Health & Fitness

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 24, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Jon Kostas, a lifelong resident of New York City, started bar-hopping at age 13. At the height of his alcoholism, he was consuming as many as 30 drinks a night.

Desperate for a way out, Kostas, 32, turned to a new therapy: psilocybin — the psychedelic compound found in so-called “magic mushrooms.”

“It definitely affected my life, and I like to say it saved my life,” said Kostas, who had his first psilocybin treatment session in March 2015.

He’s not the only one being helped. A new study suggests that psilocybin might be better at helping alcoholics give up booze than any current treatments, researchers say.

The study reported that two doses of the drug reduced drinking by 83% on average among heavy drinkers when combined with psychotherapy.

“The treatment effects observed in our study were significantly larger than those reported in meta-analyses

TUESDAY, Aug. 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) — First Lady Jill Biden has COVID-19 and is experiencing “mild symptoms,” according to her staff.

“After testing negative for COVID-19 on Monday during her regular testing cadence, the First Lady began to develop cold-like symptoms late in the evening,” Biden’s communications director Elizabeth Alexander said in a statement released Tuesday. “She tested negative again on a rapid antigen test, but a PCR test came back positive.”

The First Lady has received two vaccines plus two boosters, and so far her symptoms are mild.

“She has been prescribed a course of [the antiviral drug] Paxlovid and, following CDC guidance, will isolate from others for at least five days,” Alexander said.

“Close contacts of the First Lady have been notified,” she added, noting that Biden “is currently staying at a private residence in South Carolina and will return home after she received two consecutive negative

TUESDAY, Aug. 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) — By combining technology with interactive art activities, older people at home can have museums come to them — and this can support their physical, mental and social well-being, a new study reports.

“This participatory art-based activity could become a model that could be offered in museums and arts institutions worldwide to promote active and healthy aging,” said lead author Dr. Olivier Beauchet, a professor of medicine at the University of Montreal.

On a global scale, social isolation is linked to a number of health threats, including an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as mental deterioration and even early death. The COVID-19 pandemic only added to seniors’ isolation due to the need for older folks to minimize their exposure.

Researchers said this new study — published Aug. 16 in the journal Frontiers in Medicine — demonstrates how virtual museum visits