Health category, Page 126
Workplace wellness programs barely move the needle, study finds
Workplace wellness programs — efforts to get workers to lose weight, eat better, stress less and sleep more — are an $8 billion industry in the U.S. Most large employers offer some type of wellness program — with growth fueled by incentives in the federal Affordable Care Act. But no...
Study: Genetic test predicts middle-aged obesity risk
NEW YORK — Can a genetic test identify newborns at risk of becoming severely obese by middle age? Researchers say they have come up with one, and that it might allow interventions in childhood to avoid that fate. The test examines more than 2 million spots in a person’s genetic...
Latrobe woman pushes on 2 years after brain tumor changed her life
Meah Ezykowsky was lying unresponsive in her bed when her mom rushed into their Latrobe home, knowing something was wrong. That morning of March 20, 2017, the family learned Ezykowsky had a record-sized meningioma tumor — a noncancerous mass that will impact more than 32,000 people this year. The grapefruit-sized...
From cherry pies to French dressing, FDA to ease some food rules
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump may soon be able to claim a sweet victory for his deregulation push, with officials preparing to get rid of the decades-old rules for frozen cherry pies. Emails show the Food and Drug Administration planned to start the process for revoking the standard for...
Two-wave flu season is now the longest in a decade
NEW YORK — Three months ago, this flu season was shaping up to be short and mild. But a surprising second viral wave has made it the longest the United States has seen in 10 years. This flu season has been officially going for 21 weeks, according to reports collected...
‘We don’t get over it’: Pain of mass shootings stretches on
PARKLAND, Fla. — Alex Rozenblat can still hear the cries of a wounded boy calling for help as she hid from the gunfire that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year. Talking to therapists at the school in Parkland, Florida, didn’t help. Each session had a...
How to decipher contradictory nutritional research
It’s frustrating when nutrition studies seem to contradict earlier ones: “Are Eggs Good or Bad For You? New Research Rekindles Debate,” the Associated Press groused in mid-March. Though it may seem that dietary science is changing every day, that’s not really the case. I’m here to explain how nutritional research...
Health Happenings – Apr. 16, 2019
Blood drives • American Red Cross will host these blood drives: — 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. today in Westmoreland County Community College Founders Hall, Youngwood campus, 145 Pavilion Lane, Hempfield. — 12:30-5 p.m., Friday , Quatrini Rafferty, 816 Ligonier St., Latrobe. Appointments: 800-733-2767 or redcrossblood.org; walk-ins welcome • Vitalant, formerly Central...
Quinn on Nutrition: Living with 1 kidney
A reader who read a recent column about caring for our kidneys, writes: “I did not realize that the kidneys provided so much to our bodies. My granddaughter was born with 3 kidneys; by the time she was two she had to have the two kidneys that were together taken...
PET scans important in assessing some forms of lymphoma
Dear Mayo Clinic: My father just started chemotherapy for lymphoma, and he is scheduled for a positron emission tomography or PET scan after his first three treatments. How do doctors decide when to perform a PET scan, and what’s the purpose of doing that scan during the treatment? Why wouldn’t...
CDC reports 90 new measles cases as outbreak approaches recordVideo
WASHINGTON — For the third week in a row, U.S. health officials have added dozens of new reports to the year’s list of confirmed measles cases, bringing the total to 555 - already the highest number in the past five years. If the outbreaks aren’t brought under control, public health...
Mainstream retailers embrace marijuana’s less taboo cousin
NEW YORK — Mainstream retailers are leaping into the world of products like skin creams and oils that tout such benefits as reducing anxiety and helping you sleep. The key ingredient? CBD, or cannabidiol, a compound derived from hemp and marijuana that doesn’t cause a high. Retailers are taking advantage...
100-year-old yoga instructor keeps moving, dancing
HARTSDALE, N.Y. — A 100-year-old yoga instructor has no plans to stop practicing and teaching. On a spring day in Hartsdale, a northern suburb of New York City where she leads her classes, Tao Porchon-Lynch said she first encountered the ancient practice at age 7 in her native India. Strolling...
Study finds diabetes drug may prevent, slow kidney disease
A drug that’s used to help control blood sugar in people with diabetes has now been shown to help prevent or slow kidney disease, which causes millions of deaths each year and requires hundreds of thousands of people to use dialysis to stay alive. Doctors say it’s hard to overstate...
‘You could give life,’ Pittsburgh mayor says of organ donation month
Retired Pittsburgh Police Officer Brenda Tate said she couldn’t bear watching her brother deteriorate from kidney disease two years ago, so she became a chain organ donor allowing him to receive a new kidney. At 68, Tate of the Hill District donated her kidney to a man in Erie. The...
Swallowed toys, coins, batteries spark rise in child ER visits
CHICAGO — The number of young kids who went to U.S. emergency rooms because they swallowed toys, coins, batteries and other objects has nearly doubled, a new study says. In 2015, there were nearly 43,000 such visits among kids under 6, compared with 22,000 in 1995, according to the study...
New Western Psych president Deborah Brodine returns to where she started
UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital will have a new president in May. It will be a homecoming for Deborah Brodine, who started her career 25 years ago at the hospital in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. “I am very eager and honored to partner with the other members of this incredible and talented...
‘Burden of Genius’ tells story of transplant pioneer Dr. Thomas Starzl
Six months before Dr. Christiaan Barnard conducted the world’s first highly-publicized heart transplant in December of 1967, Dr. Thomas Starzl performed the world’s first successful liver transplant. Barnard received worldwide publicity and, after hitting the talk show circuit, became a household name. Starzl did not become as well known and,...
2 more die of flu complications in Allegheny County
Two more Allegheny County residents have died from flu-related complications, bringing the total deaths to 14 this season, officials said. A female in her upper 90s and a male in his mid-60s died, according to the Allegheny County Health Department. The county receives its data on flu-related deaths from the...
Mayo Clinic Q&A: Revealing the cause of fainting
Dear Mayo Clinic: I had a fainting spell the other day, which had never happened to me before in my 64 years. I don’t feel unwell, but a friend I was with at the time insists I should see my doctor. Is that necessary? What would they be looking for?...
Key to happiness? Get a dog
The well-respected survey that’s been a barometer of American politics, culture and behavior for more than four decades finally got around to the question that has bedeviled many a household. Dog or cat? In 2018, the General Social Survey for the first time included a battery of questions on pet...
Is 4 hours of sleep really enough?
“Sleep is overrated.” So proclaims Stephen Klasko, who throughout his life has taken pride in sleeping only four or five hours a night. Those extra few hours away from his pillow, he believes, have allowed him to write books, run marathons and achieve his lofty professional goals. An obstetrician and...
Health Happenings – Apr. 9, 2019
Blood drives • American Red Cross will host a blood drive 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. April 16 in Westmoreland County Community College Founders Hall, Youngwood campus, 145 Pavilion Lane, Hempfield. Appointments: 800-733-2767 or redcrossblood.org; walk-ins welcome • Vitalant, formerly Central Blood Bank, will host a blood drive 8 a.m.-2 p.m. April...
CDC finds 78 new measles cases as outbreak sprints to record
WASHINGTON — For the second week in a row, U.S. health officials added dozens of new reports to the year’s list of confirmed measles cases, bringing the total to 465 — already the highest number in the last five years. It’s another significant milepost on the road to what will...
Pitt study says doctors overprescribe meds to kids through telemedicine
As telemedicine visits increase, so do the chances of overprescribing of antibiotics to children, according to a new study. Children with acute respiratory infections were prescribed antibiotics more often during direct-to-consumer telemedicine visits than during in-person appointments or urgent care visits, according to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh research reported...
