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Health

HRT ‘potentially important’ in reducing women’s dementia risk | Health

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Hormone replacement therapy may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease in millions of women at risk of developing the condition, research suggests.

Dementia is one of the world’s biggest health threats. The number of people living with the condition worldwide is set to nearly triple to 153 million by 2050, and experts have warned it presents a major and rapidly growing threat to future health and social care systems in every community, country and continent.

Almost two in three people with Alzheimer’s are female, and about a quarter of women in the UK alone carry a gene called APOE4, which is the strongest risk factor gene for the disease.

A team of researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the University of Edinburgh have found evidence of the “potential importance” of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in women carrying the APOE4 gene. The study was published in the Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy journal.

Although they stressed they could not say for sure that HRT cut the risk in women, the findings were “really important” amid limited drug options for dementia and an urgent need for novel treatments.

HRT, which helps control symptoms of the menopause, is associated with better memory, cognitive function and larger brain volumes in later life in women with the APOE4 gene, the researchers found.

Prof Michael Hornberger, of UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “It’s too early to say for sure that HRT reduces dementia risk in women, but our results highlight the potential importance of HRT and personalised medicine in reducing Alzheimer’s risk.

“The next stage of this research will be to carry out an intervention trial to confirm the impact of starting HRT early on cognition and brain health. It will also be important to analyse which types of HRT are most beneficial.”

In the study, researchers found that HRT was most effective when given during perimenopause – where symptoms build up months or years before periods stop – and could lead to brains that appear several years younger.

Prof Anne-Marie Minihane, also of Norwich Medical School, and the co-leader of the study, said: “We know that 25% of women in the UK are carriers of the APOE4 gene and that almost two-thirds of Alzheimer’s patients are women.

“In addition to living longer, the reason behind the higher female prevalence is thought to be related to the effects of menopause and the impact of the APOE4 genetic risk factor being greater in women.

“We wanted to find out whether HRT could prevent cognitive decline in at-risk APOE4 carriers.”

The team analysed data from 1,178 women taking part in the European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia initiative, which was set up to study participants’ brain health over time.

The project, which involves 10 countries, tracked the brains of 1,906 people over 50 who did not have dementia at the start of the study. For the new research, experts looked at the results of cognitive tests and brain volumes as recorded by MRI scans.

The results showed that APOE4 carriers who also used HRT had better cognition and higher brain volumes than people not on HRT and non-APOE4 carriers.

Dr Rasha Saleh, of Norwich Medical School, said: “We found that HRT use is associated with better memory and larger brain volumes among at-risk APOE4 gene carriers. The associations were particularly evident when HRT was introduced early – during the transition to menopause, known as perimenopause.

“This is really important because there have been very limited drug options for Alzheimer’s disease for 20 years and there is an urgent need for new treatments. The effects of HRT in this observation study, if confirmed in an intervention trial, would equate to a brain age that is several years younger.”

Minihane said the team did not look at dementia cases, but that cognitive performance and lower brain volumes are predictive of future dementia risk.

The risk of Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia increases with age, affecting an estimated one in 14 people over the age of 65 and one in every six over the age of 80. Inheriting APOE4 does not mean someone will definitely develop the condition.

Prof Craig Ritchie, a co-leader of the study from the University of Edinburgh, said it “highlights the need to challenge many assumptions about early Alzheimer’s disease and its treatment, especially when considering women’s brain health”.

He added: “An effect on both cognition and brain changes on MRI supports the notion that HRT has tangible benefit. These initial findings need replication, however, in other populations.”

Dr Sara Imarisio, head of strategic initiatives at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said the findings were “encouraging” but need to be confirmed in further studies.
“They provide evidence that HRT could have some cognitive benefits, particularly in women who carry the APOE4 Alzheimer’s risk gene,” she said. “The next step is to investigate this in more detail.”

Imarisio said if the new findings were subsequently confirmed, it could pave the way for clinical trials to see if HRT can eventually prevent dementia.

Dr Richard Oakley, associate director of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Studies of this kind are important as they hint at a link between HRT and the changes to the brain. We need more studies, on a larger scale, to better understand this link.”

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Science

Second potentially habitable Earth-size planet found orbiting nearby star

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CNN
 — 

A NASA mission has spotted an Earth-size exoplanet orbiting a small star about 100 light-years away.

