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TUESDAY, Jan. 11, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- In a medical first, doctors from the University of Maryland have implanted the heart of a genetically modified pig in a 57-year-old man facing the final stages of heart disease.The surgical feat, known as xenotransplantation, opens the door to the possibility that more patients in dire need of heart transplants could get them.“This was a breakthrough surgery and brings us one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis. There are simply not enough donor human hearts available to meet the long list of potential recipients,” said Dr. Bartley Griffith, who transplanted the pig heart into the patient. Griffith is professor of transplant surgery and directs the Cardiac Transplant Program at the University of Maryland Medical Center. “We...

TUESDAY, Jan. 11, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The United States has passed another grim milestone in the pandemic as the Omicron variant races across the country: COVID hospitalizations have now eclipsed a previous peak, which was seen last January.There were 142,388 people hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Sunday, more than the previous record of 142,315 hospitalizations reported on Jan. 14, 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Meanwhile, the seven-day average of daily hospitalizations reached 132,086 by Sunday, an 83% increase from two weeks ago, The New York Times reported.Hospitalization numbers include people who test positive for the coronavirus after being admitted for other conditions, so some patients may have been admitted for causes other than...

TUESDAY, Jan. 11, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Swapping out the butter or other artery-clogging fats in your diet for heart-healthy olive oil may add years to your life, researchers say.Folks who consume more than 1/2 a tablespoon of olive oil a day are less likely to die from heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's or lung disease when compared to people who consume less of this healthy fat, a new study finds.It's not just adding olive oil to your diet that staves off death from disease, said study author Marta Guasch-Ferre, a research scientist in the nutrition department at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. "We need to pay attention to overall diet quality and lifestyle, and consistent with our results, the key would be to add olive oil into the...

TUESDAY, Jan. 11, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Private insurers will have to cover the cost of eight at-home COVID tests per person per month as of Saturday, the Biden administration announced Monday.“Today’s action further removes financial barriers and expands access to COVID-19 tests for millions of people,” Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the Biden administration’s Medicare and Medicaid chief, said in a statement.Under the plan, people who provide their insurance information at certain pharmacies will be able to get the tests with no out-of-pocket costs, while others will have to file claims to their insurers for reimbursement, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said."This is all part of our overall strategy to ramp up access to easy-to-use, at-home tests at no cost,”...