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Understanding diabetic kidney disease

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Diabetic nephropathy, also called diabetic kidney disease, is a serious complication of Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes. In the U.S., about 1 in 3 people living with diabetes have diabetic nephropathy.

Diabetic nephropathy affects the kidneys' ability to do their usual work of removing waste products and extra fluid from your body. Over ...Read more

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Overdosing on chemo: A common gene test could save hundreds of lives each year

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

One January morning in 2021, Carol Rosen took a standard treatment for metastatic breast cancer. Three gruesome weeks later, she died in excruciating pain from the very drug meant to prolong her life.

Rosen, a 70-year-old retired schoolteacher, passed her final days in anguish, enduring severe diarrhea and nausea and terrible sores in her ...Read more

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Is a centuries-old disease endemic in Florida? What to know about the spread of leprosy

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

MIAMI — Leprosy, a disease of the skin and nerves, hearkens back centuries, all the way to its reference in the Bible in the Book of Leviticus.

People in Florida are talking about leprosy again — and not just in church or Sunday school.

While leprosy remains rare in the U.S., more cases are popping up across the country, including in ...Read more

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Breast cancer test may make bad chemotherapy recommendations for Black patients, study shows

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

CHICAGO -- While the rest of the world was in the throes of the pandemic, Valletta Howard was wrapping her mind around a breast cancer diagnosis.

After finding a lump in her left breast in April 2021, she confirmed it with a mammogram and ultrasound in May 2021. It was invasive ductal carcinoma, grade 2, she recalled. Two weeks later, Howard ...Read more

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Mayo Clinic Minute: Can aspirin make your breathing worse?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Spring allergies feel bad enough for people with nasal congestion and asthma symptoms. But imagine if aspirin is the culprit that makes everything feel worse and you didn't know it. For some people with aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD), also known as Samter's triad, it can be a challenging and long road to diagnosis.

Dr. Angela ...Read more

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Georgia Senate approves bill to ban puberty blockers for trans minors

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The Georgia Senate on Thursday voted to ban medical professionals from prescribing puberty blockers to transgender minors.

The Senate voted 32-19 to approve House Bill 1170, with Democrats opposing it.

Just last year, the General Assembly approved legislation that banned minors from receiving any potential permanent changes from hormone ...Read more

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Kansas Republicans send strict ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors to Gov. Laura Kelly

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas Republicans sent a strict ban on specific health care for transgender minors to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, setting up for another veto-override fight over the lives and rights of LGBTQ Kansans.

The Kansas House and Senate voted Wednesday to approve a bill banning hormone therapy and gender transition surgery, often ...Read more

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Karlie Kloss' Bedford Media will resuscitate Life magazine as a print product

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Print may be dying, but Bedford Media believes it can bring back Life.

The New York-based media holding company owned by fashion model Karlie Kloss and her husband Joshua Kushner announced Thursday it will relaunch the famed magazine as a regular newsstand publication. The title was long one of the anchor publications of Henry Luce's Time Inc. ...Read more

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What's lurking in your body? Mayo probes health risks of tiny plastic particles

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Similar to natural elements like iron and copper, people can ingest, absorb or even inhale microplastics and nanoplastics and their chemical additives. A landmark study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine links microplastics and nanoplastics found in plaques of human blood vessels to a potential increased risk of heart attack, ...Read more

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COVID and Medicare payments spark remote patient monitoring boom

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Billy Abbott, a retired Army medic, wakes at 6 every morning, steps on the bathroom scale, and uses a cuff to take his blood pressure.

The devices send those measurements electronically to his doctor in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and a health technology company based in New York, to help him control his high blood pressure.

Nurses with the company,...Read more

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Why are Black people more likely to develop glaucoma? Scientists discovered new clues in the largest study of its kind

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A team led by University of Pennsylvania scientists has discovered three genetic variants that offer the first strong clues as to why glaucoma disproportionately affects Black people.

The variants are common in people with African ancestry and are associated with a significantly higher risk of developing the sight-robbing disease, the ...Read more

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Telehealth sites promise cure for 'male menopause' despite FDA ban on off-label ads

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Online stores sprang up during the COVID-19 pandemic’s telehealth boom touting testosterone as a cure-all for men’s age-related illnesses — despite FDA rules issued years ago restricting such “low testosterone” advertising.

In ads on Google, Facebook, and elsewhere, testosterone telemedicine websites may promise a quick fix for ...Read more

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Mayo Clinic Minute: Wash your pet's food and water bowls to prevent salmonella

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Salmonella is a bacterial infection that can cause fever, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. It can be transmitted from contaminated food, such as raw meat or eggs. But what you may not know is that your pets — and the food they eat — could carry salmonella, which can make you and your family sick.

In this Mayo Clinic Minute, Dr....Read more

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Few states cover fertility treatment for same-sex couples, but that could be changing

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Elizabeth Bauer was working out at the gym one morning last August when she got a phone call from her fertility nurse. It was a call that Bauer and her wife, Rebecca, had long been waiting for.

Elizabeth dialed in Rebecca so they could listen together: They were pregnant.

The Washington, D.C., couple decided before they got married three years...Read more

Environmental Nutrition: Spotlight on supplements: Hibiscus

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Hibiscus is more than just a pretty flower.

Overview

Hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdariffa) is a well-known flower that can be consumed as a tea or in supplements. It contains a range of bioactive compounds such as anthocyanins, proanthocyanins, and flavonols. Due to the complexity of its composition, different hibiscus preparations may have different...Read more

7 superfoods with calcium

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Calcium is essential to maintaining healthy teeth and bones. And now there is some research that shows that calcium might help with blood pressure control, says Tara Collingwood, a registered dietitian (RDN) in private practice in Orlando, Florida. But do you know how much calcium you need each day, and which foods will get you the most bang for...Read more

Kidneys, eyes, ears, and more: Why do we have a spare?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

One of the many underappreciated things about the human body is that it has a lot of excess capacity. That is, our organs have more reserve than most of us will ever need.

It’s as if our bodies were designed with the idea that we might need backups in case of illness or injury. And voila: when all goes well, we arrive at birth with two ...Read more

Mayo Clinic Q&A: 5 questions about MRI

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I suffered an injury while working out and my primary care physician ordered an X-ray. However, after reviewing the results, my doctor recommended that I have an MRI. I am a very anxious person. Can you explain more about what this type of testing entails and what I can expect?

ANSWER: Understandably, any health care concern ...Read more

(Hiram Alejandro Durán/El Tímpano/CatchLight Local/Report for America corps member)/KFF Health News/TNS

California's expanded health coverage for immigrants collides with Medicaid reviews

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

OAKLAND, Calif. — Medi-Cal health coverage kicked in for Antonio Abundis just when the custodian needed it most.

Shortly after Abundis transitioned from limited to full-scope coverage in 2022 under California’s expansion of Medi-Cal to older residents without legal immigration status, he was diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer affecting the ...Read more

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New Planned Parenthood leader says real issue is fairness, health equity

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DES MOINES, Iowa — Ruth Richardson waited near the Iowa capitol's grand staircase, just outside the limelight. At the podium nearby, abortion-rights supporters railed against the state's conservative swing on abortion following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, calling Republican bills "nonsense," "pseudoscientific" and "speaking for the extreme...Read more