Month: December 2016

ESPANOLA, N.M. (AP) — The heart of an unborn child beat strong and steady through an amplified monitor, as physician Leslie Hayes examined a pregnant 40-year-old who recently was weaned from heroin with help from anti-craving medication. Hayes and her colleagues treat more than 200 patients for drug-use disorders involving heroin and prescription opioid pain medication at a rural clinic in New Mexico’s Espanola Valley, where rates of opioid addiction and mortality are among the

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Planned Parenthood has asked a federal judge to stop Texas from cutting it from the state’s Medicaid program, which the nation’s largest abortion provider says would reduce health services for nearly 11,000 low-income women. The request to U.S. District Sam Sparks was filed late Friday in Austin and is part of an ongoing lawsuit filed last year. Texas is one of several Republican-controlled states that have sought to deny Medicaid funding

A Danish study has recommended that expecting mothers take omega-3 fatty acid supplements to reduce the risk of their children becoming asthmatic. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen followed 700 women from the 24th week of pregnancy until their children were five years old. During the third trimester of pregnancy, when their babies’ lungs were developing, the test subjects were given a daily dose of either 2.4 grams of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (fish oil)

How, then, do we get costs under control? I would propose the kind of plan that Dr. Ben Carson has championed — that we create Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) for people from the day that they are born to the day that they die, at which time they can pass any money in their HSA on. We can pay for these HSAs with the same traditional dollars that we currently pay for health care. Even

In the days after the election, I read (and re-read many times) a short but poignant essay in the New Yorker responding to Trump’s victory by one of my favorite authors, Junot Díaz. In it he wrote: “But all the fighting in the world will not help us if we do not also hope. What I’m trying to cultivate is not blind optimism but what the philosopher Jonathan Lear calls radical hope. ‘What makes this

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I did not want to join yoga class. I hated those soft-spoken, beatific instructors. I worried that the people in the class could fold up like origami and I’d fold up like a bread stick. I understood the need for stretchy clothes but not for total anatomical disclosure. But my hip joints hurt and so did my shoulders, and my upper back hurt even more than my lower back and my brain would. not. shut.

An Egyptian fruit bat flies in an abandoned quarry near the village of Mammari, Cyprus, in 2007. Alex Mita/AFP/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Alex Mita/AFP/Getty Images An Egyptian fruit bat flies in an abandoned quarry near the village of Mammari, Cyprus, in 2007. Alex Mita/AFP/Getty Images If movies were trying to be more realistic, perhaps the way to summon Batman shouldn’t have been the Bat-Signal — it should have been the bat squeak. New

“Today, there are no effective screening methods for endometrial cancer, which is increasing in both incidence and mortality in the United States,” said Peter Dottino, MD, Director of Gynecologic Oncology at Mount Sinai Health System and one of the senior authors on the study. “We were therefore interested in the possibility of coupling newly developed genomic technologies with current treatment practices to develop a precision medicine assay for screening and early detection of this cancer.”

December 31, 2016, 7:36 AM|CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook takes a look at a marijuana-related health illness where diagnosis could be often missed: cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, or CHS. He also reviews the top medical news of 2016 including the Zika virus and the opioid crisis.

Fatness in Guatemala has long been a marker of health, beauty and prestige. In recent years, body weight scales have appeared in rural marketplaces, on street corners, and in central parks. For a few cents, people can step on them to learn how much they weigh. Sometimes they do so just for the novelty.

Besides a tsunami of dead and dying herring, creatures that have washed ashore include lobsters, starfish, scallops, crabs, clams and apparently a humpback whale, Canadian TV reported. The number of species impacted has gradually increased over the month, and up to 20,000 animals have turned up dead. Though tests haven’t found any known toxin or disease, none of the dead fish and shellfish are safe to eat, authorities warn.

