Health category, Page 129
Is 4 hours of sleep really enough?
“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...
Health Happenings – Apr. 9, 2019
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...
CDC finds 78 new measles cases as outbreak sprints to record
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...
Pitt study says doctors overprescribe meds to kids through telemedicine
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...
Q&A: Popular weed killer’s alleged link to cancer spreads concern
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...
Smoking pot vs. tobacco: What science says about lighting up
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...
Vaccine wars: Social media battle outbreak of bogus claims
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...
Canonsburg mother donates kidney to honor her late sonVideo
Laura Gillum of Canonsburg wanted to keep the memory of her son alive. In 2015, Gillum and her husband, Paul, lost their 2-year-old, Dean, in a swimming pool drowning accident. The couple donated Dean’s organs to help people in need. A few weeks ago, Laura Gillum, 46, became an altruistic...
Pennsylvania flu hospitalizations up 62% in 2018
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...
Analysis: Why Americans shouldn’t feel grateful for $137 insulin
Last month, Eli Lilly and Co. announced with some fanfare that it was manufacturing a generic version of its own best-selling insulin brand, Humalog, which it would sell for half off — $137.35 versus about $275. David Ricks, the chief executive of Lilly, said the company was making this seemingly...
Study says unhealthy diets more lethal than cigarettes, high blood pressure
Unhealthy diets dominated by sugar, salt and trans fats were associated with one in five deaths and were more deadly than tobacco and high blood pressure, a new study says. Results of the study, published Wednesday in the British journal The Lancet, were reported in The New York Times and...
CVS expands same-day prescription deliveries to 36 states
CVS Health is expanding same-day prescription deliveries nationwide in the latest push by drugstores to keep customers who don’t want to wait and are doing more shopping online. The drugstore chain says it can deliver medications and other products within a few hours to homes or offices from 6,000 locations....
U.S. investigates seizure risk with electronic cigarettes
WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials are investigating whether electronic cigarettes may trigger seizures in some people who use the nicotine-vaping devices. The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday it has reviewed 35 reports of seizures among e-cigarettes users, particularly young people. Regulators stressed it’s not yet clear whether vaping is...
128K kids in Tennessee cut from low-income Medicaid programs
NASHVILLE — At least 128,000 children in Tennessee have been cut from the state’s low-income health insurance programs over the past two years. The Tennessean reports that one in every eight children in TennCare were unenrolled between December 2016 and this January. State officials say the purge is due to...
CBD is getting buzz, but does it work? And is it legal?
With CBD showing up everywhere, U.S. regulators announced Tuesday they are exploring ways the marijuana extract could be used legally in foods, dietary supplements and cosmetics. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it will hold a public hearing May 31 to gather more information on the science, manufacturing and...
Trump puts off vote on health-care bill until after next year’s elections
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signaled Monday night that he will not press for a vote on a bill to replace the Affordable Care Act until after next year’s elections, apparently heeding warnings from fellow Republicans about the perils of such a fight during campaign season. In a series of...
Narcan available in vending machines in Las Vegas
Vending machines dispense just about anything these days — snacks, soda, aspirin, laundry products. Add anti-overdose medication to that list. In Las Vegas, health officials have begun offering Narcan, the life-saving nasal spray that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. It’s the brand-name version of naloxone. The Center for...
U.S. officials worry paralyzing illness may grow more common
NEW YORK — One morning last fall, 4-year-old Joey Wilcox woke up with the left side of his face drooping. It was the first sign of an unfolding nightmare. Three days later, Joey was in a hospital intensive care unit, unable to move his arms or legs or sit up....
Get on your feet and celebrate National Walking Day
The first Wednesday in April is designated as National Walking Day. Sponsored since 2007 by the American Heart Association, the day is a reminder of the health benefits of taking a walk. Tomorrow, the AHA urges, find a way to build a 30-minute walk into your routine. What’s so great...
Mayo Clinic Q&A: Research needed into treating anxiety with CBD
Dear Mayo Clinic: Is there any harm in trying CBD for anxiety? It seems to have helped my co-worker, but I am hesitant to try it without knowing more about it. Answer: Cannabidiol, also known as CBD, has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat...
Can sharing kindness help your health?
You’ve heard the uplifting stories: Passersby dropping scads of cash into charity collection buckets or anonymous donors paying off hospital bills for strangers. And people helping victims during storms and natural disasters. These acts of kindness make everybody feel good. There’s a science behind that phenomenon called “loving kindness.” And...
Health Happenings – Apr. 2, 2019
Blood drives American Red Cross will host these blood drives: — 11 a.m.-4 p.m. today , American Legion Post 515, 1811 Ligonier St., Latrobe — 12:30-5 p.m. Wednesday , Greensburg Country Club, 309 Pleasant Valley Road, Hempfield — 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Greensburg Hose Company #7, 619 E. Pittsburgh St....
2019 measles count in U.S. already more than all of 2018
NEW YORK — The number of U.S. measles cases through the first three months of this year have surpassed the count for all of 2018, health officials say. There have been 387 cases through March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday. There were 372 last year. The...
Entire school system in a West Virginia county closes for flu outbreak
NEW CUMBERLAND, W.Va. — All of the schools in a West Virginia county are being closed because of a flu outbreak. A state Education Department spokesperson forwarded a voicemail from the Hancock County school superintendent confirming the Friday closures. In the voicemail, Superintendent Timothy Woodward says all schools in the...
Trump’s small-business health insurance plan struck down
WASHINGTON — A federal judge is striking down the Trump administration’s highly touted small-business health insurance plan, calling it an “end run” around consumer protections. The ruling Thursday by U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C., is the second setback in a week for the administration’s health care initiatives....
