Health category, Page 105
Animals work as healers
Pet therapy is gaining fans in health care and beyond. Animal-assisted therapy can reduce pain and anxiety in people with a range of health problems. What is pet therapy? Pet therapy is a broad term that includes animal-assisted therapy and other animal-assisted activities. Animal-assisted therapy is a growing field that...
Times Square campaign features White Oak cancer survivor
A White Oak woman diagnosed as a teen with stage II rectal cancer will be among 14 people featured in a new awareness campaign in New York City’s Times Square on Feb. 26. Denelle Suranski, 37, is an awareness ambassador with the nonprofit Fight Colorectal Cancer. At 9 a.m. Wednesday,...
Clarifying the carrot confusion
My recent column on carrots brought these letters. And they piqued my curiosity to get more information: Q: I just finished a column by you about carrots in the Fredericksburg Virginia Free Lance Star. I always wondered about baby carrots. Now that you have confirmed that they are cut regular...
Health Happenings: Week of Feb. 24
Blood drives • American Red Cross will host these blood drives: — 2-6 p.m. today , Brush Valley VFD, 5540 Route 259 Highway, Homer City — 12:30-6 p.m., Friday, Excela Square at Latrobe, 100 Excela Health Drive — 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, St. Michael’s Orthodox Church, 1182 Ashland St., Greensburg...
UnitedHealthcare tackles homelessness as a root cause of poor health
PHILADELPHIA — Purvis Wright’s health, and life, were spiraling out of control. Wright went to the hospital in July 2018 after a spate of blackouts and throwing up blood. “It was all downhill,” Wright said this month. “I wound up with my eight or nine different sicknesses all at once.”...
Tobacco company must pay $12.5 million to widow of man who died of lung disease, jury finds
MIAMI — James “Jim” McHugh started smoking when he was a teenager and continued to do so for nearly five decades. He tried quitting cold turkey. He tried chewing gum. He even tried hypnosis. By the time he found a prescription medicine that could help him, he was a very...
Latrobe Lions Club cancels dementia presentation
Editor’s note: Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Latrobe Lions Club has announced that a presentation on dementia it was co-sponsoring with the Latrobe Area Historical Society has been cancelled. Alzheimer’s disease, the most common cause of dementia among older adults, is the sixth leading cause of death in the...
South Korea becomes newest front in shifting virus outbreak
SEOUL, South Korea — Cases of a new virus swelled Friday in South Korea, making the country the newest front in a widening global outbreak centered in China and now reverberating elsewhere. South Korea said two people have died and 204 have been infected with the virus, quadruple the number...
Lyme patient hopes to raise awareness through ‘tickmojis’ tracking appVideo
It may seem a little odd to want emojis on your smartphone that depict 10 of the most common varieties of tick in North America. Then again, if you spot one attached to your leg, it’s nice to know you can actually identify it by using Olivia Goodreau’s “tickmojis,” which...
3 more Allegheny County residents die from flu, bringing total to 10
Three more people have died due to influenza complications in Allegheny County, bringing the total number of such deaths to 10, according to the Allegheny County Health Department. The residents were in their late 90s, late 80s and mid-70s. All had underlying conditions, the health department said. “Weekly flu cases...
U.S. medical schools boost LGBTQ students, doctor training
Aliya Feroe recalls the flustered OB-GYN who referred her to another physician after learning she identified as queer. For Rhi Ledgerwood, who was designated female at birth, identifies as trans and doesn’t have sex with men, it was a doctor advising about condoms and pregnancy prevention. For Tim Keyes, who...
Changing clocks is bad for your health, but which time to choose?
Changing over to daylight saving time — a major annoyance for many people — may be on its way out as lawmakers cite public health as a prime reason to ditch the twice-yearly clock-resetting ritual. The time change, especially in the spring, has been blamed for increases in heart attacks...
