An infant will generate a lot of poop during the first year of life, but the very first one may offer key clues about the risk of developing allergies. Researchers analyzed samples of meconium from 100 babies enrolled in the CHILD Cohort Study, a long-term health study of children in Canada. Meconium is a dark…  read on >  read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday proposed a ban on menthol cigarettes, a move that the agency has tried before and one that public health experts and civil rights groups have pushed for years. Menthol cigarettes have been marketed aggressively to Black Americans for decades: About 85% of Black smokers use menthol brands,…  read on >  read on >

CBD is all the rage, and millions of people are turning to it for a host of reasons, including pain relief. But despite CBD’s popularity and widespread use, new research finds it’s actual benefits are less clear. The bottom line? CBD — and your expectations about whether it will help (the “placebo effect”) — can…  read on >  read on >

COVID-19 is never a good diagnosis, but health risks are especially high in people with poorly controlled, advanced diabetes, a new study confirms. The new report looked at pooled data from 22 studies that included a total of nearly 18,000 people. Simply having diabetes didn’t raise a COVID-19 patient’s risk for death: The study found…  read on >  read on >

If making healthy lifestyle changes doesn’t lower a patient’s slightly high blood pressure within six months, doctors should then consider prescribing medication, a new American Heart Association scientific statement advises. The recommendation is for people with untreated stage 1 high blood pressure (130-139/80-89 mm Hg) who have a low risk of a heart attack or…  read on >  read on >

Stroke recovery tends to be worse among Americans in poorer neighborhoods than those in wealthier neighborhoods, a new study finds. “People in less advantaged neighborhoods were more likely to have more disability, lower quality of life and more symptoms of depression than people in more advantaged neighborhoods,” said study author Lynda Lisabeth, from the University…  read on >  read on >