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Health News

What you can do right now to evade America’s No. 1 killer

Growing up, I watched my father, a highly respected cardiologist, read medical journals every evening, answer emergency phone calls in the middle of many nights, and rush to the hospital after-hours several times a week. I didn’t know it then, but these years were the peak of an epidemic of heart disease in the United…

This app helps people with special needs make friends

Juliana Fetherman was in middle school when she started to notice that her younger brother, Michael, who has ADHD and autism, was having problems making friends. “He’s verbal, but he doesn’t like to talk,” Fetherman told CNN. “Just making and keeping conversations is something that’s really awkward for him, and it’s hard for him to…

FDA approves non-statin drug to treat high cholesterol

The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a drug to treat high cholesterol that works differently than statins, according to Esperion Therapeutics, the company that makes the drug. Bempedoic acid is a once-a-day oral medication that will be commercially known as Nexletol. The FDA approved it for use with a healthy diet and…

When women die in childbirth, these are the fathers left behind

They are members of an unnecessarily large fraternity. There’s Charles Johnson, the father of two whose wife died in Los Angeles during childbirth in 2016. He has turned his anger into advocacy. And Darin Horath, who lost his fiancée and their newborn daughter in September in rural Indiana. For him, the emotions are still raw.…

CDC has confirmed 35 cases of novel coronavirus in the US

US officials have now confirmed 35 cases of novel coronavirus in the country, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. These include 21 cases among repatriated individuals, as well as 14 US cases. “We are keeping track of cases resulting from repatriation efforts separately because we don’t believe those numbers accurately represent…

A record-breaking 105 US children have died from flu so far this season

So far this season,105 children have died from the flu, according to data released Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is the highest number of child flu deaths at this point in the season since the CDC started keeping records in 2004, except for the 2009 flu pandemic. It has…

Poor quality Western diet kills sperm count and lowers male testosterone, study says

If sperm was an animal, science might worry that it’s heading toward extinction in Western nations. Total sperm count in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand dropped by up to 60% in the 38 years between 1973 and 2011, research found — an acceleration of a trend that began in the 1940s. More recent…

Want to lose more weight? Intensive therapy from dietitians can help older adults, study finds

Older adults may have better success at losing weight if they do it with the help of intensive behavioral therapy from dietitians, a new study suggests. Intensive behavioral therapy for obesity, or IBTO, is a customized treatment that helps people change their eating and exercise behaviors through a series of one-on-one counseling sessions. It’s also…

China’s changed how it counts virus cases three times now. Here’s why

Weeks after the novel coronavirus crisis began in December, there is still widespread confusion over the exact number of cases reported in China and whether the epidemic is finally stabilizing at the outbreak’s epicenter of Hubei province. On Thursday, China announced just 394 new confirmed cases, the lowest number of daily infections reported in weeks.…

11 cruise ship passengers test positive for coronavirus, Nebraska hospital says

Most of the Americans who were being monitored at the University of Nebraska Medical Center for coronavirus after evacuating a cruise ship in Japan tested positive for the virus, the hospital says. UNMC said in a statement Thursday that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention verified the Nebraska Public Health Lab results showing…

Global food waste twice as high as previously estimated, study says

Twice as much food as previously estimated — or a third of all food available for human consumption — is wasted, with people in wealthier countries wasting more, according to a recent study published in the journal PLOS One. Researchers looked at the relationship between food waste and wealth and found a direct link between…

Common antibiotics linked to increased risk of birth defects, study says

Taking some common antibiotics during the first trimester of pregnancy was linked with higher risk of birth defects, according to a new study. The study, published Wednesday in the medical journal BMJ, found an increased risk of birth defects in the children of women who were prescribed macrolides during the first three months of pregnancy…

No US coronavirus cases were caught by airport temperature checks. Here’s what has worked

One of the enduring images of the current coronavirus outbreak is a space-age looking thermometer pointed at an airplane passenger. Eleven airports in the United States are using these temperature checks as part of expanded screening for novel coronavirus, and those measures might seem reassuring. If someone doesn’t have a fever, it seems like they’re…

Chinese CDC study finds Covid-19 virus to be more contagious than SARS or MERS

A comprehensive study of more than 72,000 confirmed and suspected cases of the novel coronavirus by Chinese scientists has revealed new information about the deadly infection which has brought much of the country to a halt. Carried out by a group of experts at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and published in…

NICU nurse reunited with her patient from three decades ago while treating his son

Little Zayne Caldwell’s early arrival into this world led to a surprise reunification for his father and a nurse who cared for them both. Zayne was born on January 30 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, 10 weeks before his expected due date. “It came out of nowhere and I just started having contractions,” Renata Freydin,…

Nebraska doctors are providing coronavirus patients with chicken soup and Tylenol

University of Nebraska Medical Center doctors aren’t just providing top tier medical care to coronavirus patients, they’re also supporting them as they battle the symptoms. It’s why Dr. Mark Rupp, UNMC’s division of infectious diseases chief, told CNN Tuesday the hospital is providing patients with chicken soup and antipyretics, or anti-fever medicine like Tylenol or…

US ranks lower than 38 other countries when it comes to children’s wellbeing, new report says

The United States ranks lower than 38 other countries on measurements of children’s survival, health, education and nutrition — and every country in the world has levels of excess carbon emissions that will prevent younger generations from a healthy and sustainable future, according to a new report. The report, published in the medical journal The…

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