The planet, named TOI 700 e, is likely rocky and 95% the size of our world. The celestial body is the fourth planet to be detected orbiting the small, cool M dwarf star TOI 700. All of the exoplanets were found by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS mission.

Another planet in the system, discovered in 2020 and named TOI 700 d, is also the size of Earth. Both of these exoplanets exist in their star’s habitable zone, or just the right distance from the star that liquid water might potentially exist on their surfaces. The potential for liquid water suggests that the planets themselves could be, or might once have been, habitable for life.

The discovery of the fourth planet was announced Tuesday at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, and a study about the exoplanet has been accepted for publication by The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“This is one of only a few systems with multiple, small, habitable-zone planets that we know of,” said lead study author Emily Gilbert, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in a statement.

“That makes the TOI 700 system an exciting prospect for additional follow-up. Planet e is about 10% smaller than planet d, so the system also shows how additional TESS observations help us find smaller and smaller worlds.”

Small, cool M dwarf stars like TOI 700 are common in the universe, and many have been found to host exoplanets in recent years, like the TRAPPIST-1 system and its seven exoplanets that the James Webb Space Telescope will observe.

Closest to the star is TOI 700 b, which is 90% of Earth’s size and completes one rapid orbit around the star every 10 Earth days. Then there’s TOI 700 c, which is 2.5 times bigger than our planet and finishes one orbit around the star every 16 days. These planets are both likely tidally locked, meaning they always show the same side to the star — much like how the same side of the moon always faces Earth.

The two exoplanets in the habitable zone of the star, planets d and e, have longer orbits of 37 days and 28 days, respectively, because they’re a little more distant from the star. The newly announced planet e is actually located between planets c and d.

The TESS mission, launched in 2018, monitors large portions of the night sky for 27 days at a time, staring at the brightest stars and tracking their changes in brightness. These dips in luminosity indicate orbiting planets as they pass in front of their stars, called transits. The mission began observing the southern sky in 2018, then turned to the northern sky. In 2020, the mission refocused on the southern sky again for additional observations, revealing the fourth planet in the TOI 700 system.

“If the star was a little closer or the planet a little bigger, we might have been able to spot TOI 700 e in the first year of TESS data,” said study coauthor Ben Hord, a doctoral student at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a graduate researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement. “But the signal was so faint that we needed the additional year of transit observations to identify it.”

While the researchers use other space and ground-based observatories to conduct follow-up observations of the intriguing planetary system, more TESS data is pouring in.

“TESS just completed its second year of northern sky observations,” said Allison Youngblood, a research astrophysicist and the TESS deputy project scientist at Goddard. “We’re looking forward to the other exciting discoveries hidden in the mission’s treasure trove of data.”

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Health

Researchers warn of potentially fatal condition for open-water swimmers | Swimming

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A potentially life-threatening condition that can affect fit and healthy open-water swimmers causing them to “drown from the inside” may involve a buildup of fluid in the heart muscle, researchers have suggested.

Swimming-induced pulmonary oedema – SIPE – is a form of immersion pulmonary oedema and involves the accumulation of fluid in the lungs of swimmers without it having been inhaled. The condition is thought to be a result of increased pressure on the body’s blood vessels as a result of exertion, immersion and cold.

The condition can cause breathing difficulties, low blood oxygen levels, coughing, frothy or blood-stained spit and, in some cases, death.

“I suspect that the majority of people who die in the water [having entered voluntarily] – that is, swimmers or divers – die from immersion pulmonary oedema, not drowning,” said Dr Peter Wilmshurst, a consultant cardiologist at Royal Stoke University Hospital and a member of the UK Diving Medical Committee, who first described IPE in the 1980s.

Wilmshurst added that the condition is far from rare: about 1 in 200 people who take part in Sweden’s annual race, the Vansbro Swim, get SIPE, while 1 in 20 young men have been reported as having the condition during selection for the US Navy Seals.

While cases frequently occur in people who are fit and healthy, there are a number of known risk factors, including age, having high blood pressure, being a woman, and swimming in cold water.

Figures from Sport England suggesting about 2.7 million people participated in open water swimming in England between November 2020 and November 2021.

