How grief rewires the brain and can affect health - and what to do about it
Michael Merschel, American Heart Association News
March 10, 2021
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Grief is a common, if not universal, human experience. But that doesn t make it simple.
It s psychological, but it affects people physically. It s a matter of science, but scientists who discuss it can sound poetic. Dr. Katherine Shear, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University School of Social Work in New York, calls grief the form that love takes when someone we love dies.
COVID-19 has both brought grief and disrupted the way people experience it. But researchers have been examining grief since well before the pandemic.
What parents should know about rare but scary COVID-19-related illness
Michael Merschel, American Heart Association News
March 10, 2021
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It began with COVID-19 and became a nightmare.
The coronavirus hit the Dye family of Anchorage, Alaska, in mid-November. Parents Heath and Hailey were sick for a week. Cameron, then 6, had a mild fever for a day and a bit of a cough. Two-year-old Lucas never showed symptoms.
Four weeks later, when they thought the worst was past, Cameron s fever shot to 104.5. He was diagnosed with strep throat, but his parents, who had seen a lot of cases of strep in their son, weren t sure. They d heard about a COVID-related illness called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, which had struck a girl back in Heath s Virginia hometown.
Dementia may be a risk factor for infection but not death from COVID-19
Laura Williamson, American Heart Association News
March 11, 2021
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People who have dementia are at much higher risk of becoming infected with COVID-19, but no more likely to die from it than those without cognitive impairment, new research suggests.
The study, which is being presented next week at the American Stroke Association s virtual International Stroke Conference, found people with any type of cognitive impairment were 51% more likely to get infected. Their risk of dying, however, was no higher than it was for their peers whose brains were unimpaired.
Voucher program makes healthy eating easier for food-insecure people
Diane Daniel, American Heart Association News
March 9, 2021
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As soon as Joseph Angelo enrolled in Vouchers 4 Veggies, he started to replace processed foods with fruits and vegetables. There were times when I d been eating healthier, but I d really fallen into comfort food like cookies, ice cream, anything with a processed sugar high, said Angelo, who has Type 2 diabetes. The nice thing about the vouchers is they re very specific – only for fruits and vegetables and nothing processed.
The San Francisco resident is unemployed and on a tight budget. It can be easy to rationalize something processed over healthier choices, he said. Like if I m looking at a bag of cookies for $2.50 or apples for $2.50, I might think the cookies are a better value.