Health category, Page 121
Mayo mindfulness: Improve your well-being
Mindfulness is the act of being intensely aware of what you’re sensing and feeling at every moment — without interpretation or judgment. Spending too much time planning, problem-solving, daydreaming or thinking negative or random thoughts can be draining. It can also make you more likely to experience stress, anxiety and...
Hand sanitizers not contributing to superbugs, experts say
Mysteriously slick subway poles, a sneezing colleague, the arrival of flu season: These are all reasons to be grateful for any bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer that’s within reach. Yet in an era of superbugs — bacteria that become resistant to antibiotics — and fears about being too clean, you...
Health Happenings
Blood drives — 1-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 501 Fairfield Drive, Hempfield — 1:30-7 p.m. Friday, Greater Latrobe Area High School, 131 High School Road — 1:30-7 p.m., Monday, St. Bruno Church, 1707 S. Poplar St., Greensburg Appointments: 800-733-2767 or redcrossblood.org; walk-ins welcome Classes/programs • Excela Health fitness...
Walgreens to provide drug disposal packets free to customers
Walgreens is making it easier for customers to dispose of unused drugs safely. The drugstore chain said Monday that it will offer at several thousand stores packets that customers can use to turn medications into a useless gel before throwing them away at home. The DisposeRx packets will be available...
UPMC, Highmark reach 10-year deal for patient coverage
UPMC and Highmark struck a truce Monday that will allow Western Pennsylvanians to maintain access to hospitals and doctors across both rival health systems for at least the next 10 years. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro hailed the unexpected contract — inked six days before UPMC and Highmark were scheduled...
Baby formula sold at Walmart is recalled over metal contamination concerns
About 23,400 containers of baby formula sold exclusively at Walmart have been recalled because they could contain pieces of metal. Perrigo Company is issuing the recall of 35-ounce containers of Parent’s Choice Advantage Infant Formula Milk-Based Powder with Iron because of the “potential presence of metal foreign matter.” Consumers should...
FDA may soon give women more options for boosting their libidos
More than two decades after Viagra revolutionized the treatment of men’s sexual health, women looking for a pharmaceutical boost in the bedroom are having another kind of Me Too moment. In the coming days, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide whether to approve a new medication for...
Allegheny County Health Department to begin public health survey
The Allegheny County Health Department plans to begin surveying residents next week about public health priorities. Last conducted in 2014, the Community Health Assessment is used to help the health department identify what public health areas need more support. Access to healthcare services, chronic diseases like obesity and smoking, environmental...
Pennsylvania moves to expand limits on opioid prescriptions
Legislation to further clamp down on powerful painkiller prescriptions in Pennsylvania has the state Senate’s approval, although Democrats tried unsuccessfully to put limits on an exception for major surgery. The Senate voted unanimously Wednesday, nearly three years after lawmakers passed a package of legislation to limit opioid prescriptions to fight...
Autism Speaks walk planned at Storybook Forest
Laurel Highlands Autism Speaks Walk will be held at Idlewild & Soak Zone’s Storybook Forest this year. Children and adults with autism, their families, friends, colleagues and neighbors are welcome to participate in the Sept. 8 event at the Ligonier Township amusement park. Autism Speaks is dedicated to promoting solutions...
U.S. air quality is slipping after years of improvement
After decades of improvement, America’s air may not be getting any cleaner. Over the last two years the nation had more polluted air days than just a few years earlier, federal data shows. While it remains unclear whether this is the beginning of a trend, health experts say it’s troubling...
Frozen spinach recalled for possible Listeria contamination
Sprouts Farmers Market is recalling two varieties of frozen spinach products because they may be contaminated with listeria, a bacteria that can cause illness and sometimes death. The products were manufactured by National Frozen Foods of Oregon and shipped to Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma,...
Survey says men with ‘dad bod’ are happy, confident and sexy
Celebrate your dad bod. Men with dad bods are generally happy with their bodies, have high self-esteem, and are confident in their own skin, according to a new survey sponsored by Planet Fitness. The survey also found that Americans say dad bods are attractive, men with dad bods are sexy...
