Health Advice

/

Health

Health investigation into NC State's Poe Hall ends due to federal government cuts

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The health investigation into Poe Hall at North Carolina State University has ended due to federal workforce cuts by the Trump administration, Chancellor Randy Woodson announced Wednesday.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health had been conducting a health hazard evaluation, an evaluation of a workplace ...Read more

The Minnesota Star Tribune/Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

UMN disease research center to launch vaccine integrity project

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy is launching an initiative to examine how non-governmental entities can help protect vaccine policy, information and utilization in the U.S.

Called the Vaccine Integrity Project, the initiative’s steering committee will gather feedback from professionals across ...Read more

Natrice Miller/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Children's hospital in Atlanta suspends gender-affirming care for transgender kids

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

ATLANTA — Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is no longer offering gender-affirming care to transgender children as the Trump administration turns up pressure on institutions to stop the practice.

Parents of transgender children receiving care at Children’s started receiving messages last week letting them know the nonprofit health system ...Read more

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

The ranks of Obamacare 'fixers' axed in Trump's reduction of health agency workforce

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

They’re the fixers, the ones who step in when Affordable Care Act enrollees have a problem with their coverage, like a newborn incorrectly left off a policy or discovering that a rogue broker had signed them up or switched their plan without consent.

Specially trained caseworkers help resolve such issues, which might otherwise cause consumers...Read more

Dzmitry Dzemidovich/Dreamstime/TNS

Mayo Clinic Q & A: 7 strategies to build resiliency

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I'll admit I tend toward negative self-talk, and I'm frequently stressed out about work, family and health concerns. I know other people have problems too, but I feel like they handle it better. What can I do to help myself and be a role model for my children?

ANSWER: Resilient people are made, not born. There isn't a gene or ...Read more

Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

California halts medical parole, sends several critically ill patients back to prison

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California has halted a court-ordered medical parole program, opting instead to send its most incapacitated prisoners back to state lockups or release them early.

The unilateral termination is drawing protests from attorneys representing prisoners and the author of the state’s medical parole legislation, who say it ...Read more

Pratchaya Leelapatchayanont/Dreamstime/TNS

Medi-Cal under threat: Who's covered and what could be cut?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Medi-Cal, California’s complex, $174.6 billion Medicaid program, provides health insurance for nearly 15 million residents with low incomes and disabilities. The state enrolls twice as many people as New York and more than three times as many as Texas — the two states with the largest number of Medicaid participants ...Read more

FDA warning hits Minnesota-made infusion pumps for missing regulatory checks

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Medical device maker ICU Medical changed designs of infusion pumps made in Minnesota without properly clearing important regulatory checks after a recent recall, according to a Food and Drug Administration warning letter this month.

The FDA noted that California-based ICU Medical, a multibillion-dollar device company, has clearance dating to ...Read more

Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images North America/TNS

Measles misinformation is on the rise -- and Americans are hearing it, survey finds

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

While the most serious measles epidemic in a decade has led to the deaths of two children and spread to 27 states with no signs of letting up, beliefs about the safety of the measles vaccine and the threat of the disease are sharply polarized, fed by the anti-vaccine views of the country’s seniormost health official.

About two-thirds of ...Read more

Environmental Nutrition: Alcohol and healthy eating

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Q: Can alcohol fit into a healthy eating plan?

A: Alcohol can be part of a healthy eating pattern when consumed appropriately. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, moderate drinking is defined as up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men. A standard drink is typically 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of ...Read more

6 vegetables you should always buy frozen

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Eating healthy isn’t always easy. Eating a diet rich in vegetables helps provide the necessary vitamins and minerals to keep our bodies healthy, but doing so can be difficult when vegetables are expensive, out of season, or quick to spoil in the fridge. To combat this, many experts recommend using frozen vegetables instead, which can actually ...Read more

Mayo Clinic Q&A: Options for breast reconstruction

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My sister was just diagnosed with breast cancer and will have a double mastectomy. What types of reconstruction could she have, and when can the reconstruction be done? Are there any new reconstruction options that she should be aware of? I’ve heard about 3D tattooing. Is that an option?

ANSWER: Breast reconstruction is a ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

New research helps explain unexplained strokes in younger adults

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

In adults under age 50, strokes caused by clots are on the rise – and many happen without a clear link to a traditional cause such as high blood pressure. A new study suggests the underlying reason for these unexplained, or cryptogenic, strokes could hinge in part on whether someone has a type of hole between the upper chambers of the heart. ...Read more

Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images North America/TNS

Revisiting the measles: Who should get a vaccine?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Getty Images According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 700 confirmed measles cases have been reported in at least 25 states as of mid-April — and that number continues to grow. Most cases are among people who are unvaccinated, have an unknown vaccination status or are children. The highly contagious disease ...Read more

Andrei Rahalski/Dreamstime.com/TNS

A plan to access cheap drugs backfires, leaving patient with $250,000 bill

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Janelle Zeihen worried she’d have to file for bankruptcy after learning she owed $250,000 for her Crohn’s disease treatment.

The Milwaukee nursing home worker thought her insurance was covering the infusions as part of a complex arrangement. Through a middleman, her benefit plan was trying to use a charity program to get her the medication...Read more

Jose Luis Villegas/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Sweeping NIH cuts jolt dementia research team

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DAVIS, Calif. -- For weeks, no one could tell Dr. Charles DeCarli whether the $53 million grant powering his lab’s ambitious dementia research project would be renewed.

“It was horrible,” the neurologist said. “It was really hard to face the potential of losing all of it, the money, everything I’d worked so hard for.”

Then came the...Read more

Natalie Krebs/KFF Health News/TNS

COVID worsened shortages of doctors and nurses. Five years on, rural hospitals still struggle

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Even by rural hospital standards, Keokuk County Hospital and Clinics in southeastern Iowa is small.

The 14-bed hospital, in Sigourney, doesn’t do surgeries or deliver babies. The small 24-hour emergency room is overseen by two full-time doctors.

CEO Matt Ives wants to hire a third doctor, but he said finding physicians for a rural area has ...Read more

Win McNamee/Getty Images North America/TNS

Ruling could give Kennedy more power over health care coverage

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

WASHINGTON — A looming Supreme Court decision could result in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wielding more control over the body that recommends preventive health services insurers must fully cover — a possibility that alarms health advocates.

The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in Kennedy v. Braidwood ...Read more

Nadezhda Kurbatova/Dreamstime/TNS

When it comes to sleep, quality may be just as important as quantity

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

When it comes to healthy sleep, it's not just how long a person is at rest that matters. Other factors, such as how long it takes to fall asleep, keeping a regular sleep schedule and the overall satisfaction with sleep, can all affect heart and brain health, according to a new science report.

The report summarizes the latest evidence on the ...Read more

Spencer Platt/Getty Images North America/TNS

States that enshrined Medicaid expansion in their constitutions could be in a bind

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

As Republicans in Congress consider cutting the federal share of Medicaid funding, states are weighing numerous options to scale back their programs. But voters in three states have significantly limited those options by enshrining Medicaid expansion in their constitutions — creating a potential budget disaster and a political challenge for ...Read more