Access to abortion pills by mail was made permanent by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday. Patients will be able to have a telemedicine appointment with a provider who can prescribe the pills and send them to the patient by mail, the FDA said in new guidance issued Thursday. Abortion pills are approved… read on > read on >
Recovery from heart surgery can bring some pain. But a new study suggests patients don’t need potentially addictive prescription opioids to control that post-op discomfort. “This study shows that discharge without opioid pain medicine after cardiac surgery is extremely well tolerated by some patients. In other words, we should not be reflexively prescribing pain medicine… read on > read on >
Many people turn to marijuana or cannabidiol to ease their achy joints and help them sleep, but a new study suggests that could wreak havoc with any other medications they’re taking. Why? Because the body uses the same set of enzymes to process them all, scientists report. The chemicals in marijuana — THC, cannabidiol (CBD),… read on > read on >
Children and teens who use livestreaming gaming platforms may be bombarded with influencer-endorsed ads for energy drinks, junk food and alcohol, new research shows. “This type of marketing can normalize high-fat, high-sugar and high-sodium foods at a time in young viewers’ lives when they’re developing eating habits that are going to follow them into adulthood,”… read on > read on >
An experimental drug, added to chemotherapy, may benefit women with an aggressive form of breast cancer, suggests an early study offering much-needed good news. The study involved women with “triple-negative” breast cancer, which accounts for about 15% to 20% of breast cancers among U.S. women. It is so called because the cancers lack receptors for… read on > read on >
Margarine has gotten a bad rap for years, but a U.S. ban on partially hydrogenated oils may have made it a healthier choice than butter, a new study suggests. Before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned such oils in 2018, margarine contained these oils, which are heavy in trans fats and raise bad (“LDL”)… read on > read on >
For certain leukemia patients, some welcome findings: New research confirms long remissions after treatment with the drug ibrutinib and chemotherapy. The study involved 85 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). All were 65 or younger, and 46 had more aggressive, unmutated IGHV subtype of the disease. “Patients with lower-risk CLL, which is marked by mutated… read on > read on >
A new study confirms yet another consequence of the pandemic for children and teenagers: Eating disorders, and hospitalizations for them, rose sharply in 2020. The study of six hospitals across Canada found new diagnoses of anorexia nearly doubled during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the rate of hospitalization among those patients was… read on > read on >
Older adults have a higher risk of delirium after hip and knee surgery if they’re taking anxiety, depression or insomnia drugs, researchers say. “Our findings show that different classes of medicine are riskier than others when it comes to causing delirium after surgery, and the older the patients are, the greater the risk,” said lead… read on > read on >
They take care of others, but many U.S. home health care workers say they’re not in good shape themselves, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed self-reported data collected from nearly 3,000 home health care workers in 38 states between 2014 and 2018 and found that more than a quarter rated their general health as fair… read on > read on >
