America’s most popular cold medications contain a nasal decongestant that doesn’t work, creating a knotty dilemma for regulators, a new study reports. Cold remedies containing phenylephrine remain consumers’ most popular choice, despite decades of concern that the decongestant simply isn’t effective, researchers say. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to pull phenylephrine… read on > read on >
Filling the day with simple activities could be the key to improving mood and well-being after a person has suffered the loss of a loved one, a new study finds. These “uplifts” — activities that can improve a person’s mood — helped ease grief on a day-to-day basis, researchers reported recently in the journal Applied… read on > read on >
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who helped Americans navigate the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic, will reflect on his career in a memoir set for release this summer. His publisher, Viking, announced that the book, titled “On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service,” will go on sale June 18. “I hope that this memoir will… read on > read on >
Preliminary data from the largest survey examining the quality of life for transgender and nonbinary Americans show they suffer high levels of unemployment and harassment. In the early findings, released Wednesday, the National Center for Transgender Equality gathered responses on 600 questions from more than 92,000 transgender and nonbinary Americans, age 16 and up, from… read on > read on >
Could drugs that give a boost to men’s sexual performance help them stave off Alzheimer’s disease? That’s the main finding from a study suggesting that erectile dysfunction meds like Cialis, Levitra and Viagra might lower the odds for the memory-robbing illness. The study wasn’t designed to prove cause-and-effect, cautioned British researchers at University College London.… read on > read on >
Two studies that warned of the harms of the abortion pill have been retracted by the journals’ publisher over flaws in the data and conflicts of interest among the researchers. Complicating matters even further, the papers were cited in a Texas Court ruling that has challenged nationwide access to the abortion pill. That landmark case… read on > read on >
Reducing homelessness by 25% could save nearly 2,000 lives lost each year to opioid overdoses, a new study estimates. It also could save 850 lives from alcohol poisoning and 540 from cocaine overdoses, researchers from the University of Georgia estimate. This is the first study to suggest that homelessness contributes to deaths from substance use,… read on > read on >
CPR can save lives, but its ability to restore heart function goes from slim to none in a shockingly short time, a new study finds. How short? A person’s chance of surviving cardiac arrest while receiving CPR declines from 22% after one minute of chest compressions to less than 1% after 39 minutes of compressions,… read on > read on >
No one’s brain is as sharp at 60 as it was at 20. However, new research supports the notion that folk’s brains can make subtle adjustments with age to compensate for that decline. A team of British researchers has found more evidence that as the mind ages, it sometimes recruits help from certain brain regions… read on > read on >
A doctor or nurse might be the only person capable of convincing a vaccine-hesitant person to get the COVID jab, a new study shows. Those who trust the medical profession are most likely to get vaccinated against COVID, despite their initial hesitancy or resistance, according to a study published recently in the journal Preventive Medicine… read on > read on >
