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Mayo Clinic Minute: Essential tips to ensure safe sleep for infants
The risk for sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, is highest in the first year of life. SIDS often happens during sleep, which is why knowing and practicing safe sleep is so important.
In this Mayo Clinic Minute, Dr. Angela Mattke, a pediatrician with Mayo Clinic's Children's Center, discusses the most current safe sleep recommendations.
...Read more
Mayo Clinic Q and A: How to diagnose and support someone with post-traumatic stress disorder
DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I'm reaching out because I'm in a tough spot. A close friend rode out Hurricane Ian in Florida last year and it seems to me that he's struggling now. He's angry and jumpy, while being numb to what's happening around him. He told me that he's not sleeping well, especially when another hurricane is in the news. Is it possible ...Read more
Cancers And Covid-19 Aren't Considered Autoimmune Diseases
DEAR DR. ROACH: Are cancers and COVID considered to be autoimmune diseases? Someone said this to me recently, but I have never heard this before. -- M.C.
ANSWER: No, both cancers and COVID-19 infections are essentially failures of the immune system. The job of the immune system is to keep us safe from invaders -- either outside invaders like ...Read more
Red meat and diabetes -- one more reason to change your diet
There's a lot of talk about how red meat is unhealthy -- but what exactly is red meat and what makes it unhealthy?
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, all meats from mammals, except white meat from poultry, are red because they have higher levels of myoglobin, a protein that gives flesh a reddish color. Beef, veal, lamb, mutton, ...Read more
Environmental Nutrition: Onions are worth the cry!
No pantry is complete without onions.
The Folklore
Eaten and cultivated since prehistoric times, onions are integral to most every cuisine in the world. In addition to its tear-jerking effect on the eyes and pungency to the palate, onions have a many layered history. The Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks believed eating these strong-tasting orbs ...Read more
How to store leftover Thanksgiving turkey so it stays delicious
Cooking a Thanksgiving turkey is no small feat. Not only is it the most important entrée of the year (no pressure), but it’s quite likely the only giant piece of poultry you’ll cook all year, making it more labor intensive (all that brining, basting, and butter-rubbing is serious work) than most proteins that go in your oven. Make your ...Read more
Preventable liver disease is rising: What you eat, and avoid, counts
In today’s fast-paced world, our waking hours are filled with decisions — often surrounding what to eat. After a long day, dinner could well be fast food or takeout. While you may worry about the toll food choices take on your waistline or blood pressure, as a liver specialist, I also want to put fatty liver disease on your radar.
One ...Read more
Mayo Clinic Q&A: Facts about body acne
DEAR MAYO CLINIC: When the weather is nice, I enjoy being outdoors and being active, including walking, swimming and boating. I prefer to wear scoop-neck T-shirts, but I am embarrassed about breakouts on my chest. I am noticing some on my back too. Other than covering up, what can I do about acne on my body?
ANSWER: Acne is a skin condition ...Read more
Banning Together
In October, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law banning four common food additives: Red Dye No. 3, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oil and propylparaben.
That might not seem like news to the rest of the country, but what nearly 40 million Californians eat (or don't eat) has an impact on pretty much everybody else. It's...Read more
Mayo Clinic Minute: Reducing risk of Alzheimer's disease in families
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurologic disorder that causes memory loss and other cognitive decline due to brain cell degeneration. It's the most common cause of dementia — a clinical syndrome characterized by a collection of symptoms that affect cognitive abilities, memory, thinking behavior. Dementia is not a specific disease itself...Read more
Fact check: Do Republican spending cuts threaten federal HIV funding? For some programs, yes
Republicans in Congress are “trying to wipe out federal funding to end the HIV epidemic.”
President Joe Biden on Oct. 14, 2023, in remarks at the 2023 Human Rights Campaign National Dinner.
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Are Republicans threatening to stop spending federal money to end one of the world’s most pressing public health epidemics? That’s what ...Read more
Norovirus: What to know and how to avoid it
Noroviruses are usually more widespread in the fall and winter, but you can get sick from the virus any time of the year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says norovirus is the leading cause of vomiting and diarrhea from acute gastroenteritis in the U.S.
Norovirus infection, sometimes referred to as stomach flu, is unrelated...Read more
How lawmakers in Texas and Florida undermine COVID vaccination efforts
Katherine Wells wants to urge her Lubbock, Texas, community to get vaccinated against COVID-19. “That could really save people from severe illness,” said Wells, the city’s public health director.
But she can’t.
A rule added to Texas’ budget that went into effect Sept. 1 forbids health departments and other organizations funded by the...Read more
Aspirin Replaces Blood Thinner Meds For A Week Due To Biopsies
DEAR DR. ROACH: I have been taking Plavix (clopidogrel) for 15 years because of a mild heart attack that resulted in three stents. Next month, I am having a prostate MRI and biopsy. The urologist told me to stop taking clopidogrel seven days prior and substitute 81 mg of aspirin in its place. I am very concerned about a possible blood clot ...Read more
Cannabis use disorder and heart attack
Just because something is legal doesn't mean it's good for you -- especially if you're inclined to overdo it. Alcohol comes to mind, but even something that provides welcome relief such as a laxative can be abused. So, it shouldn't be a surprise that with the legalization of cannabis products and marijuana, that cannabis use disorder (CUD) is on...Read more
Gaza's health system has collapsed, multiplying the war's toll on children
As the head of a humanitarian organization, I have been working for more than 30 years both to save the lives of injured children in Gaza and to help establish a modern health care system for specialized pediatric care in Gaza. That dream has been shattered. The lives of more than 5,000 children killed or missing in Gaza over the past month ...Read more
Wave 'hello' to your curls
Curling, that sport in which a skater frantically sweeps the ice in front of a gliding stone with a handle on top, is finally getting its day in the sun. These days it rates as one of the most watched contests in the Winter Olympics.
If curling can achieve widespread popularity, maybe curly hair can, too. As many as 40% of African American ...Read more
Chlorhexidine Scrubs And Cleansers Are Safe To Use
DEAR DR. ROACH: I am at my wit's end and hope that you can answer this for me. I am a 76-year-old male. Next week, I'm going to have surgery in my genital area. My urologist told me to wash with Hibiclens starting one week prior to surgery. He then went on vacation, returning several days prior to my surgery. However, I am supposed to start ...Read more
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson names Chicago Health commissioner
Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed the next leader of the Chicago Department of Public Health Monday, his office announced three months after he fired the prior commissioner in the high-profile post.
Dr. Olusimbo “Simbo” Ige is the managing director at the nonprofit Robert Wood Johnson Foundation based in New Jersey. She succeeds Dr. Allison ...Read more
What I learned from the world's last smallpox patient
Rahima Banu, a toddler in rural Bangladesh, was the last person in the world known to contract variola major, the deadly form of smallpox, through natural infection. In October 1975, after World Health Organization epidemiologists learned of her infection, health workers vaccinated those around her, putting an end to variola major transmission ...Read more
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