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Water fluoridation helps prevent tooth decay – how growing opposition threatens a 70-year-old health practice

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Driving through downtown Dallas, you might see a striking banner hanging at the U-turn bridge, near the Walnut Hill exit on Central Expressway (US 75): “Stop Fluoridation!” Below it, other banners demand action and warn of supposed dangers.

It’s not the first time fluoride has been at the center of public debate.

Since ...Read more

Environmental Nutrition: Holiday desserts

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Desserts are always a fun treat, but during the holidays they often become more of a mainstay in our diet as we celebrate. When talking about dessert and healthy eating, often there’s a recommendation to have fruit for dessert. Fruit is a delicious way to get a variety of nutrients and should be eaten daily. However, there are times when you ...Read more

6 foods you should never store on the counter

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Have you ever perused the produce stands at a farmers market and realized items like eggs, berries, and other produce are kept out? Then you get home and you’re not sure whether these foods can stay in a cute bowl on your counter or if they should be stored in the refrigerator.

The truth is, farm fresh produce and dairy have a different ...Read more

Life can be challenging: Build your own resilience plan

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Nantucket, a beautiful, 14-mile-long island off the coast of Massachusetts, has a 40-point resiliency plan to help withstand the buffeting seas surrounding it as climate change takes a toll. Perhaps we can all benefit from creating individual resilience plans to help handle the big and small issues that erode our sense of well-being. But what is...Read more

Mayo Clinic Q&A: Facial drooping in children

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My husband and I recently noticed our 5-year-old daughter was having difficulty blinking and eating, and one side of her face was drooping. The pediatrician referred us to a plastic surgeon who diagnosed her with facial paralysis. What is facial paralysis and what are the treatment options? Will this require surgery?

ANSWER: ...Read more

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She was told her heart condition made pregnancy dangerous. Her daughter just graduated college

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

When Tara Garcia was born, her skin was tinted blue. This meant a lack of oxygen in her body. Doctors told her parents the baby girl may not make it through the night.

After being transferred to another hospital, doctors found the problem: The two main arteries in her heart were reversed, scrambling the normal pathway for blood through the body...Read more

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Colorado doesn't have enough health care providers -- even in Denver. What would it take to fix that?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DENVER — Colorado has a serious shortage of primary care and mental health treatment statewide, but experts say some of the state’s plans to address that could at least chip away at the problem.

Despite the perception that provider shortages are a rural problem, none of Colorado’s 21 health regions — including Denver and the surrounding...Read more

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Mayo Clinic Minute: Can diet help with inflammatory bowel disease?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammation of the digestive tract. It includes conditions such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. People with IBD may experience persistent symptoms like frequent diarrhea, weight loss, abdominal pain and fatigue.

There is no cure and no exact cause, though researchers continue to look at ...Read more

U.S. Food and Drug Administration/TNS/TNS

An update on the recalls and illnesses in the salmonella outbreak linked to cucumbers

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Since last week’s recall of cucumbers across the United States and Canada, more cucumbers have been recalled and more people sickened with salmonella.

Here’s the latest on the situation:

What other cucumbers have been recalled?

Last Wednesday’s SunFed Produce recall of whole cucumbers from Sonora, Mexico, grower Agrotato S.A. de C.V. ...Read more

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What makes oatmeal the ideal breakfast for heart health and weight loss?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Oatmeal is a nutritious, inexpensive and versatile way to incorporate whole grains into your diet and help you start your morning off right.

Oats made history when they became the first food with a Food and Drug Administration health claim label in 1997. This claim was related to heart health and showed that intake of whole oat products ...Read more

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Make America Healthy Again: An unconventional movement that may have found its moment

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Within days of Donald Trump’s election victory, health care entrepreneur Calley Means turned to social media to crowdsource advice.

“First 100 days,” said Means, a former consultant to Big Pharma who uses the social platform X to focus attention on chronic disease. “What should be done to reform the FDA?”

The question was more than ...Read more

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Maryland's cannabis-related emergency room visits are trending downward since legalization

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

BALTIMORE — Cannabis-related emergency room visits are on a downward trend in Carroll County, according to Maryland Department of Health statistics.

The health department’s interactive dashboard, which debuted last week, displays data for cannabis-related emergency room visits since 2019. The data are based on visits when the patient’s ...Read more

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Florida's Deloitte-run computer system cut off new moms entitled to Medicaid

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

In mid-May, Mandi Rokx had a 3-month-old baby and a letter from a Florida agency warning that they both would be cut from Medicaid, the health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities.

Under a Florida law passed in 2021, Rokx was supposed to receive 12 months of continuous coverage after giving birth. But the letter from ...Read more

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More adults in rural America are dying from cardiovascular diseases

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

More people living in rural areas of the United States are dying from heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases – a trend that emerged after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and appears to be driven by deaths among people under 65, a new study found.

Rural residents also continue to have higher cardiovascular death rates than...Read more

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Researchers launch 'moonshot' to cure blindness through eye transplants

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DENVER — As part of a national “moonshot” to cure blindness, researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus will receive as much as $46 million in federal funding over the next five years to pursue a first-of-its-kind full eye transplantation.

“What was once a dream — to cure blindness — is potentially within our ...Read more

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Anti-fraud efforts meet real-world test during ACA enrollment period

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Unauthorized switching of Affordable Care Act plans appears to have tapered off in recent weeks based on an almost one-third drop in casework associated with consumer complaints, say federal regulators. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees the ACA, credits steps taken to thwart enrollment and switching problems that ...Read more

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Ask the Pediatrician: Understanding whooping cough

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by bacteria called Bordetella pertussis. The infection attacks the lining of the breathing passages. People can get whooping cough any time of year, but generally infections are seen in late summer and fall.

Symptoms of whooping cough vary based on age, medical ...Read more

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Mayo Clinic Minute: Stomach cancer in younger people

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Rates of stomach cancer, which is also called gastric cancer, among younger people is on the rise. Typically, stomach cancer is diagnosed in patients in their 60s and 70s, but increasingly it's being diagnosed in younger patients. While rates of stomach cancer in older patients have been declining for decades, early onset stomach cancer is ...Read more

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Fear of another heart attack may be a distinct stress factor

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Stress after a heart attack is understandable – and new research into what drives such stress suggests that fear of another heart attack might play a significant role.

Understanding how that fear works, and how it is distinct from mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression, is important because it could lead to better care for ...Read more

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Button batteries pose deadly risks to children. Doctors want them to be made safer

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The round batteries, small as buttons and shiny as coins, are prized for the energy they pack at their size. In households, they have become commonplace, powering remote controls, hearing aids, toys, electric tea lights, wristwatches, greeting cards that play music and other familiar items.

But doctors warn that such "button batteries" can maim...Read more