Most of us appreciate the wisdom that comes with age, but not the gray hair. Age and genes are probably the most widely accepted reasons for hair color loss. But thyroid conditions and low vitamin B12 levels also can play a role, as can stress, according a study published in Nature.   

If you have type 2 diabetes, you’re probably concerned catching COVID-19 and developing serious complications. People with type 2 are at higher risk for serious cases of the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. But if you’re taking the diabetes drug metformin, your chances of a COVID-19 related death are much lower, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Endocrinology.   

Putting on a cloth mask over a surgical or medical mask can help reduce the spread of the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. 

“You have cancer” are three words you never want to hear. The dreaded disease is associated with grueling treatments and claims more than 600,000 American lives each year. But there is some good news: United States cancer deaths rates fell by 2.4 percent between 2017 and 2018. This is a record amount and contributes to an overall 31 percent plummet since 1991, which equals about 3.2 million fewer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society's 2021 Cancer Statistics report. 

Every five years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Agriculture join forces to release the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Accordingly, the 2020 to 2025 guidelines were recently released. Food manufacturers, health professionals and policymakers rely on these science-based guidelines for nutritional direction. 

If you’re already vaccinated for COVID-19, you may feel like you’ve won the lottery. For those who got their shots early, that’s not a bad comparison. Through mid-February nearly 40 million Americans had received at least one dose of a vaccine. 

Every January we welcome a new year that will bring changes, events and trends that affect our culture. One such area that we commonly experience cultural shifts is in our dietary habits. New diets emerge, nutrition mindsets materialize and food manufacturing processes are adopted. Here are five dietary trends you can expect to hear more about during 2021.

You've probably heard or seen a lot about new variants of COVID-19 in the last few weeks. It’s no surprise that after a year of circulating, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has evolved. Viruses often mutate and change. Sometimes they weaken, sometimes they strengthen, and sometimes they become more communicable.  

For many Americans, getting one of the two currently approved COVID-19 vaccines has become an exercise in frustration. Distribution challenges, not enough vaccines and a tangle of federal, state and local rules have led to confusion but as many vaccinations as planned. 

There are a lot of challenges which may be solved in the next few months – but probably not immediately.

The coronavirus pandemic, now more than 10 months old, shows no sign of abating, even as vaccines are slowly rolling out. In early January, the U.S. set single day records for deaths and new diagnoses for COVID-19, the condition caused by the virus.