Earlier this year, at a concert in Italy, Adele paused in the middle of her set to ask a fan: “Can you stop filming me? Because I’m really here in real life, you can enjoy it in real life, rather than through your camera.” In recent years, the relentless smartphone user has overtaken that tall guy wearing a hat standing in front of you as the most common concert pest. So much so that Apple

Overall, studies indicate that 15 to 20 percent of one to three year olds continue to have nightwakings. According to Stephanie Zandieh, M.D., Director, Pediatric Sleep Disorders and Apnea Center, The Valley Hospital, “Inappropriate sleep associations are the primary cause of frequent nightwakings. Sleep associations are those conditions that are habitually present at the time of sleep onset and in the presence of which the infant or child has learned to fall asleep. These same

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Eighteen years ago, on New Year’s Eve, David Fisher visited an old farm in western Massachusetts, near the small town of Conway. No one was farming there at the time, and that’s what had drawn Fisher to the place. He was scouting for farmland. “I remember walking out [to the fallow fields] at some point,” Fisher recalls. “And in the moonlight – it was all snowy – it was like a blank canvas.” On that

With a president-elect who has publicly supported the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, suggested that climate change is a hoax dreamed up by the Chinese, and appointed to his Cabinet a retired neurosurgeon who doesn’t buy the theory of evolution, things might look grim for science. Yet watching Patti Smith sing “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” live streamed from the Nobel Prize ceremony in early December to a room full of physicists, chemists and

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – One of China’s top coal-producing provinces has vowed to slash its level of fine particle pollution by one-fifth by 2020, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday, citing the provincial government. China has adopted various measures from policing barbeques to halting industrial production in efforts to ease the yearly winter haze that hit the country earlier this month leaving cities veiled in foul-smelling smog. China’s northern Shanxi province aims to increase

1. You Overdid It with the Scrubbing Exfoliating can bring more glow-y, softer-looking skin…but a little goes a long way. “While exfoliating can help remove dead cells from the skin’s surface to give a brighter complexion, overdoing it can cause cracks in the outer skin layer,” says Zeichner. “This leads to inflammation and sensitivity.” Be sure to exfoliate using a soft, circular motion rather than a scrubbing one. Follow with moisturizer to help soothe skin. 

But a new study, authored by Prause, actually puts that myth to rest. Researchers surveyed 88 women about what type of stimulation usually caused their orgasms (vagina, clitoris, etc.) and how intense those orgasms were. However, the researchers said there didn’t seem to be a link between the source of the orgasm and how good it felt. The researchers also came to the conclusion that it doesn’t really make sense to distinguish between “clitoral” and “vaginal” orgasms

In late December in San Antonio, Texas, a 36-year-old mother of three from Jefferson City, Missouri, gave her best friend the most precious gift of all: a healthy kidney and the promise of a new life for the New Year. The procedure took place at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital and represented another milestone: the 200th live donor kidney transplant performed in 2016 at this private hospital. This is the greatest number of live donor

Dr. Martin Kaplan, DMD, DABLS

If you’re a woman who’s pregnant or planning a baby this season, make a New Year’s resolution to be as healthy as you can, says the March of Dimes Foundation. The first step is to start taking a daily multivitamin containing the B vitamin folic acid, even if you’re not trying to get pregnant. “Your health before and during pregnancy has a direct impact on your baby,” says Dr. Siobhan Dolan, a medical advisor to

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For more than a decade, there has been a focus on involving primary care providers in the follow-up care of cancer survivors. A new study by Rutgers University and Harvard Medical School investigators examines current literature on this subject and finds despite a number of proposed care models, there is limited information on the role that primary care providers play in the care of cancer survivors. Rutgers Cancer Institute research member Shawna V. Hudson, PhD,

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

You’ve likely heard about being in the right place at the wrong time, but what about having the right genes in the wrong environment? In other words, could a genetic mutation (or allele) that puts populations at risk for illnesses in one environmental setting manifest itself in positive ways in a different setting? That’s the question behind a recent paper published in The FASEB Journal by several researchers including lead author Ben Trumble, an assistant

Molecules with the potential to deliver healing power to stressed cells – such as those involved in heart attacks – have been created by University of Oregon researchers. The research – done at a cellular level in the lab and far from medical reality – involves the design of organic molecules that break down to release hydrogen sulfide when triggered by specific conditions such as increased oxidative stress. Oxidative stress damages cells and is tied

A UK mother who made the news for having extremely premature triplet girls who all survived has herself died unexpectedly. Rachel Park, who died at age 39 just days after taking her 9-month-old babies home from the hospital for Christmas, became pregnant after six years of trying with her husband, Steven, and on her fourth round of IVF. “She idolized those little girls,” her husband said. “They were her world.” The cause of death is

NEW YORK –  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering lowering its threshold for elevated childhood blood lead levels by 30 percent, a shift that could help health practitioners identify more children afflicted by the heavy metal. Since 2012, the CDC, which sets public health standards for exposure to lead, has used a blood lead threshold of 5 micrograms per deciliter for children under age 6. While no level of lead exposure

