Latest Health News

THURSDAY, March 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- YouTube is awash in misleading videos touting the safety of tobacco and vaping, a new study finds. Researchers found that from 2013 to 2019, views of smoking-themed YouTube videos dramatically increased, particularly those with instructions on vaping. "The easy access of such [video] material suggests that YouTube is a fertile environment for the promotion of tobacco products despite its banning of tobacco advertising," said researchers from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania. Looking at videos displayed in 2019, the authors found one on "the art of vape" had more than 40 million views -- more than 68,000 a day. In 2013, the most-viewed pro-tobacco video was on using a pipe, with more than...

THURSDAY, March 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Could clues to future health emergencies be found in Facebook posts? Maybe so, according to a new study that discovered there are changes in users' posts before they seek emergency care. For the study, researchers analyzed the Facebook posts and medical records of more than 2,900 patients at a U.S. urban hospital, including 419 who'd had a recent emergency department visit for problems ranging from chest pain to pregnancy-related issues. Analysis of Facebook posts from as early as 2.5 months before those patients' emergency visits revealed that most had changes in their language before seeking emergency care. Specifically, they were less likely to post about leisure or use words like "play," "fun" and "nap," and less likely to use...

THURSDAY, March 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. death rates from cancer continued falling from 2001 to 2017 -- dropping an average 1.5% a year, a new report shows. The annual decline was slightly larger among men (1.8%) than women (1.4%), according to the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer. The report is prepared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the U.S. National Cancer Institute; the American Cancer Society, and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries. "The United States continues to make significant progress in cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment," said CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield. "While we are encouraged that overall cancer death rates have decreased, there is still much more we can do to prevent...

THURSDAY, March 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Hoping to curtail the spread of coronavirus to the United States, travel from most of Europe will be banned for 30 days, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday night. The ban would apply only to foreign nationals who have been in what is known as the "Schengen Area" at any point for 14 days before their scheduled arrival to the United States, the Associated Press reported. That area encompasses 26 nations, including France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Austria and Belgium. According to the White House, that area has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases outside of mainland China. Shortly after Trump's announcement, the State Department released an extraordinary advisory telling Americans to reconsider all travel abroad while...