comments feedFrom Newsmax A sampling of U.S. emergency department records confirms that sticking anything smaller than your elbow in your ear is a good way to puncture an eardrum.About 66 percent of patients treated for traumatic tympanic membrane perforations had hurt themselves by sticking “instruments,” in their ears, and nearly half of these cases involved cotton-tipped […]
1 in 3 Americans prescribed opioids in 2015
August 1, 2017 by Leave a Comment
From Newsmax The United States needs to curb excessive opioid prescribing and improve access to pain management techniques, suggests a new government study.Researchers found that more than one third of U.S. adults were prescribed the medications in 2015 and many also misused the drugs. “A very large proportion and large number of adults use these […]
Clearing clogged blood vessels can benefit some at age 90 and older
July 17, 2017 by Leave a Comment
From Newsmax People in their nineties and older represent a tiny but growing fraction of patients who undergo a procedure called percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to clear blocked blood vessels in the heart, new research shows. And while the rate of deaths after PCI is higher for these nonagenarians than it is for younger patients, […]
Mental distress boosts heart patients’ death risk
July 4, 2017 by Leave a Comment
From Newsmax People with heart disease are at risk of dying sooner when they suffer from chronic depression and anxiety, a recent study suggests. Researchers examined data on 950 people in Australia and New Zealand with stable coronary artery disease, which happens when plaque accumulates in the arteries supplying the heart and causes them to […]
Poor, minority neighborhoods have more tobacco-selling shops per capita
March 19, 2017 by Leave a Comment
By Carolyn Crist From Reuters (Reuters Health) – Neighborhoods with a high proportion of black residents or high poverty tend to have the greatest density of stores selling cigarettes and tobacco products, U.S. researchers say. Poverty explained some of the association, but an urban planning concept, neighborhood “stability” – including the proportion of homes that […]
The US healthcare sector emits more greenhouse gas than the entire UK
June 23, 2016 by Leave a Comment
By Ronnie Cohen, Reuters From Business Insider If the U.S. healthcare sector were ranked as a nation, it would be the world’s 13th-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, more than all of the UK, a new study finds. “Unfortunately, in our quest to take care of individual patients, we’re causing this undue harm,” coauthor Dr. Jodi […]
Smokers may try to quit 30 times before it sticks
June 22, 2016 by Leave a Comment
By Kathryn Doyle, Reuters From Business Insider Though conventional wisdom says it takes five to seven attempts for most smokers to quit, those estimates may be very low, a recent study suggests. Based on data for more than 1,200 adult smokers in Canada, the real average number of quit attempts before succeeding may be closer […]
