New COVID vaccines, plastic in our brains and why baby food isn't meeting nutrition standards: Catch up on the week's health news here
Hello, Yahoo Life readers! My name is Kaitlin, your guide to the latest health headlines you may have missed.
Here’s what the team wrote about this week:
Rick Springfield is 75 and thriving — and spoke to Rachel Grumman Bender about his tips for living his best life in his seventh decade, which includes therapy and cutting out alcohol.
For too long, women’s medical pain was ignored. Rebecca Corey explores how a new take on the pap smear and new pain management guidelines for IUD insertion are helping to shift things in the right direction
What’s the deal with Sara Blakely’s new high heel sneaker, Sneex?! I spoke to a podiatrist to find out if it’s a good option for your feet. (Spoiler: You shouldn’t toss your Hokas just yet.)
Are you mourning the second coming of Bennifer? Kerry Justich explains the psychology behind why Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s divorce announcement may make some people feel blue.
Mpox is a global health emergency. Natalie Rahhal breaks down the articles you need to read in order to understand this worldwide crisis.
Back-to-school can be stressful, but psychologist Dr. Becky Kennedy tells Yahoo Life there are ways to make your kids comfortable with the change.
Why are more people dying of strokes? Rebecca breaks down the scary health trend, and what you can do to reduce your risk, including lowering your blood pressure.
Here are three other stories you need to know for this week.
New COVID vaccines are almost here
Americans can get an updated COVID-19 vaccine sooner than expected. The new shots, from Pfizer and Moderna, will be available in doctor’s offices and at pharmacies, and were updated based on KP.2, one of the commonly circulating FLiRT variants. The FDA greenlighted these vaccines earlier than expected in order to combat serious disease from the ongoing summer surge — the largest in two years.
Why it matters: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that everyone six months and older should get these boosters, especially if they haven’t received a shot in a while. It’s particularly important for those older than 65, who have a higher risk of severe disease and anyone with underlying health issues like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
While the CDC says you can get the shot right away, you may want to wait three months from a prior infection if you are young and healthy, some experts say, as the antibodies from your recent infection could potentially make the vaccine less effective.
Boosters help reduce your chance of severe disease from COVID. Data from the CDC says that as of May 11, only 22.5% of adults got last year’s updated COVID vaccine, while just 14.4% of children ages 6 months through 17 years got vaccinated.
This new vaccine will not make you immune to COVID, which is still on the rise around the country. You can help stop the spread by testing if you were exposed or have symptoms of the disease. (You’ll soon be able to order four tests per household for free from COVIDTests.gov.) As always, stay home and away from others if you test positive until you are no longer contagious.
There's more plastic in our brains than before
Plastic … in our brain? It’s happening: A new pre-print study from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, which has not been peer-reviewed, collected autopsy samples from 2024 and found that they contained about 50% more plastic in the brain than samples collected from 2016 did. The preprint said that the brains also contained 7% to 30% more tiny shards of plastic than samples from the cadavers’ kidneys and liver.
Microplastics are plastic fragments larger than 0.2 inches (5 millimeters), while nanoplastics are particles smaller than 0.00004 inches (1 nanometer). Researchers think plastic is accumulating more in our brains specifically because the brain has a lot of fat, which attracts tiny plastic particles. Nanoplastics are so tiny they can cross into the brain from the blood, and the brain's fat content seems to draw these particles in more than other organs, leading to higher concentrations of plastic in brain tissue.
Why it matters: We’ve known from previous research that microplastics and nanoplastics can enter the brain and other organs — but the full health effects are still unknown. What’s unclear is whether the plastic itself is an issue or if the problems may lie with the chemicals that it can carry into the body. Some research suggests exposure to micro and nanoplastics could increase the risk of neurological conditions, such as dementia, and may contribute to chronic issues like cardiovascular disease and diabetes and obesity.
Unfortunately, it’s impossible to avoid plastic altogether — and again, the risks of exposure are not yet clear. However, if you want to limit your exposure to micro and nanoplastic, avoid using plastic food containers, drink tap water over plastic bottled water and don’t heat food in plastic. In addition, opting for fresh foods over packaged ones, limiting seafood consumption (fish are exposed to ocean plastic pollution) and choosing plastic-free beauty products can help further reduce your risk.
Baby food isn't meeting nutrition standards
Most of the food that we give our little ones is not up to snuff, according to a new study published in the journal Nutrients. Roughly 60% of the baby food found on shelves in American grocery stores did not meet the nutritional guidelines of the World Health Organization, the researchers found. Only about 30% of products complied with the agency’s protein recommendations. Meanwhile, 56% of products were compliant with sugar guidelines, 25% of the foods did not meet calorie requirements and 20% contained too much salt.
Why it matters: Baby food is a convenient way for time-pressed parents to feed their children, and many parents are unaware that these foods don’t meet nutritional standards. Early childhood is when people form taste preferences and good dietary habits, which can even pave the way for “development of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and some cancers later in life,” said Dr. Elizabeth Dunford, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, which co-authored the study.
Since many parents are choosing these convenience foods and assuming they are healthy, they may be unaware that their children are lacking in certain nutrients — and therefore aren’t primed for optimal health as they age.
