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Astra drug improves survival by half in early stage lung cancer

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A blockbuster lung cancer drug from AstraZeneca Plc was found to improve survival by more than half in a subset of patients, boosting the company’s ambitions to widen its oncology portfolio across as many groups and indications as possible.

Tagrisso, Astra’s best-selling drug, reduced the risk of death in patients with an early-stage type ...Read more

Servier's experimental drug slows deadly brain tumor in trial

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A French drug developer’s experimental therapy slowed the progression of a type of brain cancer by more than 16 months on average, results that could lead to one of the first targeted therapies for the most common form of the tumor in adults younger than age 50.

Closely held Servier Group’s drug held up growth of the tumor, called low-grade...Read more

Hanna Webster/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS

One barrier to Alzheimer's diagnoses could crumble with discovery of a blood biomarker

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

PITTSBURGH — “My mother has always been my hero,” Mario Browne told a crowd of 180 people on Thursday.

Standing by his side was that 79-year-old hero, Joyce Browne, who was diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer’s in 2019. The two were among the speakers at the second-annual Pittsburgh Summit on Alzheimer’s and Dementia in the African ...Read more

Emily Curiel/Kansas City Star/TNS

Kansas City homeless program could be model for mental illness treatment, advocates say

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- After leaving prison, where he’d been incarcerated for nearly three decades, a man in his 60s took up residence in the woods of Kansas City, where he stayed for five years.

He eventually found his way to City Union Mission’s emergency homeless shelter, where staff learned he’d been panhandling to pay for his eyesight ...Read more

BLAKE FARMER/Kaiser Health News/TNS

A Catch-22 for clinics: State bans limit abortion counseling. Federal Title X rules require it

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

State abortion bans in Tennessee and beyond, which constrain women’s health care, have put family planning clinics at risk of losing their federal funding.

The conflict involves the Title X family planning program, which provides services to low-income people, including minors. As of 2021, more than 3,200 clinics used federal grants to supply...Read more

Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

The debt ceiling deal takes a bite out of health programs. It could have been much worse

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

WASHINGTON — Policy analysts, Democrats, and Republicans dissatisfied with the deal agree: Federal health programs have dodged a budgetary bullet in the Washington showdown over raising the nation’s debt ceiling.

A compromise bill, approved late Thursday by the Senate, includes some trims and caps on health spending for the next two years. ...Read more

Paul Morigi/Getty Images North America/TNS

Florida not doing enough to keep children on Medicaid, health advocates warn

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Health care advocates are sounding the alarm over how Florida is handling last month’s end of emergency Medicaid, which they warn could force thousands of eligible children to lose medical coverage because their parents don’t know they must reapply to the federal program.

One reason they don’t know, according to advocates, is that Florida...Read more

Jim Watson/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Millions skipping doses, not filling prescriptions to save money, study finds

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

ATLANTA — A new report from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shed some new light on the health habits of Americans. According to the report, 8.2% of adults between the ages of 18 and 64 taking prescription medications reported not taking their drugs as prescribed in order to cut costs – adding up to 9.2 ...Read more

Angela Rowlings/Boston Herald/TNS

Type 2 diabetes study: Afternoon exercise tied to blood sugar improvements, researchers find

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Those with type 2 diabetes who are planning out their exercise schedule should consider getting in a workout after lunch, according to a new study from Boston researchers.

Type 2 diabetes patients who were physically active in the afternoon saw greater improvements in blood sugar levels than those who were most active at other times of day, the...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Dobbs decision now a factor in med school residency picks

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

When Rose Al Abosy began weighing which obstetrics and gynecology residencies to apply to, she spoke to advisers, considered programs’ academics and evaluated how state laws would affect her ability to train in providing abortions.

The Boston University Medical School graduate narrowed down the options to 80 programs in states that had not ...Read more

JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Little-known lung infection grabs limelight from COVID-19, RSV

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A little-known respiratory virus is grabbing the limelight from COVID-19 and RSV after cases surged earlier this year, spurring companies to prepare their vaccines for a waiting market.

About one in five U.S. lung patients who were tested in March for the illness, called human metapneumovirus, or hMPV, showed signs of the disease, according to ...Read more

Sarah A. Miller/Idaho Statesman/TNS

'This law specifically targets us': Idaho families sue to block trans health care ban

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

BOISE, Idaho — Two Idaho families are suing to block a law that makes it a crime to provide gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

House Bill 71, passed by the Legislature this year and signed into law by Idaho Gov. Brad Little, makes it a felony for physicians to provide transition-related surgeries and medication, such as puberty ...Read more

Drugs that melt away pounds present more questions than answers, but they could be a key tool in reducing the obesity epidemic

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

In the past five years, several new drugs have been brought to market that could lead to a profound, if not revolutionary, change in how health care providers – and the public – view weight loss.

Three drugs in particular – sold under the brand names Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro – have shown remarkable effects on weight loss ...Read more

Petr Kirillov/Dreamstime/TNS

Mayo Clinic Q and A: Staying safe while running

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I'm training for my first long-distance race, and I want to be safe on my runs. Unfortunately, due to where I live, the weather is often a challenge. On other days, I'm finding I cannot get in my miles until after dusk. I'm wondering if you have any advice for staying injury-free in cold, rainy or dark conditions?

ANSWER: ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Mayo Clinic Minute: What is this bright red birthmark on my baby?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A hemangioma, also known as a strawberry birthmark, is a bright red birthmark that shows up in the first or second week of life. It looks like a rubbery bump and is made up of extra blood vessels in the skin.

In this Mayo Clinic Minute, Dr. Megha Tollefson, a Mayo Clinic pediatric dermatologist, explains what caregivers should know if their ...Read more

Nick McMillan/Nick McMillan/TNS

Many people living in the 'Diabetes Belt' are plagued with medical debt

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Delores Lowery remembers vividly the day in 2016 when she was working in a weaving plant near her home in Bennettsville, South Carolina, and the world around her seemed to go dim.

She turned to her co-workers. “And I asked, I said, ‘Why y’all got it so dark in here? They said, ‘Delores, it’s not dark in here.’ I said, ‘Yes, it is....Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Denials of health insurance claims are rising -- and getting weirder

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Millions of Americans in the past few years have run into this experience: filing a health care insurance claim that once might have been paid immediately but instead is just as quickly denied. If the experience and the insurer’s explanation often seem arbitrary and absurd, that might be because companies appear increasingly likely to employ ...Read more

How a medical recoding may limit cancer patients' options for breast reconstruction

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The federal government is reconsidering a decision that breast cancer patients, plastic surgeons, and members of Congress have protested would limit women’s options for reconstructive surgery.

On June 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to reexamine how doctors are paid for a type of breast reconstruction known as DIEP flap,...Read more

Cytomegalovirus lies dormant in most US adults and is the leading infectious cause of birth defects, but few have heard of it

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

“Why didn’t anyone tell me about this virus?” is a frequent response I hear from parents upon learning their newborn is infected with cytomegalovirus, or CMV. Although more than half of the U.S. population will be infected with CMV by the age of 40 and the disease is common worldwide, few people have ever heard of it.

CMV ...Read more

Environmental Nutrition: Pack a stash of pistachios

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

There’s no denying the irresistible pistachio. Its smooth beige shell reveals a peak of the green goodness within.

The folklore

Native to the Middle East, including what is now Turkey, Iran and Syria, pistachios were considered royalty and an aphrodisiac, and Chinese legend says they bring good luck to those who hear the shells pop open ...Read more