Latest Health News

WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- As researchers hunt for ways to treat severe COVID-19 infections, a new trial will ask whether an old arthritis drug can prevent serious complications in the first place. The medication, called colchicine, is an oral anti-inflammatory that has long been prescribed for gout, a form of arthritis. Its history goes back thousands of years, and the drug was first sourced from the autumn crocus flower. Doctors also sometimes use colchicine to treat pericarditis, where the sac around the heart becomes inflamed. Now researchers in the United States and Canada are testing it for a different purpose: Keeping high-risk COVID-19 patients from getting sick enough to land in the hospital. Colchicine is just one of several anti-inflammatory drugs...

WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2020 (American Heart Association News) -- For most people, being appointed U.S. surgeon general would qualify as a career-defining moment. But for Dr. Regina Benjamin, the real defining moment came earlier, in the bayous of Alabama. A native of Daphne, Alabama, Benjamin began her medical career at a nonprofit clinic in the small shrimping village named Bayou La Batre. Her clinic there had already been damaged by two hurricanes before Hurricane Katrina flooded it in 2005. Months later, as she was getting ready to reopen, a fire burned it to the ground. Demoralized and unsure what to do next, she opened an envelope sent to her by an older patient. Inside, she found $7 and a note telling her to use the money to help rebuild the clinic. "The whole town had lost...

WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2020 (American Heart Association News) -- Nearly a week into suffering from COVID-19, Dr. Tim Martindale started feeling like himself again. The coughing, aching and abdominal cramping eased. His blood pressure, pulse, temperature and oxygen saturation all neared or reached the normal range. Good news, right? Maybe. Based on reports he'd read from doctors in New York, Italy and China, Tim knew this meant he reached a fork on the road to recovery. Zig and he'd keep improving. Zag and he'd be back where he started … or worse. All he could do was wait. And worry. Tim started studying the coronavirus weeks before "social distancing" and "shelter in place" became common phrases. He was well aware being 62, overweight and only a few years removed from a heart attack that...

WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The coronavirus pandemic has supercharged the financial stress that already plagues many Americans, an expert says. About half of Americans lived paycheck to paycheck before the pandemic, according to a recent survey from First National Bank of Omaha, and now many have lost their jobs. "The pervasive financial stress the majority of Americans feel is now on steroids, as most Americans did not have savings before this crisis hit," said Julie Kalkowski, executive director of the Financial Hope Collaborative at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. "Knowing that you are not in this alone is important to keep in mind as you move forward," she added. Kalkowski manages a School of Business program that educates people about the psychology of...