Record Drug Shortages Strain Hospitals’ Ability To Cope
If you’re hospitalized, here’s hoping you won’t need any succinylcholine, a muscle relaxant; epinephrine in a syringe for severe allergic reactions; or emergency-use syringes of lidocaine for irregular heartbeats. All three of those drugs are high on the list of drugs experiencing shortages. Last year was the worst ever for drug shortages at the nation’s [...]
Sleep On Surgery Choice For Obstructive Apnea
When Eli Walker talked with his ear, nose and throat specialist near his Silver Spring, Md., home about how to treat the obstructive sleep apnea he’d just been diagnosed with, the doctor’s first recommendation was that he have surgery to remove some of the soft tissue at the back of his throat. An uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP), [...]
Hold the Sodium, And Pass The Potassium-Rich Produce
Only last week a scientific review of the health effects of salt concluded that reducing the amount of salt in one’s diet isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. “Cutting down on the amount of salt has no clear benefits in terms of likelihood of dying or experiencing cardiovascular disease,” reads the plain-language summary from [...]
A Prenatal Surgery For Spina Bifida Comes Of Age
When she was 19 weeks pregnant, Sarah White went for a routine ultrasound and got a shock. “I could tell that something was wrong because the ultrasound tech got real quiet,” White says. White’s male fetus had spina bifida — a hole in his lower back that exposed the vulnerable spinal cord. “When they said, [...]
Feds Unveil Rules For New Online Health Insurance Markets
Today the federal government released proposed rules that will govern how states set up and run new marketplaces where individuals and small businesses can shop for health insurance. The so-called exchanges are a key element of the health care overhaul law. Sliding subsidies for private insurance on the exchanges will be available for residents who [...]
High Tick Season Is Upon Us, So Keep Critters Off Of You
It’s tick season out there people, so be careful. A friend’s discovery of an unwanted hitchhiker while hiking led to a game of name-that-tick on Twitter over the weekend. The critter was dispatched with the help of a little suntan lotion to loosen its grip, and nobody except the tick seems the worse for wear. [...]
Silicone Breast Implants: Safe, With Caveats
Silicone breast implants were pulled off the market in 1992 amid concerns that leaks from the implants could lead to cancer or autoimmune disease. Five years ago, revamped products returned to the market. But now the Food and Drug Administration has evaluated the safety of the second generation of silicone implants and the results are [...]
An Affliction Of The Cornea Gets A Closer Look
Kaley Jones didn’t know what hit her. She was just 17, sitting in her history class, when she realized she suddenly couldn’t read what was written on the white board. Nor could she make out the faces of her classmates. “It was really scary,” she says, “It was kind of like looking through plastic wrap. [...]
Your Health Podcast: Video Game Violence and Back Pain Science
Medicaid may not be the best health coverage around, but a new study this week shows that it is way better than nothing. The findings come from Oregon, where limited funding meant the state resorted to a lottery to determine who would get into Medicaid. Public health researchers compared the health of people who got [...]
Doctors May Misread Expressions When Seeing A Parkinson’s Patient
Doctors and other health practitioners may need to pay more attention to their own biases when seeing people with Parkinson’s disease, a neurological disorder that affects muscle control. It’s not always easy for those caring for people with Parkinson’s to judge how the patients are coping with the condition because of the way it can [...]
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