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THURSDAY, Sept. 21, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- As working class neighborhoods gentrify, you'll likely see rents rise, pricey restaurants move in — and maybe also a rise in gunshot wounds, researchers say.In U.S. neighborhoods that gentrified, gun injuries were 62% higher than they were in similar neighborhoods that hadn’t gone upscale, according to a new study. Overall firearm incidence was also 26% higher in these gentrifying neighborhoods compared to non-gentrifying neighborhoods.“To prevent firearm injuries in these communities, we must understand where the behavior is stemming from,” said study co-author Molly Jarman, of the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “It’s vital we begin to investigate the factors causing social...

THURSDAY, Sept. 21, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- More people around the world are exposed to wildfire smoke that has the potential to harm human health, and their numbers are growing, new research finds. More than 2 billion people are exposed to at least one day of potentially health-impacting wildfire smoke each year, a figure that has grown by almost 7% in the past decade, according to a study led by Australian scientists. Moreover, each person in the world had on average 9.9 days of exposure per year, a 2% increase over 10 years, the researchers found. They also said exposure levels in poor countries were about four times higher than in high-income countries.The recent Canadian wildfires that spread smoke across North America highlighted the increase in severity and frequency of...

THURSDAY, Sept. 21, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Helping undocumented immigrants in the United States connect with primary care doctors could be a money-saver, substantially reducing emergency department use and lowering health costs, a new study finds.The findings are from a New York City program that helped arrange medical appointments from May 2016 to June 2017 for undocumented immigrants with limited incomes.The data showed a 21% drop in emergency department use, as well as a 42% drop for folks with high-risk medical profiles.Participants in the program were also far more likely to have screenings for high blood pressure and diabetes. These tests can lay the groundwork for reducing heart disease.“This program is fairly low-touch and minimalist, yet it had a meaningful effect,” said...

THURSDAY, Sept. 21, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Substance abuse and pregnancy may be a dangerous combination.New research finds that pregnant women with a history of substance abuse had a dramatically increased risk of death from heart attack and stroke during childbirth compared to women with no drug history.“This telling research shows that substance use during pregnancy doubled cardiovascular events and maternal mortality during delivery,” said senior author Dr. Martha Gulati, associate director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. “Substance abuse also doubled the risk of acute heart failure," she said in an institute news release.Researchers studied a variety of substances, including cocaine, opioids,...