Health category, Page 113
Dutch inventor unveils device to scoop plastic out of rivers
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — Dutch inventor Boyan Slat is widening his effort to clean up floating plastic from the Pacific Ocean by moving into rivers, too, using a new floating device to catch garbage before it reaches the seas. The 25-year-old university dropout founded The Ocean Cleanup to develop and deploy...
Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve in Unity offers fire cider demo, sample
Fire cider isn’t a variation on the caramel-colored apple beverage found at fruit stands each fall. It’s a trendy health tonic, typically made with apple cider vinegar, and Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve in Unity is ready to reveal how to concoct the liquid. The free pop-up workshop for adults is...
Get fit at Greatness Athletics Fitness Center in TarentumVideo
Gary Negley started a gym in his parents Laura and Randy Negley’s basement with three pair of dumbbells, a medicine ball, speed ladder, some cones and his dad’s old weight bench. He worked on not only crunches and dead lifts but also on helping others in a workout, all while...
Allegheny Health Network releases wait-time tool for emergency rooms, urgent care centers
It’s now possible to know how long the wait will be at Allegheny Health Network emergency rooms and urgent care centers, the network announced Friday. “Find Care Now” is available online at ahn.org and by desktop and mobile devices on MyChart. Patients can use MyChart to to check in and...
FDA wants stronger warning on breast implants about risks
WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials want women getting breast implants to receive stronger warnings and more details about the possible risks and complications. The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that manufacturers should add a warning highlighted by a box — the most serious type — to the information given...
Easy ways to stay healthy on airplanes
A colleague had been on an airplane — and he felt a cold coming on. With watery eyes and a red nose, he asked, “Have you written about how to stay healthy on flights?” It seems like it’s time to do so again, especially because flu season is on the...
How much sleep do you need to stay healthy?
If you’ve been diagnosed with hypertension, diabetes or heart disease, getting enough sleep at night is imperative, according to a new report. Researchers from the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine recently conducted a study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, to explore the association between lack of...
Health Happenings: Week of Oct. 21
Blood drives • American Red Cross will host these blood drives: — Noon-5:30 p.m. Wednesday, St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, 300 W Main St., Ligonier — 1-6:30 p.m. Oct. 31, Mother of Sorrows Church, 4202 Old William Penn Highway, Murrysville Appointments: 800-733-2767 or redcrossblood.org; walk-ins welcome Classes/programs • WCCC is...
Americans continue to be ignorant or indifferent about HPV vaccine
Thirteen years after the HPV vaccine was hailed as a revolution in cancer prevention, most Americans still don’t know the virus causes oral and genital cancers, and most doctors still aren’t recommending the vaccine to patients, according to a new study in JAMA Pediatrics. Part of the problem is that...
Breast cancer walk in North Fayette to help raise money for research
The “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk” is Saturday morning at Settlers Cabin Park in North Fayette. More than 1,500 cancer survivors, their caregivers, family, friends, and supporters are expected to attend. This October, use or RT the hashtag #IDriveFor & @Chevrolet will contribute $5 to the fight against #breastcancer...
REDjuvenate Light Therapy Center in Pittsburgh helps relieve pain for some
Seeing red gives Beth Cober the ability to get up and go. A few times each month, the Morgantown resident drives to Pittsburgh to visit REDjuvenate, a light therapy center in East Liberty. Cober, who suffers from fibromyalgia, a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, lies in a whole-body light...
Study: ‘Medicare for All’ not only way to universal coverageVideo
WASHINGTON — Health care memo to Democrats: There’s more than one way to get to coverage for all. A study out Wednesday finds that an approach similar to the plan from former Vice President Joe Bide n can deliver about the same level of coverage as the government-run “Medicare for...
Pennsylvania exceeds national rate of rising STD cases
The number of sexually transmitted diseases climbed again last year in the United States, with Pennsylvania’s rate of increase exceeding the national average. It was the fifth consecutive year that gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis cases went up, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s annual surveillance report. The...
France to legalize in vitro fertilization for lesbians, single women
PARIS — France’s lower house of parliament is expected to approve a bill that would give single women and lesbian couples legal access to in vitro fertilization, egg freezing and fertility medication. The assisted reproduction measures are part of a broader bioethics bill scheduled for a vote Tuesday at the...
Your energy-efficient washing machine could be full of bacteria
You fill it with soap and water about 300 times a year, so it must be clean. Right? A case out of Germany, published by the American Society for Microbiology, says no. After babies in a German hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit were found to have multidrug-resistant pathogens on their...
Mayo Clinic Q&A: Treating osteoarthritis with corticosteroid injections
Dear Mayo Clinic: I have osteoarthritis in my knee that continues to worsen. Would a steroid injection help my knee pain? How long does the treatment last, and how often can it be repeated, if necessary? Answer: Corticosteroid medications are powerful drugs that can be useful in decreasing pain and...
Diabetes stress high among college students, study finds
Nathan Reilly has had Type 1 diabetes since he was a baby. And until he began college this semester, the 19-year-old always had his mother to help remind him of the litany of tasks people with diabetes must do. Check blood sugar. Adjust insulin pump. Watch what you eat. Be...
Health happenings week of Oct. 14
Blood drives • American Red Cross will host these blood drives: — 1:30-7 p.m. Thursday, Community United Methodist Church, Route 130, Irwin — Noon-5:30 p.m. Oct. 23, St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, 300 W. Main St., Ligonier Appointments: 800-733-2767 or redcrossblood.org; walk-ins welcome Classes/programs • Tours of the Family Additions...
Obesity rate for Pennsylvania kids remains among highest in U.S.
Pennsylvania has 185,400 young people between the ages of 10 and 17 who are obese, according to newly released data. That amounts to 17.4 percent — the same as in recent years, but still the ninth highest rate in the United States, according a new report from the Robert Wood...
Hold the liquor: Sober bars growing in PittsburghVideo
Before social media dramatically changed the way Americans interact, the local bar was where people gathered to unload about the day’s events and get together with friends. These days, though, a growing number of people are looking for an alternative to a mid-week hangover. “The younger generation is choosing to...
Southwestern Pennsylvania residents renew calls for research on possible health impact of frackingVideo
As calls for better science on the health impact of unconventional natural gas drilling grew last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Health revealed that a new study found a slight increase in the expected number of cases of Ewing sarcoma, a rare bone cancer, among girls in Fayette, Greene, Washington...
Pennsylvania hospitals struggle under demand for mental health beds
More than 300 Pennsylvanians a day were hospitalized for mental illness in 2018, leaving mental health professionals in many instances struggling to find beds for them in a system plagued by limited resources. The numbers, detailed in a new report by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, found the...
California hospital chain going to court over high prices
SAN FRANCISCO — One of California’s largest hospital systems is facing a trial over accusations that it has used its market dominance to snuff out competition and overcharge patients for medical bills. The antitrust lawsuit against Sutter Health, which operates 24 hospitals with 5,500 doctors across Northern California, was first...
CDC awards Carnegie Mellon University $3 million for flu forecastingVideo
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University said this flu season has the potential to be severe. They should know. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week named CMU as an Influenza Forecasting Center of Excellence, a five-year designation that includes $3 million in research funding. Its Delphi Research Group,...
Johnson & Johnson, Risperdal maker hit with $8B verdict
PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia jury on Tuesday awarded $8 billion in punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson and one if its subsidiaries over a drug the companies made that the plaintiff’s attorneys say is linked to the abnormal growth of female breast tissue in boys. Johnson and Johnson immediately denounced...
