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The ugly side of beauty: Chemicals in cosmetics threaten college-age women's reproductive health

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

When you walk through the personal care aisles of your local store, you likely see dozens of products that promise to soften your skin, make you smell better, extend your lashes, decrease wrinkling, tame your curly hair, or even semi-permanently change the color of your lips, hair or skin.

Remember the old adage “If it seems too ...Read more

This is one of the worst things you can do when stressed

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Did you know there’s one simple action that can help decrease current feelings of stress and improve your body's response? Drink water.

The relationship between hydration and stress is well documented. Basically, when you’re dehydrated, your body is stressed, and when you're stressed your brain releases stress hormones, setting off a chain ...Read more

Prostate cancer: Zapping metastatic tumors with radiation improves survival

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Oligometastatic cancer is an early form of stage 4 prostate cancer that has spread to other organs in the body, but only to a limited degree — generally defined as no more than three to five areas outside the prostate gland, most commonly the lymph nodes or bones.

Barely a decade ago it was considered universally fatal, and treatment was ...Read more

Mayo Clinic Q&A: Irritable bowel syndrome can be controlled by lifestyle modifications for some people

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I have been diagnosed with a mild case of irritable bowel syndrome, and I talked to my doctor about managing my symptoms without medication. I am interested in trying to focus more on diet to control my condition. Are there certain things that I should be mindful of, or will medication be the only way for me to manage my ...Read more

Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel/TNS

Stop the bleed: When gunshots ring out, the first five minutes are pivotal to survival

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Parkland, Pulse nightclub — and now Hollywood Beach.

Floridians know firsthand that any public place can instantly turn into a shooting range, where multiple victims are wounded or killed. Such incidents have been escalating in the United States, which has more mass shootings than any other country.

Surviving a ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Will a 'National Patient Safety Board,' modeled after the NTSB, actually fly?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

People concerned about the safety of patients often compare health care to aviation. Why, they ask, can’t hospitals learn from medical errors the way airlines learn from plane crashes?

That’s the rationale behind calls to create a “National Patient Safety Board,” an independent federal agency that would be loosely modeled after the ...Read more

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Mayo Clinic Minute: How awake spinal surgery benefits patients

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Mayo Clinic is among the first in the world to perform a spinal fusion surgery, called TLIF, with robotic assistance and incorporating spinal anesthesia, meaning the patient is awake. TLIF stands for transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion. It's a specific kind of spinal fusion to help stabilize the spine because of degenerative, traumatic or ...Read more

Tero Vesalainen/Dreamstime/TNS

What is a panic attack?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A panic attack is an episode of intense fear with an abrupt onset, lasting from several minutes to up to an hour. It has many mental and physical symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, chest pain and a sense of pending doom. These symptoms may cause significant worry in people as they may mimic signs of medical ...Read more

Anna Moskvina/Dreamstime/TNS

Mayo Clinic Q and A: Sunscreen needs for any complexion

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I spent many a summer at the beach growing up. My mother always slathered me with sunscreen. Now, as a 30-year-old woman, sunscreen remains a part of my routine, regardless of the weather. Recently, I was surprised to learn that one of my friends — a young Black woman — never wears sunscreen. She said her darker complexion ...Read more

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Federal court halts Florida's transgender care ban for families who sued

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal court on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction allowing three transgender youths to receive puberty blockers despite Florida Boards of Medicine’s rules and new law, SB 254, banning gender-affirming care for transgender people under 18.

“Gender identity is real,” writes U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle in ...Read more

Scott Olson/Getty Images North America/TNS

Despite worries, experts say bird flu unlikely to effect humans

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Bird flu has been making headlines over the past month, resulting in millions of bird deaths, driving up poultry and egg prices, and raising public concern over potential human infections. According to the experts, however, bird flu is unlikely to become the next human pandemic. In its current variations, it simply lacks the ability to spread ...Read more

Curtis Compton/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Mayo Clinic Minute: Reducing dementia risks

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has been diagnosed with dementia. A family statement, posted on The Carter Center website, says that she continues to live happily at home with her husband, enjoying spring in Plains, Georgia, and visits with loved ones. The statement goes on to say that it's hoped that sharing the family's news will increase ...Read more

Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post/TNS

Eating disorder patients say punitive, threatening methods at Denver treatment center left them with new trauma

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DENVER -- Lizzy Earhart didn’t know much about Eating Recovery Center when she agreed to get treatment there in October 2020. She’d already received treatment for anorexia at another treatment provider in Denver, but she’d relapsed immediately after. But Eating Recovery Center was big, well-known. It seemed her best option.

But the months...Read more

Natrice Miller/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Medical marijuana is finally here, but many Georgia doctors shy away from it

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

ATLANTA -- Sylvia Hayes’ list of ailments is long and growing. Sciatica. A bulging disc. Pinched nerves. Knee pain.

Much of the 60-year-old Stone Mountain woman’s agony is the result of a car accident years ago that left her so severely injured that she now depends on a walker to get around. If she didn’t have enough to contend with, she ...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

Mayo Clinic Q and A: What is overactive bladder?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I'm a 48-year-old woman who just started going through menopause. I feel like I'm handling the hot flashes, sleepless nights and other symptoms OK, but my bladder is going crazy. Sometimes, when I realize I need to go, I can't make it to the bathroom in time. I have started wearing pads because of the leaks. Is this just part ...Read more

Birth of a story: How new parents find meaning after childbirth hints at how they will adjust

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Gather a group of new parents and the conversation will likely turn to their childbirth stories – ranging from the joyful to the gnarly to the positively traumatic. Birth story podcasts and websites feature a curated range of birth experiences, and you can buy embossed leather “birth story” journals as a baby shower gift. People are ...Read more

Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

Mood-altering mushroom sales bloom despite safety concerns

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

TAMPA, Fla. — When a hemp dispensary in this Florida city started to stock edibles with certain mushroom extracts last year, state regulators quickly ordered it to stop selling the items.

The shop had been advertising fruit-flavored gummies and other products containing tiny doses of mood-altering chemicals from the mushroom Amanita muscaria....Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Cardiovascular disease is primed to kill more older adults, especially Blacks and Hispanics

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Cardiovascular disease — the No. 1 cause of death among people 65 and older — is poised to become more prevalent in the years ahead, disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic communities and exacting an enormous toll on the health and quality of life of older Americans.

The estimates are sobering: By 2060, the prevalence of ischemic ...Read more

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As Medicaid purge begins, 'staggering numbers' of Americans Lose Coverage

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

More than 600,000 Americans have lost Medicaid coverage since pandemic protections ended on April 1. And a KFF Health News analysis of state data shows the vast majority were removed from state rolls for not completing paperwork.

Under normal circumstances, states review their Medicaid enrollment lists regularly to ensure every recipient ...Read more

Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post/TNS

These ambulance crews can't avoid violence, they're trying to change the culture of ignoring it

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DENVER -- For as long as emergency medicine has existed, being physically assaulted has been part of the job.

Talking about feelings that come after an assault, though? Not so much.

That’s something that paramedics and others working in emergency medicine are trying to change, said Crystal Eastman, a paramedic instructor and “peer ...Read more