A spike in the amount of time teenage girls in the United States spend online is a likely culprit behind the surge in rates of depression, suicide and contemplation of suicide, new research suggests. The finding stems from an analysis of fatal injury data collected between 1999 and 2015 by the U.S. Centers for Disease…  read on >

Everyone knows that sustained high blood pressure does no favors for your heart or life span. But new research suggests that up-and-down shifts in blood pressure may be equally hazardous to your health. “The takeaway from the study is, if you allow your blood pressure to be uncontrolled for any period of time, or notice…  read on >

As many as 20 percent of Americans get the winter blues when days grow shorter. For instance, you might feel blue around the holidays because of stress or if loved ones are far away. It’s usually mild and clears up on its own in a short amount of time. But up to 6 percent of…  read on >

Heart patients who’ve bought an all-electric Tesla need not worry that their car might interfere with their implanted defibrillator. That’s the finding from a new study of 34 seniors who had the devices, which help guard against dangerous irregular heartbeats. The study “demonstrates the safety of the Tesla electric vehicle in patients with cardiac defibrillators…  read on >

A life-threatening heart emergency can spell financial doom for people who don’t have health insurance, a pair of new studies shows. Around 4 out of 5 uninsured patients hospitalized for a heart attack, stroke or heart bypass surgery faced financial ruin before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010, the researchers reported. “Medical…  read on >

You’ve probably heard of “distracted driving,” but what about “distracted walking?” Largely due to the immense popularity of cell phones, pedestrian deaths reached nearly 6,000 in the United States last year, a 9 percent jump over 2015, the National Safety Council says. Walking remains a great way to get healthy exercise, but you should keep…  read on >

It’s a common Hollywood trope — an older guy is having enthusiastic sex with a gal half his age when he suddenly flops over dead. But in real life, sexual activity very rarely causes cardiac arrest, a new study reassuringly reports. Sex was linked to only 34 out of more than 4,500 cardiac arrests that…  read on >

If you love to while away a weekend watching a season’s worth of episodes from a favorite TV series, you may inadvertently put yourself at risk for developing a dangerous blood clot. When researchers compared people who reported watching TV more often to those who seldom or never watched TV, the risk of a venous…  read on >

SUNDAY, Nov. 12, 2017 (HealthDay News) – Cutting back on salt, along with following the highly recommended “DASH” diet, can beat back high blood pressure in adults, new research shows. After just a month, the results for people adopting this strategy were “striking and reinforce the importance of dietary changes” for those with problematic blood…  read on >