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PolyBio Announces $15 Million in Long COVID Research Funding
PolyBio Research Foundation, a leading organization in supporting research for long COVID and related chronic diseases, announced a new round of funding focused on identifying potential long COVID treatments on Thursday. The research projects, which received a total of $15 million in funding, plan to study the potential biological underpinnings of long COVID and begin testing promising therapies.
Obesity Disrupts Mitochondria, Reduces Fat-Burning
Adipose tissue, or body fat, plays a key role in maintaining our health. It helps to store and supply energy, regulate body temperature, and send hormone signals that affect many body functions. But when a person develops obesity, it leads to expansion of a type of fat called white adipose tissue, along with increased inflammation and metabolic changes.
America’s Health System Isn’t Ready for the Surge of Seniors With Disabilities
The number of older adults with disabilities — difficulty with walking, seeing, hearing, memory, cognition, or performing daily tasks such as bathing or using the bathroom — will soar in the decades ahead, as baby boomers enter their 70s, 80s, and 90s. But the health care system isn’t...
“Beneath the Briefs” Podcast Talks Modern Dating and HIV Sexual Health
The podcast Beneath the Briefs recently kicked off its third season discussing HIV prevention via topics such as sex and culture. The podcast, which airs every other Wednesday, was developed by Prism Health North Texas (PHNTX), a leading health care organization and is hosted by the organization’s policy, advocacy and community engagement coordinator, Natassia Radford, and its community engagement manager, Marquesse Banks, MPH.
Cancer Patients and Survivors Say Their Top Policy Priority Is Affordability
Protecting free preventive cancer screenings and reducing the burden of medical debt are the top issues of concern for cancer patients and survivors today, according to a new survey by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) that asked participants to select their leading policy priorities for the year.
Watch Black History Month Messages From Federal HIV Leaders
In honor of Black History Month, Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP) leadership, including Director, Kaye Hayes, MPA, and Sharonda Brown, Deputy Director of Operations, OIDP, paid tribute to individuals who have worked to help end the HIV epidemic. Ms. Hayes shared her comments for this blog during a visit to the Frederick Douglass House, a national historic site in southeast Washington, DC, which preserves the legacy of one of America’s leading abolitionists. Watch here and below:
COVID-19 Vaccination and Boosting During Pregnancy Protects Infants for Six Months
Women who receive an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination or booster during pregnancy can provide their infants with strong protection against symptomatic COVID-19 infection for at least six months after birth, according to a study from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. These findings, published in Pediatrics, reinforce the importance of receiving both a COVID-19 vaccine and booster during pregnancy to ensure that infants are born with robust protection that lasts until they are old enough to be vaccinated.
Understanding Sex Differences in Autoimmune Disease
In autoimmune diseases, the immune system mistakenly identifies some of the body’s own cells as a threat and attacks them. Up to 50 million people in the U.S. live with an autoimmune disease, such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, or other, rarer disorders. Most cases of autoimmune disease are thought to arise from a combination of genetic risk factors and exposures to one or more stressors on the body.
R.I.P. Hydeia Broadbent, 39, an Outspoken HIV Advocate Since Childhood
Hydeia Broadbent, who was born with HIV and who triumphed as a groundbreaking activist since childhood, has died. She was 39. “With great sadness, I must inform you all that our beloved friend, mentor and daughter Hydeia, passed away today after living with AIDS since birth,” wrote her father, Loren Broadbent, in an early morning February 21 Facebook post. “Despite facing numerous challenges throughout her life, Hydeia remained determined to spread hope and positivity through education around HIV/AIDS.”
Southern Lawmakers Rethink Long-Standing Opposition to Medicaid Expansion
As a part-time customer service representative, Jolene Dybas earns less than $15,000 a year, which is below the federal poverty level and too low for her to be eligible for subsidized health insurance on the Obamacare marketplace. Dybas, 53, also does not qualify for Medicaid in her home state of...
COVID-19 Reinfections Are Further Disabling People With Long COVID
Becky Letts and her 12-year-old son, Alex, have both had long COVID since early 2020. While the debilitating disease drastically reduced the quality of life for both of them, Becky said multiple reinfections led to new and worse symptoms. So far, she has had six confirmed COVID infections, while Alex has had five.
Biden Administration Commits $100 Million to Sprint for Women’s Health
As the first major deliverable of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today announced the ARPA-H Sprint for Women’s Health, which commits $100 million towards transformative research and development in women’s health. ARPA-H, which was created in 2022 as part of President Biden’s bipartisan Unity Agenda, seeks to advance and accelerate health solutions.
NIH Study Offers New Clues Into the Causes of Post-Infectious ME/CFS
In a detailed clinical study, researchers at the National Institutes of Health have found differences in the brains and immune systems of people with post-infectious myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (PI-ME/CFS). They also found distinct differences between men and women with the disease. The findings were published in Nature Communications. “People...
Changing Causes of Death for People With HIV
All-cause mortality dropped among people with HIV in high-income countries over the past three decades, and the causes of death are shifting, but all groups have not benefited equally, according to recent studies. Mortality rates for people with HIV began to decline dramatically with the advent of highly active antiretroviral...
$260K Award to Address Health Disparities in Expecting Black Mothers
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded Yanica Faustin, PhD, a two-year grant to research and address racial disparities in Black maternal health. Faustin is an assistant professor of public health studies at Elon University in North Carolina. The Health Equity Scholars for Action initiative supports academic researchers who come from...
Large Insurer Not Penalized for Placing Most HIV Meds on Costliest Tiers
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina will not be penalized for placing most HIV drugs on its highest and costliest tier in 2022 and 2023, a policy that the health insurer has since modified. The controversial pricing tiers led the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute (HIV+Hep) and the North Carolina AIDS...
Quit Smoking With Help From Fred Hutch’s Free AI-Powered Chatbot
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center researchers, led by Dr. Jonathan Bricker, launched an AI-powered chatbot app called QuitBot to help more people successfully quit smoking cigarettes. Available for free on Apple and Android devices, QuitBot is a comprehensive app that uses an AI-powered chatbot to provide users personalized support to quit smoking.
Too Much Sitting Linked to Liver Fat in People With HIV
Not getting enough physical activity increases the risk of fatty liver disease in people living with HIV, according to study results published in the Journal of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndromes. In particular, more time spent sitting upped the risk of liver fat accumulation. “Insufficient physical activity and prolonged sitting time were...
Clinical Trial Helps Patient With Recurrent Metastatic Breast Cancer
Margaret Taylor thought she had reached the end of her breast cancer journey. Hers was a textbook case in many ways — she discovered a lump on her breast in 2019, was diagnosed with cancer, and was treated with chemotherapy prior to surgery to remove the tumor. After nine months of treatment, which included post-surgery radiation, her doctor pronounced her cancer-free.
Joe Rogan and Spotify Amplify AIDS Denialism
BREAKING NEWS: Water is wet, and HIV causes AIDS. If you tuned in to the nation’s No. 1 podcast on Spotify, The Joe Rogan Experience, on February 13, you might have thought you were listening to a conversation from the 1980s. The controversial host and his equally out-there guest that day, Bret Weinstein, an evolutionary biology professor, promoted long-disproven ideas that HIV does not cause AIDS and that in fact recreational drugs, such as poppers—popular among gay men—could be “a very important factor in AIDS.”
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Real Health is the leading health magazine for African Americans in the United States. Launched in 2004, the goal of Real Health is to help African Americans of all ages achieve optimum health and wellness—physically, mentally and emotionally—by offering readers current, accurate information based on the latest science through well-researched stories that educate, entertain, uplift and motivate members of the community at large to be their best selves.
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