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MONDAY, Feb. 6, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have uncovered groundbreaking evidence that pharmacies in tourist areas of Northern Mexico are selling counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamines.The pills, mainly sold to U.S. tourists without a prescription, were passed off as controlled substances, including oxycodone, percocet and Adderall, the study found.This could add to the already high number of overdose deaths from these drugs in the United States and Mexico, U.S.-based researchers said.“These counterfeit pills represent a serious overdose risk to buyers who think they are getting a known quantity of a weaker drug,” said senior study author Chelsea Shover. She is an assistant professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of...

MONDAY, Feb. 6, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- People who live near traffic noise, especially when it continues at night, are more likely to develop the repetitive whistling or buzzing sounds in their ears known as tinnitus. Danish researchers found a link between the risk of developing the condition and traffic noise, with a vicious cycle of stress reactions and sleep disturbance as a potential cause.Living near a busy road may increase your stress and affect your sleep, they explained, and those who are sleeping poorly and have higher stress may be at greater risk for tinnitus.For the study, the researchers used data from 3.5 million Danes, finding more than 40,000 cases of tinnitus.For every 10 decibels more noise in people’s homes, the risk of developing tinnitus increased by 6%, said...

MONDAY, Feb. 6, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- You might not think about your cholesterol very often, if ever, but it’s important to know your numbers.It’s even helpful to get it checked at a young age, according to one heart expert.“People in their 20s may never consider getting their cholesterol checked, but they should because it may uncover a genetic predisposition to high cholesterol that they didn’t know about,” said Dr. Michael Farbaniec, a cardiologist at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pa. "The sooner it's treated, the more damage you can prevent."People 40 and up should get a lipid panel every year, asking to have it added to their annual blood work if their primary care physician doesn’t order it, Farbaniec said.The U.S. National Heart,...

SUNDAY, Feb. 5, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Winter’s icy beauty can also be dangerous.An orthopedic expert offers some tips for avoiding serious injuries on slippery ground or hazards hidden by snow."When people have injuries during the winter, it commonly involves tripping over an object or slipping on ice," said Dr. Richard Samade, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery who specializes in hand and upper extremity surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. "To protect themselves from greater injuries, people will instinctively stretch their hand and arm out to break their fall," Samade said in a center news release. "Unfortunately, this leads to a decelerating force concentrated through the wrist, forearm and elbow that often leads to injury in the small bones of those...