings may not translate to all Americans. However, veterans in the study “were retired and not on active duty or attending military training,” Nguyen said. “Still, the numbers might not necessarily translate directly to a general population one-on-one.”

Ranking the lifestyle choices

The study was able to rank the eight lifestyle behaviors to see which provided the biggest boost in longevity.

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What’s more important as you age — stretching, balance work or strength training?

No. 1: First on the list was exercise, which many experts say is one of the most important behaviors anyone can do to improve their health. Adding that one healthy behavior produced a 46% decrease in the risk of death from any cause when compared with those who did not exercise, Nguyen said.

“We looked at whether they did light, moderate or vigorous activity compared to not doing anything and just sitting on the couch,” Nguyen said. “People who lived longer did 7.5 metabolic equivalent hours of exercise a week. Just to give you a baseline — if you can walk up a flight of stairs without losing your breath, that’s four minutes of the 7.5.”

That finding echoes results from other studies that show you don’t have to do extreme sports to get the health benefits of exercise, although more vigorous activities that cause you to lose your breath are best.

Read: Sign up for CNN’s Fitness, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide will help you ease into a healthy routine, backed by experts.

No. 2: Not becoming addicted to opioids was the second most important contributor to a longer life, reducing the risk of early death by 38%, the study found. That’s a significant issue today, with the opioid crisis in the US a national “public health emergency,” an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services reported.

No. 3: Never using tobacco reduced risk of death by 29%, the study found. If a person was a former smoker, that didn’t count: “We did that to make it as strict as we could,” Nguyen said. However, stopping smoking at any point in life confers major health benefits, experts say.

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Chronic stress can affect your health. One activity can help

No. 4: Managing stress was next, reducing early death by 22%, the study found. Stress is rampant in the US today, with devastating consequences for health, experts say. And there are ways to revamp your outlook and turn bad stress into good stress.

Read: Sign up for CNN’s Stress, But Less newsletter. Our six-part mindfulness guide will inform and inspire you to reduce stress while learning how to harness it.

No. 5: Eating a plant-based diet would raise your chances of living a longer life by 21%, the study found. But that doesn’t mean you have to be a vegetarian or vegan, Nguyen said. Following a healthy plant-based plan such as the Mediterranean diet full of whole grains and leafy green vegetables was key.

Read: Sign up for CNN’s Eat, But Better: Mediterranean Style. Our eight-part guide shows you a delicious expert-backed eating lifestyle that will boost your health for life.

No. 6: Avoiding binge drinking — which is having more than four alcoholic beverages a day — was another healthy lifestyle habit, reducing the risk of death by 19%, Nguyen said. Binge drinking is on the rise in the US, and it’s not just college students. Even moderate drinkers are at risk, studies say.

In addition, other studies have found that any amount of drinking may be unhealthy, except perhaps, for heart attacks and stroke, and even that finding has been challenged. One study found than even one drink may trigger an irregular heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation.

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No. 7: Getting a good night’s sleep — defined as at least seven to nine hours a night with no insomnia — reduced early death from any cause by 18%, Nguyen said. Dozens of studies have linked poor sleep to all sorts of poor health outcomes, including premature mortality.

Read: Sign up for CNN’s Sleep, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide has helpful hints to achieve better sleep.

No. 8: Being surrounded by positive social relationships helped longevity by 5%, the study found. However, loneliness and isolation, especially among older adults, is becoming more widespread and worrisome, experts say.

“Five percent may seem small, but that’s still a decrease in terms of all-cause mortality,” Nguyen said. “Every little bit helps, whether you pick physical activity or make sure you’re surrounded by positive social support.”

A recent study found people who experienced social isolation had a 32% higher risk of dying early from any cause compared with those who weren’t socially isolated. Participants who reported feeling lonely were 14% more likely to die early than those who did not.

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Cholesterol-reducing medication reduces risk of heart disease for people with HIV, trial finds - CNN

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Scientists have long known that people living with HIV face a higher risk of heart disease. The statin drug pitavastatin, however, might offer a solution.

In a phase 3 clinical trial, individuals with an HIV infection who took pitavastatin – a medication used to lower high cholesterol – were 35% less likely to suffer major heart complications, including heart attacks, heart failure or strokes. The findings were published on Sunday in The New England Journal of Medicine and presented at a meeting of the International AIDS Society in Brisbane, Australia.

The report offers a promising new way for individuals with HIV to better manage their heart health.

HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, attacks and weakens the body’s immune system, leaving patients vulnerable to other – often fatal – diseases. While there is no cure, treatment with antiretroviral medications can help individuals manage the disease and lead near-normal lives.

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HIV/AIDS Fast Facts

People with HIV, however, face up to double the risk of heart disease and cardiovascular complications compared to the general population, said Dr. Patrice Desvigne-Nickens, a physician at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Division of Cardiovascular Sciences, who worked on the trial. Heart complications happen much earlier – and are deadlier – for people with HIV.

