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Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil analyzed data from 43 scientific articles describing the effects of COVID-19 on athletes and concluded that while the disease was asymptomatic or mild in the vast majority of cases (94%), about 8% of the subjects concerned had persistent symptoms affecting their performance and potentially preventing a return to training and competing. The data they analyzed referred to some 11,500 athletes, including amateurs and [...]

The challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic have stimulated innovation on several fronts. One is the development of low-cost methods of clinical diagnosis. Genosensors are a case in point. Based on nucleic acids that detect simple complementary DNA or RNA sequences, genosensors are biosensors that make possible mass testing for immediate and sensitive testing of genetic material. A device of this kind, already shown to be efficient in detecting SARS-CoV-2, has just been produced in Brazil by [...]

Quality of life relating to physical and mental health can be a key element in the treatment of obese adults. For this reason, interdisciplinary clinical measures including cognitive and behavioral therapy may produce more significant outcomes for these people, reducing not just weight but also symptoms of depression. This is the main conclusion of a study conducted in Brazil by the Obesity Research Group at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) in Santos, São Paulo [...]

Protein intake is more important than protein source if the goal is to gain muscle strength and mass. This is the key finding of a study that compared the effects of strength training in volunteers with a vegan or omnivorous diet, both with protein content considered adequate. In the study, which was conducted by researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil, 38 healthy young adults, half of whom were vegans and half omnivores, were monitored for 12 weeks. In addition to [...]

A study published this May in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases suggests that people who have had dengue in the past are twice as likely to develop symptoms of COVID-19 if they are infected by the novel coronavirus. The findings of the study were based on an analysis of blood samples from 1,285 inhabitants of Mâncio Lima, a small town in the state of Acre, part of Brazil’s Amazon region. The principal investigator was Marcelo Urbano Ferreira, a professor at the University of [...]

Aging entails a loss of muscle mass and strength, which in some cases impairs mobility, hinders walking or performance of day-to-day tasks, and exposes the elderly to the risk of falls and hospitalizations. In clinical practice, handgrip measurement is the most widely used method to identify loss of overall muscular strength in older people. Values below 26 kg for men and 16 kg for women have for some time been considered an indication of risk-associated weakness, but these parameters are [...]

Lack of oxygen during the period anticipating child birth, a condition that may affect children of pregnant women subjected to a high blood pressure disorder called pre-eclampsia, has been found to be a cause of schizophrenia. In an article published in Scientific Reports, researchers at Santa Casa de São Paulo Medical School (FCM-SCSP) in Brazil described how this phenomenon, called hypoxia, affects astrocytes, one of the most abundant types of brain cell. In experiments with rat [...]

A Brazilian study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence shows that cannabis smoked recreationally does not work as a harm reduction strategy for crack and cocaine addicts undergoing rehabilitation. Instead of reducing their craving for cocaine, whether nasally insufflated in powder form or smoked in the form of crack crystals, cannabis use made the patients’ clinical condition worse. The patients were evaluated for six months after discharge from a voluntary inpatient [...]

An immune mechanism that makes babies more likely than adults to die from sepsis has been identified by scientists affiliated with the Center for Research on Inflammatory Diseases (CRID in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo State (Brazil). The study is published) in Critical Care. The scientists are planning to test new therapeutic approaches based on the discovery. “We’re designing a clinical trial with drugs that have been approved for human use and are known to induce this [...]