As cold and flu season ramps up, health care experts are once again on high alert for the possibility of a tripledemic, or a surge brought on by the respiratory viruses that cause COVID-19, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. The good news is that this year, health officials have more tools at their disposal to combat them.

Americans ages 6 months and older are eligible to receive the newest COVID-19 vaccine and the annual flu vaccine. In addition, this year the Food and Drug Administration approved the first vaccine against RSV for use in late pregnancy and adults 60 years of age and older.

RSV, COVID-19 and the flu are all contagious respiratory illnesses that have similar symptoms, making it difficult to distinguish between the three viral infections without a lab test. Testing is the only way to know which virus is causing your symptoms. In fact, researchers are working to create one test that can detect COVID-19, RSV and the flu.

As a nursing professor with experience in public health promotion, I am often asked about the differences between these respiratory viruses. This year, I am fielding many questions about the timing of getting the new COVID-19 and RSV vaccines along with the flu shot, and whether they can be given together.

What to know about the symptoms

Symptoms of COVID-19, RSV and the flu can range from mild – or even no noticeable symptoms at all – to severe. Flu symptoms typically come on suddenly, while RSV and COVID-19 often start out mild but can become severe over time. In addition, while a flu infection does not typically affect one’s ability to taste or smell, the loss of taste or smell can be a common COVID-19 symptom.

All three infections can cause fevers and fatigue, while chills and body aches are more common with COVID-19 and the flu. More severe symptoms of these infections include difficulty breathing and subsequent infections like pneumonia.

Timing the shots

With the new RSV vaccine and updated COVID-19 vaccine now available and flu season just around the corner, a natural question is whether there is an optimal schedule for the three shots.

The answer to that question is, if you are eligible, to get these vaccines as soon as possible. It is important to consider that it takes approximately two weeks after vaccination for your body to develop antibodies from both the COVID-19 vaccines and the flu vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that anyone who is either unvaccinated or has previously received a COVID-19 vaccine before Sept. 12, 2023, to get the updated vaccine. This means now is the time to get the updated COVID-19 vaccine that targets a previously dominant variant of the omicron family.

The original COVID-19 vaccines and booster series have dramatically reduced the number of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and death rates from the virus.

While everyone 6 months of age and older is advised to receive both the COVID-19 and flu vaccines, certain populations have a higher risk for severe infection, such as pregnant women, and should be extra vigilant about getting vaccinated.

In addition, among those vaccinated against COVID-19, symptoms during an infection tend to be milder. However, due in part to the quickly evolving nature of the virus, it has become clear that immune protection from COVID-19 vaccination or infection diminishes over time. While studies show that the primary COVID-19 series maintains efficacy against severe disease and death six months after vaccination, protection after vaccination decreases over time. Viruses, such as those that cause COVID-19 and influenza, also continuously mutate and evolve.

The fact that COVID-19 vaccine immunity decreases over time and that viruses evolve are exactly why updated vaccines are so critical. Without a large uptake of updated vaccines in the population, COVID-19 infection rates could surge again.

Timing is also important with the flu vaccine. Flu cases typically begin to rise in October and peak between December and February, but can last through May. Ideally, people should get vaccinated before flu begins to spread, making the month of October the ideal flu vaccination time.

But if you miss that deadline, it is absolutely better to get vaccinated later in the season than not at all. Flu, COVID-19 and RSV vaccines are available at your health care provider’s office, your local health department and most retail pharmacies, although access to the newly updated COVID-19 vaccine is still limited in some areas of the country.

A difficult respiratory virus season ahead

While infections and hospitalizations from COVID-19 declined dramatically in 2023, experts are remaining vigilant against the possibility of new, more-infectious variants causing another fall and winter surge. Adults 65 and older continue to be the highest-risk group for severe infection.

Flu seasons are inherently difficult to predict. Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, flu cases have been lower than prior to the pandemic. However, the 2022-2023 flu season still caused over 300,000 hospitalizations and up to 98,000 flu-releated deaths, making vaccination an important prevention tool.

