Latest Health News

TUESDAY, July 7, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Just how healthy has the introduction of healthier new meals at America's schools been for kids? A new study ties the policy move to about a half-million fewer obese U.S. children. The study covered kids aged 10 to 17. It found that after the introduction in 2012-2013 of school meals with less fat/sugar and more whole grains, the risk of obesity fell by 47% among kids from low-income families. All of that has translated to an estimated 500,000 fewer obese poor American children, according to the research team. "Students growing up in families with low incomes participate the most in school meals, so it stands to reason that they would benefit the most," researcher Erica Kenney, an assistant professor of public health nutrition at the...

TUESDAY, July 7, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- If you have trouble sleeping after heart bypass surgery, regular morning walks may provide relief, a new study suggests. "Many patients have trouble sleeping after heart bypass surgery," said researcher Dr. Hady Atef, of Cairo University in Egypt. "When this persists beyond six months, it exacerbates the heart condition and puts patients at risk of having to repeat the surgery. It is therefore of utmost importance to find ways to improve sleep after bypass surgery," Atef said in a news release from the European Society of Cardiology. He and his team looked at the effect of exercise on sleep and function. They studied 80 patients aged 45 to 65 who had trouble sleeping and reduced ability to function six weeks after heart bypass surgery. ...

TUESDAY, July 7, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Older adults with healthy hearts probably would benefit from taking a cholesterol-lowering statin, a new study contends. People 75 and older who were free of heart disease and prescribed a statin wound up with a 25% lower risk of death from any cause and a 20% lower risk of heart-related death, researchers reported July 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Based on these data, age is not a reason to not prescribe statins," said lead researcher Dr. Ariela Orkaby, a physician-scientist at the VA Boston Healthcare System and associate epidemiologist with Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Statins are drugs used to prevent buildup of plaques that can narrow or block arteries, leading to heart attack and stroke. Until...

TUESDAY, July 7, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A Brazilian man could be the first person to achieve long-term remission from HIV after treatment with a custom blend of antiviral drugs, but experts not involved in the case are skeptical. Blood tests don't show any signs of lingering HIV infection in the unidentified 35-year-old man, and he also doesn't seem to have detectable antibodies to the virus, according to researchers at the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, The New York Times reported. "Although still an isolated case, this might represent the first long-term HIV remission" without a bone-marrow transplant, said the researchers, who presented the results at AIDS 2020, an annual conference. Only two people have ever been confirmed cured of HIV, both after undergoing...