Latest Health News

FRIDAY, Sept. 1, 2023 (HealthDay News) – Along with having to deal with the social stigma of having a parent who is incarcerated, young adults in that situation may be more likely to develop signs of heart trouble, a new study finds.The health impacts of having a parent who spent time in jail have been understudied, the researchers noted."There was very little data on its association with cardiovascular risks,” said lead author Dr. Elizabeth Tung, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. “We set out to fill that gap in understanding."Her team analyzed data from over 9,600 young adults between the ages of 33 and 44 in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.They found that 14.1% of all participants, but 21.4% of Black participants,...

FRIDAY, Sept. 1, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- If your child is acting out and you’re looking for solutions, researchers at the University of Georgia’s Youth Development Institute suggest better sleep might be the answer.Getting more hours of slumber could reduce impulsive behavior in kids, their new study showed.“Stressful environments are shown to make adolescents seek immediate rewards rather than delayed rewards, but there are also adolescents who are in stressful environments who are not impulsive,” said lead author Linhao Zhang, a fourth-year doctoral student in University of Georgia’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences. “We looked at what explains that link and what makes some people differ from others. One mechanism we found is sleep.”While sleep is important for...

FRIDAY, Sept. 1, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- If mountain biking is your exercise of choice, go for it.A new study finds that the benefits of this sport outweigh the risks, dashing a common view that it's always dangerous, injury-inducing and meant for thrill seekers.“Mountain biking and hiking are some of the fastest growing recreation activities in the world, so understanding the spectrum of injuries becomes paramount for effective medical care,” said lead author Paul Braybrook, a doctoral candidate at Curtin University School of Nursing in Western Australia.His team analyzed data from dozens of studies across the world that included more than 220,000 injured mountain bikers and more than 17,000 injured hikers to try to pinpoint injury types.For mountain bikers, injuries were...

THURSDAY, Aug. 31, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- A type of gene therapy that precisely "edits" a key bit of DNA might offer a new way to treat sickle cell disease -- a painful inherited condition that largely strikes Black children and adults.That's according to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine describing the treatment -- a one-time but intensive process.So far, researchers have tested it in only three young adults who were severely ill with sickle cell disease. But the early results are "promising," said study leader Dr. Akshay Sharma, of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.The patients saw reductions in pain attacks and other symptoms in the six to 18 months after receiving the gene therapy. One patient who had averaged one pain attack per month had...