Which Airlines Make the Grade? When Cecilia Watson is around dogs, she immediately starts coughing and wheezing. Her Asthma Action Plan calls for strict avoidance, but as a frequent traveler, that’s difficult to do on airlines that increasingly allow pets to accompany passengers. The 54-year-old fears exposure to dog allergens could lead to a severe [...]
With snow on the ground, many people will have been huddling around a wood fire, but researchers are questioning if wood burning is really climate neutral. Burning wood is not CO2 free; it releases carbon, stored over the previous decades, in one quick burst. For an equal amount of heat or electricity, it releases more CO2 than burning [...]
What Is Asthma? Asthma is a long-term problem in the tubes that carry air into your lungs that can make it hard for you to breathe. These airways get so narrow that air can’t move freely. It can cause serious wheezing and breathlessness, known as asthma attacks. There’s no cure, but most people can control [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
