• Filter By:
• Specialty
• Source
• Condition
• Cancer
• Infectious Disease
• Drug
• Training
• Management
• Procedure
• Therapy
• Vaccine
• Nutrition
• Country

Studies support broader use of cholesterol-lowering statins
The latest guidelines used to determine who should take a cholesterol-lowering statin to prevent heart disease appear to be more accurate and cost-efficient than the previous guidelines. That’s according to two studies led by Harvard researchers, both published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association. For many years, the main deciding factor in who needed to take a statin was the level of an individual’s harmful low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL). Updated guidelines published in 2013 by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association moved away from LDL and ...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - July 16, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Julie Corliss Tags: Drugs and Supplements cholesterol high cholesterol statins Source Type: news

Get the flu vaccine, reduce your risk of death
Last year was a lousy year for the flu vaccine. Hospitalizations for flu hit a nine-year high, and the vaccine prevented flu in only 23% of all recipients, compared with 50% to 60% of recipients in prior years. Why does the flu vaccine work well in some winters and not others? The flu vaccine primes the immune system to attack two proteins on the surface of the influenza A virus, hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). Different flu strains have different combinations of these proteins — for example, the strains targeted by recent flu vaccines are H3N2 and H1N1. Unfortunately, the influenza virus is microbiology’s ans...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - September 15, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Ross, MD, FIDSA Tags: Cold and Flu Vaccines Flu Shot flu vaccine Source Type: news

Sauna use linked to longer life, fewer fatal heart problems
After shoveling for days, breaking up ice dams, and now shivering in this week’s frigid temperatures, I wouldn’t mind sitting in a sauna for a bit. A new report in JAMA Internal Medicine makes this pastime even more appealing: regularly spending time in a sauna may help keep the heart healthy and extend life. Researchers from the University of Eastern Finland tracked 2,300 middle-aged men for an average of 20 years. They categorized the men into three groups according to how often they used a sauna each week. The men spent an average of 14 minutes per visit baking in 175° F heat. Over the course of the study, ...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - February 25, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Beverly Merz Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Heart Health sauna Source Type: news

The Quality Of Health Care You Receive Likely Depends On Your Skin Color
Unequal health care continues to be a serious problem for black Americans. More than a decade after the Institute of Medicine issued a landmark report showing that minority patients were less likely to receive the same quality health care as white patients, racial and ethnic disparities continue to plague the U.S. health care system. That report, which was published in 2002, indicated that even when both groups had similar insurance or the same ability to pay for care, black patients received inferior treatment to white patients. This still hold true, according to our investigation into dozens of studies about black health...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - June 29, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

2016 Moon Shot for Cancer: Focus on Prevention
It is now 2016, and Americans hope for a brighter, healthier new year. Are Americans healthier today than they were last year or the year before? Will there be fewer people diagnosed with cancer? According to the American Cancer Society, it is projected that in 2016 there will be 1,685,210 new cancer cases and 595,690 deaths due to cancer. This is an increase over previous years. While it is true that the death rate for several cancers has decreased (due mostly to better screening and earlier diagnosis), it is also true that several cancers are on the rise, including cancers of the thyroid, liver, pancreas, kidney, small i...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - February 1, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

Loneliness Is a Public Health Emergency. Here ’s What Helps, According to Experts
When the pandemic first began, many experts feared that even people who managed to avoid the virus would suffer from unprecedented levels of loneliness. What would happen when millions of people were told to stay at home and distance themselves from friends and loved ones? Two years of research later, experts have found that the pandemic did make Americans slightly more lonely—but loneliness levels were already dire enough to pose a threat to mental and physical health. Here’s what you need to know about loneliness and how to address it in your own life. Who got lonelier during the pandemic? [time-brightcove n...
Source: TIME: Health - June 1, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tara Law Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news

Loneliness Is a Public Health Emergency. Here ’ s What Helps, According to Experts
When the pandemic first began, many experts feared that even people who managed to avoid the virus would suffer from unprecedented levels of loneliness. What would happen when millions of people were told to stay at home and distance themselves from friends and loved ones? Two years of research later, experts have found that the pandemic did make Americans slightly more lonely—but loneliness levels were already dire enough to pose a threat to mental and physical health. Here’s what you need to know about loneliness and how to address it in your own life. Who got lonelier during the pandemic? [time-brightcove n...
Source: TIME: Health - June 1, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tara Law Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news