The explosive rise in use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers during the COVID-19 pandemic has had a dangerous, unintended consequence: eye injuries among children. Using data from French poison control and a children’s hospital in Paris, researchers reported that accidental eye injuries to kids under age 18 shot up sevenfold during a five-month period last year,… read on > read on >
Irene Greenhalgh, 83, considers herself a pretty computer-savvy senior, but even she got lost in a maze of websites and e-mails trying to get an appointment for her COVID-19 vaccine. One health provider’s e-mail provided links to sites that were giving vaccinations, but the dates listed were a week old. A board of health’s website… read on > read on >
Electronic ‘early warning systems’ for kidney damage in hospital patients don’t improve outcomes, researchers say. These systems are meant to alert for acute kidney injury (AKI). AKI, a sudden decrease in the kidney’s filtration function, occurs in 15% of hospital patients and increases the risk of death 10-fold. The systems give an automated alert in… read on > read on >
Researchers have found a way to track what your mind is doing when thoughts begin to wander. Using electroencephalograms (EEG) to measure brain activity while more than two dozen study participants did mundane attention tasks, the researchers identified brain signals associated with a daydreaming mind. They found that the participants had increased alpha brain waves… read on > read on >
People with anxiety and depression are more likely to step up their drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic than those without these mental health issues, an online survey revealed. Alcohol use grew the most among young people, but older adults with anxiety and depression were about twice as likely to report increased drinking as older adults… read on > read on >
Going into cardiac arrest at night can be particularly deadly, and now new research suggests that it might strike women more than men. Sudden cardiac arrest is an electrical malfunction that causes the heart to stop beating. The survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is only 10%, the researchers said. “Dying suddenly during nighttime hours… read on > read on >
Here’s one reason why past or current smoking may handicap you if you are battling breast cancer: New research suggests that nicotine promotes the spread of the disease to your lungs. Smoking is known to increase the risk that breast cancer will spread, which lowers the survival rate by one-third at diagnosis. But the role… read on > read on >
The new year is the ideal time to focus on your health and one expert has some tips, especially for men, for doing that. According to Dr. Kevin McVary, director of Loyola Medicine Men’s Health Center, in Maywood, Ill., “Men don’t always focus on their health and, in fact, men are less likely to see… read on > read on >
Puffy coats have their place, but it’s not inside a car seat. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) offers a variety of tips for keeping your little ones safe and warm while traveling by car. The first is to avoid dressing children in puffy coats or snowsuits before buckling them in, because car seat straps… read on > read on >
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Friday that a new, more infectious coronavirus variant first spotted in the United Kingdom late last year could also be more lethal. The new variant, which has since been found in numerous countries including the United States, was already known to be far more infectious than the original… read on > read on >
