Bravo, brevity. Four dozen words is all it takes for a doctor and noted writer on diet and obesity to offer plenty of sound advice on how to get and stay healthy. Here are the suggestions from Yoni Freedhoff, associate professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa, founder and medical director of Ottawa’s….
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With teens’ health at risk, White House plays politics with vaping
The Trump Administration kicked off the new year with a whimper not a bang with yet another of its attempts to corral the health nightmare of e-cigarettes and vaping by the nation’s young, while not upsetting the industry too much. Starting Feb. 1, the federal government announced it will forbid the sale of most flavored cartridges….
Continue ReadingSome Grinch-y news about a few popular holiday gifts
Consumers may need to give a few seasonal gifts a second look about their safety and other health-related issues: Powerful rare-earth magnets, used in many toys and especially in shape construction kits, pose big risks to kids when swallowed. Widely used over-the-counter genetic testing kits may subject users to major privacy concerns they never contemplated…..
Continue ReadingU.S. to require vapers and smokers to be at least age 21 to buy tobacco in any form
Consumers soon may need to be 21 or older to buy burning tobacco cigarettes or e-cigarettes, the key component of the national health nightmare of “vaping.” Both the House and Senate have passed the higher age requirement and President Trump is expected to sign it, joining hundreds of states (including Maryland, as illustration shows) and….
Continue ReadingAs life expectancy and fertility rates decline, health politics more key than ever
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Indiana — if you’re obsessed with national politics, these states might register in your mind as key partisan battlegrounds. But if you’re focused on Americans’ health and well-being, these states — along with New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and West Virginia — may be causes for different and considerable concern: the nation’s….
Continue ReadingDrugs are better for heart patients than surgery (except in mid-heart attack), study finds
Tens of thousands of patients with serious but stable heart disease soon may see themselves treated more with prescription drugs and less with rushed surgeries, especially bypass procedures or operations that seek to open clogged blood vessels with wire cages called stents. A possible shift away from stents — which have come under question for….
Continue ReadingHeart failure deaths spike as nation ages and diabetes and obesity abound
Although many Americans fret that old age will afflict them with cognitive impairment, from Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, it may be that their hearts will give way first. Experts have expressed growing concern about increasing issues with rises in heart disease, especially in the elderly, and a new study appearing in the online medical….
Continue ReadingToo many spoons full of sugar going down in kids’ drinks
Grownups shouldn’t be surprised that child obesity is a major and rising concern for 1 in 5 of the nation’s young, putting their short- and long-term health at serious peril: That’s because Big Sugar and major food makers persist in a costly, relentless barrage on kids and adults for unhealthful products, notably sweet drinks that….
Continue ReadingAs deaths and lung damage cases rise, isn’t it clear that vaping is unhealthy?
How well does Scott Gottlieb, the former federal Food and Drug Commissioner, sleep at night? Or does he even pause to think much about his role in opening the door to what has become a widening and lethal health menace: vaping and e-cigarettes? The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has joined with respected….
Continue ReadingTransplant patient’s nightmares illustrate why patients fear and loathe medical bills
It may be bad for the blood pressure. But to understand a key reason why Americans seethe when talking about medical bills and medical costs, just start perusing a timely new magazine report on hospitals and debt collection. The Atlantic article — “What Happens When You Don’t Pay a Hospital Bill” — details the horrors….
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