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Research presented this week at a major medical meeting underscores the importance of preventing heart disease - but also illustrates how difficult that is to put into practice. Several studies of drugs and supplements that doctors hoped would improve heart health, for example, proved disappointing. Although a pill called dalcetrapib was found to improve HDL, or "good" cholesterol, it didn't actually...
November 7, 2012
A heart disease study presented Sunday is being called a $32 million waste of time - and even a danger to public health - by some of the country's leading health experts. The study tested whether a controversial alternative therapy, called chelation, could reduce heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems in people who already had survived a heart attack. Chelation therapy, which can remove metals...
November 5, 2012
A proposed Medicare settlement that allows more patients to receive home health care services could cost the government more initially, but several experts say it could save money in the long term. "My view is that if we build care coordination into the system, we'd save money," said Kenneth Thorpe, chairman in the department of Health Policy and Management at Emory University. Under the settlement,...
November 2, 2012
An experimental class of drugs shows promise as a new way to lower the "bad" cholesterol that can lead to heart attacks. A man-made antibody - similar to the immune system proteins that fight infections - lowered LDL cholesterol by about 70% when combined with a statin, according to a small, early trial published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. Many heart disease experts are enthusiastic...
November 1, 2012
The legal landscape is littered with charges of negligence and misconduct by compounding pharmacies such as the one implicated in the nation's ongoing meningitis outbreak, but they rarely result in tough punishments, an examination of legal records shows. In some cases, there's almost no penalty for pharmacies that break the rules, and the people who run them simply continue with business as usual,...
November 1, 2012
Oct. 30 - LIMA - Jodi Jarvis is one that doesn't take life for granted. The Waynesfield resident keeps a sunny disposition, despite the kidney scares she's had over the past few years. It might be because she does her dialysis treatments at home, rather than commuting to a clinic. The home treatment is gradually becoming more common, and it gives her more options and freedom. "You have to just concentrate...
October 30, 2012
Oct. 30 - Peterson Regional Medical Center radiology technologist Norma Garcia went in for her own annual screening in April 2011, when doctors discovered a lump that turned out to be breast cancer. Thanks to early detection and treatment, she is a healthy breast cancer survivor - one who knows from personal experience how important breast exams are. "(Women) have to be their own advocate and make...
October 30, 2012
Oct. 30 - Even though Breast Cancer Awareness Month is coming to a close and pink decor will be disappearing, that doesn't mean the disease will be going away. For Kelley Spaeder, senior community manager of the South Atlantic Division for the American Cancer Society, it's on her mind every day. From awareness to prevention to treatment, she hopes others will continue to spread the same message after...
October 30, 2012
Berlin (dpa) - Children with flu have a higher risk of dangerous re-infection from viruses or bacteria. A flu vaccination does not just protect the child from a single influenza bug but also protects them from dangerous combinations of germs. "Flu viruses weaken the immune system and make it easier for staphylococcus or pneumococcus to spread throughout the body," said Martin Terhardt, a paediatrician...
October 29, 2012
Roxanne Martinez received some of the best news of her life, as well as the worst news, in the same week. Two years ago, she learned she was expecting her first baby. She also learned that she had breast cancer. Since then, Martinez, of Fort Worth, has coped with one overwhelming challenge after another: undergoing a mastectomy and chemotherapy while pregnant, raising her daughter, weathering an additional...
October 29, 2012
The push to reverse the obesity epidemic and promote physical fitness is spilling into design and architecture and beginning to target one of the nation's most sedentary environments: the office. "Active design" - the architectural principle of creating spaces that encourage healthy lifestyles - is gaining popularity as more cities and companies join the fight and embrace healthy initiatives and "green"...
October 29, 2012
Two-thirds of Australia's adult population are overweight or obese, a key study found Monday, with rates continuing to climb despite a drop in smoking and drinking. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said people were continuing to pile on the kilos despite other findings indicating a switch to healthier habits. The study found 63.4 percent of the population are now classified as overweight or...
October 29, 2012
Oct. 28 - Smokers beware: Puffing away could reduce chances of landing a job, particularly at a hospital or a health care facility. Methodist Hospital System in Houston this month announcedit will implement a tobacco-free hiring policy on Jan. 1, joining the Texas Medical Center and Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, which have had similar policies since last year and 2010, respectively. The policies...
