While most regular folks wouldn’t give a hill of beans about the organization of bureaucracies in Washington, D.C., frustrated taxpayers should be taking note of seismic rumblings about restructurings that are shaking some of the biggest, most powerful, and influential federal health agencies. Biden Administration officials, in one of their notable moves, have announced that….
Continue ReadingWHO chief declares monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency
The worldwide struggle to contain a fast-spreading outbreak of monkeypox took on new urgency, with the World Health Organization declaring a global emergency and U.S. experts discussing whether the viral infection is becoming yet another significant sexually transmitted disease that this country is ill-prepared to quell. The WHO declaration, by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,….
Continue ReadingHeart association adds a new safeguard to its list: a good night’s sleep
Get some sleep! That’s not just a late-night nudge for the kids from their parents. It is strong new advice patients will hear from their cardiologists and other doctors, as the American Heart Association has added sleep to its list of important ways for folks to avoid cardiovascular conditions, stay healthier, and live longer, the….
Continue ReadingU.S. launches 988 hotline for callers with mental health emergencies
Federal officials have launched a new 988 number for callers with suicidal thoughts or other mental health emergencies, hoping that the public adopts this three-digit alternative and finds it as familiar and useful as 911 has become for medical and other urgent help needs. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which those in distress could reach….
Continue ReadingSuperbug deaths & antibiotic abuse surged during pandemic
With the coronavirus pandemic surging anew due to the highly infectious Omicron BA.5 variant, federal authorities reported recent data that should give Americans plenty of reason to heed public health warnings and avoid hospitalization if they possibly can. That’s in part because institutions, overwhelmed by the pandemic, have taken giant steps backward in preventing patients….
Continue ReadingAs medical costs, especially for cancer, slam patients, where’s Congress?
While Congress seems paralyzed or, at best, willing to shrink significantly its efforts to help Americans deal with the punishing costs of care in the U.S. medical system, could federal lawmakers be confronted at the same time with more compelling evidence about the need for aggressive, not timid, action? Do beleaguered constituents need to barrage….
Continue ReadingDon’t just sit or wait on Big Pharma. Modify your risks against dementia.
Although Americans dread the possibility of experiencing dementia and other debilitating cognitive decline as they age, they can do more than let fear rule their lives — or twiddle their thumbs waiting for Big Pharma to drop billions of dollars more to develop magical and, so far, unworkable pills. Instead, doctors, epidemiologists, and public health….
Continue ReadingAs road toll soars, experts see vehicles as ‘candy stores’ of distraction
Anyone who has so much as contemplated buying a vehicle in recent times will quickly catch on to what experts fear may be a root cause of the nation’s spiking road toll: Step back and consider just how much importance manufacturers — and consumers — pay to those rolling infotainment systems. Their screens have grown….
Continue ReadingPopular, costly knee injections little better than placebo, big study finds
Since the 1970s, some doctors have treated arthritic knees by injecting them with hyaluronic acid, a substance originally derived from the combs of roosters. Specialists have zealously promoted this therapy, costing patients a few hundred dollars a pop and repeated so widely that Medicare alone pays $300 million annually for it. Doctors argue it reduces….
Continue ReadingU.S. nears next health insurance cliff with affordability crisis growing
Even as Congress lumbers into creating the next crisis for millions of Americans and whether they can access and afford health insurance, the giant, built-in flaws in the current coverage system keep sending far too many patients and their loved ones into a financial morass with which politicians and policymakers refuse to reckon. Successive Democratic….
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