Best Buy begins selling high-end exercise equipment
They had to do something to replace the CDs and DVDs. Best Buy is getting into the fitness business, with the announcement that it will sell upscale home exercise equipment like Flywheel stationary bikes, Hydrow rowing machines and NordicTrack treadmills. The equipment is available now at bestbuy.com and will be...
Connellsville woman TOPS queen in weight lossVideo
Losing more than 100 pounds is a laudable accomplishment. Keeping it off for a year is crown-worthy, according to TOPS Club Inc. (Take Off Pounds Sensibly). TOPS recently named Kim Leistner, 58, of Connellsville its 2018 Pennsylvania Queen. Leistner dropped 107.5 pounds over about two years, her scale sliding from...
How is fibromyalgia diagnosed?
Dear Mayo Clinic: Is there a specific test to definitively diagnose fibromyalgia? If not, how do doctors confidently diagnose this disorder? Answer: No one test can be used to diagnose fibromyalgia. But unlike in the past, fibromyalgia is no longer a diagnosis of exclusion, which means that all other conditions...
Why you should quit smoking even after a cancer diagnosis
Dear Mayo Clinic: My father, who is 68, just started treatment for bladder cancer. He’s been a smoker since his 20s, and his oncologist is strongly encouraging him to quit. It seems like trying to stop smoking now, while he’s going through chemotherapy, will just add more stress to a...
Health happenings
Blood drives — 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday, Laurel Podiatry Associates, 235 Humphrey Road, Pineview Place, Suite 4, Greensburg — 1-5:30 p.m. Friday, North Huntingdon Town House, 11279 Center Highway, Irwin — 1-6:30 p.m. June 26, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 501 Fairfield Drive, Hempfield Appointments: 800-733-2767 or redcrossblood.org; walk-ins welcome Classes/programs...
Summer camp is newest front in battle with measles outbreak
ALBANY, N.Y. — The battle to contain the worst U.S. measles outbreak in 27 years has a new front: summer camp. Vaccinations have been made mandatory this summer for campers and staff in several counties north of New York City that annually fill up with kids from the Orthodox Jewish...
What’s so bad about processed foods? Scientists offer clues
NEW YORK — Chips, soda and frozen pizzas tend to be full of salt, sugar and fat, but now scientists are trying to understand if there’s something else about such processed foods that might be bad for us. Already, the spread of cheap packaged foods has been linked to rising...
Lawsuit: Pa. man had heart attack on Carnival ship, wasn’t allowed off, then died
The family of Jeffrey Eisenman, a 65-year-old passenger on the Carnival Sunshine, alleges in a lawsuit that the world’s largest cruise company wouldn’t let him off of the ship after suffering a heart attack last December. Eisenman died on the way to another port. A representative for Carnival said the...
Actress Jessica Biel clarifies stance on vaccinations after backlash
Actress Jessica Biel insists she’s not against vaccinations after she raised concerns when she met with anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about a new bill that would limit medical exemptions in California. Kennedy shared a photo as they headed to California’s capitol to lobby against the bill. View this...
Some Pa. residents receiving ‘unexpected’ medical bills, organization says
When Emily Christian-Michaels went to UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh for a regular scan at 20 weeks pregnant, she didn’t expect to get hit with a $1,900 bill. The now-31-year-old Bellevue resident said hospital staff performed an extended scan without letting her know — a procedure that was not covered...
Watchdog: Abuse and neglect in nursing facilities unreported
WASHINGTON — Nursing facilities have failed to report thousands of serious cases of potential neglect and abuse of seniors on Medicare even though it’s a federal requirement for them to do so, according to a watchdog report released Wednesday that calls for a new focus on protecting frail patients. Auditors...
Public rental bikes used for Naked Bike Ride in New Orleans
Public bicycles sponsored by a health insurance company were used in a rather unsanitary way. It was more than 90 degrees on June 8 in New Orleans when the 2019 World Naked Bike Ride kicked off and riders mounted their saddles for a ride through the French Quarter. Although many...
