UT HEALTH

Alzheimer’s disease affects more than six million people living in the U.S., with the number of affected individuals growing due to the nation’s aging population.

Children who had experienced mild COVID symptoms are reporting to see long COVID symptoms for up to 12 weeks, a UTHealth study finds.

According to the American Cancer Society, bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer in men.

More than ten million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s, and 60,000 are in the U.S.

Ciara Behrens said she competes in barrel racing almost every weekend. She’s been riding horses since she was a toddler, and as much as she loves it, she thinks that might be how her hip pain started.

A mother is sending a warning out to other parents after her 1-year-old was diagnosed with an extremely rare case of Guillain-Barre.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) are drastically cutting down on who can get Aduhelm, limiting it only to people enrolled in clinical trials.

The Omicron peak is predicted to be later this month.

Despite recommendations to postpone elective procedures at some points during the pandemic, weight loss surgeon Dr. Tanya Kajese with UTHealth Houston and Memorial Hermann said that’s actually been the motivation for a lot more patients to proceed with bariatric surgery because they’re at risk for severe disease.

One Houston couple had an unforgettable wedding. It happened at Memorial Hermann’s Emergency Room. The medical team there had prepared for a lot, but they never expected a wedding was in order.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers have been working tirelessly to stop the spread of the virus and help those who fall ill but it's leading to anxiety, depression, substance abuse and other issues.

Being born to an overweight mother can lead to an increased risk of colorectal cancer in the child’s life, according to new research from UT Health.

Innovation was necessary when the Coronavirus struck the Greater Houston Area. Bindu Akkanti, MD with UT Health/Memorial Hermann says “Curiosity of medicine is what drove us into this profession… COVID-19 hit us like a storm and we all got to work immediately.”In Episode 3 of TESTED, medical professionals and engineers explain some of the advances they made in order to fight the virus. To watch episodes and for resources, visit the TESTED webpage here.

HOUSTON – You may have caught last night’s inauguration special ‘Celebration America,’ which included fireworks and musical performances. I’ve been playing music for a long time with writing songs and playing in bands. He song virtually, “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers, with health care workers from across the country and American singer Demi Lovato. “Personally, being a from a family of refugees and being a first-generation Vietnamese American that’s an American dream,” he said. He said he received the invitation to perform during the celebration after he created a video early in the pandemic asking others to stay at home and ‘Help the Doctor’.

HOUSTON – Former professional boxer George Foreman is no stranger to taking shots and while he wasn’t in the ring Thursday, he did sit down in a chair to get his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. He’s one of 50 people that have been in the UT Physicians locations off Victory Road since Monday. UT Physicians are ramping up the distribution of these vaccines to those who are at risk and who have seen a UT Physicians primary or specialty care doctor in the last 18 months, by invite, which is based on the number of available doses and of course keeping the vaccines stored at a proper temperature. However, some people have been reluctant to get the vaccine. Foreman wants everyone to know that for him, getting the vaccine was an easy decision.

HOUSTON – Harnessing the power of rituals can help us reclaim some of our identity that has been lost during the pandemic, according to UT Physicians/ UT Health. That joy is linked to memories that come with these rituals which makes them more than tradition, it gives healing power to holiday decorating. For many, holiday decorating is a way to call those memories to mind. While rituals can improve our mental health, don’t hesitate to seek help if they are not enough. To make an appointment with a UT Physicians mental health specialist, call 888-4UT-DOCS.

If you set the expectation when you give the invitation, people can choose whether they want to join or not, said Dr. Taylor. “Even if it’s taking one thing off that list or doing one thing ahead of time,” Dr. Taylor suggested. “I’m going to repackage the utensils and wrap those in a napkin. “I’m going to put my feet on the ground and I’m going to focus on what it feels like to have my feet on the ground in this moment," Dr. Taylor said. GET YOUR HOLIDAY STRESS QUESTIONS ANSWEREDKPRC plans to dive deeper into this topic with our Ask 2 panel Thursday night.

Therefore, Michael Chang, infectious disease pediatrician with UT Physicians/UT Health, says traveling this holiday season is not out of the question if you consider the following:Individual Risk“First, looking at the individual risks of the people who either want to travel or planning to travel,” Dr. Chang said. “Are any of the individuals that are planning to get together high risk, individuals for severe infection? So are they, over the age of 60 to 65 do they have underlying conditions?”Community RiskAssess the community risk. “Driving in a personal car is probably lower risk than say riding in a bus or in a train,” Dr. Chang said. “Wearing masks on the flight does seem to prevent, at least has so far, seems to keep like a major spread within a plane,” Dr. Chang explained.

“He’s getting the Cadillac of treatment at this point, very early and very aggressive,” said Dr. Luis Ostrosky, an infectious disease specialist at UTHealth. Ostrosky said the president is being treated with Remdesivir and an antibody cocktail made by Regeneron. He’s also getting Remdesivir, which is the antiviral that we know has some effect against the virus at this point," he said. Trump posted a video on Twitter Saturday from Walter Reed Medical Center addressing his health and the treatments he’s received. According to experts and doctors, the next 48 to 72 hours are crucial to the president’s recovery.