To further compound this, flu vaccine rates have been lower during the pandemic, suggesting that Americans may be out of the habit of getting their annual flu shot.

Shots can be given together

Many are also wondering whether they can or should get the updated COVID-19 booster, the new RSV vaccine and the flu shot at the same time. The good news is, the CDC clearly indicates that it is safe for both adults and children who are eligible for the updated COVID-19 vaccine to get this vaccine simultaneously with the annual flu shot.

A 2022 study found that common vaccine side effects, such as pain at the injection site, occurred at slightly higher rates when someone received the flu vaccine and a COVID-19 vaccine at the same time, as opposed to receiving only a COVID-19 booster. However, those reactions, including fatigue and headache, were mild and resolved within a day or two. In addition, a recent study found that the immune response was the same when both vaccines were given together compared to when given separately.

Since the RSV vaccine is new, there is no data yet on receiving all three vaccines at the same time. Instead, those at the highest risk of RSV infection should get this vaccine as soon as they are able.

Community matters too

Getting the COVID-19, RSV and flu vaccines isn’t just about your own health – it’s about family and community health too. Communities with higher vaccination rates have fewer opportunities to spread the virus.

Keep in mind that many people cannot be vaccinated, because they have weakened immune systems or are undergoing treatments. They depend on those around them for protection. While one person may experience mild symptoms if they contract RSV, COVID-19 or the flu, they could spread the virus to others who could become severely ill.

Because it’s impossible to predict how people will react if they get sick, getting the flu and COVID-19 vaccines – and the RSV vaccine if you are eligible – is the best prevention strategy.

This is an updated version of an article that was originally published on Sept. 22, 2022.

Libby Richards, Associate Professor of Nursing, Purdue University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Raise your hand if you regularly find yourself walking up a flight of stairs. What about carrying heavy bags of groceries? How about picking up your child or grandchild? Most of us would raise our hands to doing at least one of those weekly, or even daily.

As people age, it can become more and more difficult to perform some physical tasks, even those that are normal activities of daily living. However, prioritizing physical fitness and health as you get older can help you go through your normal day-to-day routine without feeling physically exhausted at the end of the day.

It can also help you continue to have special memories with your family and loved ones that you might not have been able to have if you weren’t physically active. For example, I ran two half-marathons with my dad when he was in his 60s!

I am an exercise physiologist who studies how people can use resistance training to improve human performance, whether it be in sports and other recreational settings, in everyday life, or both. I am also a certified strength and conditioning specialist. My career has given me the opportunity to design exercise programs for kids, college athletes and elderly adults.

Staying physically active as you get older doesn’t need to include running a half-marathon or trying to be a bodybuilder; it could be as simple as trying to get through the day without feeling winded after you go up a flight of stairs. Although our muscles naturally get weaker as we age, there are ways we can combat that to help improve quality of life as we get older.

Muscle loss and chronic disease

One of the most important parts of exercise programming, no matter who I am working with, is proper resistance training to build muscle strength. Some amount of age-related loss of muscle function is normal and inevitable. But by incorporating resistance training that is appropriate and safe at any ability level, you can slow down the rate of decline and even prevent some loss of muscle function.

The medical term for a condition that involves age-related loss of muscle function and mass is sarcopenia. Sarcopenia can begin as early as age 40, but it tends to be more common in adults age 60 and older. Sarcopenia is associated with a number of health issues such as increased risk of falling, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disease, among others.

In one of our team’s previous studies, we saw that otherwise healthy individuals with sarcopenia had issues delivering vital nutrients to muscle. This could lead to greater likelihood of various diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes, and slow down recovery from exercise.

Recent estimates suggest that sarcopenia affects 10% to 16% of the elderly population worldwide. But even if a person doesn’t have clinically diagnosed sarcopenia, they may still have some of the underlying symptoms that, if not dealt with, could lead to sarcopenia.

Strength training is key

So the question is, what can be done to reverse this decline?

