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THURSDAY, Oct. 28, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- The number of people experiencing numbness, pins and needles, and burning pain in their feet and toes seems to be on the rise, new research suggests, and some of these folks may be at increased risk for heart trouble.Exactly why there has been an uptick in "small fiber neuropathy" is not fully understood yet, but it could be due to the ongoing diabetes and obesity epidemic as both conditions raise the risk for small fiber neuropathy and heart disease, explained study author Dr. Christopher Klein, a professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn."There is something diabolic about small fiber neuropathy in that it has a very strong association with heart disease and heart attacks," Klein said.Often caused by an underlying...

THURSDAY, Oct. 28, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- The number of U.S. meatpacking workers who were infected during the COVID-19 pandemic is nearly three times higher than previously thought, a U.S. House report shows.It said at least 59,000 workers caught the disease and 269 died as the pandemic raged through the industry last year, and added that companies could have done more to protect their employees, the Associated Press reported. Because workers stand shoulder-to-shoulder in production lines, the meatpacking industry was one of the early epicenters of the coronavirus pandemic. During the height of the outbreaks in the spring of 2020, U.S. meatpacking production fell to about 60% of normal as several major plants were forced to close for deep cleaning and safety upgrades, or operated at...

THURSDAY, Oct. 28, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- A boxed warning and a checklist of risks that must be shared with patients is among the new breast implant safety measures announced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday.As the FDA "continues to evaluate the overall effects of breast implants in patients, today's actions help ensure that all patients receive the information they need to make well-informed decisions affecting their long-term, personal health," Dr. Binita Ashar, director of the FDA's Office of Surgical and Infection Control Devices, said in an agency news release. "Protecting patients' health when they are treated with a medical device is our most important priority."Only health care providers and facilities that provide the checklist will be allowed to sell...

THURSDAY, Oct. 28, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- New research in mice may provide clues to age-related hair loss in men and women. Scientists found that as hair stem cells in mice age, they lose the stickiness that keeps them secured inside the hair follicle. This allows the stem cells to drift away from the follicle. "The result is fewer and fewer stem cells in the hair follicle to produce hair," said study lead author Rui Yi, a professor of pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago. This leads to thinning hair and baldness during aging, he noted. The researchers also identified genes that may regulate hair stem cell adhesion. And they created mice that lacked two of the genes, FOXC1 and NFATC1. The mice without those genes started losing hair rapidly at...