Although shots carry their own risks, just as any medical treatment does, new data from 2017’s killer flu season shows the folly of patients ignoring influenza’s wrath and skipping the vaccination for it. Youngsters and seniors, especially, need to get these inoculations. The federal Centers for Disease and Control reported that 80,000 Americans died last….
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Maryland researchers set a new stage for clearer explanation of medical risks
What’s an internist to do when an 81-year-old patient, already in failing health with advanced emphysema, seeks a second opinion because he’s been told his prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels are unacceptably high? This senior also has been advised to schedule a prostate biopsy urgently to determine if he has cancer. Can this discussion with….
Continue ReadingDrug overdose toll hits another record as abusers fall prey to synthetic opioids
In 2017, drug overdoses killed 72,000 Americans, a 10 percent increase over 2016 and yet another record, according to the latest provisional federal estimates. That single year toll would be more than double the American deaths attributed to the Korean War, and almost 1.25 times those caused by the Vietnam War. The New York Times….
Continue ReadingNFL settlements raise new questions on head trauma and Parkinson’s and ALS
The National Football League, which long has resisted the growing reality that game-related head blows can cause major harms to its players, may be providing yet new and unintended warnings about the sustained damages of concussions. The Los Angeles Times reported that pro football’s pay-outs, as part of its billion-dollar head-injuries settlement with NFL players….
Continue ReadingWith 100 deaths a day, when will the U.S. renew campaign for safer motoring?
How outraged and motivated to political action might you be if an avoidable disaster in a week claimed the lives of all the youngsters in your kids’ school? How upset might Americans be if a calamity wiped out in 24 hours seven NBA professional basketball teams, or two pro NFL squads? David Leonhardt, associate editor….
Continue ReadingHigh-deductible nightmares: the health insurance crisis partisans ignore
While political partisans pound without pause for extreme changes in the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, and other government programs that seek to assist the poor, sick, children, and others with access to health care, they’re ignoring the medical nightmare that’s afflicting ever-rising numbers of middle- and upper-class Americans who get their health coverage at….
Continue ReadingWhen big money floods into health care, the results can be crazy and corrosive
With Americans spending more than $3 trillion annually on health care, the corrosive and crazy effects of all that big money can become almost common place. Even still, hospitals, doctors, and Big Pharma still manage to come up with plenty of, Aw, really, c’mon kinds of financial situations. Recent news reports, for example, have focused….
Continue ReadingYes, an ounce of prevention is still worth a pound of cure
Preventive measures, even small ones, can be life changing and lifesaving. They can safeguard drivers and passengers in car wrecks, protect young folks during a bad flu season, and ensure that fewer Americans still take up one of the proven, major health harms — smoking. Let’s start with a simple, often overlooked vehicular precaution: Buckle….
Continue ReadingThe U.S. way? Rich reap good health, while poor toil in sickness
Here’s something that many Americans likely would want to think twice about letting happen: Should good health and long lives be just another of the spoils reserved to the rich? Vox, a news and information site, has posted a provocative dig into national data on longevity — a measure that has raised experts’ concern with….
Continue ReadingLet’s toast to common sense, moderation with drinking, cancer-risk studies
When topics like booze and health flow together, common sense seems to disappear. So let’s give credit to the context-restoring efforts of Aaron Carroll— a pediatrics faculty member at Indiana University medical school, a health policy researcher, and a writer for the New York Times’ “Upshot” column—and healthnewsreview.org, a health information watch dog site. Both….
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