A New York City agency has issued the nation’s first intersex birth certificate to a 55-year-old individual born with male genes, female genitalia and mixed internal reproductive organs. The historic move could pave the way for more of such certificates, which do not indicate “male” or “female” in the gender field, but rather “intersex, NBC News reported. Experts say the decision is a step in the right direction toward improving those individuals’ health care, as

With more than 100,000 people aged 100 or over, Spain is the country with the greatest life expectancy after Japan, OECD data and the latest population census shows. Over a year, Reuters photographer Andrea Comas interviewed and photographed Spaniards aged 100 or more across the country from the green-hilled northern region of Asturias to the Balearic island of Menorca. Average life expectancy at birth in Spain is 83.2, according to the latest OECD statistics made

On New Year’s Day, millions of Americans will wake up feeling sick, headachy, nauseous and dizzy. They will be suffering from what’s commonly known as a hangover, an uncomfortable condition that’s laid low over 77 percent of drinkers at one point in their lives. Unfortunately too much champagne can cause pain. And while we don’t know exactly why booze can trigger hangovers, the theory is that alcohol is a diuretic. If you don’t drink enough

By Tom Polansek CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. officials are urgently seeking an agreement with South Korea that would allow imports of American eggs so farmers can cash in on a shortage caused by the Asian country’s worst-ever outbreak of bird flu. South Korea banned imports of U.S. table eggs last year after the United States grappled with its own bout of bird flu. If a new agreement is reached, U.S. shipments could bring some relief

Popping a bottle of champagne during a New Year’s Eve bash may be a tradition, but drinking in excess while ringing in 2017 can be especially dangerous in cold weather. Liquor can help you “feel” warmer as blood vessels on the skin’s surface open, according to the University of Rochester Medical Center. However, that “feeling” of warmth does not mean your body temperature will be affected. You will still be just as likely to get

With New Year’s Eve on the horizon, you may be planning on downing a few glasses of champagne, festive punch or other alcoholic beverage to ring in 2017. But have just one glass too many, and you may be left feeling the effects on New Year’s morning. Here’s what you need to know about kicking a hangover so you can start 2017 off on the right foot. Plan Ahead Dr. Noah Rosen, Director, Northwell Health’s

These Bacteria Could Be The Leading Cause Of Your Anxiety — And Other Issues Your gut feeling could be causing your anxiety. For some time, doctors have observed that patients who have gastrointestinal diseases such as GERD and irritable bowel syndrome also suffer from depression and anxiety. This link was confirmed in a recent study. Scientists found that strains of two bacteria in the gut, Lactobacillus helveticus and Bifidobacterium longum, reduce anxiety-like behavior in rats.

An 83-year old volunteer charity worker who has been helping vulnerable people for 57 years has been appointed MBE. Alan Woodhouse, a former teacher who helped set up the Samaritans’ Liverpool branch in 1960, says everyone should volunteer because “it will enrich your life.” In other honours, Sir David Behan, chief executive of watchdog the Care Quality Commission, has been knighted. And Angela Rippon has been appointed CBE for services to dementia care. The journalist

In the present study, we used FACS to isolate the c-kit+/SSEA1? subpopulation of cells from the eye walls of newborn mice. Our results showed that these c-kit+/SSEA1– cells expressed RPC markers, retained the capacity for cell division, and continued to express high levels of TERT after 20 passages. After transplantation into the subretinal space of rd1 mice, c-kit+/SSEA1? cells differentiated into photoreceptors and increased the overall levels of rhodopsin and recoverin. Our data indicated that

“Like 10 percent of American women, I suffer from endometriosis. And like many women who have chronic ‘invisible’ conditions, I wasn’t diagnosed for years. During that time, I was told by doctors, friends, and even family that ‘it’s all in your head,’ ‘it’s normal,’ and, my favorite, ‘you’re overreacting.’ After years of hearing these things from numerous doctors, you start to convince yourself that your pain and suffering just might be your normal. So you stay

The Calgary, Alberta, Canada-based ultrarunner, marathoner and coach says he does “a couple runs a week” on a treadmill, including an occasional 22-miler (which takes him almost two hours). “I like treadmill runs because you can get in some quality workouts without the safety issues of running on slick roads in the winter,” he says. Needless to say, Puzey knows how to embrace the machine most runners refer to as the “dreadmill.” Here are his

