Health News

Primary Care Provider Density Affects Lung Cancer Mortality Rates

Date: Apr-25-2013
Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths and is tied as the third leading cause of death overall in industrialized countries. Within the United States, several groups identified by race, sex, and socioeconomic status have been linked to increased cancer mortality, suggesting a disparity because of these characteristics. The relationships are complicated by the fact that many of these characteristics may also be associated with areas of decreased access to care and local resources and not inherently based on implicit biases...

Risk Of Cancer Is 15% Higher In 9/11 Responders

Date: Apr-24-2013
The risk of cancer is 15% higher in 9/11 responders compared to the general population not exposed to Ground Zero, according to a new study. The research was conducted by Mount Sinai Hospital's World Trade Center Health Program and was published in Environmental Health Perspectives. Almost 21,000 rescue and recovery workers who worked at Ground Zero were analyzed in the report. The experts explained that they found more cases of blood, lymph, prostate, thyroid, and soft tissue cancers than they anticipated...

Americans Are Now Breathing Cleaner Air

Date: Apr-24-2013
Most Americans are now breathing cleaner air, however, some are still living in cities that are more polluted than they were a decade ago, a new report reveals. The finding came from the American Lung Association's annual report "State of Air" that examines air quality across the U.S by measuring levels of ozone and small particles in the air in over 1,000 cities from the years 2009 to 2011. The report finds that air quality is following the long-term trend toward significantly healthier air...

Recession Slowed Down Health Care Spending Significantly

Date: Apr-24-2013
American health care spending has significantly slowed down over the past few years, with some of the lowest rates of growth in over 50 years, according to a recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Altarum Institute. Between 2001 and 2003, health care spending in the U.S. was increasing at an annual rate of 8.8%. However, new data reveal that between 2008 and 2012 spending has increased by less than half of that, at only 4.2% annually. Total health care spending was $2.8 trillion in 2012...

Walking Minutes Help People Make Healthier Menu Choices

Date: Apr-24-2013
When menus present them with how many minutes of brisk walking it takes to burn off the calories contained in different food options, people tend to choose lower calorie meals. These were the findings of a new study presented at the Experimental Biology 2013 meeting in Boston on Tuesday. Lead researcher Meena Shah, of Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, says in a press statement: "This is the first study to look at the effects of displaying minutes of brisk walking needed to burn food calories on the calories ordered and consumed...

Taking Valproate While Pregnant Raises Autism Risk

Date: Apr-24-2013
Researchers have found that pregnant women who take the drug valproate (for epilepsy) could be at an increased risk of giving birth to a child with autism, according to a new study published in the journal JAMA. Valproate is also prescribed for migraine, panic attack, anorexia nervosa, anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, as well as some other psychiatric conditions...

Diagnostic Errors Cause Up To 160,000 Deaths Annually, USA

Date: Apr-24-2013
Misdiagnosing patients or making diagnostic errors is one of the most costly and dangerous mistakes made by doctors in the U.S., resulting in up to 160,000 deaths per year. Johns Hopkins researchers have reviewed over 350,000 malpractice claim payouts in the U.S over the past 25 years. They found that most of the claims were due to diagnostic errors, and that those errors were often the cause of severe patient harm and accounted for the highest total payouts. Between 1986 and 2010 the total diagnosis-related payments were close to $38.8 billion...

Binge Drinking In College Years May Raise Risk For Heart Disease

Date: Apr-24-2013
New research from the US finds that otherwise healthy young adult college students who regularly binge drink, that is consume a lot of alcoholic drinks in a short space of time, show damage to blood vessels similar to that caused by high blood pressure and cholesterol, both factors known to increase risk for heart disease later in life. Senior author Shane A. Phillips and colleagues, write about their findings in a paper published online this week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology...

Survey Finds Overwhelming Majority Of Doctors Demand Permanent Withdrawal Of 111 Service

Date: Apr-24-2013
As MPs are set to review the future of the NHS 111 non emergency hotline*, a poll by Doctors.net.uk - the UK's largest and most active online network of medical professionals - shows 70% of doctors think the service should be scrapped. The poll of 748 primary and secondary care doctors** found that 70% wanted the 111 service withdrawn permanently, 16% of them thought it should remain temporarily withdrawn until fixed; while 12% thought it should be live but put right. Only two per cent thought it did not need to be changed...

GPs Should Redouble Efforts On MMR Initiative, Says Unite, UK

Date: Apr-24-2013
GPs across the UK should target the parents of children who they think have not received the MMR immunisations, Unite, the largest union in the country, has urged. Unite, which embraces the Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association, said that there needs to be a public awareness programme that informs parents - and not scares them. Unite lead professional officer Obi Amadi that said that the government and GPs had 'a duty to explain' the importance of the MMR vaccine which is designed to prevent measles, mumps and rubella...