October 28, 2012
It starts as a blueberry pancake left on the tray of a patient with no appetite for breakfast. In 12 hours, it will become a dry, brown, dirt-like substance that can be mixed into the soil to help grow plants and flowers on the hospital grounds. St. Cloud Hospital installed a system four months ago to grind and dehydrate its food waste. It reduces waste that ends up in a landfill, instead converting...
October 26, 2012
Sometimes the students run circles around their teacher, and in Ronda Ary's case, that's a good thing. When Ary runs with her students, she feels on top of the world, knowing she's making an impact on their lives. "Running is good for everything," says Ary, a physical education teacher at Sneed Elementary School in Houston. "It really gets the endorphins going. It keeps you strong mentally and physically,...
October 25, 2012
Financially strapped state and local governments are saving billions of dollars on health insurance by cutting back on free coverage for employees and raising worker contributions, a USA TODAY analysis finds. Government workers still enjoy more generous health benefits than privately employed workers, but the advantage has narrowed from $1,523 in 2007 to $891 in 2012, adjusted for inflation, federal...
October 24, 2012
Holiday Inn's parent company is turning to a high-profile Midtown New York location to launch its pioneering fitness-themed hotel chain. InterContinental Hotels Group today will announce that it's signed an agreement with ownership group CWC to create an Even hotel in a newly built tower near Grand Central Station. It's set to open in late 2014 and will be Even's flagship location. "New York continues...
October 24, 2012
Reports of five deaths and a heart attack linked to Monster Energy drinks should bolster efforts to get the Food & Drug Administration to regulate caffeinated energy drinks, health and safety advocates say. The Food & Drug Administration says it has received five "adverse event" reports of death and one report of a heart attack "associated" with Monster Energy Drinks. FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess...
October 24, 2012
To physician John Perfect, the nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to contaminated steroid injections made by a compounding pharmacy feels painfully familiar. That's because Perfect treated patients sickened in a nearly identical outbreak 10 years ago, when five people in North Carolina became ill and one died. Watching a larger version of this nightmare unfold - with 285 people sickened...
October 22, 2012
Three elderly people have died and the number of those sickened by salmonella after eating infected smoked salmon has risen to 950, Dutch health officials said Thursday. "Three elderly people have died as a result of being infected by Salmonella Thompson. In total, some 950 people have now been taken ill as a result of the salmon, which have been taken off the shelves," said the National Institute...
October 18, 2012
Oct. 18 - A new study suggests a multivitamin a day could help reduce the risk of cancer in older men, but one expert cautions there's a lot more work to be done before the dietary supplements can be hailed as cancer fighters. Brigham and Women's Hospital researchers released the findings of the exhaustive study that found multi-vitamins cut cancer risk by 8 percent at a conference in California yesterday....
October 18, 2012
Oct. 18 - DECATUR - Those who want to stay on top of the seasonal health threat of influenza can do so from the comfort of their own computers. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Illinois Department of Public Health maintain online surveillance reports about the flu and how it is affecting the nation and state. The CDC recently released its first FluView Report for the current...
October 18, 2012
Oct. 18 - It's late Saturday night. A group of friends are gathered in a Linden Hills kitchen. The 17-year-olds order in from Pizza Luce, go out to the screened porch and light up. It isn't tobacco. They use a bubbler, a pipe with a water chamber, which is supposed to make the effects of the marijuana last longer. Ann prefers to do it this way, smoking pot at home, even though her parents don't exactly...
October 18, 2012
Oct. 18 - ST. LOUIS - Ann Roberson, 41, has metastatic breast cancer, a recurring cancer that developed after her initial bout with the disease. The first episode ended with a double mastectomy and chemotherapy. She believes she wouldn't be alive today had she not taken control of her health care and found a doctor who treated her with dignity. Her saga began in 2002 when she was diagnosed at age 31....
October 18, 2012
The war on tuberculosis is getting new weapons for the first time in decades, offering hope for controlling the deadly disease but major funding shortfalls threaten progress, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. "We are at a crossroads between the elimination of TB within our lifetime, possibly, and millions of avoidable deaths in the next several years," Mario Raviglione, director of the...
October 17, 2012
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