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Produce prescriptions may promote better heart health

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

It’s no secret that the typical American diet isn’t very healthy. Only about one in 10 American adults eats the recommended daily amount of fruit (1-1/2 to 2 cups) or vegetables (2 to 3 cups). These dietary shortfalls are even more pronounced among people in lower income groups. And the health impacts are substantial: In the United States, ...Read more

Mayo Clinic Q&A: Try turmeric for a healthier diet, pain relief

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I am a breast cancer survivor who still suffers from various aches and pains, including arthritis. A friend told me that her arthritis pain improved after she started taking turmeric. I’m committed to making this new year a healthier one, and I want to improve my overall health and diet. Can you tell me more about this ...Read more

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Commentary: How your in-network health coverage can vanish before you know it

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Sarah Feldman, 35, received the first ominous letters from Mount Sinai Medical last November. The New York hospital system warned it was having trouble negotiating a pricing agreement with UnitedHealthcare, which includes Oxford Health Plans, Feldman’s insurer.

“We are working in good faith with Oxford to reach a new fair agreement,” the ...Read more

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Concerns grow over quality of care as investor groups buy not-for-profit nursing homes

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Shelly Olson’s mother, who has dementia, has lived at the Scandia Village nursing home in rural Sister Bay, Wisconsin, for almost five years. At first, Olson said, her mother received great care at the facility, then owned by a not-for-profit organization, the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society.

Then in 2019, Sanford Health — a not...Read more

Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post/TNS

Colon cancer is increasing in younger Coloradans even as death rate drops for people over 55

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DENVER — Kris Koehler could tell something was wrong in the summer of 2013, when he started suffering unexplained abdominal pain and his bowels behaved differently.

The Fort Collins resident’s doctor couldn’t initially figure out what was causing it, though, and gave him a list of tests to get if the pain got bad enough that he couldn’t...Read more

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Mayo Clinic Minute: The difference in brain aneurysms

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Each year, nearly half a million people worldwide die from brain aneurysms. In the U.S., an estimated 6.7 million people have an unruptured brain aneurysm, which means about 1 in 50 people might have one.

A brain aneurysm, also called a cerebral aneurysm, is a bulge or ballooning in a blood vessel in the brain. Dr. Chris Fox, a Mayo Clinic ...Read more

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F.D. Flam: Not even Antarctica could stop COVID. It's a crucial lesson

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

COVID-19 wasn’t supposed to get to Antarctica. If any place had a hope of keeping the virus out, it would be a continent with no permanent residents and an annual visiting population of only 5,000. And every control measure was in place — testing, a strict quarantine of everyone visiting, as well as lots of deep sanitation, masks and social ...Read more

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New way for states to cover pricey gene therapies will start with sickle cell disease

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration late last year approved two breakthrough gene therapies for sickle cell disease patients. Now a new federal program seeks to make these life-changing treatments available to patients with low incomes — and it could be a model to help states pay for other expensive therapies.

The new sickle cell treatments...Read more

E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/TNS

One year after a heart transplant, Shaunté Brewer is educating her students about healthy lifestyles -- and much more

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

CHICAGO -- Shaunté Brewer didn’t know that her health was in danger at age 13. As the Chicago resident recalls, she was more focused on passing her softball test in gym than on her prevalent cough. Fortunately, Brewer’s mother determined that the sound and persistence of her daughter’s cough called for a trip to the hospital.

“The way ...Read more

Pratchaya Leelapatchayanont/Dreamstime/TNS

Mayo Clinic Minute: Warning signs of colorectal cancer in younger adults

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Colorectal cancer, the third-most common cancer in the U.S., has been rising among younger people for the past two decades. It is not one type of cancer but two cancers: colon cancer, which starts in the large intestine, and rectal cancer, which begins in the last part of the large intestine, known as the rectum.

Dr. Derek Ebner, a Mayo Clinic ...Read more

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Pitt study outlines new way to tackle HIV

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

PITTSBURGH — A study out of the University of Pittsburgh outlines a new technology for targeting Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV.

Published Tuesday in the journal Cell Chemical Biology and funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, it paves the way for a slice of medicine focused not just on ...Read more

Jeff Wheeler/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS

Comedians are more than happy to dive into depression

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

MINNEAPOLIS — Comrade Tripp was finally escaping his sister's basement and moving into his own Uptown apartment, one with plenty of windows and independence. He was less than thrilled.

"I don't want any light," he said in a mumble that suggested his dog just died. "As soon as I get there, the building will probably crumble."

The Eeyore-like ...Read more

How much stress is too much? A psychiatrist explains the links between toxic stress and poor health − and how to get help

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

COVID-19 taught most people that the line between tolerable and toxic stress – defined as persistent demands that lead to disease – varies widely. But some people will age faster and die younger from toxic stressors than others.

So how much stress is too much, and what can you do about it?

I’m a psychiatrist specializing...Read more

Jeff Wheeler/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS

Comedians are more than happy to dive into depression

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

MINNEAPOLIS — Comrade Tripp was finally escaping his sister's basement and moving into his own Uptown apartment, one with plenty of windows and independence. He was less than thrilled.

"I don't want any light," he said in a mumble that suggested his dog just died. "As soon as I get there, the building will probably crumble."

The Eeyore-like ...Read more

Taylor Sisk/KFF Health News/TNS

West Virginia city once battered by opioid overdoses confronts 'fourth wave'

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — From 2006 through 2014, more than 81 million painkiller pills were shipped to this city and surrounding rural Cabell County.

The arrival of prescription opioids onto seemingly every block of Huntington, a city of about 46,000 people, augured the first wave of an overdose crisis. Heroin followed, then fentanyl.

Residents ...Read more

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Intermittent fasting linked to heart risks in research surprise

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The safety of intermittent fasting, a popular strategy to lose weight by limiting food intake to certain times, was called into question by a surprise finding from research presented at a medical meeting.

Limiting mealtimes to a period of just eight hours a day was linked to a 91% increase in risk of death from heart disease in the study, ...Read more

White House unveils executive order to boost women's health

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The Biden administration is rolling out an executive order to strengthen women’s health research standards across federal agencies and prioritize its funding in an effort to close the gap on long-standing disparities.

As part of the order, the National Science Foundation and Department of Health and Human Services are instructed to research ...Read more

Children experience more injuries, stress and even burnout when they specialize in one sport

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

From football to baseball, gymnastics to tennis, more young athletes are becoming sports specialists. They join expensive sports clubs or youth leagues and devote themselves to a single sport all year long. But Nirav Pandya, a professor of orthopedic surgery and sports medicine at the University of California San Francisco, says there are ...Read more

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Montana, an island of abortion access, preps for consequential elections and court decisions

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A years-long battle over abortion access in a sprawling and sparsely populated region of the U.S. may come to a head this year in the courts and at the ballot box.

Challenges to several state laws designed to chip away at abortion access are pending in Montana courts. Meanwhile, abortion rights advocates are pushing a ballot initiative that ...Read more