Potential good news for those with high blood pressure… taking antihypertensive medication, including ACE-inhibitors and ARBs, does not seem to increase the risk of more severe COVID-19 infection. This is based on a collective meta-analysis of group data from Wuhan, China reported in the European Heart Journal. This had previously been a potential concern since…
Last week, the prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, retracted two COVID-19-related papers. One of those papers had reported on negative effects of hydroxycloroquine as a potential treatment option, leading to much controversy over the use of the drug. The reason for the retraction? Surgisphere Corporation, the company providing the underlying database of information that was…
Food label regulations have been temporarily loosened by the FDA in response to supply disruptions reported by the food industry. What does this mean for consumers? Importantly, consumers should know that food manufacturers are allowed to make formulation changes, including omissions or substitutions, of ‘minor’ ingredients without making note of those changes on the label.…
ApoE4 is known for increasing the risk for dementia. New analysis of UK data suggests that it may also increase the risk for more severe outcomes from COVID-19 – double that of those with the ApoE3 gene variants. This finding held true independently of pre-existing dementia, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. More research is…
Good news, and perhaps why so many of us experience COVID-19 without symptoms: Cross reactive immunity
Biosensors that provide realtime feedback on health-related parameters are considered profoundly useful tools for optimizing health status and encouraging adherence to healthier activities. A new wearable device now does this for vitamin C. The device contains the enzyme ascorbate oxidase, which on contact with vitamin C (ascorbic acid) changes the electrochemical current flow. Given the…
From the folks that brought us Specialized Pro-resolving Lipid Mediators (SPMs), comes a new peer-reviewed paper that highlights the potential for SPMs in addressing pro-inflammatory cytokine production and cytokine storm in COVID-19. SPMs stimulate macrophage-mediated clearance of cellular debris and reduce pro-inflammatory cytokine levels. They also promote anti-viral B cell antibodies and other white blood…
From thymosin to ivermectin to stem cells and blood purification devises…. Check out the milikin-tracked research on COVID happening around the globe.
We are getting loads of questions on testing (especially antibody tests). Who’s reliable, who isn’t? And the price points can vary WIDELY. As far as validation goes, there are two places to watch: The COVID-19 Testing Project This group is a a multidisciplinary team of researchers and physicians at UCSF, UC Berkeley, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub,…
This infographic from Scientist illustrating the many organs that the virus can gain entry to using ACE2 or TMRPSS2 receptors (definitive evidence for viral presence in the various organs is still being established, but the presence of the receptors provides a road map for investigation). Certainly this influences the wide variety of COVID presentations we…
