Health category, Page 123
More younger women are having heart attacks — steps to minimize risk
Younger women are experiencing an alarming increase in heart attacks. According to research published last fall in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, women ages 35 to 54 accounted for 31% of the hospitalizations for heart attacks in 2014, up from 21% in 1995. Though heart disease is often seen...
Prevent illness by preventing tick bites
Ready or not, ticks are out. Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness, but it’s not the only concern, says Dr. Bobbi Pritt, a parasitic diseases expert at Mayo Clinic. “There are other tick-borne diseases like anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Powassan virus and Borrelia miyamotoi infection, and those are just diseases...
Brain health app is helping workers stay focused
John Ciferno constantly worries about the safety of his employees. The majority of the 60 or so workers at Ciferno Well Services in Rostraver are truck drivers, some of whom work over-long shifts. “It’s easy for drivers to get fatigued,” said Ciferno, who has owned the company for almost two...
HIV cases rising in West Virginia county
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A cluster of HIV cases in Cabell County reflects a shift in how the disease is being transmitted, West Virginia health officials say. The Herald-Dispatch reports Cabell County’s cluster — the only one currently known in West Virginia — is up to 49 confirmed cases, according to...
Protecting your skin from the sun as easy as ABC
As summer approaches, many people will begin to hit the pools, lakes and trails. But with the outdoor fun comes an increased risk for skin cancer if you don’t properly protect yourself from the sun’s damaging rays. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, more people are diagnosed with skin cancer...
FDA approves $2M medicine, most expensive ever
U.S. regulators have approved the most expensive medicine ever, for a rare disorder that destroys a baby’s muscle control and kills nearly all of those with the most common type of the disease within a couple of years. The treatment is priced at $2.125 million. Out-of-pocket costs for patients will...
Trump administration moves to revoke transgender health protection
The Trump administration proposed revoking Obama-era discrimination protections for transgender people in health care on Friday, a move LGBT groups fear will result in some Americans being denied needed medical treatment. The Health and Human Services Department released a proposed regulation that in effect says “gender identity” is not protected...
Sheetz to sell CBD products at 140+ locations
People can now buy cannabidiol, or CBD, at more than 140 Sheetz stores across the region, the Altoona-based company announced Thursday. Cannabidiol products have become popular for a variety of ailments and, although it’s derived from marijuana, it’s legal to sell in Pennsylvania outside of medical marijuana dispensaries. Sheetz is...
62,000 pounds of raw meat recalled ahead of Memorial Day
Talk about bad timing. Aurora Packing Company is recalling more than 62,000 pounds of raw beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli, just days before one of the biggest grilling weekends of the year. The USDA reported that North Aurora, Ill.-based company’s recalled products were packaged April 19...
U.S. lawmakers demand U.N. health agency change opioid guidance
Two U.S. lawmakers are calling on the World Health Organization to withdraw pain care guidelines that include what they say are false claims about the safety of prescription opioids. They say the guidelines could lead other countries toward the same kind of addiction and overdose crisis that has plagued the...
Florida’s seniors are increasingly depressed and drinking more
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Although Florida seniors are living longer, they are smoking, drinking and experiencing depression more than the older population of other states, according to a new national health report. The America’s Health Rankings Senior Report found more than 9% of Florida’s 4.2 million seniors said they drink...
Cholesterol improves in U.S. kids despite high obesity rates
CHICAGO — Cholesterol levels in children and teens improved in the latest analysis of U.S. health surveys, yet only half of them had readings considered ideal. Overall, 7% of kids had high cholesterol in surveys from 2009 to 2016. That was down from 10% a decade earlier. In children, high...
Carbs: How low can we go?
“Fruit has carbs? I had no idea,” a stunned patient told me recently. She’s not the only one who doesn’t have a complete understanding of carbohydrates — the focus of our current craze for low-carb foods. I find that many people who say they “don’t eat carbs” may not really...
