Nearly half of antibiotic prescriptions for Medicaid patients appear to be inappropriate, new research suggests. That kind of overprescribing raises risks for everyone, experts say, as bacteria gain more chances to mutate around the life-saving drugs. For the study, researchers analyzed 298 million antibiotic prescriptions filled by 53 million Medicaid patients between 2004 and 2013.… read on >
Folks fretting about the coronavirus are forgetting there’s another virus already running rampant in the United States, one that’s killed nearly 20 times as many people in this country alone. Influenza has already taken the lives of 10,000 Americans this season, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 19 million… read on >
Viagra can salvage a man’s sex life, but in rare cases it may temporarily steal his sight. Researchers report that some men who took sildenafil — the generic form of the impotence drug — suffered from vision problems, including a kind of color blindness that could take weeks to resolve. The case report details 17… read on >
More Americans were evacuated from the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China late Thursday, as the number of cases worldwide surpassed 31,000. Two chartered planes carrying about 300 Americans have left Wuhan, the U.S. State Department said Thursday night. Both flights will stop at Travis Air Force base in northern California, the Associated Press… read on >
A breakthrough study has identified a class of natural gene variants that may protect against Alzheimer’s disease. For the study, researchers at University College London analyzed DNA from more than 10,000 people — half with Alzheimer’s and half without. The investigators found that these gene variants reduce the functioning of proteins called tyrosine phosphatases. These… read on >
People afflicted with cluster headaches miss work twice as often as colleagues without the debilitating headaches, a new study finds. Cluster headaches are extremely painful headaches that last from 15 minutes to three hours, for many days, or even weeks, in a row. They’re more common in men. For the study, Swedish researchers compared more… read on >
During the late teens and early 20s, young people may booze it up a lot, but they eventually dial it back, right? A new study study confirms that drinking rates do tend to decrease after college age. But on an individual level, it all depends on various factors such as the drinker’s social networks and… read on >
More Americans are expected to be evacuated from the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China, as U.S. health officials reported a 12th domestic case of coronavirus late Wednesday. Earlier Wednesday, two planes carrying 350 Americans landed at an Air Force base in California. Some of those passengers were then flown to Marine Corps Air… read on >
Teaching parents how to talk to their babies could help boost their children’s language development, researchers say. The University of Washington study didn’t look at so-called baby talk, which typically consists of silly sounds and nonsense words. Instead, the researchers focused on what’s called parentese. This is proper speech with elongated vowels and exaggerated tones… read on >
A new discovery could lead to better treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune diseases, such as psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, researchers report. MS occurs when immune cells get into the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), causing nerve damage that results in neurological problems. However, the cause is unclear. Studies in… read on >
