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WEDNESDAY, Oct. 27, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- After prostate cancer surgery, men can safely undergo fewer radiation treatments at higher doses, a new clinical trial shows.Researchers found that the shorter regimen — given over five weeks, instead of seven — did not raise patients' odds of lasting side effects.Safety has been a "major concern" because when patients have fewer radiation treatments, the daily dose needs to be higher, explained Dr. Neha Vapiwala, a radiation oncologist who was not involved in the study.But the new findings offer "level-one evidence" that a shorter course can be delivered safely, said Vapiwala, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.Prostate cancer is a highly treatable disease. In the United States, the 10-year survival rate...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 27, 2021 (American Heart Association News) -- The nightmare was so vivid that you woke up in a cold sweat, heart racing and certain that the creepy catastrophe was all too real.Should you have skipped the haunted house and those terrifying Halloween movies? More importantly, was that nightmare bad for your health?On both counts, sleep experts say, probably not. But repeated troubling nighttime episodes could lead to health problems during the day, which underscores the need for a good night's sleep."The good news is that nightmares aren't as serious as a heart attack," said Michael Grandner, director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who studies sleep's effect on cardiovascular issues. "But they're also not nothing."A study...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 27, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Demand for liver transplants among heavy drinking Americans surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study shows.It found that the number of people with alcoholic hepatitis who received a new liver (32,320) or were put on a liver transplant waiting list (51,488) between March 2020 and January 2021 was 50% higher than what was expected based on pre-pandemic patterns, CNN reported.There was little change in the number of people without alcoholic hepatitis who needed a liver transplant, according to the study published Oct. 26 in the journal JAMA Network Open.Alcoholic hepatitis often develops after years of heavy drinking, but can also develop after a short period of excessive alcohol use, CNN reported. With alcoholic hepatitis, the liver...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 27, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Severely immunocompromised people may require a fourth mRNA coronavirus shot, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.The agency didn't provide an official recommendation about a fourth shot in its updated guidelines, but did say that people should talk to their doctors to determine if one is necessary, CNN reported.In August, the CDC authorized a third dose for certain immunocompromised people 18 and older who may not have a complete immune response from the first two doses.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved booster shots of all three available vaccines in the United States for certain people, including those with compromised immune systems.According to the CDC, small studies have found that fully vaccinated...