ALL ABOUT HEALTH -

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…

19Mar 2023 by Janice Holland

Lessons From the Pandemic: A Discussion With Sanjay Gupta, MD

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What has the COVID-19 pandemic era taught us? What lessons still need to be learned?Sanjay Gupta, MD, a neurosurgeon and CNN's chief medical correspondent, recently addressed these and other issues in a fireside chat with the president of Publicis Health Media, Andrea Palmer, at the PHM HealthFront event in New York City. Everyday Health, which was among the event’s sponsors, was there; the following is an edited transcript of the interview with Dr. Gupta.Andrea Palmer: What’s the most important lesson of the pandemic?Sanjay Gupta: Perhaps one of the most important lessons to come out of this whole thing is the idea that bad information could be more damaging and can travel faster than the virus itself. That is something that we need to be really mindful of. You have to…

19Mar 2023 by Janice Holland

Women With Chest Pain Wait Longer for Emergency Care Than Men

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Every second counts when you’re having a heart attack. But a new study suggests women with chest pain — one common heart attack symptom — wait about 11 minutes longer to get seen in the emergency room than men.Women of color fared even worse, waiting about 15 minutes longer than white women for initial evaluations, according to the new study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.“Chest pain is the most common symptom of heart attack in adults of all ages,” says lead study author Darcy Banco, MD, chief resident for safety and quality in the department of medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City.“Despite a decline in the number of overall heart attacks, this number is rising among young adults,” Dr. Banco…

19Mar 2023 by Janice Holland

What a Psychiatrist Says Naomi Judd’s Death Can Teach Us About Depression and Suicide Risk

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The Grammy-winning country music star Naomi Judd, who was part of the mother-daughter duo The Judds, died by suicide at age 76, according to reports.Her daughters, Ashley and Wynonna, released a statement to the Associated Press on Saturday, April 30. “Today we sisters experienced a tragedy,” the statement read. “We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.”Naomi’s representative, Adkins Publicity, also issued a statement on behalf of Naomi’s family to Today. “Her husband, Larry Strickland, of 32 years will not be making any further statements,” the statement read. “Naomi Judd’s family request privacy during this heartbreaking time. No additional information will…

19Mar 2023 by Janice Holland

Scientists Find 7 Hours’ Sleep Is Best for Middle-Aged Brains

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Whether our minds stay sharp as we age may depend on how much rest we get, a new study suggests.For the study, published April 28 in Nature Aging, scientists examined data on almost 500,000 adults ranging in age from 38 to 73 who were part of the UK Biobank, an ongoing government-funded research project. All the participants were asked about their sleep habits and mental health and well-being, and they also completed a series of cognitive tests to assess brain function. A subset of about 40,000 people also had brain scans and lab tests to collect genetic information.People who got about seven hours of sleep each night had better cognitive outcomes than other participants, the analysis found. Longer or shorter periods of sleep each night were associated with a reduced…