Picking your nose raises your risk of catching COVID, study suggests

By Luke Andrews Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Updated: 14:13 EDT, 2 August 2023

Eric Trump could not help himself and subtly raised his fist when supporters gathered outside his mother Ivana Trump’s funeral yelled ‘Trump 2024.’

The 45th President’s youngest child, 38, was standing outside the Frank E. Campbell funeral home with several members of the Trump clan when a woman yelled, ‘we love you! Trump 2024,’ to the family. 

Although his face remained grieving, Eric Trump discreetly raised his fist as he rested his other hand on his four-year-old son’s shoulder. 

Meanwhile, the former president made a hand gesture to the small crowd, seemingly discouraging the praise at such a somber ceremony, and gave a disheartened half-smile. 

By his side, grief-stricken Ivanka Trump remained undisturbed and lovingly caressed her six-year-old son Theodore’s cheek. 

Melania Trump, who assisted the service with Barron Trump, 16, also remained by her husband’s side. 

Donald Trump kept a stoic demeanor and stood by the funeral home’s doors as his children and grandchildren left to the St. Vincent Ferrer Church, where he later joined them. 

In recent months, reports have emerged that Trump is preparing to launch a third campaign for the White House as soon as this summer while he faces a flurry of investigations into his efforts to cling to power in 2020. 

While polls show Trump remains the overwhelming favorite in a hypothetical GOP primary, analysts warn that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be on the ballot two years from now.

Ivana Trump was remembered by her children as the ’embodiment of the American dream’ at the New York City funeral on Wednesday. 

Donald Trump Jr, Eric and Ivanka all spoke at the service at St. Vincent Ferrer Church on the Upper East Side in front of 100 mourners, including former President Donald Trump, his wife Melania and their 16-year-old son Barron.  

‘Growing up, my mother didn’t tell me a woman could do anything she wanted to — she showed me. 

‘She was a trailblazer by men and women alike. My mother once told me there was nothing she couldn’t do in heels. She taught us how to spear fish and then cook what we caught. My mom expanded our minds,’ she said. 

‘She had brains; she had beauty. She was the embodiment of the American dream … She was a force of nature, could beat any man down the slopes, any woman on the runway.

‘She ruled the three of us [kids] with an iron fist but also a heart of gold,’ said Eric. 

After the service, the family is expected to travel to New Jersey for a private reception at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster. 

Former President Donald Trump did not speak at the service but he appeared afterwards on the steps of the church with the rest of the family. 

Extravagant arrangements of red roses met mourners as they stepped into the church entrance which was lit by clusters of votive candles housed in glass holders.

The large floral displays – pom poms of red roses – were staged at the end of pews down the length of the aisle.

Next to the casket was a blown up print-out of a Vanity Fair cover featuring Ivana.  

Earlier, he and Melanie slipped in through a side door with Barron, waving to supporters in the streets who yelled ‘we love you!’ before making his way inside. 

Before the service, Don Jr. and his ex-wife Vanessa comforted their crying eight-year-old Chloe while Ivanka kept a protective hand over her youngest son, six-year-old Theo.

Eric Trump and his wife Lara brought their two young children, Eric, four, and Carolina, two, who watched in silence as their grandmother’s casket was brought past them.

A glamorous woman with a penchant for younger men, skiing and dancing, Ivana’s ‘Celebration of Life’ service on Wednesday attracted socialites from New York City, Palm Beach and Europe. 

The well-heeled crowd gathered outside St Vincent Ferrer Church on Lexington Avenue in sweltering heat, clutching their funeral invitations to present to police officers and Secret Service agents at the doors. 

The church is a stone’s throw from the townhouse on 64th Street where Ivana lived for 26 years and where she was discovered at the bottom of the stairs last week. 

NYPD barricades wreathed round the block between Lexington Avenue and East 65th and 66th on Wednesday while trucks from Greenscape Designs unloaded by the side entrance. 

Officers and secret service agents consulted with each other and paced the sidewalk as members of the church choir began to arrive shortly after 11am.

The first came bearing ID and printed-out forms that were carefully studied by a waiting agent before the barricades were opened just enough to let the two middle aged women in.

Two large police trucks were parked directly opposite the church’s imposing front doors to house the photographers who trained their lenses on the church entrance. 

Bit by bit, small groups of people gathered intrigued by the measures designed to keep at bay all but those who had received an invitation, featuring an image of Ivana in her heyday on the slopes. Still people stood and stared, sweating in the heat of the Manhattan sun.

