Latest Health News

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 26, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Flash radiotherapy, a new technology that uses targeted proton beams, is safe and effective in relieving pain for terminal cancer patients, a new, small study suggests. Flash radiotherapy delivers radiation at dose rates more than 300 times higher than those used in conventional radiation, does it in only about three-tenths of a second, and doesn't damage adjoining tissue. The hope, according to researchers, is that this technology will eventually replace current radiation therapy. "It's kind of in its infancy, so nobody anywhere else in the world is doing it. Our trial is really the first one in the world to show that it's safe and effective," said researcher Dr. Emily Daugherty, an assistant professor of clinical radiation oncology at the...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 26, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Smoking is an incredibly hard habit to break. Anne Levine of Baltimore can attest to that.But Levine, 58, is getting help from a potential new tool: psychedelics. The four-decade smoker has tried to quit a dozen times. But once she became part of a research trial testing a psychedelic drug, quitting became easier. Researchers think they may have found the answer to quitting in a compound called psilocybin, a drug also found in "magic mushrooms.""There's several existing treatments, both medications and other therapies, but they all have lots of room for improvement," Matthew Johnson, a psychedelic researcher at Johns Hopkins Medicine, told NBC News. "None of the medications help a majority of the people long-term. Even six months down the...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 26, 2022 (American Heart Association News) -- Like many actors in Los Angeles, Michael Shutt had a second job. As a bartender at a restaurant, he had flexible hours and a reliable income with benefits.Shutt worked the day shift so he could devote his evenings to a theater company where he acted, directed, produced, helped develop scripts and more.During a busy afternoon of tending bar, he felt something like a jolt of electricity tear through his body. Suddenly, he couldn't control his left hand. His mind felt jumbled. He had trouble speaking.Several co-workers noticed something was wrong. Shutt couldn't explain it. Everyone kept working.Although his left hand remained numb and his mind foggy, he worked the next day. The following day, he played kickball. He was a...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 26, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Controlling high blood pressure in older adults may be one of the "best bets" for reducing the risk of developing dementia, Australian researchers report."Given population aging and the substantial costs of caring for people with dementia, even a small reduction could have considerable global impact," said researcher Ruth Peters, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney and program lead for dementia in the George Institute's Global Brain Health Initiative.In the study of more than 28,000 people, her team found strong evidence that lowering blood pressure could cut dementia risk.Five double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trials were analyzed that included individuals from 20 countries. The trials used...