Now a medical team in the UK who diagnosed IPE in a fit and healthy woman in her 50s, who had been swimming in open water at 17C, say they found fluid accumulation in her heart muscle.

“While it is conceivable that this represents a pre-existing inflammatory process such as myocarditis, which contributed towards IPE, it is also potentially a consequence of the acute episode,” the team wrote in the journal BMJ case reports, noting that it is not the first report of heart muscle dysfunction in the context of IPE.

The woman described how she experienced difficulties while participating in a night swim at a quarry. “When I got out, I undid my wetsuit and immediately felt the sensation of my lungs filling with fluid,” she said, noting that she developed a cough and frothy pink sputum. “I was very lucky to be surrounded by a great team at the quarry who all knew I had SIPE.”

The woman’s symptoms settled within two hours of reaching the emergency department and she was discharged from hospital the next day.

The authors say that while the woman had received a Covid booster jab a few hours before the swim, this is unlikely to be related to the IPE. Indeed, the woman noted that she had experienced a milder form of breathlessness after swimming in the sea two weeks before, and during other exercise. “I had just assumed I was a bit under the weather,” she said in the report.

Wilmshurt, who was not involved in compiling the report, also said it was unlikely that the vaccination caused the fluid in the heart muscle, given the short time between the jab and onset of symptoms. While it was not possible to say whether it was caused by IPE or was a pre-exisiting condition, he said, he suspected the former.

Dr Doug Watts, medical director of DDRC Healthcare, specialists in diving medicine, said people should be aware of IPE, and get out of the water immediately and seek medical attention if they find themselves unusually short of breath while swimming. “If you have one episode, you’re likely to have another episode, and the next one might be fatal,” he said.

Wilmshurst said it is important not to go open-water swimming alone, and cited the need for medical attention in the case of IPE. “If you get it … it may be the first sign that you’ve got underlying heart disease or hypertension,” he said.

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Science

Potentially habitable Earth-like worlds found in our backyard

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Astronomers have discovered two potentially habitable worlds orbiting a red dwarf star in our cosmic backyard. The extra-solar planets or “exoplanets” are located just 16 light-years away and have masses similar to that of our planet. 

They are located in the ‘habitable zone’ of their star, GJ 1002, defined as the shell around a star that is neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water, a vital ingredient for life.

“Nature seems bent on showing us that Earth-like planets are very common,” study author Alejandro Suárez Mascareño of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC)  said in a statement (opens in new tab). “With these two we now know seven in planetary systems quite near to the sun.”

Related: Astronomers discover strange twin alien planets might be water worlds

Because liquid water is essential for life to exist, planets in habitable zones are the focus of our search for life elsewhere in the universe, though just being in a habitable zone is no guarantee of being able to support life. For example, in the solar system both Venus and Mars are in the sun’s habitable zone yet neither could currently support life.

Because GJ 1002 is a relatively cool red dwarf, its habitable zone  —  and these two new exoplanets  —  are much closer to it than Earth is to the sun. The innermost planet, designated GJ 1002b, takes just around 10 days to orbit the star while the outer planet, GJ 1002c, completes an orbit in 21 days.

Infographic comparing the relative distance between the discovered planets and their star with the inner planets of the Solar System. The region marked in green represents the habitable zone of the two planetary systems. (Image credit: Design: Alejandro Suárez Mascareño (IAC). Planets of the Solar System: NASA)

“GJ 1002 is a red dwarf star, with barely one-eighth the mass of the sun,” study co-author and IAC researcher, Vera María Passegger, said in the statement. “It is quite a cool, faint star. This means that its habitability zone is very close to the star.”

The proximity of both planets to Earth means that they could be excellent targets for astronomers aiming to study the atmospheres of Earth-like worlds outside the solar system. 

The exoplanets were discovered as the result of a collaboration between the European Southern Observatory (ESO) instrument ESPRESSO (Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations) installed at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in the Atacama desert region of Northern Chile, and CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exoearths with Near-infrared and optical Échelle Spectrographs) at the Calar Alto Observatory in Andalucía, Southern Spain.

The two instruments observed the planets’ parent star during two separate periods, CARMENES studied GJ 1002 between 2017 and 2019, while ESPRESSO collected data from the red dwarf between 2019 and 2021.

