Precious few treatment guidelines for heart patients are supported by the best scientific evidence, a new study shows. Less than one in 10 recommendations are based on results from multiple randomized controlled trials (considered the “gold standard”), and that percentage has actually dropped in the past decade, the researchers reported. For the study, the investigators… read on >
Eggs may not be all they’ve been cracked up to be. A new study says eggs are a major source of dietary cholesterol and that cholesterol in the diet ups the risk of heart disease and premature death. The researchers followed nearly 30,000 adults over three decades and found that eating three or four eggs… read on >
Autism exacts a heavy toll on the families of teens who struggle with the disorder, but the fight to get treatment and services is even harder among minorities who live in poverty, new research suggests. “We must understand that many families parenting teens on the autism spectrum are also struggling to make ends meet while… read on >
Drowning can be swift and silent, making it a leading cause of accidental death among children. To help parents protect their kids in and around the water, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has updated its water safety recommendations. Drowning is the third-leading cause of accidental injury-related death among 5- to 19-year-olds. Nearly 1,000 children… read on >
Dementia is now one of the leading killers in the United States, with the rate of deaths linked to the disease more than doubling over the past two decades. “Overall, age-adjusted death rates for dementia increased from 30.5 deaths per 100,000 in 2000 to 66.7 in 2017,” say a team of researchers from the U.S.… read on >
A blood test used to detect a heart attack may often provide some misleading results, British researchers report. In a new study of patients undergoing blood tests at a hospital in England, one in 20 people had high blood levels of troponin, a protein released into the bloodstream during a heart attack. But most of… read on >
A healthy democracy means better health for its citizens, a new study claims. Researchers analyzed political, economic and population health data from 170 countries over 46 years — 1970 to 2016. They concluded that as levels of democracy increased, governments spent more on health, irrespective of their country’s economic situation. “The results of this study… read on >
More than 6 million American children aged 3 to 11 get head lice each year. Because children often play closely, lice can travel from child to child. For children with head lice, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advises parents: Apply treatment products only to the scalp. After rinsing the product from the scalp, remove… read on >
The term artificial intelligence (AI) might bring to mind robots or self-driving cars. But one group of researchers is using a type of AI to improve lung cancer screening. Screening is important for early diagnosis and improved survival odds, but the current lung cancer screening method has a 96 percent false positive rate. But in… read on >
There was a significant increase in the number of infants in Japan who had surgery for complex congenital heart disease after the nuclear accident in Fukushima, a new study finds. The disaster happened in March 2011 after a tsunami and earthquake hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, causing a meltdown and release… read on >
