As bird flu continues to spread among dairy cows, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday it is now testing ground beef for any presence of the virus. The agency said it is sampling ground beef bought in grocery stores in states where dairy cattle have tested positive for the virus, also known as H5N1,… read on > read on >
Doctors argue that genetics aren’t destiny when it comes to a person’s health, and a study appears to support that notion. A healthy lifestyle can offset the effects of life-shortening genes by more than 60%, researchers found. People at high genetic risk of a curtailed lifespan could extend their life expectancy by nearly 5.5 years… read on > read on >
Teens who vape frequently are exposing themselves to harmful metals like lead and uranium, a new study finds. Lead levels in urine are 40% higher among intermittent vapers and 30% higher among frequent vapers, compared to occasional vapers, results show. And urinary levels of uranium were twice as high among frequent vapers as occasional vapers,… read on > read on >
A middle-aged Seattle man collapsed in his Portland, Ore.-area hotel room, where he was staying during a business trip. He’d just tried fentanyl for the first time, and it very nearly killed him by literally destroying his brain. Inhaling fentanyl caused terrible inflammation throughout large sections of white matter in the patient’s brain, his doctors… read on > read on >
As the battle over abortion continues to rage in the courts and American politics, a new report estimates that one in every four U.S. women will undergo the procedure during their lifetime. The study was issued by the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization focused on sexual and reproductive health that supports access to abortion. … read on > read on >
Kids who don’t like vaccination shots might soon have an alternative in a painless skin patch, researchers say. More than 90% of 190 Gambian infants were protected from measles and all were protected from rubella after receiving a single vaccine dose through the patch, early trial results show. The patch contains an array of microscopic… read on > read on >
H5N1 avian “bird” flu is making headlines this week, with new reports finding inactive virus detected in 1 in 5 U.S. milk samples. That means the virus is infecting mammals such as dairy cows, and now researchers report it’s turned up in a bottlenose dolphin in Florida. “We still don’t know where the dolphin got… read on > read on >
At major medical centers across the southeast, 1 in every 20 visits to emergency departments involve people who are homeless or face “housing insecurity,” a new U.S. study finds. Concerns of suicide was the leading medical reason bringing these types of patients to the ER and many were uninsured, said a team reporting recently in… read on > read on >
Laboratory tests used by millions of Americans are soon to be classified as medical devices, and as such be regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency announced Monday. The new rule does not apply to tests and kits made by big medical device manufacturers — those already face FDA review. Instead, the… read on > read on >
Live bird flu virus has not been found in any of the first batch of retail milk samples tested, federal health officials said Friday. Amid an ongoing outbreak of bird flu in U.S. dairy cows, the early findings should reassure the public that the milk sold in stores remains safe, officials added. In the online… read on > read on >
