ALL ABOUT HEALTH -

21Mar 2023 by Janice Holland

Ground Beef Recalled Nationwide Over Potential E. Coli Contamination

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More than 60 tons of ground beef are being pulled from stores across the country over concerns that the meat may be contaminated with E. coli bacteria, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service announcement on Monday.Distributed by the New Jersey–based Lakeside Refrigerated Services, the products under investigation include ground beef patties and loose ground beef sold at retailers, including Walmart and Winn-Dixie, under brand names such as Thomas Farms, Naturally Better, Nature’s Reserve, and Marketside Butcher. Several of the items are labeled “grass-fed” or “Wagyu.”All the meats subject to recall bear establishment number “EST. 46841” inside the USDA mark of inspection.The complete list of products and product codes (PDF) for the beef items that are subject to recall, as well as the labels for the…

20Mar 2023 by Janice Holland

Asthma, Allergies Tied to an Increased Risk of Heart Disease

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If you have allergies or asthma — or have had these conditions in the past — you may be at increased risk of developing high blood pressure and coronary heart disease, preliminary results from a new study suggest.For the study, researchers examined survey data on more than 34,000 U.S. adults who were 49 years old on average, including about 10,000 people who reported a history of asthma or other allergic conditions like respiratory, digestive, or skin allergies. The data came from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).Overall, a history of asthma or allergic disorders was associated with a 45 percent higher risk of high blood pressure and a 48 percent greater risk of coronary heart disease. Asthma explained most of the increased risk.Among individuals with a history of asthma…

20Mar 2023 by Janice Holland

People Over 60 Should Not Start Taking Daily Aspirin for the Prevention of First Heart Attack or Stroke, Task Force Says

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Adults 60 and older who are at risk of heart disease should not start taking a daily low-dose aspirin to prevent heart attack or stroke, according to the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a panel of 18 independent experts appointed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The panel concluded with “moderate certainty” that initiating aspirin for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in this age group has no net benefit.The statement, published Tuesday in JAMA, is based on evidence that has accumulated over the last few years that shows the risk of potentially fatal internal bleeding that can result from regular aspirin use may be greater than the preventive benefits.“This update will bring the USPSTF recommendations more in line with the current recommendations…

20Mar 2023 by Janice Holland

Should You Still Mask Up on Airplanes? Or Anywhere?

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On April 18, 2022, when a judge in Florida abruptly struck down the federal mask mandate for public transportation, Americans reacted with every emotion, from exuberance to fear.At least temporarily (the Biden administration is appealing), the judge’s order ended obligatory mask-wearing on airplanes — a requirement that has lead to screaming fights between passengers and even assaults on flight attendants.Which raises the question, is it really safe to stop wearing masks, especially now that the highly contagious omicron subvariant BA.2 is causing COVID-19 cases to spike in some parts of the country?We asked Carlos del Rio, MD, distinguished professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, for his take on all things masking. The following interview has been edited for clarity…

20Mar 2023 by Janice Holland

Most Antibiotics Prescribed to Older Adults Are Unnecessary

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Three in four antibiotics prescriptions for patients 65 and older aren’t needed, a recent study found.Two-thirds of antibiotics prescribed to Black people are unnecessary, as are more than half of such prescriptions for Hispanic individuals, according to preliminary results from a study presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Lisbon.“Our results suggest that Black and Hispanic/Latinx patients may not be properly treated and are receiving antibiotic prescriptions even when not indicated,” said an author of the study, Eric Young, of University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, in a statement.Particularly for elderly patients, the stakes of these unnecessary prescriptions are high, Young said. “In older adults, inappropriate prescribing in primary care is associated with a wide range of adverse outcomes, including emergency hospital attendances…

20Mar 2023 by Janice Holland

U.S. Reports Its First Human Case of Bird Flu

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A worker in Colorado helping to cull (depopulate) poultry that was presumed to have H5N1 bird flu has become the first person in America to test positive for avian influenza, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday.The infected individual only experienced fatigue for a few days and has since recovered. The worker is being isolated and treated with influenza antiviral drug oseltamivir, which works by stopping the spread of the flu virus in the body.The CDC stressed that the health risk to the public remains low. The federal health agency has tracked more than 2,500 people with exposures to H5N1 virus-infected birds and this is the only case in the United States that has been found to date.Influenza among poultry and wild…

20Mar 2023 by Janice Holland

Want to Live to 100? The Answer May Lie in the ‘Longevity Diet’

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Do you need another reason to steer clear of cheeseburgers and candy bars? A new study suggests that eating lots of red meat and heavily processed sweets may be a recipe for a shorter life.For the study, scientists reviewed research from hundreds of studies in animals and humans to get a clearer picture of what we might want to eat — and when — to get the best chance at a longer, healthier life.“We explored the link between nutrients, fasting, genes, and longevity in short-lived species, and connected these links to clinical and epidemiological studies in primates and humans, including centenarians,” said a coauthor of the study, Valter Longo, PhD, a gerontology professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, in a statement.The analysis focused on eating patterns,…

20Mar 2023 by Janice Holland

U.S. Doctors Advise Against Routine COPD Screening

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Adults without respiratory symptoms such as a chronic phlegmy cough or wheezing and shortness of breath don’t need routine screening for chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), according to new guidelines from an influential U.S. medical group.The new recommendations, issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), are in line with 2016 guidelines that discouraged widespread screening of people without any symptoms of COPD, a chronic progressive respiratory disease that is most often caused by smoking. People with respiratory symptoms or who are at higher risk of COPD due to genetics or workplace exposure to certain chemicals that can damage the lungs should be still get tested for the condition, the USPSTF notes in its latest recommendations, published in JAMA.“There is no evidence that detecting and treating COPD in individuals…

20Mar 2023 by Janice Holland

Post-Menopausal Women Should Not Take Hormone Therapy to Prevent Chronic Conditions

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In new draft guidelines, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends against the use of combined estrogen and progestin for the primary prevention of chronic conditions in post-menopausal persons, including those who have had a hysterectomy.The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is “an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in disease prevention and evidence-based medicine,” per its website.The current draft is consistent with the most recent USPSTF statement, from 2017, which recommended against the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for primary prevention of chronic conditions. Nothing has changed, says Stephanie S. Faubion, MD, an internal medicine doctor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and the medical director of the North American Menopause Society, and not a member of the task force.“Currently, hormone therapy is recommended only for…

19Mar 2023 by Janice Holland

Is This the End of Roe v. Wade? What Would a SCOTUS Decision Mean for Reproductive Health?

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The U.S. Supreme Court will vote to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed abortion rights half a century ago, according to a draft opinion obtained by Politico.While the draft opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, isn’t final and could still change, it is an unequivocal rejection of the premise that there is a federal constitutional right to abortion, the tenet at the heart of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which was reaffirmed by the court in the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision.The Supreme Court confirmed that the leaked draft is “authentic.”“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes in the draft.“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito writes. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”The Supreme Court was expected to officially…