CARMENES’ sensitivity over a wide range of near-infrared wavelengths makes it well-suited to detecting variations in the velocities of stars that can indicate orbiting planets. 

“Because of its low temperature the visible light from GJ 1002 is too faint to measure its variations in velocity with the majority of spectrographs” a researcher at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), Ignasi Ribas, explained.

While ESPRESSO and the light-gathering power of the VLT allowed astronomers to make observations of the system that wouldn’t have been possible with any other Earth-based telescope, it was the combination of these two powerful instruments that delivered results which in isolation would have struggled to achieve and lead to the discovery of these exoplanets.

“Either of the two groups would have had many difficulties if they had tackled this work independently,” concluded Suárez Mascareño. “Jointly we have been able to get much further than we would have done acting independently.”

The astronomers now hope to use the ANDES spectrograph on the Extremely Large Telescope under construction in the atmosphere of GJ 1002c. 

The team’s research is published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. (opens in new tab)

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).



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Idaho murders: Kaylee Goncalves’ father believes suspect ‘chose to go’ upstairs to potentially target victims

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Idaho college murders: Father of student speaks out

Steve Goncalves, father of slain University of Idaho student Kaylee Goncalves joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss the investigation into the University of Idaho murders and talks about the life of his daughter.

MOSCOW, Idaho – The father of one of the four University of Idaho students who were killed in their off-campus home on Nov. 13 believes his daughter and her best friend may have been targeted based on the perpetrator’s suspected entry and exit point.

Steven Goncalves, father of deceased 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, on Sunday morning told “Fox & Friends” that the suspect’s alleged “entry and exit” point through a sliding glass door or window on the second floor of the home — which meets a hill on the ground level in the backyard — “are available without having to go upstairs or downstairs.” 

Goncalves and her childhood best friend, 21-year-old Madison Mogen, were found dead on the third floor of the Moscow, Idaho, residence around noon on Nov. 13, while victims Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend, 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, were found on the second floor.

“I’m not a professional, so I want to specify that, but they’ve said the entry point was the slider or the window. It was the middle floor. So, to me, he doesn’t have to go upstairs,” Goncalves said. “His entry and exit are available without having to go upstairs or downstairs. Looks like he probably may have not gone downstairs. We don’t know that for sure, but he obviously went upstairs. So I’m using logic that he chose to go up there when he didn’t have to.”

UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO MURDERS TIMELINE: WHAT WE KNOW

A photo of Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, who were slaughtered Sunday with tqo other University of Idaho students.
(Instagram)

His daughter’s text messages sent before the attack revealed to Goncalves that she was not in fear at the time, he added.

IDAHO MURDERS: FORMER FIRST-FLOOR TENANT OF MOSCOW HOME SAYS HE COULDN’T HEAR ACTIVITY FROM OTHER FLOORS

“So, I’m just putting the dots together,” he said. “As far as the investigators, they’re very tight-lipped, and they’re keeping everything close to their vest, and I understand that, and I’m probably not the right person to share all these things with. So, I’m just trusting … that their case is super tight, and they don’t really need to reach out to the community, and … all the evidence is right there in that home.”

A view of the back of the house where four University of Idaho students were killed on Nov. 13.
(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

The Moscow Police Department has maintained that the quadruple homicide three weeks ago was “an isolated, targeted attack,” but authorities also say it is unclear whether a specific victim was the target or their residence in general. All four victims were stabbed to death and had been stabbed multiple times, while only “some” victims had defensive wounds, according to the Latah County coroner.

IDAHO MURDERS: KAYLEE GONCALVES’ MOM SAYS POLICE RULED OUT CERTAIN PEOPLE ‘VERY FAST’

The grieving father said he “can’t” specify whether he believes his daughter or any of the other victims were targets of the attack.

Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, along with the women’s two other roommates in Kaylee Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the slayings.
(@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)

“I asked for permission to do just that, and they said no,” Goncalves said of police. “I probably over-disclosed information that they wish I wouldn’t have said, but the story’s going cold. There’s less people coming to Moscow. I’m not going to go sleep in my bed knowing that I could get up and I could go to town and I could do something, and I’m not going to go away. I hate to be a pain, but as a father, I just can’t even sleep thinking that I could be doing something.”

