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MONDAY, May 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The anti-inflammatory benefits of a common gout medicine may help save the lives of heart failure patients, researchers say.The medication, colchicine, could also reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients whose arteries are clogged with cholesterol, according to the study authors. "The signal for benefit with colchicine in these patients was very impressive, and I expect that these findings will have quite a significant impact on clinical care in heart failure and future research for patients with this condition," Dr. Kenneth Bilchick said in a University of Virginia (UVA) news release. He's a professor of cardiovascular medicine there. For the study, Bilchick and his team analyzed the records of more than 1,000 patients admitted...

MONDAY, May 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Organs from donors who died of drug overdoses helped keep the number of U.S. liver transplants steady during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study finds."When the pandemic began, we saw no decline in liver transplants, which seemed surprising since many surgeries were canceled or postponed," said lead author Peter Lymberopoulos, a fourth-year medical student at St. George’s University in Grenada."Sadly, a key reason seems to be a surge of organ donors who died from drug overdose," he said in an American Gastroenterological Association news release.Drug overdoses represent a public health crisis in the United States. Last year, more than 107,600 Americans died from drug overdoses, a record number, the U.S. Centers for Disease...

MONDAY, May 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Americans with sickle cell disease who have private insurance face average out-of-pocket costs of $1,300 a year and a lifetime total of $44,000, new research reveals.That means that their out-of-pocket expenses are nearly four times higher compared to people without the inherited blood disorder, the new study found."Identifying ways to reduce the burden many people living with [sickle cell disease] face is a critical part of coordinated research," said study author Kate Johnson, who completed the analysis while at the University of Washington, in Seattle. "We hope this analysis complements the larger scientific quest to identify cures for sickle cell disease."For the study, Johnson and her team analyzed private health insurance claims filed...

MONDAY, May 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Babies delivered by cesarean section are no more likely to have food allergies during their first year of life than other infants, according to an Australian study.The association between type of delivery and food allergy risk had been unclear, so researchers decided to take a closer look.For the study, they analyzed data on more than 2,000 infants in Australia; 30% were delivered by C-section. The rate of food allergy at 12 months of age among babies born by C-section was 12.7%, compared with 13.2% among those delivered vaginally."Additionally, there was no difference in likelihood of food allergy if the cesarean was performed before or after the onset of labor, or whether it was an emergency or elective cesarean," said study co-author Rachel...