Recent evidence suggests that one of the key factors leading to sarcopenia is low muscle strength. In other words, combating or reversing sarcopenia, or both, may be best done with a proper resistance-training program that prioritizes improving strength. In fact, the decline in muscle strength seems to occur at a much faster rate than the decline in muscle size, underscoring the importance of proper strength training as people age.

Continuing to regularly strength train with moderate to heavy weights has been shown to be not only effective at combating the symptoms of sarcopenia but also very safe when done properly. The best way to make sure you are strength training properly is to seek out guidance from a qualified individual such as a personal trainer or strength and conditioning specialist.

Despite the clear benefits of strength training, it’s been shown that only about 13% of Americans age 50 and older do some form of strength training at least twice a week.

Finding what works for you

So how does a person properly strength train as they age?

The National Strength and Conditioning Association, a leading organization in advancing strength and conditioning around the world, states that for older adults, two to three days per week of strength training can be incredibly helpful for maintaining healthy muscle and bone and combating a number of chronic conditions.

The organization recommends that these workouts involve one to two exercises involving multiple joints per major muscle group, with six to 12 repetitions per set. These are done at an intensity of 50% to 85% of what’s known as one-repetition maximum – the most weight you could handle for a single repetition – with the exception of body weight exercises that use one’s own body weight as the resistance, such as pushups.

I would also recommend resting for about two to three minutes between sets, or even up to five minutes if the set was challenging. For older adults, particularly those age 60 and older, the National Strength and Conditioning Association guidelines suggest that a program like this be performed two to three days per week, with 24 to 48 hours between sessions.

Making life’s tasks lighter

The guidelines above are only one example out of many options, but they provide a framework that you can use to build your own program. However, I would highly recommend seeking out a professional in the field to give specific exercise programming advice that can be tailored to your own needs and goals as you age.

Following such a program would give your muscles an excellent stimulus to enhance strength, while also allowing enough recovery, a very important consideration as people age. You might think it looks like a huge time commitment, but an exercise routine like this can be done in less than an hour. This means that in less than three hours of strength training per week you can help improve your muscle health and reduce the risk of getting sarcopenia and associated health issues.

It’s also important to note that there is no one right way to do resistance training, and it needn’t involve traditional weight equipment. Group classes like Pilates and yoga or those that involve circuit training and work with resistance bands can all produce similar results. The key is to get out and exercise regularly, whatever that entails.

Zachary Gillen, Assistant Professor of Exercise Physiology, Mississippi State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

When you hear the word comet, you might imagine a bright streak moving across the sky. You may have a family member who saw a comet before you were born, or you may have seen one yourself when comet Nishimura passed by Earth in September 2023. But what are these special celestial objects made of? Where do they come from, and why do they have such long tails?

As a planetarium director, I spend most of my time getting people excited about and interested in space. Nothing piques people’s interest in Earth’s place in the universe quite like comets. They’re unpredictable, and they often go undetected until they get close to the Sun. I still get excited when one comes into view.

What exactly is a comet?

Comets are leftover material from the formation of the solar system. As the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago, most gas, dust, rock and metal ended up in the Sun or the planets. What did not get captured was left over as comets and asteroids.

Because comets are clumps of rock, dust, ice and the frozen forms of various gases and molecules, they’re often called “dirty snowballs” or “icy dirtballs” by astronomers. Theses clumps of ice and dirt make up what’s called the comet nucleus.

Outside the nucleus is a porous, almost fluffy layer of ice, kind of like a snow cone. This layer is surrounded by a dense crystalline crust, which forms when the comet passes near the Sun and its outer layers heat up. With a crispy outside and a fluffy inside, astronomers have compared comets to deep-fried ice cream.

Most comets are a few miles wide, and the largest known is about 85 miles wide. Because they are relatively small and dark compared with other objects in the solar system, people can’t see them unless the comet gets close to the Sun.

Pin the tail on the comet

As a comet moves close to the Sun, it heats up. The various frozen gases and molecules making up the comet change directly from solid ice to gas in a process called sublimation. This sublimation process releases dust particles trapped under the comet’s surface.

