Free Republic

A 12-week course of daily beetroot juice supplement for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) lowered blood pressure and improved how far patients could walk in six minutes in research. COPD includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, causes breathing difficulties and severely limits people's capacity for physical activity. The new research tested a concentrated beetroot juice supplement that is high in nitrate against a beetroot juice placebo. Professor Nicholas Hopkinson said, "There is some evidence beetroot juice as a source of nitrate supplementation could be used by athletes. Higher levels of nitrate in the blood can increase the availability of...

A deadly virus that few people even know exists is causing misery across intensive care units and pediatric hospitals, doctors warn. High rates of Covid, flu and even RSV during winter led to hospitals overflowing during winter during a situation dubbed a 'tripledemic'. But cases of human metapneumovirus (HMPV), which can cause bronchitis and pneumonia, shot up to record levels in spring, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s respiratory virus surveillance systems. It may partly explain why so many people tested negative for flu and Covid in recent months despite showing symptoms. Dr John Williams, a pediatrician...

Within minutes, six-year-old Rubjit Thindal went from happily chatting in the back seat of the car to collapsing and dying in her father's arms. "If we had known it was so serious, we would have called 911,'' Kuldip Thindal, Rubjit's distraught mother, said in Punjabi yesterday. "She just had a stomach ache -- she wasn't even crying.'' Rubjit was pronounced dead at hospital barely 24 hours after showing signs of a fever. Later, doctors told her parents she had the H1N1 influenza virus. She is believed to be the youngest person in Canada with the virus to have died.