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TUESDAY, Aug. 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- First Lady Jill Biden has COVID-19 and is experiencing "mild symptoms," according to her staff."After testing negative for COVID-19 on Monday during her regular testing cadence, the First Lady began to develop cold-like symptoms late in the evening," Biden's communications director Elizabeth Alexander said in a statement released Tuesday. "She tested negative again on a rapid antigen test, but a PCR test came back positive."The First Lady has received two vaccines plus two boosters, and so far her symptoms are mild. "She has been prescribed a course of [the antiviral drug] Paxlovid and, following CDC guidance, will isolate from others for at least five days," Alexander said. "Close contacts of the First Lady have been notified," she added,...

TUESDAY, Aug. 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- When it comes to taking your blood pressure at home, smart devices with lots of bells and whistles are no better than old-school monitors, which happen to cost much less.This is the main finding of a new study that compared high-tech devices that link to your smartphone and provide other useful health information with basic cuffs that display blood pressure only.“I was surprised,” said study author Dr. Mark Pletcher, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. “I thought there would be some added value if patients could see their measurements on the app and get feedback and reminders.”While both types of devices fared equally well for blood pressure control, the newer devices are...

TUESDAY, Aug. 16, 2022 (American Heart Association News) -- Fatima Mathews knew something wasn't right. She was more tired than she'd ever felt in her life."You just had a baby," her doctor reminded her. "It's normal to be tired."She'd been feeling tired – and bloated and swollen – since the last few months of her pregnancy. And now it was time to go back to work. Mathews told herself she'd be fine.But she didn't feel fine as she tried to get out of bed that February morning, six weeks after giving birth at age 30. She sat on her bed for an hour, finally forcing herself to get dressed and head to the insurance office where she worked in Niagara Falls, New York.She parked close to the front door – just 400 feet away – and resolved to push through the fatigue. "Ten steps in, I...

TUESDAY, Aug. 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- A new study of U.S. military veterans reveals they are more comfortable getting help for physical ills than for mental health issues."The majority of participants indicated they would be willing to seek treatment for both physical and mental health problems. However, they reported significantly greater willingness to seek treatment for physical than mental health conditions," said principal investigator Mary Beth Miller. She's an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of Missouri School of Medicine.The researchers worked with 334 veterans from 46 states, screening them for 15 medical conditions, including insomnia, alcohol abuse, drug use, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression. The research team...