Check out Women’s Health’s FitGIF Friday every week for fun and challenging new moves to make your sweat sesh really count. Here’s this week’s exercise: Squat jacks: Everyone knows that squats are bomb for working your legs and booty, but they don’t exactly get your heart racing. This move solves that by knocking out two birds with one stone: Not only will you be sculpting your legs and lifting your butt, you’ll break a sweat

St Ives Apricot Scrub is the most popular and widely stocked scrub in the US But two women claim it damages the skin and accelerates ageing Although the packaging says it is ‘dermatologist tested’, the scrub has been criticized by dermatologists in mainstream news outlets The women seek $5m for all customers in the false advertising case  By Mia De Graaf For Dailymail.com Published: 17:29 EST, 30 December 2016 | Updated: 20:16 EST, 30 December

Stress can take a real toll on your body.  Headaches may become more frequent, it may be difficult to get the right amount of sleep and even the digestive system can often act out of sorts.  Here family physician Dr Roger Henderson reveals some of the health conditions that can be exacerbated by stress and what you can do to manage them. 1. IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME  What happens? Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) affects around 13

Sharp wave ripples play a key role in strengthening memories But the mechanism that forms their shape and rhythm had not been identified Now, a team of researchers have found they are formed by synaptic inhibition  They also believe it  ‘could be main factor in memory consolidation’ By Stacy Liberatore For Dailymail.com Published: 17:51 EST, 30 December 2016 | Updated: 19:14 EST, 30 December 2016 e-mail 20 View comments In order to remember a skill or experience, the

Public Health England data shows reports of the illness have reached 2,435 This is 12 per cent more than the average for the same period over five years Hospitals recorded at least 20 outbreaks in the first two weeks of December  By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 17:32 EST, 30 December 2016 | Updated: 18:28 EST, 30 December 2016 e-mail 88 View comments In the week ending on Christmas Day, the outbreaks of vomiting and diarrhoea

With more than 100,000 people aged 100 or over, Spain is the country with the greatest life expectancy after Japan, OECD data and the latest population census shows. Over a year, Reuters photographer Andrea Comas interviewed and photographed Spaniards aged 100 or more across the country from the green-hilled northern region of Asturias to the Balearic island of Menorca. Average life expectancy at birth in Spain is 83.2, according to the latest OECD statistics made

The amount of energy generated by renewables fluctuates depending on the natural variability of resources at any given time. The sun isn’t always shining, nor is the wind always blowing, so traditional power plants must be kept running, ready to fill the energy gap at a moment’s notice. Because the grid has no storage, and unlike coal or nuclear, there is no control over the fluctuating production of renewable energy, the energy they produce has

Tumor cells cause extensive expansion of MDSCs, which are associated with poor prognosis in patients with various types of cancer. Dr. Evans and colleagues used a state-of-the-art microscopy system to visualize T lymphocytes, the professional killers of cancer cells within the arsenal of the immune system. They discovered that MDSCs can blunt the immune reaction to cancer by preventing the ability of T lymphocytes to enter lymph nodes, important sites where the immune response to

Paris (AFP) – French companies will be required to guarantee a “right to disconnect” to their employees from Sunday as the country seeks to tackle the modern-day scourge of compulsive out-of-hours email checking. From January 1, a new employment law will enter into force that obliges organisations with more than 50 workers to start negotiations to define the rights of employees to ignore their smartphones. Overuse of digital devices has been blamed for everything from

Port-au-Prince (AFP) – The cholera outbreak that hit Haiti after Hurricane Matthew slammed the island has been contained but persists due to lack of funding, according to the United Nations. An epidemic of the waterborne disease — which spread after a massive earthquake shook the nation in 2010 — saw a resurgence after Matthew devastated the country in early October. The number of recorded cholera cases more than doubled in Haiti between September and October.

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The study results, published in the journal Nature Genetics, help explain why it is so difficult to battle cancer by targeting a specific genetic defect. A surgeon who performs a single biopsy on a patient’s tumor can decode only part of the tumor and its genetic variations. Additionally, cancer cells constantly change their makeup. “A tumor is not a single disease,” said Dechen Lin, PhD, assistant professor and research scientist in the Division of Hematology

This new pharmacological agent could — with additional chemistry — lead to a new drug to prevent radiation-induced invasion of GBM cells. The researchers have tested their pharmacological agent in combination with radiation with profound survival benefits in pre-clinical models. Paul B. Fisher, M.Ph., Ph.D., Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM), focuses on cancer genetics and Web Cavenee Ph.D., Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the

