Five years after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention retooled a guideline for prescribing opioid painkillers, research suggests the change is paying off. With the United States in the grip of an opioid overdose epidemic, the CDC released an evidence-based guideline in 2016 to help doctors treat patients’ pain while balancing the risks…  read on >  read on >

Anesthesia is a vital part of almost every surgery, but unexpected bills for the service can cause a lot of pain. Now, a new study finds that these costs fell in several states that introduced legislation targeting “surprise” billing. “These price declines show that state surprise billing laws both directly lower out-of-network prices and indirectly…  read on >  read on >

MONDAY, Aug. 16, 2021 (American Heart Association News) — High blood pressure, high cholesterol and other risk factors for poor heart and brain health are problems people typically don’t think about until they hit midlife. A growing body of research suggests they should start sooner – decades sooner. “These factors that can be modified through…  read on >  read on >

The wildfire smoke now smothering wide portions of the United States isn’t just stinging eyes and tightening chests — it also might be contributing to the current surge of severe COVID-19 cases. Data from three Western states subject to frequent wildfires shows that COVID-19 cases and deaths increase with the amount of smoke pollution in…  read on >  read on >

COVID-19 vaccination triggers a strong immune response in people with HIV, meaning they’re likely protected against the coronavirus, a new, small study shows. “Previous research has suggested a suboptimal response to COVID-19 vaccines in people living with HIV; however, these studies did not fully characterize and define that response, both for cellular [where the immune…  read on >  read on >