Latest Health News

WEDNESDAY, May 31, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have identified the oldest cases of plague in Britain to date, with DNA that is 4,000 years old. The team from the Francis Crick Institute in London has found three ancient British cases of Yersinia pestis -- the bacteria that causes the plague -- in skeleton samples of two children and one woman. Two of the cases were found in a mass burial site in Charterhouse Warren in Somerset. The third was discovered in a ring cairn monument in Levens in Cumbria after researchers took skeletal samples of teeth from 34 people at the two sites.The scientists drilled into the teeth and extracted dental pulp, which can trap DNA remnants of infectious diseases. They then analyzed DNA and found Yersinia pestis in the two children, who were ages...

TUESDAY, May 30, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Talking about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) can be uncomfortable. But whether you’re talking to your partner, child or doctor, these are important conversations to have.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 20% of Americans had an STI in 2018. There are still more undetected, unreported and untreated STIs that can result in “serious health consequences.”Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common STI in the United States, so it’s important to know the facts.What is HPV?The CDC reports there were 43 million HPV infections in the United States in 2018. It’s a virus, and Mayo Clinic says it’s so widespread that an estimated 85% of all people will become infected with HPV in their lifetime.Dr. Nipunie...

TUESDAY, May 30, 2023 (American Heart Association News) -- A risk calculator used to predict cardiovascular disease also may help predict a person's poor cognitive function, new research suggests.The study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found that the higher a person's 10-year cardiovascular risk score, the worse they scored on tests for cognitive function, adding to a large body of evidence suggesting that controlling heart-health risk factors may help protect brain health."We know that cardiovascular disease shares a lot of risk factors with cognitive decline or dementia," said study co-author Jingkai Wei, who holds a doctorate in epidemiology and is an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health in...

TUESDAY, May 30, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Some short men really struggle with their lack of height, feeling that they are both literally and figuratively looked down upon by others.That’s why an increasing number of height-challenged men are turning to limb-lengthening surgery -- an expensive, potentially painful, months-long procedure that will add a few extra inches to their frame.Limb-lengthening procedures have been around for decades, and have been typically used to correct illnesses and birth defects that cause one leg to be shorter than the other, said Dr. David Frumberg, co-director of the Yale Limb Restoration and Lengthening Program.“You basically convince the body that there’s a hairline fracture, and you allow the body to set up a healing response,” Frumberg...