0 Shares The death of actress Debbie Reynolds a day after daughter Carrie Fisher died has put a spotlight on people who die shortly after loved ones do. Reynolds, 84, died Wednesday after suffering a stroke, according to her family, while Fisher of “Star Wars” fame died Tuesday, a few days after suffering cardiac arrest. There is no evidence linking the two deaths, but some published medical studies have found that people appear to be

BRASILIA, Brazil — Each week, patients at the Support Hospital of Brasilia receive visits from a special breed of therapist: dogs trained to help them recover from disease or injury. Big and small, from German shepherds to Shih Tzus, the dogs get into bed with some patients to snuggle during the 15-minute visits. Folks who are more mobile may take an animal to a crafts class, or play with it in the hallways. Brazilian therapy

Antonio Araujo, a 67-year-old geriatric patient, gets a visit from a Shitzu dog named Mille as he rests in bed at the Support Hospital of Brasilia, Brazil. Therapy dogs, big and small, from Shih Tzus to German shepherds, spent 15 minutes with patients every Thursday as part of a pet therapy program. 

What your body doesn’t need, Lamott wrote, is starvation, chastisement, and too-tight clothing that hurts: Wear forgiving pants! The world is too hard as it is, without letting your pants have an opinion on how you are doing. I struggle with enough esteem issues without letting my jeans get in on the act, with random thoughts about my butt. Peace with one’s body doesn’t come from a physical, outward transformation but an inward, spiritual one: 

Look at Don and me. He’s still practicing law, and I’m a professor at a university. We’re working, paying taxes, and looking forward to tomorrow with our friends, families and co-workers. It’s like a baseball team where nobody is on the disabled list. It can happen, if we’re all on the same page.

Yvette joins the Less Cancer board which includes Thomas M. Sherman, MD, chairman; (myself) Bill Couzens, founder and president; Greg Lam, vice president; KC Graham, treasurer; Veronique Pittman, Miles O’Brien, David MacDonald, Larry Fisher, Robert Billot, Donna Eacho, Natalia (Ali) Pejacsevich and Maryann Donovan, PhD, MPH.

I’ve spent the last 12 months really exploring what that means to me. I asked: How do I allow myself to receive? Where am I limiting that? How do I experience opening up to recieve in my body, mind… Through this process, I learned a lot about myself. Where I hold back, where I get stuck, where I feel afraid. Through a deeper relationship with this word, receive, it’s helped me open up more, relax

As the New Year approaches, we reluctantly add one more year to the list of years spent without our loved one. Whether you lost your loved one in 2016, or many years ago, it is important to remember that where there was great love, there will also be deep grief. For every special moment you shared together, there will be many more moments of emptiness and longing for your loved one. Nostalgia is a part

As reported in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Murray and his colleagues examined data from the large National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, also known as NHANES, from 2009 to 2014. Altogether, they had information, including blood test results, on more than 22,000 participants over the age of six.

Children under age five could choke on grapes and similarly shaped foods, and parents should cut them in half or quarters to reduce the risk, Scottish doctors say. Although some parents may know to cutgrapes, cherry tomatoes and hot dogs, to name a few, into smaller pieces, not all do. Public health officials should spread the message more, they wrote in the Archives of Disease in Childhood journal. “This message continually appears but doesn’t seem to take

Change in the brushstrokes of painters over time could be a subtle sign of cognitive decline, according to a new study. The research team, led by Alex Forsythe, senior psychology lecturer at the University of Liverpool, analyzed more than 2,000 paintings from seven famous artists, including Canadian Indigenous painter Norval Morrisseau who suffered from Parkinson’s disease. They studied artists’ “fractals” — in other words, the unique and repeated patterns of an artist’s brushstrokes within a painting. She found subtle changes in these fractals in

Pan Pan sniffs a birthday cake made of ice for his 30th birthday, at the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda in Dujiangyan, on Sept. 21, 2015. AFP/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption AFP/Getty Images Pan Pan sniffs a birthday cake made of ice for his 30th birthday, at the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda in Dujiangyan, on Sept. 21, 2015. AFP/Getty Images In the final days of

What if detecting cancer was as easy as breathing in and out? According to a study published last week in American Chemical Society Nano, it pretty much is. Scientist Hossam Haick has been working on his “electronic nose” for years, the Outline reports, and this new study shows the impressive things it can do. According to Smithsonian Magazine, scientists used the device to sample the breaths of more than 1,400 people and found it could