Can dogs tell who has Covid? Plus more health news

Do you have COVID-19? With a little training, your dog might be more effective at figuring that out than even at-home antigen or sophisticated hospital tests.

Dogs are so good at it, according to a new research review, that they may be ready for mainstream medical use if people didn’t consider this a curiosity rather than a real possibility.

Man’s best friend can be faster, more precise and less expensive at detecting COVID than standard tests, according to the review of a growing number of studies.

Over the past couple of years, “it went from four papers to 29 peer-reviewed studies — that includes more than 400 scientists from over 30 countries and 31,000 samples,” said co-author Tommy Dickey, an emeritus professor of geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

While vast quantities of peels from the aloe vera plant are thrown out every year as agricultural waste, this natural ingredient has potential to be a powerful insecticide, new research suggests.

“It’s likely that millions of tons of aloe peels are disposed of globally every year,” said principal investigator Debasish Bandyopadhyay, from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “We wanted to find a way to add value and make them useful.”

The plant’s rinds can naturally ward off bugs because of several bioactive compounds found in extracts from the peels.

The researchers will present their results this week at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society, held online and in San Francisco.

Damaged teeth could one day be repaired with “living fillings” created from stem cells, a new study reports.

In the lab, researchers induced stem cells to form small, multicellular mini-organs that secrete the proteins that form tooth enamel, according to a report published Aug. 14 in the journal Developmental Cell.

“This is a critical first step to our long-term goal to develop stem cell-based treatments to repair damaged teeth and regenerate those that are lost,” co-author Dr. Hai Zhang, a professor of restorative dentistry at the University of Washington School of Dentistry, said in a school news release.

Tooth enamel is the hardest tissue in the human body. It protects teeth from the mechanical stresses of chewing and helps them resist decay, researchers said in background notes.

Teens’ desire to start smoking, and later to keep smoking, may be linked to differences in gray matter in their brains, a new study reveals.

Researchers found that reduced gray matter in the left frontal lobe was found in kids who started smoking by age 14. This area is involved in decision-making and rule-breaking.

Once they started smoking, they also had reduced gray matter in the right frontal lobe, a region associated with seeking pleasure.

“Smoking is perhaps the most common addictive behavior in the world, and a leading cause of adult mortality,” said co-senior author Trevor Robbins, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the U.K.’s Cambridge University. “The initiation of a smoking habit is most likely to occur during adolescence. Any way of detecting an increased chance of this, so we can target interventions, could help save millions of lives.”

It’s fun to playfully toss a toddler into the air, or tote a kid piggyback-style on your shoulders.

But those delightful giggles may come with a risk of head injury from a typically overlooked hazard — the room’s ceiling fan.

Each year U.S. emergency rooms treat about 2,300 children for head injuries caused by ceiling fans, according to Consumer Product Safety Commission data collected between 2013 through 2021.

These ER-treated injuries totaled more than 20,500 over the period, a new study in Pediatrics reports.

And there are probably a lot more that go uncounted, said lead researcher Dr. Holly Hughes Garza, an epidemiologist at Dell Children’s Trauma and Injury Research Center in Austin, Texas.

Women who have larger breasts tend to exercise less or less intensely, according to a new study that suggests having breast reduction surgery could be a game changer.

Australian researchers looking at exercise participation for women in this category called for more accessible, publicly funded breast reduction and other interventions.

The study used survey results from nearly 2,000 women who were in the involved in the Parkrun program, which promotes 5K running and walking events. Participants were in Australia, England and South Africa.

Women with bigger breasts reported that reducing their breast size would improve their exercise performance and frequency. And among the survey participants, the 56 women who had already undergone breast reduction surgery said they lead healthier and more active lifestyles.

Muscle cramps can be sudden and excruciating. What causes them and what will make them go away — fast?

An emergency room doctor offered tips on treating, preventing and stopping these painful episodes in their tracks.

“Muscle cramps or excessive nerve stimulations in the muscles … are caused by stress to … the nerves within our muscles,” said Dr. Patrick McHugh, a specialist in emergency medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. “Causes include conditions such as low magnesium, low calcium, low thyroid [activity] or the kidneys or the liver being affected by dehydration and electrolyte imbalances.”

But that’s not all, he added.