Latest Health News

26Jun
2020

Pandemic Hits Primary Care Practices Hard Across the U.S.: Study

Pandemic Hits Primary Care Practices Hard Across the U.S.: StudyFRIDAY, June 26, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Huge declines in patient visits during the coronavirus pandemic have slashed U.S. primary care doctors' revenues, a new study finds. As a result of decreases in office visits and fees for services from March to May during the pandemic, a full-time primary care physician will lose an average of more than $65,000 in revenue in 2020. Overall, primary care practices nationwide stand to lose nearly $15 billion, according to the study led by a team from Harvard Medical School in Boston. "For many primary care practices, particularly those serving the most vulnerable populations, these losses could be catastrophic, with many practices being forced to close," study author Dr. Sanjay Basu, a faculty affiliate at Harvard's Center for Primary Care,...

Medical Pot May Help Many Battle Insomnia, Pain and...

26 June 2020
Medical Pot May Help Many Battle Insomnia, Pain and Stress: StudyFRIDAY, June 26, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- More and more U.S. states are allowing marijuana to be taken as medicine, and a new study suggests that users do indeed feel better. In a survey of nearly 1,300 people with chronic health conditions, researchers found that those using "medicinal cannabis" reported less pain, better sleep and reduced anxiety. They also tended to use fewer prescription medications and were less likely to have been to the hospital recently. A majority of U.S. states have made marijuana legal for medical or recreational use, and studies have looked at whether those laws are linked to increased marijuana use, car accidents or emergency room visits. But little research has examined the impact of legalization on the people who use medicinal cannabis, said senior...

Need Better Sleep? Get a Partner

26 June 2020
Need Better Sleep? Get a PartnerFRIDAY, June 26, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Happy couples apparently make good bedfellows. New research says that when happy couples sleep together, they tend to have more -- and less disrupted -- rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The REM phase of sleep is when you dream, and it's been linked to emotion regulation, memory consolidation and creative problem-solving, the researchers said. "There is -- even in the medical community -- the notion that if you sleep with a partner, you might subjectively think that you slept well or better, but objectively, your sleep is more disturbed," said the study's lead author, Dr. Henning Drews, a resident and post-doctoral scholar at the Center for Integrative Psychiatry in Kiel, Germany. But, he noted that the current study found that "if you want...

U.S. Has 2nd Day of Record Rise in New Coronavirus...

26 June 2020
U.S. Has 2nd Day of Record Rise in New Coronavirus Cases; Young People Fueling TrendFRIDAY, June 26, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- As the United States reported yet another record-breaking number of new coronavirus cases on Thursday, public health officials warned that younger Americans now account for an ever-growing percentage of infections. In Arizona, where drive-up testing sites were being overwhelmed, nearly half of all cases are being seen in those aged 20 to 44, The New York Times reported. In Florida, which has been routinely breaking records for new cases in the past week, the median age of residents testing positive for the virus has dropped to 35, down from 65 in March. In Texas, where cases are soaring and hospitals are nearing capacity, young people now make up the majority of new cases in several urban areas, the newspaper said. "What is clear is that the...

Stroke, Confusion: COVID-19 Often Impacts the Brain, Study Shows

25 June 2020
Stroke, Confusion: COVID-19 Often Impacts the Brain, Study ShowsTHURSDAY, June 25, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with severe COVID-19 may be at risk for a variety of brain complications -- from stroke to psychosis, new research suggests. "There have been growing reports of an association between COVID-19 infection and possible neurological or psychiatric complications, but until now these have typically been limited to studies of 10 patients or fewer," said lead study author Benedict Michael. He is a fellow in the Institute of Infection and Global Health at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom. The study, described as the first nationwide look at neurological complications of infection with the new coronavirus, looked at 125 COVID-19 patients treated in U.K. hospitals during April. Michael emphasized that it focused only on...

As Pandemic Leads to Clearer Skies, Solar Energy Output Rises

25 June 2020
As Pandemic Leads to Clearer Skies, Solar Energy Output RisesTHURSDAY, June 25, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Here's some truly sunny news out of the coronavirus pandemic. Lower levels of air pollution resulting from people staying at home have enabled more sunlight to reach solar panels and increased their output of clean energy. For the study, researchers analyzed data from Delhi, India, one of the world's most polluted cities, and published their findings June 19 in the journal Joule. "India enacted a drastic and sudden lockdown at the start of the pandemic," said study first author Ian Marius Peters of the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy in Germany. "That means that reductions in air pollution happened very suddenly, making them easier to detect." In late March, the amount of sunlight reaching the solar panels in...

Coronavirus Baby Boom? Survey Says Maybe Not

25 June 2020
Coronavirus Baby Boom? Survey Says Maybe NotTHURSDAY, June 25, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Will the stay-at-home orders issued in March and April result in a "coronavirus baby boom," as some have predicted? Perhaps not, according to a new survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults, conducted by researchers from Indiana University. Around half of the people questioned reported no change in their sex lives during the early part of the coronavirus quarantine from mid-March to mid-April -- when a majority of Americans were at home under shelter-in-place orders. The other half said their sex lives had changed -- with some reporting increases and many reporting decreases across 10 sexual behaviors, including hugging, kissing, holding hands, or cuddling with a romantic partner, solo masturbation, vaginal sex and "sexting." The varying...

'COVID Toe' Lesions Probably Not Caused by COVID-19, Studies Find

25 June 2020
`COVID Toe` Lesions Probably Not Caused by COVID-19, Studies FindTHURSDAY, June 25, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Two new studies strongly suggest that the so-called "COVID toe" lesions that have popped up among some Americans during the pandemic may not be caused by infection with the new coronavirus after all. Despite intensive testing over a wide time period, none of the 51 study patients afflicted with the reddened, tender toes came up positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Instead, the simple fact that many people are spending weeks on end walking around barefoot at home might be the cause, the researchers suggested. The Spanish researchers behind one of the studies now theorize that "these skin lesions are not induced by the virus, but by the quarantine state itself." The team, led by Dr. Ignacio Torres-Navarro, a...

How the Saharan Dust Plume Could Make Your Allergies Worse

THURSDAY, June 25, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- As the giant Saharan dust plume continues its 5,000-mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean, experts warn that people in its path can expect to have...

Middle-Age Obesity Linked to Higher Odds for Dementia

THURSDAY, June 25, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- If you've been looking for a good reason to slim down, consider this: Being obese at midlife appears to increase your odds for dementia. That's the...
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