26Mar 2023 by Janice Holland
Why You May Want to Stand Up for Your Blood Pressure Check

Why You May Want to Stand Up for Your Blood Pressure Check

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We’ve all heard of white coat hypertension, when just sitting in the doctor's office is enough to make our blood pressure climb. Now, a study suggests that if we do have hypertension, we should be more worried about what happens to our blood pressure when we stand up.Normally, our systolic blood pressure — the “top” number that indicates how much pressure blood exerts against artery walls when the heart beats — dips slightly when we stand. So, scientists wondered if an abnormal response — rising systolic blood pressure upon standing — might serve as an early warning sign for future cardiac events like heart attacks and strokes.Scientists were surprised to discover that even a slight uptick in blood pressure when standing up could make these events more apt to happen…
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26Mar 2023 by Janice Holland
Bruce Willis ‘Stepping Away’ From Career Following Aphasia Diagnosis

Bruce Willis ‘Stepping Away’ From Career Following Aphasia Diagnosis

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Actor Bruce Willis is “stepping away” from his career after being diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that’s caused by damage to regions of the brain involved in language comprehension and expression.Rumer Willis, daughter of Willis and Demi Moore, revealed in an Instagram post that her father’s diagnosis is “impacting his cognitive abilities.”“To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” Rumer Willis wrote.“As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him,” she added. “This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love,…
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26Mar 2023 by Janice Holland
Eating Avocados May Reduce Your Risk of Heart Attack

Eating Avocados May Reduce Your Risk of Heart Attack

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Eating avocado may help reduce your risk of heart attacks, especially if you consume it instead of fatty foods like butter, cheese, or bacon, a new study suggests.The study followed 68,786 women and 41,710 men who completed dietary questionnaires every four years over the course of three decades. None of them had a history heart disease or stroke when they joined the study; by the end of the follow-up period roughly 11 percent of the women and 16 percent of the men experienced or died from a heart attack or stroke.People who ate at least two servings of avocado a week — roughly one whole avocado — were 21 percent less likely to have a heart attack than people who never or only rarely consumed this food, researchers reported in…
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26Mar 2023 by Janice Holland
Abortion Pills Are Safe Without In-Person Exams

Abortion Pills Are Safe Without In-Person Exams

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Medication abortions are just as safe when women have virtual visits to get prescriptions as when they make in-person appointments, a study found.Abortion pills have been legal in the United States for more than two decades as an option for ending pregnancies up to about 10 weeks’ gestation. But for most of this time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required women to get these pills prescribed at in-person visits, effectively limiting access.FDA Requirement Temporarily Lifted Due to the PandemicWhen the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the FDA temporarily lifted this requirement, allowing women to get abortion pill prescriptions from telemedicine visits and receive the medications by mail instead of going to a pharmacy. This not only helped women get needed medical care during the pandemic, it also enabled researchers to…
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26Mar 2023 by Janice Holland
Skippy Recalls Thousands of Cases of Peanut Butter

Skippy Recalls Thousands of Cases of Peanut Butter

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Skippy Foods is pulling 9,353 cases, or 161,692 total pounds, of its peanut butter from store shelves because some jars may be contaminated with small pieces of stainless steel from manufacturing equipment.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that the specific products being voluntarily recalled are:Skippy Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut Butter Spread (40-ounce size with “best if used by” dates of May 4 and May 5, 2023, and UPC code 37600-10520)Skippy Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut Butter Spread Club Pack (two 40-ounce jars sold together with a “best if used by” date of May 5, 2023, and UPC code 37600-10667)Skippy Reduced Fat Super Chunk Peanut Butter Spread (16.3-ounce size with “best if used by” dates of May 6 and 7, 2023, and UPC code 37600-10499)Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter Blended With Plant…
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26Mar 2023 by Janice Holland
Amy Schumer Says She Has Trichotillomania. Here’s What You Need to Know About This Hairpulling Disorder

Amy Schumer Says She Has Trichotillomania. Here’s What You Need to Know About This Hairpulling Disorder

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Amy Schumer has a secret she no longer wants to keep — she’s been living for years with the hairpulling disorder trichotillomania.“I think everybody has a big secret and that’s mine,” Schumer told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview earlier this week. “And I’m proud that my big secret only hurts me, but it’s been what I’ve carried so much shame about for so long.”Schumer has battled with this mental health condition since her teen years, when it got so bad that she needed to wear a wig to cover the bald spots, she said in the interview. She gets real about what trichotillomania looks like in Life & Beth, the new dramedy on Hulu that she created, wrote, and directed. In flashbacks to adolescence, Schumer’s character, Beth, confronts clumps…
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26Mar 2023 by Janice Holland
Air Pollution Is Getting Worse. See How Bad It Is Near You

Air Pollution Is Getting Worse. See How Bad It Is Near You

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There are very few places in the world where you can breathe air clean enough to meet standards set by the World Health Organization, according to a new report.The report by IQAir focused on a type of air pollution called PM2.5 — which is smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter and can include car exhaust and other emissions from burning gasoline, oil, and wood. This is also known as fine particulate matter. It’s associated with a wide range of heart and lung disorders as well as an increased risk of certain cancers.Scientists examined pollution data from air monitoring stations in 6,475 cities and 117 countries, regions, and territories to see how many places had average PM2.5 levels in 2021 that fell below 5 micrograms per cubic meter (mcg/m3) — the…
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25Mar 2023 by Janice Holland
New Heart Failure Guidelines Add 4th Drug to Treatment Regimen

New Heart Failure Guidelines Add 4th Drug to Treatment Regimen

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People with symptomatic heart failure may be able to reduce their risk of premature death by taking a drug originally designed for type 2 diabetes, according to new treatment guidelines from the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the Heart Failure Society of America.Heart failure develops when weakened muscles make it harder for the heart to expand and contract to pump blood through the body. Symptoms can include shortness of breath, a persistent cough, swelling in the feet, legs and abdomen, and fatigue and nausea.The new guidelines, published April 1 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, add a fourth drug to the regimen of medications already recommended to treat symptomatic heart failure patients who pump too little oxygen-rich blood out to the body with each…
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25Mar 2023 by Janice Holland
Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Linked to Vision Loss

Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Linked to Vision Loss

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Older men who regularly use erectile dysfunction drugs may be more likely to develop serious side effects that can lead to vision loss and blindness, a new study suggests.Some isolated case reports and small studies have previously linked erectile dysfunction drugs to serious vision-related side effects. These include retinal detachment, when the retina lifts away from the back of the eye; retinal vascular occlusion, when clots block veins in the eye; and ischemic optic neuropathy, when blood stops flowing to the optic nerve. These conditions can come on suddenly, and lead to permanent vision loss if they aren’t treated quickly.For the new study, researchers wanted to assess the risks seen in these smaller studies by examining a much larger group of men over an average follow-up period of about four…
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