Latest Health News

6May
2020

Flipping the Odds: Turning Patients Prone Helps Fight COVID-19

Flipping the Odds: Turning Patients Prone Helps Fight COVID-19WEDNESDAY, May 6, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A new analysis suggests there may be a simple, noninvasive technique that could delay, or even eliminate, the need for ventilation in COVID-19 patients. It's called "proning." And it appears to be remarkably effective at boosting "blood oxygen saturation" levels, often called sats, among COVID patients struggling with abnormally low levels (known as hypoxia). "Proning is basically having patients turn over onto their stomach or onto their side while lying down," explained study author Dr. Nicholas Caputo. He's the associate chief at New York City Health and Hospitals/Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center's department of emergency medicine. How does it work? Gravity, says Caputo. "It makes sense anatomically," he noted, "because when your...

Why Are Blacks, Other Minorities Hardest Hit By COVID-19?

6 May 2020
Why Are Blacks, Other Minorities Hardest Hit By COVID-19?WEDNESDAY, May 6, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The new coronavirus is disproportionately striking minority populations -- particularly urban blacks and Navajo Indians living on their reservation. Experts say social and economic factors that predate the COVID-19 crisis may help explain why. "We found that there were large disparities in the proportion of people at risk of COVID-19 from minority and low-income populations," said study co-author Julia Raifman. She's an assistant professor of health law, policy and management at the Boston University School of Public Health. Raifman believes decades of disparities in education, housing, jobs and stress levels have contributed to an excess risk of chronic disease based on race, ethnicity and income. And those same issues are exacerbating the...

Inhaler Use Up During Coronavirus Pandemic

6 May 2020
Inhaler Use Up During Coronavirus PandemicWEDNESDAY, May 6, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Daily use of inhaler medication by Americans with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has increased during the coronavirus pandemic, a new study shows. Researchers analyzed data on controller inhaler use by nearly 7,600 patients who use Propeller Health, which uses electronic medication monitors to track inhaler use and alerts patients about missed doses. Between the first seven days of January 2020 and the last seven days of March, mean daily controller inhaler use rose 14.5%. During the last week of March, more than 53% of patients had 75% or greater daily controller medication adherence, up 14.9% from the first seven days of January, according to the study published May 4 in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical...

Study Will Track Coronavirus in Kids, Their Families

6 May 2020
Study Will Track Coronavirus in Kids, Their FamiliesWEDNESDAY, May 6, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. researchers have started enrolling participants in a study to assess the rate of new coronavirus infection among children and their families. The study -- sponsored and funded by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) -- will also examine if rates of new coronavirus infection differ between children with and without asthma or other allergic conditions. "One interesting feature of this novel coronavirus pandemic is that very few children have become sick with COVID-19 compared to adults," said NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci. "Is this because children are resistant to infection with SARS-CoV-2, or because they are infected, but do not develop symptoms?" Fauci said in a NIAID news release. The...

Layoffs and Losses: COVID-19 Leaves U.S. Hospitals in Financial Crisis

6 May 2020
Layoffs and Losses: COVID-19 Leaves U.S. Hospitals in Financial CrisisWEDNESDAY, May 6, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has done untold economic damage in the United States, with businesses shuttering and people self-isolating at home to try to slow the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus. You might think hospitals and health care systems would be immune to this wave of financial ruin, since there's no industry more crucial to America's fight against the pandemic. You'd be wrong. The health care industry experienced an estimated $500 billion reduction in revenue during the first quarter of 2020, said Dr. David Shulkin, a former secretary of Veterans Affairs and former president and CEO of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. "There's no doubt our hospitals, health systems, health care providers in general have taken a...

Coronavirus Task Force to Wind Down as U.S. Cases Climb Past 1.2 Million

6 May 2020
Coronavirus Task Force to Wind Down as U.S. Cases Climb Past 1.2 MillionWEDNESDAY, May 6, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that the White House coronavirus task force will likely disband within a month, even as the number of coronavirus cases climbed passed 1.2 million and the death toll passed 71,000. The slow shutdown will happen because of "the tremendous progress we've made as a country," Pence said during a task force media briefing at the White House on Tuesday. While touring a mask factory in Arizona the same day, President Donald Trump acknowledged that reopening the country will mean more American lives are lost, but "we can't keep our country closed. We have to open our country." "I'm not saying anything is perfect," Trump added, the Washington Post reported. "And, yes, will some people be affected? Yes. Will...

New Coronavirus Strain More Contagious, Scientists Say

6 May 2020
New Coronavirus Strain More Contagious, Scientists SayWEDNESDAY, May 6, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A new, mutated strain of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has become dominant and appears to be more contagious than the strain that spread during the early stages of the pandemic, scientists report. They said the new strain appeared in February in Europe, spread to the East Coast of the United States and has been the dominant strain worldwide since mid-March, the Los Angeles Times reported. The new strain spreads faster and may make people susceptible to a second COVID-19 infection, but it does not appear to be more deadly, according to the genetic study posted Thursday on BioRxiv, a website used by researchers use to share their work before it's reviewed by peers. The scientists said there was an "urgent need for an early warning" so...

Breastfeeding May Help Guard Against Diabetes

5 May 2020
Breastfeeding May Help Guard Against DiabetesTUESDAY, May 5, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Breastfeeding is good for more than babies: New research suggests it may protect new mothers from developing diabetes for years after they give birth. The study included 85 women who breastfed and 99 who did not. They were assessed two months after giving birth and each year after that for at least three years. Compared to those who didn't breastfeed, mothers who breastfed had improved pancreatic beta cell mass and function and lower blood glucose (sugar) levels, reducing their risk of diabetes, the investigators found. These benefits continued after women stopped breastfeeding, lasting for more than three years after they gave birth, according to the study published recently in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The South Korean...

Dangerously Hot Days for U.S. Farm Workers Could Double...

TUESDAY, May 5, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Dangerously hot days for crop pickers in the United States will double over the next three decades because of climate change, a new study warns. "Studies...

Heavy Drinking Tied to Raised Stroke Risk, Study Finds

TUESDAY, May 5, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Lots of boozing might increase your risk for a stroke, Swedish researchers report. Heavy alcohol use can triple your risk for peripheral artery disease,...
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