IDAHO COLLEGE MURDERS: KAYLEE GONCALVES’ DAD HAS ‘INKLING’ ABOUT VICTIMS’ ‘DIFFERING BEHAVIOR’ BEFORE ATTACK

Goncalves also wants police to share the alibis of certain individuals. 

General views of the Moscow, Idaho home taken on Wednesday, November 16, 2002, where four students of the University of Idaho were murdered, show red stains running down the foundation of the house.
(Credit: Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

“Just share the alibi,” he said. “If you’re not sharing an alibi, to me, it tells me that you’re not 100% confident that it’s going to stick.”

IF IDAHO VICTIMS ‘WERE GOING TO GO, THEY WERE GOING TO GO TOGETHER,’ FRIEND SAYS

The father went on to describe Kaylee as a “hard worker” and a “Punky Brewster-type girl.”

“We missed out on a really smart person,” he said.

Goncalves and Mogen considered each other sisters.
(Friend of Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen)

University of Idaho students who left campus for Thanksgiving break were given the option to stay home and learn remotely instead of returning to campus with a suspect still on the run. 

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Police also have yet to announce any kind of motive in the quadruple murder.

Authorities are asking anyone with information about the murders to call 208-883-7180 or tipline@ci.moscow.id.us.

Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.

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Sports

England vs USA: USMNT takes on England in potentially decisive World Cup meeting

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CNN
 — 

After a frustrating 1-1 draw against Wales, this World Cup isn’t about to get any easier for the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT).

A promising first-half performance and a well-taken goal from Timothy Weah was canceled out by Gareth Bale’s late penalty on Monday as the youthful USMNT team was denied victory at the start of its campaign in Qatar.

Next up is England, the favorite to top Group B having thrashed Iran 6-2 earlier this week – an ominous sign for Wales and the USMNT in their bids to qualify for the knockout stages.

But win or draw against England and US coach Gregg Berhalter will know that a berth in the next round could be within his side’s grasp with a game against Iran to come.

It will be the biggest test the USMNT’s so-called “Golden Generation” has faced under Berhalter and potentially an era-defining game for a side that struggled for form throughout the qualifying rounds.

“We know how much quality England’s going to have. But again, we think that we match up well against them,” US captain Tyler Adams said earlier this week, according to ESPN.

“We have an athletic team. We think that against the ball we’re really dominant at times. You saw that [against Wales] with our counter-pressing and how we’re able to create a lot of transition moments.”

Friday’s game will be played at Al Bayt Stadium in the city of Al Khor, kicking off at 2 p.m. ET.

You have to go all the way back to 2002 for the last time the USMNT defeated a European opponent at the World Cup, although it did secure a 1-1 draw against England at the 2010 edition of the tournament in South Africa.

Otherwise, results have tended to go in England’s favor, winning eight of the sides’ 11 meetings, and another victory would guarantee the 1996 World Cup winner’s progress to the knockout stages.

The good news for manager Gareth Southgate is that captain Harry Kane is fit to play after undergoing a scan on his ankle earlier this week, while Berhalter might look to 20-year-old Giovanni Reyna to sharpen his side’s attack.

Reyna was an unused substitute against Wales and said his fitness is “really good” having been blighted by injuries in recent months.

Wales and Iran contest the other Group B game on Friday when they meet at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium.

Despite being side-by-side in FIFA’s ranking list, Rob Page’s Wales team will be confident of a victory after England exposed Iran’s defensive frailties on Monday. For both teams, it feels like a must-win game in order to qualify for the knockout stages.

Host Qatar is also back in action on Friday against Senegal, two nations who both suffered defeats in their opening matches. Qatar was beaten 2-0 by Ecuador and Senegal lost by the same scoreline to Holland.

Those two victorious teams will be looking to make it two wins from two when they meet at the Khalifa International Stadium.

Wales vs Iran – 5am Eastern time

Qatar vs Senegal – 8am ET

Netherlands vs Ecuador – 11am ET

England vs USA – 2pm ET

US: Fox Sports

UK: BBC or ITV

Australia: SBS

Brazil: SportTV

Germany: ARD, ZDF, Deutsche Telekom

Canada: Bell Media

South Africa: SABC

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US

New York snow: A potentially historic storm is bearing down on western New York state, bringing treacherous snowfall that could damage infrastructure

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CNN
 — 

Heavy snowfall that has pounded parts of western New York state will persist into Friday, when the worst of the potentially historic storm may cause trees to topple and damage property.

