(HealthDay News) – Medicare announced Monday that seniors can now walk into most drug stores and get a free over-the-counter COVID test. “For the first time in its history, Medicare is paying for an over-the-counter test,” Deputy Administrator Dr. Meena Seshamani, director of the Center for Medicare, said in a news release on the announcement.… read on > read on >
Public health experts have been telling pregnant women that it is safe — and recommended — to get a COVID-19 shot because they are at higher risk for poor outcomes and death from the virus. New research now answers a key question about the vaccine’s impact on their babies. The vaccine is not associated with… read on > read on >
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, wrote William Shakespeare. It appears he was correct. The smells that people like or loathe are determined not by cultural experiences but mostly by the structure of the odor molecule, according to a new international study. “We wanted to examine if people around the world… read on > read on >
While hospitals and clinics are known for being slow to turn new evidence into actual practice, they picked up the pace during the pandemic. A research team led by scientists from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and the University of California, San Francisco, collected data from more than 50 academic medical centers across the United… read on > read on >
Your pet’s poop and pee may give you clues to how many cancer-causing toxins have taken up residence in your home. “Our findings suggest that pets are coming into contact with aromatic amines that leach from products in their household environment,” said study author Sridhar Chinthakindi, a postdoctoral fellow at NYU Langone Health in New… read on > read on >
Almost no one in the world is breathing good air, according to a new World Health Organization report, which issued a call for reducing the use of fossil fuels. Air quality is the worst in WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Asia regions, but 99% of the global population breathes air that exceeds air quality limits… read on > read on >
As sign-ups for youth football get underway this spring, a new study reveals that Americans may love their football, but half now believe that kids should not play the tackle version of the game. The researchers found that of nearly 4,000 U.S. adults surveyed, only 45% agreed that tackle football is an “appropriate sport for… read on > read on >
Does youthful experimentation with drugs and alcohol always fade with age? Not necessarily, a long-term study warns. Researchers found that more than 60% of teens who report heavy use of alcohol, marijuana, and/or other drugs continue to have a drug problem as adults, often involving misuse of prescription medications. The findings follow decades tracking more… read on > read on >
MONDAY, April 4, 2022 (American Heart Association News) — Scientists debate whether Hispanic adults, who have higher rates of certain risk factors for cardiovascular disease, are nonetheless less likely to die from it than their non-Hispanic white peers. It’s something researchers call the “Hispanic paradox.” But a new study analyzing heart and stroke deaths over… read on > read on >
Efforts to cut back on risky opioid use for pain after surgery are trickling down to kids. New research shows that fewer Americans under the age of 18 were prescribed narcotics to treat surgical pain between 2014 and 2017, and these numbers dropped even more rapidly beginning in late 2017. While opioids can help kids… read on > read on >