The dust and released gas form a cloud around the comet called a coma. This gas and dust interact with the Sun to form two different tails.

The first tail, made up of gas, is called the ion tail. The Sun’s radiation strips electrons from the gases in the coma, leaving them with a positive charge. These charged gases are called ions. Wind from the Sun then pushes these charged gas particles directly away from the Sun, forming a tail that appears blue in color. The blue color comes from large numbers of carbon monoxide ions in the tail.

The dust tail forms from the dust particles released during sublimation. These are pushed away from the Sun by pressure caused by the Sun’s light. The tail reflects the sunlight and swoops behind the comet as it moves, giving the comet’s tail a curve.

The closer a comet gets to the Sun, the longer and brighter its tail will grow. The tail can grow significantly longer than the nucleus and clock in around half a million miles long.

Where do comets come from?

All comets have highly eccentric orbits. Their paths are elongated ovals with extreme trajectories that take them both very close to and very far from the Sun.

An object will orbit faster the closer it is to the Sun, as angular momentum is conserved. Think about how an ice skater spins faster when they bring their arms in closer to their body – similarly, comets speed up when they get close to the Sun. Otherwise, comets spend most of their time moving relatively slowly through the outer reaches of the solar system.

A lot of comets likely originate in a far-out region of our solar system called the Oort cloud.

The Oort cloud is predicted to be a round shell of small solar system bodies that surround the Earth’s solar system with an innermost boundary about 2,000 times farther from the Sun than Earth. For reference, Pluto is only about 40 times farther.

Comets from the Oort cloud take over 200 years to complete their orbits, a metric called the orbital period. Because of their long periods, they’re called long-period comets. Astronomers often don’t know much about these comets until they get close to the inner solar system.

Short-period comets, on the other hand, have orbital periods of less than 200 years. Halley’s comet is a famous comet that comes close to the Sun every 75 years.

While that’s a long time for a human, that’s a short period for a comet. Short-period comets generally come from the Kuiper Belt, an asteroid belt out beyond Neptune and, most famously, the home of Pluto.

There’s a subset of short-period comets that get only to about Jupiter’s orbit at their farthest point from the Sun. These have orbital periods of less than 20 years and are called Jupiter-family comets.

Comets’ time in the inner solar system is relatively short, generally on the order of weeks to months. As they approach the Sun, their tails grow and they brighten before fading on their way back to the outer solar system.

But even the short-period comets don’t come around often, and their porous interior means they can sometimes fall apart. All of this makes their behavior difficult to predict. Astronomers can track comets when they are coming toward the inner solar system and make predictions based on observations. But they never quite know if a comet will get bright enough to be seen with the naked eye as it passes Earth, or if it will fall apart and fizzle out as it enters the inner solar system.

Either way, comets will keep people looking up at the skies for years to come.

Shannon Schmoll, Director of the Abrams Planetarium, Michigan State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new era of digital connection: In the absence of in-person gatherings, many people instead found themselves face-to-face with their co-workers and loved ones on a screen.

Videoconferencing has provided many benefits and conveniences. However, it isn’t surprising that constantly seeing ourselves on screens might come with some downsides as well.

Prior to the pandemic, studies showed that surgeons were seeing increasing numbers of patients requesting alterations of their image to match filtered or doctored photos from social media apps. Now, several years into the pandemic, surgeons are seeing a new boom of cosmetic surgical requests related to videoconferencing. In one study of cosmetic procedures during the pandemic, 86% of cosmetic surgeons reported videoconferencing as the most common reason for cosmetic concerns among their patients.

Despite the fact that many aspects of life have returned to some version of pre-pandemic normal, it’s clear that videoconferencing and social media will be with us for the foreseeable future. So what does that mean when it comes to appearance satisfaction and making peace with the image that’s reflected back at us?

For the past 10 years, I have worked as a specialist in obsessive-compulsive disorders, eating disorders and anxiety. Since the pandemic, I, too, have seen increasing numbers of therapy clients reporting that they struggle with appearance concerns related to videochatting and social media.

