Health category, Page 123

PARKLAND, Fla. — Alex Rozenblat can still hear the cries of a wounded boy calling for help as she hid from the gunfire that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year. Talking to therapists at the school in Parkland, Florida, didn’t help. Each session had a...

It’s frustrating when nutrition studies seem to contradict earlier ones: “Are Eggs Good or Bad For You? New Research Rekindles Debate,” the Associated Press groused in mid-March. Though it may seem that dietary science is changing every day, that’s not really the case. I’m here to explain how nutritional research...

Blood drives • American Red Cross will host these blood drives: — 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. today in Westmoreland County Community College Founders Hall, Youngwood campus, 145 Pavilion Lane, Hempfield. — 12:30-5 p.m., Friday , Quatrini Rafferty, 816 Ligonier St., Latrobe. Appointments: 800-733-2767 or redcrossblood.org; walk-ins welcome • Vitalant, formerly Central...

A reader who read a recent column about caring for our kidneys, writes: “I did not realize that the kidneys provided so much to our bodies. My granddaughter was born with 3 kidneys; by the time she was two she had to have the two kidneys that were together taken...

Dear Mayo Clinic: My father just started chemotherapy for lymphoma, and he is scheduled for a positron emission tomography or PET scan after his first three treatments. How do doctors decide when to perform a PET scan, and what’s the purpose of doing that scan during the treatment? Why wouldn’t...

NEW YORK — Mainstream retailers are leaping into the world of products like skin creams and oils that tout such benefits as reducing anxiety and helping you sleep. The key ingredient? CBD, or cannabidiol, a compound derived from hemp and marijuana that doesn’t cause a high. Retailers are taking advantage...

HARTSDALE, N.Y. — A 100-year-old yoga instructor has no plans to stop practicing and teaching. On a spring day in Hartsdale, a northern suburb of New York City where she leads her classes, Tao Porchon-Lynch said she first encountered the ancient practice at age 7 in her native India. Strolling...

A drug that’s used to help control blood sugar in people with diabetes has now been shown to help prevent or slow kidney disease, which causes millions of deaths each year and requires hundreds of thousands of people to use dialysis to stay alive. Doctors say it’s hard to overstate...

Retired Pittsburgh Police Officer Brenda Tate said she couldn’t bear watching her brother deteriorate from kidney disease two years ago, so she became a chain organ donor allowing him to receive a new kidney. At 68, Tate of the Hill District donated her kidney to a man in Erie. The...

CHICAGO — The number of young kids who went to U.S. emergency rooms because they swallowed toys, coins, batteries and other objects has nearly doubled, a new study says. In 2015, there were nearly 43,000 such visits among kids under 6, compared with 22,000 in 1995, according to the study...

UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital will have a new president in May. It will be a homecoming for Deborah Brodine, who started her career 25 years ago at the hospital in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. “I am very eager and honored to partner with the other members of this incredible and talented...

Six months before Dr. Christiaan Barnard conducted the world’s first highly-publicized heart transplant in December of 1967, Dr. Thomas Starzl performed the world’s first successful liver transplant. Barnard received worldwide publicity and, after hitting the talk show circuit, became a household name. Starzl did not become as well known and,...

Two more Allegheny County residents have died from flu-related complications, bringing the total deaths to 14 this season, officials said. A female in her upper 90s and a male in his mid-60s died, according to the Allegheny County Health Department. The county receives its data on flu-related deaths from the...

Dear Mayo Clinic: I had a fainting spell the other day, which had never happened to me before in my 64 years. I don’t feel unwell, but a friend I was with at the time insists I should see my doctor. Is that necessary? What would they be looking for?...

The well-respected survey that’s been a barometer of American politics, culture and behavior for more than four decades finally got around to the question that has bedeviled many a household. Dog or cat? In 2018, the General Social Survey for the first time included a battery of questions on pet...

“Sleep is overrated.” So proclaims Stephen Klasko, who throughout his life has taken pride in sleeping only four or five hours a night. Those extra few hours away from his pillow, he believes, have allowed him to write books, run marathons and achieve his lofty professional goals. An obstetrician and...

Blood drives • American Red Cross will host a blood drive 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. April 16 in Westmoreland County Community College Founders Hall, Youngwood campus, 145 Pavilion Lane, Hempfield. Appointments: 800-733-2767 or redcrossblood.org; walk-ins welcome • Vitalant, formerly Central Blood Bank, will host a blood drive 8 a.m.-2 p.m. April...

WASHINGTON — For the second week in a row, U.S. health officials added dozens of new reports to the year’s list of confirmed measles cases, bringing the total to 465 — already the highest number in the last five years. It’s another significant milepost on the road to what will...

As telemedicine visits increase, so do the chances of overprescribing of antibiotics to children, according to a new study. Children with acute respiratory infections were prescribed antibiotics more often during direct-to-consumer telemedicine visits than during in-person appointments or urgent care visits, according to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh research reported...

Clumps of dandelions have popped up in your yard, so you reach for a bottle of Roundup, the popular weed killer. It is known for being very effective, but its main ingredient, glyphosate, is getting a lot of attention because of lawsuits alleging links to cancer. In late March, a...

NEW YORK — As more states make it legal to smoke marijuana, some government officials, researchers and others worry what that might mean for one of the country’s biggest public health successes : curbing cigarette smoking. Though there are notable differences in health research findings on tobacco and marijuana, the...

SAN FRANCISCO — Like health officials facing outbreaks of disease, internet companies are trying to contain vaccine-related misinformation they have long helped spread. So far, their efforts at quarantine are falling short. Searches of Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram turn up all sorts of bogus warnings about vaccines, including the soundly...

The flu sent more than 8,600 Pennsylvanians to the hospital last season, a 62% increase over the previous season, a new report shows. Released last week by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, the report found a wide variation in admissions over the past several flu seasons. The 8,647...