Latest Health News

29Sep
2020

Women Get Worse Care for Heart Attack

Women Get Worse Care for Heart AttackTUESDAY, Sept. 29, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Young women who suffer a particularly deadly condition after a heart attack are 11% more likely to die from it than men, a new study finds. Not only that, women aged 18 to 55 are less likely to receive the tests and aggressive treatment that men routinely receive, and are more likely to die in the hospital, the researchers added. "It's very difficult to understand exactly what's causing this," said lead researcher Dr. Saraschandra Vallabhajosyula, a clinical fellow in interventional cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. "A lot is related to unconscious or conscious bias when it comes to women and when it comes to acute cardiac conditions," he said. Much of the bias can be traced to doctors, the family or the...

Global Death Toll From COVID-19 Passes One Million

29 September 2020
Global Death Toll From COVID-19 Passes One MillionTUESDAY, Sept. 29, 2020 (Healthday News) -- The global coronavirus pandemic reached a grim new milestone on Tuesday: One million dead. Americans made up more than 200,000 of those deaths, or one in every five, according to a running tally comprised by Johns Hopkins University. "It's not just a number. It's human beings. It's people we love," Dr. Howard Markel, a professor of medical history at the University of Michigan, told the Associated Press. He's an adviser to government officials on how best to handle the pandemic -- and he lost his 84-year-old mother to COVID-19 in February. "It's people we know," Markel said. "And if you don't have that human factor right in your face, it's very easy to make it abstract." It's taken the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 virus just 8 months to reach...

Warming World Could Alter West Nile Transmission in U.S.

28 September 2020
Warming World Could Alter West Nile Transmission in U.S.MONDAY, Sept. 28, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Climate change could give West Nile virus a boost in some areas of the United States, but reduce its spread in other regions, a new study suggests. The mosquito-borne virus spreads most efficiently in the United States at temperatures between 75.2 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a study published Sept. 15 in the journal eLife. "As the climate warms, it is critical to understand how temperature changes will affect the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases," lead author Marta Shocket said in a journal news release. She conducted the research while at Stanford University, and is now a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Los Angeles. Shocket and colleagues performed laboratory experiments to assess how temperature...

Older Patients at Risk When Dentists Prescribe Opioids

28 September 2020
Older Patients at Risk When Dentists Prescribe OpioidsMONDAY, Sept. 28, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Seniors who take depression and anxiety drugs shouldn't be prescribed opioid painkillers by their dentist because it puts them at increased risk for problems, researchers warn. They analyzed 2011-15 dental and medical data for 40,800 patients aged 65 and older across the United States. There were 947 emergency room visits and hospitalizations in the 30 days after a dental visit. One in 10 of those who were prescribed opioids were also using medications that shouldn't be taken with them. These patients were 23% more likely to visit the ER or require hospitalization within a month of the dental visit where they received the opioid prescription, the study found. The longer they took the painkillers, the greater their risk. Those whose opioid...

Why Do Gay and Lesbian People Get More Migraines?

28 September 2020
Why Do Gay and Lesbian People Get More Migraines?MONDAY, Sept. 28, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Could migraine risk be affected by sexual orientation? A new study suggests that the answer may be yes. After tracking migraines among thousands of American adults, investigators found that men and women who identify as gay, bisexual or mostly but not exclusively heterosexual have a notably higher migraine risk. "Lesbian, gay or bisexual individuals were 58% more likely to experience a migraine compared to heterosexual individuals," said lead author Dr. Jason Nagata, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. Nearly a third of gay, lesbian and bisexual study participants had experienced a migraine, Nagata noted. "We also found that individuals who identified as mostly heterosexual but with some...

Obamacare Cut Out-of-Pocket Costs, But Many Families Still Struggle: Study

28 September 2020
Obamacare Cut Out-of-Pocket Costs, But Many Families Still Struggle: StudyMONDAY, Sept. 28, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- High out-of-pocket health care costs for low- and middle-income Americans with kids have fallen due to "Obamacare," but more needs to be done to reduce their medical-related financial struggles, a new study claims. The researchers examined data from 2000 to 2017 on more than 92,000 U.S. families with one or more children under 18 and one or more adult parents or guardians. Families with out-of-pocket health care costs above a set percentage of their annual income (for example, 3.5% of incomes below $20,000, or 8.4% of those at $75,000) were said to have high financial burdens. Those whose out-of-pocket costs exceeded 10% of their annual income were classified as having extreme financial burdens. Before 2014 implementation of health...

AHA News: Puerto Rico School Relies on Holistic Methods to Teach, Inspire

28 September 2020
AHA News: Puerto Rico School Relies on Holistic Methods to Teach, InspireMONDAY, Sept. 28, 2020 (American Heart Association News) -- Justo Méndez Arámburu's idea to start a nonprofit alternative school in Puerto Rico came to him in a dream. His 15-year-old daughter, Ana Mercedes, who had died in a car accident a few months earlier, appeared to him and encouraged him to open a school. "How would I do that?" asked the confused father, who was not an educator at the time. His daughter asked him to have faith and call it Nuestra Escuela, or Our School. That was 20 years ago. Since then, Nuestra Escuela has graduated about 2,500 students, ages 13 to 22. With a holistic approach to teaching disadvantaged students, the school uses a participatory democracy model that allows students to drive the curriculum and work on projects that interest them. While teaching...

Diabetes During Pregnancy Could Raise Lifelong Heart Risks for Children

28 September 2020
Diabetes During Pregnancy Could Raise Lifelong Heart Risks for ChildrenMONDAY, Sept. 28, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The foundation for early heart disease might begin not during childhood or in the years that follow, but in the womb. Researchers studying nearly 30 years of data from families in Manitoba, Canada, found a strong connection between heart disease risk factors in teens and young adults and their mother's type 2 or gestational diabetes. "I was surprised at the strength of the association, because we see a twofold, threefold higher risk for those who are exposed to diabetes compared to those who are not exposed," said study author Laetitia Guillemette. She was a doctoral degree candidate at the University of Manitoba during the study, and is now a scientific evaluator for Health Canada. For the study, the researchers used data from nearly all...

Most Newborns of COVID-19-Infected Moms Fare Well

MONDAY, Sept. 28, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Babies born to mothers with COVID-19 only rarely suffer from effects of the virus, a new study suggests. These newborns generally do well in the six to...

How Important Is Sex as Women Age?

MONDAY, Sept. 28, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- It's often thought that older women lose interest in sex, but many women continue to rate sex as important, a new study finds. "In contrast to prior...
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