“The snowfall will produce near zero visibility, difficult to impossible travel, damage to infrastructure, and paralyze the hardest-hit communities,” the National Weather Service said Thursday. “Very cold air will accompany this event, with temperatures 20 degrees below normal forecast by the weekend.”

“Historic snowfall exceeding 4 feet is likely around Buffalo,” it added Friday.

About 6 million people in five Great Lakes states – from Wisconsin to New York – are under snow alerts Friday, CNN Meteorologist Haley Brink said. Snow produced through lake effect will continue through Sunday in areas downwind of the Great Lakes, according to the National Weather Service.

In New York, places east of Lakes Erie and Ontario may see snowfall at a rate of more than 3 inches per hour, occasionally joined by lightning and gusty winds, the weather service warned.

“That level of snow coming down with that intensity is what creates the dangerousness the lack of ability to see on the roads,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday as she declared a state of emergency for 11 counties.

“When its coming down at that rate, it is almost impossible to clear the road to make it safe to travel,” Hochul said. “It will not be safe for a considerable amount of time for motorists to go back on the roads.”

Commercial traffic has been banned since Thursday afternoon on about 130 miles of the New York State Thruway (Interstate 90) in the Rochester and Buffalo area to the Pennsylvania border, Hochul’s office said. Other parts of major interstates – including 90, 290 and 990 – also have also been shut down,

Imploring residents to take caution this weekend, Hochul described the storm as a “major, major” snowfall event that could be as life-threatening as the November 2014 snowstorm that claimed the lives of 20 people in the Buffalo region.

Further, officials in New York’s Erie County – which includes Buffalo – also declared a state of emergency and banned driving beginning Thursday night.

“The lake effect snow from (the storm) is very heavy and may cause tree branches to fall and damage vehicles, property or powerlines. Watch where you park, and be aware of your surroundings if going outside,” Erie County officials wrote online.

The storm’s most intense snow is expected to lash the Buffalo area, where more than 4 feet could pile, making for a forecast not seen in more than 20 years. The city’s highest three-day snowfall is 56.1 inches, which occurred in December 2001, CNN Meteorologist Brandon Miller said.

Indeed, given the rate of snowfall, Buffalo may see a month’s worth of snow in only a few hours. That could make this month the snowiest November since 2000, when 45.6 inches in total fell in the city during the entire month, Miller added.

Already, residents of Williamstown in Oswego County near Lake Ontario saw 24 inches of snow as of Thursday evening, according to the weather service. In neighboring Oneida County, some spots were blanketed with 14 inches of snow in the 24 hours before Thursday evening, per the weather service.

Friday alone could bring more than 2 feet of snow, which would make it one of the top three snowiest days on record in Buffalo, according to Miller.

“Heavy lake effect snow off Lake Erie with 2-3” per hour snowfall rates will continue to result in extremely difficult travel this evening for the Buffalo Metro area east to Batavia, and also in Oswego County off Lake Ontario,” the National Weather Service in Buffalo said Thursday night.

“Additional accumulations of 2-3 feet of snow are expected downwind of lakes Erie and Ontario while 8-12” are likely downwind of the other 3 lakes by Sunday morning,” it added Friday.

Lake effect snow happens when very cold, windy conditions form over a relatively warm lake – meaning the lake might be 40 degrees while the air is zero degrees, Miller explained. The temperature clash creates instability, which allows for the most extreme winter weather to occur.

Due to the weather emergency, Sunday’s NFL game in Orchard Park, New York, between the Buffalo Bills and the Cleveland Browns has been moved to Detroit, the league announced Thursday.

Other areas affected by the storm include parts of the Upper Peninsula and the western Lower Peninsula of Michigan, where gusty winds and heavy snow will also cause near zero visibility and unsafe travel conditions.



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Health

NHS England to offer ‘potentially life-saving’ drug for aggressive breast cancer | Breast cancer

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Women with a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer have been given access to a “potentially life-saving” drug after NHS bosses struck a deal with its manufacturer.