Health Happenings: Week of Feb. 17
Blood drives • American Red Cross will host these blood drives: — 2-6 p.m. Wednesday, First United Methodist Church of Irwin, 310 Oak St. — Noon-4:30 p.m. Friday, St. Mary Church, 5900 Kennedy Ave., Export — 2-6 p.m. Monday, Apollo United Presbyterian Church, 401 First St. Appointments: 800-733-2767 or redcrossblood.org;...
2 years later, Parkland students tackle the real struggle — mental health
All it takes is the shrill sound of a fire alarm. When Ryan Deitsch heard the sound in his dorm at American University earlier this month, he froze. As the rest of the students fled, yelling at him to follow, the freshman’s heart raced as he relived the afternoon of...
Mayo Clinic Q&A: Cause of ventricular tachycardia determines treatment
Dear Mayo Clinic: Recently, I was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia, but doctors said a cause cannot be determined. What usually causes this problem? Does knowing the cause make a difference in treatment? Answer: There are many causes of ventricular tachycardia. Some do not present a serious health threat, while others...
Why parents aren’t taking kids to the pediatrician
The Flora family no longer visits the pediatrician as often as they used to. “We used to live in our pediatrician’s office,” said Jennifer Flora, 36, a Greensburg mother of three. “I would say, in the past two years, we have finally cut out the doctor visits, outside of yearly...
Ohio wants to put Lake Erie on a new, strict pollution diet
TOLEDO, Ohio — Ohio wants to put Lake Erie on a new, stricter pollution diet to fight back against the toxic algae blooms that have flourished for more than a decade, environmental regulators said Thursday. The state intends to establish a plan to reduce runoff that’s feeding the outbreaks by...
Newlonsburg students will transform into ‘Kids of Steel’ for Pittsburgh marathon weekendVideo
Newlonsburg Elementary kindergarten student Penny Ryan is really just excited to see her father’s office in Downtown Pittsburgh on May 2. That she and her brother will run with the Kids of Steel group in the Chick-fil-A Pittsburgh Kids Marathon during the Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon weekend is more...
Hopeful Hearts Gala in Pittsburgh helps heart failure patients and families
There’s a reason to think of hearts all year long, not just Feb. 14. On Valentine’s Day, the Joe Beretta Foundation will present its inaugural Hopeful Hearts Valentine’s Gala at the Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh. It features live entertainment by No Bad Juju, a three-course meal and a...
Survey finds smaller decline in medical bill worries
The proportion of people in families struggling to pay medical bills is down, but the number isn’t dropping like it used to, according to a big government study. In a 2018 national survey, just over 14% of people said they belonged to a family struggling with those bills, the Centers...
CDC to send University of Pittsburgh coronavirus samples for vaccine research
A University of Pittsburgh laboratory soon will tackle researching a possible vaccine against COVID-19 — the newly named disease caused by the coronavirus outbreak that surfaced in Wuhan, China, late last year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the University of Pittsburgh’s requests to be among U.S. academic...
Disease warriors tasked to fight misinformation about coronavirus
A global storm of online posts about the coronavirus virus prompted public health experts to fight a war on two fronts — one against the respiratory virus that surfaced in Wuhan, China, late last year, and a second one against a sea of misinformation about it. Officials from the World...
UPMC, Paris Cleaners settle with 6 families of fungal infection victims
UPMC and its linen supplier, Paris Cleaners Inc., have finalized a settlement agreement with six plaintiffs in a yearslong lawsuit in connection with a fatal mold crisis in 2014 and 2015 that prompted a federal investigation. Documents filed with the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on Tuesday indicate that...
Flu deaths climb to 47 in Pennsylvania this season
The flu contributed to another seven deaths in the past week of a flu season that shows no signs of letting up, according to data the state Department of Health released Tuesday. Through Saturday, 47 flu-associated deaths had been reported this flu season, up from 40 the week before. It’s...
UN meeting ponders fast-track drugs, vaccines for new virusVideo
GENEVA — The World Health Organization convened outside experts Tuesday to fast-track promising tests, drugs and vaccines to help slow the outbreak of a new virus that emerged in China that has killed more than 1,000 people and spread to two dozen other countries. The new coronavirus was only identified...
