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FRIDAY, July 7, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- New federal initiatives could help save Americans money on health care costs.President Joe Biden announced plans Friday to target surprise medical bills, scam insurance and third-party credit cards and loans that carry high interest charges, the Associated Press reported.Limiting “junk” insurance plans is a key initiative. These are short-term policies that people sometimes use during a gap in coverage when switching jobs.They can deny basic coverage, as in one case highlighted by Neera Tanden, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. She said a Montana man was charged $43,000 when one of these insurance providers declared his cancer a preexisting condition, the AP reported.“That’s not real insurance -- that’s junk...

FRIDAY, July 7, 2023 (American Heart Association News) -- Odds are, if you are reading this, you know something about breathing. You're probably doing it right now.It's an essential act that requires no thought. But thinking about it can alter your physical and mental health.That's because breathing isn't just about the lungs, said Daniel Craighead, an assistant research professor in the department of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder. It affects the nervous and cardiovascular systems and more. Changing how much we inhale affects more than just the amount of oxygen we get. "When we breathe, that actually impacts how much blood is ejected from our hearts."Breathing happens regardless of whether we pay attention, said Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang, an integrative...

FRIDAY, July 7, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- The use of antipsychotic medication in children is continuing to plummet, likely because of better policies and education, new research shows.The study found a 43% drop in antipsychotic prescriptions for Medicaid-enrolled children in 45 states, a stark contrast from the sharp rise in the 2000s.“The decline we observed likely reflects the convergence of multiple state safer-use policies along with educational initiatives and the implementation of quality metrics for safe antipsychotic prescribing,” said senior author Stephen Crystal, director of the Center for Health Services Research at Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research (IFH), in New Jersey. “They reflect the results of many cross-state and within-state...

FRIDAY, July 7, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Dogs can sniff out and track someone based on their scent, a trait that has aided scores of criminal investigations.Laboratory scientists working with human odors report that a new discovery may also further crime solving: They've determined that the scents of women and men differ, at least in their palms.The researchers were able to predict someone’s sex with nearly 97% accuracy using scent compounds from their palms, according to a report published July 5 in the journal PLOS ONE.This could help law enforcement agents track down criminals, according to researchers led by Kenneth Furton, chief scientific officer at Florida International University.Certain crimes -- including robberies, assaults and rapes -- are often are committed with...