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As wounded Marine Cpl. Winder Perez, fresh from the battlefield, lay on a gurney at a remote medical station in Afghanistan in January - a rocket-propelled grenade inside his body - Navy nurse James Gennari approached. "I took his hand. Held it in mine. And said 'I promise you I won't leave you until that thing is out of your leg,'" Lt. Cmdr. Gennari recalls. "I really did know that thing could have...
April 17, 2012
If your doctor is talking to an iPad the next time you see her, she may actually be flipping through your file. Voice-recognition technology developers are introducing a slew of products aimed at getting doctors to document patient information more immediately and thoroughly. The technology has advanced far enough, its proponents say, that it can now do more than just passively receive doctors' input....
April 16, 2012
Vancouver ophthalmologist Jean Carruthers got the first inkling of the power of Botox in 1987, when a patient being treated for facial muscle spasms complained Carruthers had missed a spot. "It's just every time you treat me there, I get this beautiful, untroubled expression," the woman said. And a bell went off in Carruthers' head. Married to a dermatologist, Carruthers, whose specialty was oculoplastic...
April 12, 2012
The government wants meat and poultry producers to stop giving antibiotics to their animals to make them grow faster. The reason: Dangerous bacteria that can kill people have been growing resistant to the drugs, which can leave humans at risk of getting infections that can't be controlled. The announcement on Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration, which asks producers to make the change voluntarily,...
April 12, 2012
As the number of accidental poisonings explodes and parents recount horror stories of crazed teenagers high on synthetic marijuana and "bath salts," federal attempts to outlaw the chemicals have stalled. The House has passed legislation that would outlaw "bath salts" and other chemical concoctions, sold at convenience stores and on the Internet as legal highs - and implicated in deaths and accidental...
April 12, 2012
Improved battlefield diagnosis has led to a record number of concussions detected among U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq last year, with an average of 16 inflicted each day last spring, according to newly released Pentagon figures. It was the highest pace for traumatic brain injuries of any period in 10 years of combat, according to data provided to USA TODAY. Brain injuries caused by the...
April 12, 2012
Vehicle back-seat designs can make it hard to install child-safety seats correctly - despite changes required a decade ago to make the process easy, according to a new report out today. Just 21 of 98 vehicles tested met all of the requirements for ease of use, says the report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. Seven of the...
April 12, 2012
The FDA's recent approval of a diagnostic tool developed by Eli Lilly for Alzheimer's disease is an important first step for early detection, researchers say, but not the final word. Amyvid is a drug used in imaging that allows researchers to detect amyloid plaques during a PET scan of the brain. Many Alzheimer's experts regard the plaques as the underlying mechanism leading to the progression of the...
April 11, 2012
Medical advances help people live longer and longer, but too few physicians help people understand that longer is not always better, according to two new books. Ira Byock says he wants "to raise people's expectations" about the end of life and to change the conversation about dying. "It's not easy to die well in modern times," says Byock, director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical...
March 7, 2012
That first year of marriage is often called the "honeymoon period." But for today's newly marrieds, just how long that newlywed glow lasts may well depend on how much real life gets in the way and how the partners respond to the stresses that surround them. Stress "forces all of us to say, 'Who's on my team? Are you my ally or are you an enemy?" says Thomas Bradbury, a clinical psychologist at the...
March 6, 2012
Katrice Bridges Copeland used to defend pharmaceutical company executives when their companies were accused of fraud. But when she saw that Pfizer, after being accused of fraud, had entered a third corporate integrity agreement with the government and paid $2.3 billion in fines to avoid being excluded from doing business with Medicare, Copeland said she was infuriated. She wrote a 63-page paper encouraging...
March 6, 2012
Imagine being stranded on an island - just you, your significant other and your newborn child. There are no parenting books or Internet. Instead, you rely on instinct to raise the baby. This, according to Bill Sears, associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of California-Irvine School of Medicine and the author of more than 40 books on parenting, is attachment parenting. He coined...
March 5, 2012
Psychologist Elaine Ducharme says several of her friends and patients rattled off laundry lists of resolutions at the beginning of the year, including eating healthier, exercising daily, losing weight and simplifying their lives. But a few weeks later, many had given up, saying they didn't have the willpower to follow through. Her advice: Focus on one thing at a time and work on ways to delay instant...
