Getting vaccinated is your best defense. The idea of getting a flu shot may conjure images of kiddie Band-Aids and school health forms, but immunization is just as important for older folks as it is for younger populations. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone over the age of six months get an annual [...]
Bacteria breeds by dividing. One bacterium divides into two. About 20 minutes later those two cells divide again into four, then eight, 16 and so on. In just 24 hours, after dividing again and again, that number climbs to 2,361,183,241,434,820,000, 000 (give or take). It’s almost impossible to fathom a number so extraordinarily large, particularly for [...]
Health officials say a total of five pregnant women had become infected with the illness Two unborn babies have died after their mothers contracted measles amidst the worst outbreak of the illness in New Zealand in two decades. The deaths were announced by the Auckland regional public health service on Tuesday, who said overall five pregnant women had contracted [...]
An honest conversation will help you get the results you expect The complexity of heart failure makes its outcome hard to predict. Some patients remain reasonably stable for years on a standard medical regimen. Others slowly slide downhill, despite aggressive treatment with advanced medications and mechanical therapies. Keeping someone with heart failure out of the hospital and symptom-free is [...]
Few over 50 have tried telehealth and most see in-person care as better — but half would consider it for encounters with their primary providers. The technology is there. The funding is nearly there. And the health providers are getting there. But a new national poll suggests that people over 50 aren’t quite ready to fully embrace [...]
Measured rollout will tap the drug’s promise while navigating its complex REMS program Cleveland Clinic will begin offering brexanolone, the first medication to treat moderate to severe postpartum depression, via a pilot program at one of its regional hospitals soon after the drug’s launch, which is expected in late June. The fast-acting neurosteroid, which received FDA [...]
CDC-Recommended and Promising Programs The CDC Arthritis Program recommends evidence-based programs that are proven to improve the quality of life of people with arthritis. Recommended programs are those that have shown improvements in arthritis symptoms, such as pain or limitations in function, and that have some level of support for program oversight and organized, wide-scale delivery. [...]
Federal, private funders bet food-as-pharmacy programs will deliver healthcare cost savings When low-income patients with high blood pressure fill their prescriptions at certain New York City pharmacies, they walk away with $30 in vouchers to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables at the city’s farmer’s markets. The city’s “Pharmacy to Farm Prescriptions Program” has reached [...]
Study underscores importance of managing BP It’s not just your heart health you’ll improve when you manage your blood pressure. A national study found that optimizing blood pressure targets could help your memory too. While people’s blood pressure (BP) fluctuates all the time, the ideal BP target is 120 over 80. The first number (systolic BP) indicates [...]
As has been the trend over the last several weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed a handful of new Ebola cases today in the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC’s) North and South Kivu and Ituri provinces. Three new cases were recorded today on the WHO’s Ebola dashboard, lifting the [...]