Earlier in the day, Ivanka and Jared were spotted in Central Park, taking a break from their morning jog to admire Bethesda Fountain.

Former President Donald Trump flew in to New York from Florida with former First Lady Melania earlier this week after announcing Ivana’s death with a heartfelt statement on behalf of the family. 

In another touching tribute to his former wife last night, he told long-term friend Cindy Adams, a columnist for The New York Post: ‘She was outstanding. Beautiful inside and out. We began all of it, our lives together, with such a great relationship.’

The funeral service was billed as a ‘Celebration of Life’ to honor Ivana, a Czechoslovakian skier turned model who moved to America at the dawn of the 70s and became one of New York’s most iconic first wives.

A bad sex life in middle-age raises men’s risk of DEMENTIA, study suggests

By Luke Andrews Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Updated: 13:41 EDT, 2 June 2023

Chronic cannabis use significantly raises the risk of mental health problems and personality disorders, a major study suggests.

Research on more than 6.6million people in Denmark found that those who were addicted to marijuana were up to four times more likely to be diagnosed with major depression or bipolar disorder.

They looked at people with cannabis use disorder (CUD), defined as being unable to stop using the drug even if it was causing damage to their health and social lives.

Depression cases have been rising in recent decades, linked to growing and aging populations. But the researchers warn it could become more common as marijuana becomes increasingly legal. It can be used recreationally in 22 US states.

Researchers from the Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark analyzed the medical records of people born between 1995 and 2021.

All participants were at least 16 years old. They were all also from Denmark, where recreational cannabis use is illegal, but it can still be accessed via the black market.

Participants’ medical files were checked for cannabis use disorder, histories for major depression, with and without psychotic features, and bipolar disorder with and without psychotic features.

Major depression is defined as feeling low or uninterested in activities you previously enjoyed for more than two weeks.

Bipolar disorder is a condition causing episodes of mood swings that range from depressive lows to manic highs.

Psychotic features such as delusions, hallucinations, talking incoherently and agitation can accompany either disorder.

Roughly 56,000 participants had cannabis use disorder.

Some 41 percent of those individuals were diagnosed with major depression. Almost all (96 percent) of those diagnoses were nonpsychotic major depression.

Risks of major depression were highest immediately after a diagnosis of cannabis use disorder, but they stayed ‘significantly elevated up to five to 10 years after CUD’, the researchers said.

They also found that 14 percent of individuals with cannabis use disorder were later diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Again, most patients (90 percent) had nonpsychotic bipolar disorder.

Cannabis use disorder was associated with a higher risk of any kind of bipolar disorder in men, with men three times more likely to suffer the condition compared to 2.5 times in women.

This was the same for nonpsychotic bipolar disorder, with male chronic cannabis users three times more likely and female users 2.6 times to be diagnosed.

The findings align with previous research which showed significant links between cannabis use and depression, but not bipolar disorder.

The results point to a ‘primarily psychotogenic effect of cannabis’, meaning its ability to cause a psychotic reaction which could include delusions, delirium and hallucinations.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive element of cannabis, acts on cannabinoid receptors and is thought to increase the risk of psychosis by disrupting normal functioning of the part of the brain which processes information and dictates behavior.

The researchers noted that ‘a coherent model for how cannabis may influence the development of affective disorders is lacking’.

Evidence that stopping cannabis use can reduce the risk of being diagnosed with a mental disorder is also lacking, they said.

They said their findings show that there is a need for ‘improved knowledge on the dose-dependent effects of cannabis use on brain, cognition, and behavior’ and have implications regarding cannabis legalization.

The study was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

Several studies have found links between cannabis and schizophrenia in the past, though the exact cause is not clear. 

Marijuana can cause psychosis, impairing the way you think, make decisions, handle emotions, and interact with reality.

It can also interfere with brain development in young people. 

But it may be that people who are schizophrenic simply use cannabis to ease their symptoms.

British Airways owner IAG raises profit forecast amid sustained rebound in leisure travel

• International Airlines Group reported a €9million first-quarter operating profit 
• The business saw better-than-expected performance across all of its airlines 
• Last year, the Omicron variant sent the company to €718million loss

By Harry Wise For This Is Money

Published: 06:04 EDT, 5 May 2023 | Updated: 06:04 EDT, 5 May 2023

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