Latest Health News

WEDNESDAY, March 29, 2023 (American Heart Association News) -- Don Young already had been through an excruciating ordeal with throat cancer that included removal of his larynx, multiple hospitalizations and a doctor's prediction of six months to live – all while in his 40s.Then came heart trouble.It started in the middle of the night when he got out of bed and passed out on the bedroom floor. The crashing noise immediately woke his wife, Kay. She discovered her husband unconscious and called 911. At the hospital, doctors diagnosed him with coronary artery disease. He underwent a catheterization procedure to insert a stent that widened a plaque-filled heart artery."It kind of snuck up on me, and one day, bam! It was here," said Don of St. Charles, Missouri. He uses a device called an...

WEDNESDAY, March 29, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Children’s screen use could be altering their developing brains as they enter adolescence and increasing their risk for mood disorders, a major new study finds.Children ages 9 and 10 who spend more time on smartphones, tablets, video games and TV exhibited higher levels of depression and anxiety by the time they were 11 and 12, researchers found.Further, the investigators linked some of these mood disorders to actual structural changes occurring in the kids’ developing brains, according to the report published online recently in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions.“There were specific brain mechanisms that in part contributed to this relationship, meaning from a statistical perspective there were brain-based changes occurring over...

WEDNESDAY, March 29, 2023 (HealthDay News) – Congressional leaders introduced a bill on Tuesday that would further restrict access to the veterinary drug xylazine, which is now being added to fentanyl powder.Also known as tranq, the drug is meant to be a sedative and muscle relaxer for horses and other large animals and is not approved for human use. But the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has warned that it found xylazine in nearly a quarter of the fentanyl powder it seized in 2022.In addition to depressing breathing and causing overdoses, xylazine can even cause severe, necrotic skin ulcerations that may lead to amputation. The Combating Illicit Xylazine Act would reclassify the substance as a Schedule III drug, while declaring it as an emerging threat and allowing the DEA to...

WEDNESDAY, March 29, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Getting the flu isn’t fun for many reasons, but it can also trigger a heart attack, a new study suggests.A heart attack is six times more likely in the week after a person is diagnosed with flu than in the year before or after, according to Dutch researchers.This emphasizes the need for flu patients and those caring for them to be aware of heart attack symptoms. It also underscores the importance of getting a flu shot, the authors said.The findings are scheduled to be presented April 18 at a meeting of the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, online and in Copenhagen, Denmark.“With the potential public health implications of an association between influenza virus infection and acute heart attacks, showing...