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THURSDAY, Feb. 24, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Extreme heat from climate change is making it harder for people with mental illness and drug addiction to cope and adding to pressure on pandemic-stretched U.S. emergency rooms.During these severe summer temperature spikes, Americans with depression, anxiety, mood disorders and drug addiction are increasingly flocking to hospital ERs for help, a new study finds."Increasing temperatures and rates of emergency department visits for mental health [are] at an unprecedented scale across the U.S.," said lead researcher Amruta Nori-Sarma, an assistant professor of environmental health at Boston University School of Public Health.The heat itself isn't causing these conditions, she noted, but it is making it harder for people with these conditions to...

THURSDAY, Feb. 24, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Add better brain health to the growing list of protections your beloved pet may provide you: New research suggests that older adults with a furry companion showed slower mental declines than those without one."Prior studies have suggested that the human-animal bond may have health benefits like decreasing blood pressure and stress," said study author Dr. Tiffany Braley, from the University of Michigan Medical Center, in Ann Arbor. "Our results suggest pet ownership may also be protective against cognitive [thinking] decline."Because "stress can negatively affect cognitive function, the potential stress-buffering effects of pet ownership could provide a plausible reason for our findings," Braley said in a news release from the American...

THURSDAY, Feb. 24, 2022 (American Heart Association News) -- Before she gave the feeling a name, Mary-Frances Winters felt it constantly. She calls it "a dull droning sound that is always present" and "an underlying syndrome of sorts that permeates my very being."It's the exhaustion born of "the day-to-day small acts of aggression, or small acts of disrespect" a Black person endures; the endless need to prove your worth; and the constant exposure to news about injustice and violence being inflicted on people who look like you.She calls the feeling "Black fatigue." And though the problem is not of their making, for the sake of their health, Black people need to understand and acknowledge the toll of living with racism, said Winters, a diversity and equity consultant from North Carolina....

THURSDAY, Feb. 24, 2022 (American Heart Association News) -- In his decades as an actor, Jason Gray-Stanford has appeared in a few medical dramas, often as a patient. And in his best-known role, as Lt. Randy Disher on "Monk," he faced all kinds of cases that defied easy explanation.But the real-life drama of getting so sick that he needed a heart transplant was nothing like what he experienced in Hollywood."None of it prepared me for any of this," he said from his home in Los Angeles. "And I say that with a smile on my face. But inside, a little bit of me is churning.""This" is the story of a healthy, amiable guy who developed heart failure, was saved by the grace of a stranger, then endured a grueling recovery. To get through, he needed grit, luck and a lot of great medical care.Or,...