Latest Health News

MONDAY, Feb. 22, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- People with chronic heartburn may face increased risks of several rare types of cancer, a large U.S. government study shows.Researchers found that among more than 490,000 Americans aged 50 and up, those with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) had about twice the risk of developing cancers of the esophagus or larynx (also known as the voice box).GERD, or acid reflux, occurs when stomach acids chronically escape into the esophagus, which is the muscular tube connecting the throat and the stomach. The most common symptom is heartburn.The condition is exceedingly common, affecting an estimated 20% of Americans, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).GERD has long been established as a risk factor for esophageal...

MONDAY, Feb. 22, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Pulse oximeters -- small devices that clip onto fingertips -- can seem like a handy way to gauge oxygen levels while monitoring a case of COVID-19. But people of color should be cautious about relying on them because they're more likely to give inaccurate readings when used on darker skin, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Friday. The warning was based on a study published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine. It found Black patients had nearly three times the frequency of "occult hypoxemia" -- low oxygen levels in the blood -- as detected by "gold standard" blood gas measurements but not detected by pulse oximetry, when compared to white patients.The FDA is now cautioning patients and health care providers that...

MONDAY, Feb. 22, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- In the wake of U.S. recommendations to re-open schools, a new government report indicates that teachers may be key spreaders of COVID-19 in schools and should be vaccinated against the coronavirus.Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that educators were responsible for recent clusters of COVID-19 in suburban Atlanta schools. Teacher vaccination should therefore be part of efforts to control spread of the virus in classrooms, the scientists said.Vaccinating educators, along with universal mask-wearing, physical distancing and other measures like hand-washing, could be important to getting U.S. kids back into classrooms safely, according to the report published Feb. 22 in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly...

MONDAY, Feb. 22, 2021 (American Heart Association News) -- Enduring a lifetime of discrimination may increase the risk of high blood pressure in Black people but not in Hispanic, Chinese or white people, a new study suggests.Previous research has linked lifelong discrimination to the development of high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, in Black people. This new study, however, is among the first to look at multiple types of discrimination in a large multi-ethnic group over a period of time.The study included 3,297 Black, Hispanic, Chinese and white adults from 45 to 84 years old. They did not have high blood pressure at the start of the study. Participants were asked to report experiences of lifetime and everyday discrimination.Lifetime discrimination measures included six...