Air pollution may trigger more asthma attacks in urban children and teens, a new study reports. Even moderate levels of ozone and fine airborne particulates — two ingredients of smog — appear to increase kids’ risk of asthma attacks, according to findings published online Jan. 4 in The Lancet Planetary Health journal. “The strong association…  read on >  read on >

The Grammy-winning singer Adele told a crowd at her New Year’s Eve concert that “really bad sciatica” is causing her to wobble on stage. The award-winning singer first talked about her chronic back problems in a 2021 interview with The Face. “I slipped my first disk when I was 15 from sneezing,” she said. “I…  read on >  read on >

THURSDAY, Jan. 5, 2023 (American Heart Association News) — Racial and ethnic diversity among medical workers is critical to Americans’ health, but more needs to be done to recruit, train and support those professionals, a new report says. The report, published Thursday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, describes barriers…  read on >  read on >

Generous parental leave policies at work can do wonders for a new mom’s mental health. This is among the key messages from a new review of 45 studies examining how parental leave policies affect mom and dad’s mental health and well-being. Mothers working for companies with generous parental leave policies were less likely to experience…  read on >  read on >

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling last June, many feared that abortion bans would jeopardize the health of pregnant women. Several months later, a conservative group known as the Alliance Defending Freedom sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reverse their decades-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone,…  read on >  read on >

THURSDAY, Jan. 5, 2023 (HealthDay News) – Researchers studying patients with low-grade, slow-growing brain tumors have found that more aggressive surgery may extend survival. The trick to treating low-grade gliomas is to remove as much of them as possible soon after diagnosis, researchers at University of California, San Francisco found. “Our findings put an end…  read on >  read on >

Cigars are linked with victory, new babies and Winston Churchill, not nicotine addiction, but are they any better for your health than cigarettes? No, say experts who point out the many dangers of cigar smoking. Over the past few decades, through clever marketing, cigar smoking has taken on a rarified aura, with cigar bars and…  read on >  read on >

Herbal cigarettes: They carry a certain “coolness factor” and sound like they might be a healthier alternative to tobacco, but are they really safer to smoke? Not really, experts say. “Even herbal cigarettes with no tobacco give off tar, particulates and carbon monoxide, and are dangerous to your health,” according to the American Cancer Society…  read on >  read on >