SisterFriend founder looks to provide feminine products, educationVideo
A young girl walks into Rachel Short’s office at Pittsburgh Colfax K-8 School in Squirrel Hill. The school nurse knows what the student wants before either says a word. “I know ‘the look,’” Short says. “I nod my head, and she knows where to go for the supplies she needs.”...
Health Happenings
Blood drives — Noon-5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Christ United Methodist Church, 201 Market St., Scottdale — Noon-6 p.m. Thursday, Excela Square, Norwin, 8775 Norwin Ave., Irwin — 1-5:30 p.m., Saturday, New Life Tabernacle, 851 S. Center Ave., Hunker — 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Monday, Excela Square at Frick, 508 South Church St.,...
When planning pre- and post-workout meals, listen to your body
I regularly exercise with a friend in the early morning. Before we meet in the dark, I chug a bit of green tea while she fits in two slices of whole grain toast with peanut butter. Is one of us better prepared for that workout? When I studied how the...
McConnell, Kaine want to raise minimum smoking age to 21Video
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., on Monday planned to introduce a bill that would raise the federal minimum age to purchase tobacco from 18 to 21, a measure that they say is aimed at reducing teen use of e-cigarettes. The move, from...
Amid #MeToo, states debate teaching consent to kids
Inside a Catholic school in Portland, Oregon, high school sophomores break into groups to discuss some once-taboo topics: abusive relationships and consent. At one desk, a girl with banana-colored fingernails begins jotting down some of the hallmarks of abuse: Physically hurting you, verbally abusive, can be one-sided. She pauses to...
For trans people, gender-swap photo filters are no mere game
Snapchat’s new photo filter that allows users to change into a man or woman with the tap of a finger isn’t necessarily fun and games for transgender people. Some say it reduces their very real and often painful experiences to folly. Thirty-one-year-old Bailey Coffman is a transgender woman from New...
Obesity surgery benefits may be bigger for teens than adults
Teens who have obesity surgery lose as much weight as those who have the operation as adults and are more likely to have it resolve other health problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure, a study finds. The results suggest there’s a benefit from not waiting to address obesity....
UPMC, Attorney General’s legal teams face off before state Supreme CourtVideo
HARRISBURG — UPMC’s looming prepayment rule for out-of-network patients demonstrates the health giant’s efforts to serve the public have “deteriorated” in the past five years, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office argued Thursday before the state Supreme Court. Bart DeLone, chief attorney general, told justices that the controversial prepay rule —...
Ohio teen loses 115 pounds while walking to school every day
An Ohio student will graduate 115 pounds lighter than when he started high school. Michael Watson, 18, of Canton decided two years ago to do something about his weight. He was 6 foot, 4 inches tall and tipped the scale at 335 pounds, reports CNN. “My self-confidence was zero,” Watson...
Master herbalist to speak at Pittsburgh event
Sara-Chana Silverstein went through a range of feelings after finding herself sitting at her daughter’s hospital bedside and then for months in a rehabilitation facility. The young girl had been hit by a tow truck, which doctors thought might have caused an undetected blood clot in her spine months later...
Health Happenings
Blood drives — 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Westmoreland County Courthouse Square, 2 North Main St., Greensburg — Noon-5:30 p.m. Friday, Quatrini Rafferty, 550 E. Pittsburgh St., Greensburg — 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Saturday, St. Michael’s Orthodox Church, 1182 Ashland St., Greensburg — Noon-5:30 p.m. Monday, Vandergrift Masonic Lodge No. 617, 113...
Determining foods to avoid when managing Barrett’s esophagus
Dear Mayo Clinic: I was diagnosed with Barrett’s esophagus three months ago and was given some diet instructions, including eliminating alcohol and caffeine. Why is this necessary? Is it still possible for me to have an occasional alcoholic drink? Is decaffeinated coffee OK? Answer: One of the main goals for...
