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Medicare drug plans are getting better next year. Some will also cost more.

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

When Pam McClure learned she’d save nearly $4,000 on her prescription drugs next year, she said, “it sounded too good to be true.” She and her husband are both retired and live on a “very strict” budget in central North Dakota.

By the end of this year, she will have spent almost $6,000 for her medications, including a drug to control ...Read more

Environmental Nutrition: Wild for wild rice

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A great alternative to rice, wild rice has more protein than most other whole grains and is a good source of nutrients like fiber, B vitamins, and magnesium.

The folklore

Wild rice looks like rice and is eaten like rice, but this crunchy, chewy whole grain is actually an aquatic grass that grows wild in lakes and rivers mainly in North America...Read more

5 types of food to avoid when you have anxiety

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Between regular workloads, busy school semesters, financial stress, and just trying to get dinner on the table, it’s easy to feel stressed on the regular — and avoid doing anything to get it back under control.

While there are several things you can do to try to manage stress on a regular basis, you might not realize the foods you eat — ...Read more

Mayo Clinic Q&A: Avoid risk of strains, sprains and tears of the upper arms while working out

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I am trying to get into shape for summer, and one area that has always been challenging has been my upper arms. Recently, though, I began a workout routine, but a friend warned me about the risk of injuries. Do you have any advice to avoid problems?

ANSWER: Having well-defined, muscular upper arms often is the goal of anyone ...Read more

Salmonella is sneaky

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Pop quiz: what is salmonella? If you’ve ever had a run-in with this bacteria, you know it can cause a food-borne illness called salmonellosis, a form of food poisoning. But you may not know that salmonella bacteria sicken an estimated 1.35 million people and hospitalize 26,500 every year in the United States. What’s more, it kills more total...Read more

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Avian flu detected in flock of Sacramento County turkeys. What officials are saying

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Health officials have detected highly pathogenic avian influenza in a flock of commercial turkeys in Sacramento County, the latest outbreak to hit the Central Valley’s poultry industry.

U.S. public health officials have been tracking sporadic cases of the avian influenza in wild birds, commercial poultry and backyard or hobbyist flocks for ...Read more

Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group/TNS

Commentary: Today's potent marijuana is spawning public health dangers that we shouldn't ignore

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

In 1964, Bob Dylan reportedly introduced the Beatles to cannabis, a seminal moment in the 60-year campaign to legalize marijuana. Before that, marijuana was hardly a part of mainstream American society, its use primarily associated with artists, bohemians and the so-called urban underclass.

Dylan sang, “Everybody must get stoned,” and the ...Read more

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She had an emergency C-section and heart surgery the same day

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The moment Kirsten Dorsey realized she would deliver her second child and have open-heart surgery on the same day, her heart raced and her breath quickened.

But then, a sense of calm overtook her as she lay in her hospital bed in Connecticut. After weeks of uncertainty about her own health and her baby boy's well-being, Dorsey knew she was ...Read more

(Oona Zenda/KFF Health News)/KFF Health News/TNS

Dentists are pulling 'healthy' and treatable teeth to profit from implants, experts warn

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Becky Carroll was missing a few teeth, and others were stained or crooked. Ashamed, she smiled with lips pressed closed. Her dentist offered to fix most of her teeth with root canals and crowns, Carroll said, but she was wary of traveling a long road of dental work.

Then Carroll saw a TV commercial for another path: ClearChoice Dental Implant ...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

Research shows new method helps doctors safely remove dangerous heart infections without surgery

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Doctors at Mayo Clinic used a new catheter-based approach to draw out resistant pockets of infection that settle in the heart, known as right-sided infective endocarditis, without surgery. Unless treated quickly, the walled-off infections can grow, severely damaging heart valves and potentially affecting other organs as well...Read more

How you can help veterans every day

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

As the nation celebrates our 16 million living veterans, it is also important to know that the chance these heroes will end their own lives prematurely is still higher than among civilians.

Among veterans with PTSD, suicide is the fourth most common cause of death. Among veterans younger than 35, it’s second.

Over the past ...Read more

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Mayo Clinic Q and A: How breast cancer screening can save lives

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I'm about to turn 40, and I'm nervous about getting my first mammogram. I hear they can be uncomfortable or even painful. Is breast cancer screening really that important?

ANSWER: It can be a bit daunting at first, but breast cancer screening helps people live longer. Screening can catch cancer early, either in the ...Read more

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Black Americans still suffer worse health. Here's why there's so little progress

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

KINGSTREE, S.C. — One morning in late April, a small brick health clinic along the Thurgood Marshall Highway bustled with patients.

There was Joshua McCray, 69, a public bus driver who, four years after catching COVID-19, still is too weak to drive.

Louvenia McKinney, 77, arrived complaining about shortness of breath.

Ponzella McClary ...Read more

Rodrigo Galdos for Fault Lines/Al Jazeera English/KFF Health News/TNS

How a proposed federal heat rule might have saved these workers' lives

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

On a sweltering afternoon in July 2020, Belinda Ramones got a call that her brother was in the hospital. The call was from a woman at the Florida landscaping business that he had joined that week, the Davey Tree Expert Co., Ramones said. By the time she arrived, she said, “My brother was swollen up from hands to toes.”

Two days later, her ...Read more

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Mayo Clinic Minute: Tips for better sleep

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

No matter if you need five hours of sleep or eight, the key is getting good, refreshing rest. According to Dr. Virend Somers, a cardiologist who specializes in sleep disorders, how much sleep a person needs varies from person to person. However, there are some simple tips that everyone can use to get better sleep.

Different people need ...Read more

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Mayo Clinic Minute: Boosting kids' health literacy

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Health literacy refers to the ability of people to find, understand, and use information and services to make informed health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.

In this Mayo Clinic Minute, Dr. Angela Mattke, a pediatrician with Mayo Clinic’s Children’s Center, explains how Mayo Clinic is leading the way to enhance ...Read more

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Could mRNA vaccines conquer another deadly infection? Researchers say yes

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

PHILADELPHIA — The same technology that saved millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic appears to hold promise against another scourge of infectious disease, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania.

Working with mice, hamsters, and nonhuman primates, Penn researchers found that a modified version of the mRNA COVID-...Read more

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What's at stake: A pivotal election for six big health issues

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

In the final days of the campaign, stark disagreements between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump over the future of American health care are on display — in particular, in sober warnings about abortion access, the specter of future cuts to the Affordable Care Act, and bold pronouncements about empowering activists ...Read more

I’m a Muslim immigrant and a psychiatrist living in Michigan – I haven’t decided how to vote yet

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

My three daughters and I arrived in Michigan from Pakistan in 2000.

Moving here was my choice, and I followed the legal process. Before the move, I had often been to the United States. I was familiar with the culture and spoke fluent English, so I thought I was prepared.

Resuming my career as a physician in the U.S. was ...Read more

Ken Lambert/The Seattle Times/TNS

Influx of mobile methadone clinics bring treatment to the streets

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

There's a small line forming outside a plain white box truck in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. A half-dozen folks are waiting on a gusty October morning for their turn to go inside and receive red liquid in a cup, medication that will help them get through the next 24 hours without opioids.

Or if they do use, to keep them alive.

It's life-...Read more