Up to 1,600 women a year will be able to get pembrolizumab, which has the potential to leave some of those who take it completely free of cancer, NHS England said.

The drug – a form of immunotherapy – will be given to women with triple negative breast cancer, for which few treatments currently exist. Triple negative breast cancer patients have a shorter survival time than women with other forms of the disease and it is a particularly common form in those under 40, black women, and those who have inherited the BRCA gene.

Amanda Pritchard, the chief executive of NHS England, said the rollout of “an innovative, potentially life-saving treatment for one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer” was “fantastic news” and represented “a hugely significant moment for women”.

“It will give hope to those who are diagnosed and prevent the cancer from progressing, allowing people to live normal, healthy lives,” she added.

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has approved the drug in final draft guidance after successful negotiations over its price between NHS England and its maker, the pharmaceutical company MSB.

The health watchdog, which advises the NHS on which treatments are effective and represent value for money, has given the green light to the drug being used alongside chemotherapy to shrink a breast tumour before surgery, or on its own, after operations on adults with triple negative early breast cancer who are at high risk of it recurring or of locally advanced breast cancer.

“This new treatment can potentially lead to any detectable cancer disappearing by the time of surgery, meaning patients will then possibly face less invasive, breast-conserving surgery,” said Delyth Morgan, the chief executive of the charity Breast Cancer Now.

“Furthermore, by significantly reducing the likelihood of breast cancer recurring or spreading to other parts of the body where it becomes incurable secondary breast cancer, this treatment brings previous hope of more lives potentially being saved from this devastating disease.”

Nice said that the drug is “an additional lifeline” for those with triple negative breast cancer. It accounts for about one in five diagnoses of breast cancer but about one in four deaths from it.

“Clinical trial evidence shows that adding pembrolizumab to chemotherapy before surgery, then continuing with pembrolizumab alone after surgery increases the chance that the cancer will disappear. It also increases the time before any cancer recurs,” Nice said.

But, it said: “It is not clear if pembrolizumab increases how long people live.”

Nice added that the fact that triple negative breast cancer has a higher risk of recurrence than other forms of the disease, and the scarcity of proven treatments, helped persuade the approval.

The drug has been found to be effective in clinical trials in Britain. Lauren Sirey, an NHS nurse who received it as part of a trial at Barts Health trust in London, has been free of her cancer for almost five years after receiving it in 2017.

“Four months before my partner and I were due to marry I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer aged 31. I was offered the chance to participate in a clinical trial and am delighted to hear that this treatment has now been approved for use in the NHS,” she said.

“This treatment allowed me to make a full recovery and I’m now approaching my five-year all-clear.”

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Science

A skyscraper-sized ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid will zip through Earth’s orbit on Halloween

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A newly discovered, “potentially hazardous” asteroid almost the size of the world’s tallest skyscraper is set to tumble past Earth just in time for Halloween, according to NASA.

The asteroid, called 2022 RM4, has an estimated diameter of between 1,083 and 2,428 feet (330 and 740 meters) — just under the height of Dubai’s 2,716-foot-tall (828 m) Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. It will zoom past our planet at around 52,500 mph (84,500 km/h), or roughly 68 times the speed of sound, according to NASA (opens in new tab).

At its closest approach on Nov. 1, the asteroid will come within about 1.43 million miles (2.3 million kilometers) of Earth, around six times the average distance between Earth and the moon. By cosmic standards, this is a very slender margin.

Related: Why are asteroids and comets such weird shapes? (opens in new tab)

NASA flags any space object that comes within 120 million miles (193 million km) of Earth as a “near-Earth object” and classifies any large body within 4.65 million miles (7.5 million km) of our planet as “potentially hazardous.” Once flagged, these potential threats are closely watched by astronomers, who study them with radar for signs of any deviation from their predicted trajectories that could put them on a devastating collision course with Earth. 

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NASA tracks the locations and orbits of roughly 28,000 asteroids, pinpointing them with the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) — an array of four telescopes able to perform a total scan of the entire night sky every 24 hours.