Regeneron’s antibody treatment, referred to as a “COVID cocktail,” is showing promise in reducing the length and severity of the virus in people who have been exposed. It’s an injection of antibodies that could be used to protect caregivers or those who have been exposed to the virus. They’re researching whether injections of REGN-COV2, a combination of antibodies originally isolated from patients who have recovered from COVID-19, could help stop the spread. “Those antibodies...are a rapid response to the people who get COVID and that may help them reduce their symptoms or prevent hospitalizations. Or in this case, rapidly prevent COVID in people who live with people who have been diagnosed with COVID,” Dr. Gioia said.

THE WOODLANDS, Texas – UT Health and Memorial Hermann are the first in Texas to perform a double lung transplant that saved the life of a man suffering from COVID-19. He is a retired construction worker who lived with diabetes and had no other underlying health conditions, according to Memorial Hermann. Last month, Dr. Jyothula and a team from UT Health performed the double lung transplant one day after Medellin went on the waiting list, according to Memorial Hermann. According to UT Health, he immediately began physical therapy and thriving in good health. While it’s a phenomenal operation, Dr. Jyothula said he never wants to have to do a double lung transplant because of this virus again.

In general, we are not recommending testing for all children because they dont need to go to work. It probably wont help you prevent that many infections.Since kids and teens seem to do well with the virus, they say they'd rather preserve the tests for people who really need them. They advise parents to be on the lookout for symptoms to know when to keep kids and teens home and remember symptoms might be more subtle among them. Pediatricians say the symptoms dont last as long as they do in adults. However, Garcia said the truth is the young kids dont have the cough strength to propel respiratory droplets as far as adults.

HOUSTON Pathologists in the Texas Medical Center are at the forefront of trying to unlock new treatments for COVID-19 patients by studying how people die from the virus. Buja said a large part of the panic came from a lack of treatments for this virus. Buja and his colleagues are leading and effort to pool the knowledge gained from autopsies on those whove died from COVID-19. Buja says this research will hopefully guide doctors to develop comprehensive treatments faster, to help mitigate these complications. In fact, he said the first autopsy he did was on a COVID-19 victim with no known health problems.

HOUSTON – The first day we knew about the “community spread” of coronavirus was the day the rodeo was canceled on March 11, 2020. Now, many of you are getting antibody tests and finding out you’ve had coronavirus but claim symptoms happened early in March, or before then. Some doctors now think back to early in the year, after people returned from holiday travel, and think what appeared to be a respiratory virus going around, might have been coronavirus the whole time. Professor of Infectious Diseases at UT Health Luis Ostrosky, MD, said results like these help doctors with a very important mystery. We won’t really know if they had corona or not unless we have samples from that time," Ostrosky said.

HOUSTON According to the CDC, people with asthma may be at higher risk of getting very sick from COVID-19. However, thats not what the data from sick people is reflecting. New data about the people suffering most with coronavirus shows very few are asthma patients. Sparking The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America to wonder if asthma patients are any safer? He said the data is more of a reflection on how these patients adhering to social distancing.

Abbotts office said that Houston hospitals will be getting another supply of Remdesivir soon. Remdesivir got emergency approval for use among the sickest coronavirus patients because studies indicate this drug can speed up recovery of COVID-19. However, Houston doctors said they received only a very small supply of the drug that was quickly used up in select patients. Luis Ostrosky, MD, UT Health Professor of Infectious Diseases, said the government decides where the drug is dispersed. Abbott, Gilead (the maker of Remdesivir) has donated a supply of 75 more cases that are all coming to our area.

HOUSTON Based on scientific evidence, UV light can kill a variety of viruses. So can the sun kill the novel coronavirus on frequently touched outdoor play equipment? We do know that UV light kills viruses on environmental surfaces. This means, UV light won't kill the virus in or on your body, that's why washing your hands is your best defense and if you get it, no UV light machine can reverse that. Since its well known that UV light has been shown to destroy SARS and MERS, which are other types of coronaviruses, the best information we have to go by is that UV rays will probably also kill the novel coronavirus on surfaces like slides and swings.

Some stories even describe how people have fainted wearing masks or worse. Healthcare workers shifts are an average of 12 hours and they wear masks all day long. Wearing a regular cloth or surgical mask will not increase CO2 levels. Theres no real evidence that it can increase CO2 levels in healthy subjects. Psychologist William Orme from Houston Methodist said feelings of restriction or panic while wearing masks is possibly more because of anxiety and not due to different oxygen levels.

EMBED >More News Videos UT Health sports cardiologist Dr. John Higgins discusses the top things to do before a game to avoid stress and anxiety. HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- We all know the World Series can be stressful. ABC13 sat down with a UT Health doctor to discuss the top tips to remain calm when dealing with World Series anxiety.ABC13's The Midday is your stop for everything you'll want to know, whether you're trying to save money, hunt for deals or find things to see and do in Houston.

Now, UT Health is doing the first study on kids with autism and how they're affected by probiotics. So, she enrolled Adam in the UT Health study with Dr. Marc Rhoads, pediatric gastroenterologist with UTHealth/UT Physicians. “Our son has suffered from severe constipation and a very narrow, limited diet, he would only eat two or three things,” Galvez said. Rhoads believes prescription probiotics will help him and affect behaviors of a lot of the 4- to 16-year-olds in his study. Some of the participants are getting a placebo pill, but Galvez said since there’s been a dramatic difference in Adam’s behavior, they're convinced they're getting the real thing.