March 5, 2012
For years, Americans have heard the lecture: Consume less sodium, or face an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke. Some people have taken heed. They know to be wary of salt in the usual suspects, such as hot dogs, lunchmeat, many canned foods and fast food. But a recent government study shows we had better watch out for bread, too. Say what? Bread is the No. 1 source of sodium...
March 5, 2012
Small joints can throw some of the biggest curves later in life, says nonagenarian Barbara Stetson. Between the tennis court, golf course, knitting club and her needlepoint, Stetson gives her hands a rigorous workout. The past several years, her fingers have been troubled by severe arthritis, a disease that strikes one in five U.S. adults and is the leading cause of disability. The swelling and intense...
March 1, 2012
Cardinal Health, a Fortune 500 drug distribution company accused by the Drug Enforcement Administration of selling excessive amounts of prescription painkillers to Florida pharmacies, must stop shipping drugs from its Lakeland, Fla., distribution center, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton ruled Wednesday. The ruling lifts a temporary restraining order that prevented the DEA from enforcing its Feb. 2...
March 1, 2012
Vincent Moellering heard a rumor in April 2009 that a local pharmacy was selling the powerful and addictive painkiller oxycodone by the pill for cash. So Moellering, an investigator for Cardinal Health, one of the nation's largest distributors of pharmaceuticals, visited Gulf Coast Medical Pharmacy in Fort Myers, Fla. Over the next two years, Moellering and other Cardinal employees visited that pharmacy...
February 28, 2012
National League MVP Ryan Braun won his appeal against Major League Baseball but is still trying to establish his innocence. The Milwaukee Brewers left fielder, who was facing a 50-game suspension, became the first major league player to win his drug appeal last week, at least in part because of procedural error in collecting his urine sample. Braun, speaking passionately in a 25-minute news conference...
February 27, 2012
The health care overhaul that President Obama intended to be the signature achievement of his first term instead has become a significant problem in his bid for a second one, uniting Republicans in opposition and eroding his standing among independents. In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of the nation's dozen top battleground states, a clear majority of registered voters call the bill's passage "a bad thing"...
February 27, 2012
Seven states asked a federal judge Thursday to block an Obama administration mandate that requires birth control coverage for employees of religious-affiliated hospitals and schools. The lawsuit alleges the rule violates the First Amendment rights of groups that object to the use of contraceptives. It marks the first legal challenge filed by states. The rule has come under fire from religious groups...
February 24, 2012
Bird flu may be less deadly than supposed, based on blood serum evidence of many past mild infections in Asia and elsewhere, a biomedical team reported Thursday. Bird flu commonly travels from poultry to people, typically striking farmworkers, but not from person-to-person. Based on a review of about 600 cases, the World Health Organization estimated that the virus strain kills more than half its victims....
February 24, 2012
A growing percentage of teens do not see marijuana use as a distraction while driving, and nearly one in five (19%) say they have gotten behind the wheel after smoking pot, a study reported Wednesday. Thirteen percent of teens report driving under the influence of alcohol. In the study of nearly 2,300 11th- and 12th-graders across the country, commissioned by Liberty Mutual Insurance and SADD, 70%...
February 23, 2012
It has been a busy season for the "stomach flu," that nasty, highly contagious bug that has led officials from California to Washington, D.C., to close schools, issue alerts and launch massive cleaning efforts. The microbial culprit, norovirus, afflicts one in 15 Americans every year, causing sudden vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps that continue for a very unpleasant 24 to 48 hours, usually requiring...
February 23, 2012
Washington state may not force pharmacies to sell Plan B or other emergency contraceptives, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Judge Ronald Leighton said the state's goal was to suppress religious objections by druggists - not to promote timely access to the medicines. Leighton heard closing arguments this month in a lawsuit that claimed the state requirement violates the constitutional rights of pharmacists....
February 23, 2012
A Virginia proposal that would have required women to undergo an invasive ultrasound before having an abortion failed Wednesday after Gov. Bob McDonnell withdrew his support. McDonnell, a Republican who opposes abortion and is mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate, came out against the measure in the face of anger among some women and ridicule by late-night comedians. Requiring women...
February 23, 2012
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