Since ATLAS was brought online in 2017, it has spotted more than 700 near-Earth asteroids and 66 comets. Two of the asteroids detected by ATLAS, 2019 MO and 2018 LA, actually hit Earth, the former exploding off the southern coast of Puerto Rico and the latter crash-landing near the border of Botswana and South Africa. Fortunately, those asteroids were small and didn’t cause any damage.

NASA has estimated the trajectories of all the near-Earth objects beyond the end of the century. The good news is that Earth faces no known danger from an apocalyptic asteroid collision for at least the next 100 years, according to NASA (opens in new tab).

Related: 8 ways to stop an asteroid: Nuclear weapons, paint and Bruce Willis

But this doesn’t mean that astronomers think they should stop looking. Though the majority of near-Earth objects may not be civilization-ending, such as the planet-busting comet in the 2021 satirical disaster movie “Don’t Look Up,” there are plenty of devastating asteroid impacts in recent history to justify the continued vigilance.

For instance, in March 2021, a bowling ball-size meteor exploded over Vermont (opens in new tab) with the force of 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of TNT. In 2013, a meteor that exploded in the atmosphere above the central Russian city of Chelyabinsk generated a blast roughly equal to around 400 to 500 kilotons of TNT, or 26 to 33 times the energy released by the Hiroshima bomb (opens in new tab). During the 2013 explosion, fireballs rained down over the city and its environs, damaging buildings, smashing windows and injuring approximately 1,500 people.

If astronomers were to ever spy a dangerous asteroid headed our way, space agencies around the world are already working on possible ways to deflect it. On Sept. 26, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft redirected the non-hazardous asteroid Dimorphos by ramming it off course (opens in new tab), altering the asteroid’s orbit by 32 minutes in the first test of Earth’s planetary defense system.

China has also suggested (opens in new tab) it is in the early planning stages of an asteroid-redirect mission. By slamming 23 Long March 5 rockets into the asteroid Bennu, which is set to swing within 4.6 million miles (7.4 million km) of Earth’s orbit between the years 2175 and 2199, the country hopes to divert the space rock from a potentially catastrophic impact with our planet.

Originally published on Live Science.



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Health

Potentially deadly fungal infections climb during COVID pandemic, WHO says

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The World Health Organization warned Tuesday that reported invasive fungal infections increased significantly among hospitalized patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In a release alongside its recently released list of priority fungal pathogens, the United Nations health agency said emerging evidence indicates that the incidence and geographic range of fungal diseases are expanding around the world due to the increases in travel as well as climate change. 

“Emerging from the shadows of the bacterial antimicrobial resistance pandemic, fungal infections are growing, and are ever more resistant to treatments, becoming a public health concern worldwide,” Dr. Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s assistant director-general of antimicrobial resistance, said in a statement. 

The list categorizes the pathogens into three categories, including critical, high and medium priority. 

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Candida auris is a yeast responsible for many infections. Resistant to most antifungal drugs, this fungus causes several deaths worldwide. Optical microscope view. 
((Photo by: BSIP/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images))

Of the 19 invasive fungal diseases, four were categorized as “critical priority,” including Cryptococcus neoformans, Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida albicans and Candida auris.

The report says that drug-resistant infections are estimated to cause 1.27 million deaths and contribute to nearly 5 million deaths annually.

A recent study published in the journal Nature estimates that of the 150,000 fungal species described, only about 200 of them are infectious to people.

Aspergillus fumigatus, fungus responsible for severe infections as aspergilloma, disease in humans and birds such as bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and aspergilloma. Seen under an optical microscope. 
((Photo by: BSIP/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images))

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Invasive forms of fungal infections often impact severely ill patients and those with underlying conditions. 

Photomicrograph of the encapsulated yeast Cryptococcus neoformans, 1961. Image courtesy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) / Dr Lucille K. Georg. 
((Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images))

Populations at greatest risk of infection include those with cancer, HIV/AIDS, organ transplants, chronic respiratory disease and post-primary tuberculosis infection.

There are only four classes of antifungal medicines currently available.

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The WHO said its ranking by experts — the first fungal priority pathogens list — marks the first effort to prioritize the issue. 

It calls for more evidence to inform the response to these threats, including preventing the development of antimicrobial resistance, and address the impact of antifungal use on resistance across the One Health spectrum.

Julia Musto is a reporter for Fox News and Fox Business Digital. 

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