While scientists aren’t sure exactly why, experts believe it could be a consequence of high, persistent inflammation and chronic immune activation from HIV.

“This is becoming a major issue for the HIV community,” said Dr. Steven Grinspoon, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the study’s lead author. “They’re still having heart attacks and strokes, despite being on good, effective antiretroviral therapies. They’re not having HIV-specific comorbidities; they’re having heart disease.”

Named the REPRIEVE trial, the study recruited more than 7,700 participants worldwide between the ages of 40 and 75, all of whom had HIV, were currently taking antiretroviral medication, and were rated to have a low-to-moderate risk of heart disease.

Each participant was randomly assigned to take a daily dose of pitavastatin or a placebo tablet. In this double-blind setup, neither the patients nor their treating physicans knew which one they were getting.

Pitavastatin belongs to a class of pharmaceuticals called statins that reduce the amount of cholesterol made by the liver and help the liver break down cholesterol in the blood. As a result, the drug lowers the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol – or “bad cholesterol,” as Desvigne-Nickens described it – that can build up inside blood vessels and cause heart problems.

It was specifically chosen for the HIV trial because it doesn’t interact with antiretroviral drugs, making it “amazingly perfect,” according to Desvigne-Nickens. The medication is also widely available at “relatively cheap” prices, Grinspoon noted.

Pitavastatin, however, isn’t typically given to patients with a “low-to-moderate” risk of heart disease, like people with HIV might be. The American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology’s standard risk-assessment, which includes criteria such as age, sex and ethnicity, don’t include HIV-related cardiovascular risk factors, either.

That omission creates a blind spot for patients with HIV who score lower on the risk assessment and aren’t prescribed pitavastatin, but still have a disproportionately high rate of heart conditions.

“They wouldn’t typically be recommended a primary prevention drug strategy because the risk is in the low to moderate range because there’s been no data,” said Grinspoon. “This is where REPRIEVE fits in very nicely.”

In the trial, the researchers found that HIV-positive patients taking pitavastatin were about 35% less likely to experience an “adverse” cardiovascular event, like a heart attack, than the control group. They also observed 21% fewer events of cardiovascular events and death in patients, said Desvigne-Nickens.

If pitavastatin was just lowering LDL cholesterol levels, though, there should only have been a 17% decrease in cardiovascular risk, Grinspoon calculated – less than half of the risk reduction in the trial.

Black Americans higher heart failure risk in redlined areas

American Heart Association

Black people in redlined neighborhoods face higher risks for heart failure

As a result, the report suggests that statin therapy does more than reduce LDL levels; it also reduces the immune activation and inflammation that puts HIV-positive people at risk for heart disease in the first place.

And among different subgroups, including women and international populations, the researchers found that the therapeutic benefit was the same. Across the board, the researchers found a consistent reduction in cardiovascular risk.

For Desvigne-Nickens, it was a “slam dunk.”

“This is unbelievably positive,” Desvigne-Nickens said. “It was almost too good to believe that the drug exceeded expectations.”

So much so, in fact, that the study was stopped early, after about five years per participant. After looking at the data ¾ of the way through the REPRIEVE trial, she explained, an independent safety board had enough data to know that the drug was “very effective”– more so than was expected beforehand.

“This 35% reduction was so compelling that they could stop the trial,” Desvigne-Nickens said. “They knew the answer. They knew this drug was very effective in reducing these adverse cardiac events.”

“That’s typically only done when the results are very robust,” Grinspoon added.

Participants taking pitavastatin also developed diabetes, a known side effect of the statin drugs, at a slightly higher rate: 5% vs. 4% in the control group. Pitavastatin was also equally efficacious at reducing cardiovascular risk for patients with diabetes, Grinspoon noted.

He suspects that many physicians will begin incorporating the findings into their clinical practice. And he’s hopeful that the findings will prompt regulatory bodies to consider incorporating pitavastatin into standard care for people living with HIV.

“It’s extremely generalizable and rigorous in terms of its randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind design,” he said. “And I think based on the large group it covers, it will be considered important enough to incorporate into guidelines. I think the community will agree that these guidelines will be incorporated.”

The researchers’ optimism stems from the diverse scope of the trial. The study was conducted across twelve countries, including several in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, South America and the Caribbean, with a high burden of HIV.

Thirty percent of the study’s participants were women, and 65% were not White – a striking comparison, Grinspoon explained, to research that has historically neglected those populations.

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“We thought it was important to get even more global and diverse in our trial,” he added. “It’s really a global trial. Now we can say this is a great trial for all these other groups into as well.”

For individuals taking antiretroviral medication, the researchers also hope that pitavastatin doesn’t add too much of a burden. As a daily medication that’s accessible and affordable, it could be an easier addition to the medication routine of someone with HIV, who might already have “complicated drug medical regimens,” according to Desvigne-Nickens.

“We’re showing that the addition of a single pill a day on top of antiretroviral therapy will prevent heart disease,” Grinspoon said. “Now we have evidence for those people who would typically not be recommended anything: that something does work.”

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