Latest Health News

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 9, 2022 (American Heart Association News) -- People making less than $35,000 a year may be more likely to have carotid artery stenosis, a leading cause of stroke, a new study found.Carotid artery stenosis is a narrowing of the large arteries on either side of the neck that carry blood to the brain. The narrowing is often a buildup of sticky plaques. Known risk factors include high levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking and diabetes.Previous research shows Black and Hispanic people have a lower risk of carotid artery stenosis compared to whites, and Native Americans have a higher risk. But prevalence according to factors other than race and ethnicity is less clear.To identify possible patterns, researchers evaluated electronic health records of a...

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 9, 2022 (American Heart Association News) -- Two years after a chance outing with a friend at an ice rink, Jake Burnam had gone from someone who struggled to connect with a sport to a hockey dynamo. He'd skate up to four nights a week.Jake tried out for his team's "gold" squad. Moving up in caliber meant he needed to be at his best. Yet he wasn't even at his normal level."He kept coming up with reasons not to skate and saying he was out of breath," said Rusty Burnam, Jake's dad.Then, while running laps during physical education class at his school in St. Joseph, Missouri, Jake passed out. He was unconscious for about 30 seconds.By the time Rusty and Jake's mom, Holly, arrived at the school, Jake was alert and seemed back to normal. Following the advice of the EMTs, they...

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 9, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Many states are already dispensing with mask mandates, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's director says COVID-19 case and hospitalization numbers in the United States remain too high to ease its mask guidelines.The agency "still recommends that all schools encourage students to wear well-fitting masks consistently and while indoors. And that's consistent with our guidance that still also recommends that people mask in public indoor settings in areas of high or substantial transmission," Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a radio interview with WYPR's Tom Hall on Tuesday's edition of the show "Midday," CNN reported."Right now, we still have about 290,000 cases every single day, and our hospitalization rates now are higher...

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 9, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Strokes caused by COVID-19 appear to be more disabling and deadly than those not associated with the infectious disease, a new study finds. About one-third of COVID-19 patients develop neurological complications, and many arrive at hospitals with ischemic strokes (blocked blood flow to the brain), according to the researchers who studied cases in North America."There is an interaction that is still unknown between COVID respiratory disease and stroke, because the rate of poor outcomes or mortality is clearly greater than it would be in someone who had just an acute respiratory distress syndrome or COVID pneumonia, and also worse than someone who would have an equivalently large stroke in the pre-COVID era," said study co-author Dr. Adam...