Zooming in on image and appearance dissatisfaction

Every person has perceptions and thoughts about their appearance. These can be neutral, negative or positive. We all look at ourselves in the mirror and may have even experienced distress while looking at our reflection.

There are a number of factors that may lead to appearance dissatisfaction. A preoccupation with thoughts, feelings or images of one’s own appearance is linked to the action of “mirror gazing,” or staring at one’s reflection. Researchers suggest that this type of selective self-focused attention and mirror gazing can lead to negative fixations on specific attributes or minor flaws, which in turn intensify the preoccupation with these attributes.

Other factors that can contribute to appearance dissatisfaction include low self-esteem, societal beliefs around appearance, peer and parental influences, temperament and genetic predispositions to mental health conditions.

Appearance dissatisfaction and negative evaluations of self are associated with depression, lower self-esteem, habitual negative thinking and increased social anxiety. What’s more, research suggests that these preoccupations can contribute to the development of eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors, such as frequently restricting food intake or exercising without refueling.

The ‘Zoom’ effect

With the ubiquity of Zoom meetings, FaceTime calls, selfies and the constancy of documenting our lives on social media, access to our own image can often feel inescapable. And for some people, this can magnify feelings of appearance dissatisfaction that may have been more fleeting before the Zoom era.

Since the pandemic, screen time has increased for both adults and children. What’s worse, recent research suggests that the video and photo reflections we see of ourselves are distorted.

Videoconferencing, taking selfies and posting on social media are visually based activities where appearance is often the primary focus. All of them have in common the fact that a person’s image is either live or shared in an immediate manner. Perhaps not surprisingly, these image-based platforms have been significantly associated with appearance dissatisfaction, anxiety, depression and eating disorders.

One study found that those who engaged in more videochatting appearance comparisons, meaning those who looked at others’ appearance during a video call and sized up their own appearance in comparison, experienced lower appearance satisfaction. This study also found that people who used more photo-editing features on videochat platforms were more likely to compare themselves with others and spend more time looking at themselves on video calls.

One thing that is unique to videoconferencing is that it allows people to easily compare themselves with others and watch themselves sharing and speaking in real time. A 2023 study found that discomfort with one’s appearance during videoconferencing led to an increased fixation on appearance, which in turn led to impaired work performance.

Researchers also suggest that appearance dissatisfaction is associated with virtual-meeting fatigue. The research reports that this could be due to negative self-focused attention, cognitive overload and anxiety around being stared at or being negatively evaluated based on appearance.

This last point is notable because of the difficulty videochatters have determining where other users are looking. Using the concept of the “spotlight effect” − our tendency as humans to overestimate how much others are judging our appearance − this difficulty may lead to more anxiety and individuals believing that others are evaluating their appearance during a video call.

How to combat appearance dissatisfaction in the digital age

If you find yourself criticizing your appearance every time you hop onto a videoconference call, it may be time to evaluate your relationship with your appearance and seek out help from a qualified therapist.

Here are some questions to consider to help determine whether your thought patterns or behaviors are problematic:

• How much of my day is spent thinking about my appearance?

• What sort of behaviors am I doing around my appearance?

• Do I feel distressed if I do not perform these behaviors?

• Does this behavior align with my values and how I want to be spending my time?

Another strategy is to be intentional about focusing on what other people are saying in a videoconference instead of peering at your own face.

When it comes to helping others who might be struggling with appearance dissatisfaction, it is important to focus on the person’s innate qualities beyond appearance. People should be conscious of their comments, no matter how well intentioned. Negative comments about appearance have been linked to worsened self-esteem and mental health. When viewing yourself or your peers on video and social media, try focusing on the person as a whole and not as parts of a body.

Reducing screen time can make a difference as well. Research shows that reducing social media use by 50% can improve appearance satisfaction in both teens and adults.

When used in moderation, videoconferencing and social media are tools to connect us with others, which ultimately is a key piece in satisfaction and well-being.

Emily Hemendinger, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.