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CDC shifts child COVID vaccination guidance after RFK Jr. post

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its childhood vaccination schedule to say that healthy children “may receive” COVID shots — softened from its previous stance calling for them — after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said it would no longer be recommended.

When parents want “their child to be ...Read more

Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/TNS

A new COVID subvariant spreads rapidly as Trump pivots away from vaccines

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A new, highly transmissible COVID subvariant has been detected in California — heightening the risk of a potential summer wave as recent moves by the Trump administration threaten to make vaccines harder to get, and more expensive, for many Americans, some health experts warn.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ...Read more

Fizkes/Dreamstime/TNS

Who should be screened for skin cancer?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the U.S. More than 6 million adults are treated for it each year, says Dr. Michael Colgan, a Mayo Clinic Health System dermatologist in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer. In 2025, an estimated 104,960 cases of invasive melanoma will be diagnosed in the U.S., and an ...Read more

Aleksandr Zamuruev/Dreamstime/TNS

On Nutrition: The power of food on mood

Health Advice / Nutrition /

We were driving through a small (as in 158 people) town in the far northwestern corner of Colorado when I saw something that made me smile. Several yards from a small farmhouse, a white wooden container was perched on a stand about as high as a mailbox. It had three sides and was open in the front. Out of the elements and neatly placed inside ...Read more

Amitriptyline Should Be Avoided By Older People

Health Advice / Keith Roach /

DEAR DR. ROACH: I have been taking 25 mg of amitriptyline for sleep for several years; I am 79 and have noticed occasional difficulty remembering some facts. I read that this drug can affect cognition. I don't believe that amitriptyline is really effective in helping me sleep, so I have discontinued its use, believing that the risk outweighs ...Read more

Walk this way -- or that way

I'm a great fan of walking 10,000 steps a day -- or the equivalent. But what exactly is equivalent? And how does that get figured out?

Well, the conversion of steps into other activities is based on the estimated effort, called a Metabolic Equivalent for Task or MET, that it takes for each activity. And while it's been determined based on solid...Read more

Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Valley fever cases are expected to spike in California. Here's how to avoid it

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

LOS ANGELES — For the second year in a row, California is on track to have a record-breaking number of valley fever cases, which public health officials say are driven by longer, drier summers.

There have been more than 4,000 cases of valley fever reported statewide from January to April, an increase of more than 3,000 cases compared with the...Read more

Nancy Lane/Boston Herald/TNS

Massachusetts brain tumor cluster: Nurses not satisfied with Newton-Wellesley study

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

BOSTON — A nurses’ union isn’t satisfied with a Mass General Brigham investigation that found the brain tumor cluster at Newton-Wellesley Hospital is not connected to working conditions.

The hospital has identified six nurses who have worked on the facility’s fifth-floor maternity unit and reported benign (non-cancerous) brain tumors �...Read more

Alejandro A. Alvarez/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Penn Medicine health system ceases gender-affirming surgery for patients under age 19

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

PHILADELPHIA — Penn Medicine will no longer provide gender-affirming surgery to patients under age 19, effective this week, citing new federal orders targeting such procedures among transgender minors.

President Donald Trump issued in January an executive order that bars federal funding for gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy, ...Read more

Immigrants fear losing crucial health care if Minnesota legislators revoke access

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

MINNEAPOLIS — Micaela has spent three decades tirelessly cleaning houses, working as a clerk and now owns a shop in the Twin Cities that she tends to seven days a week, only closing Christmas and New Year’s Day.

But those efforts have left telltale signs on her body. She struggles to walk because of debilitating knee pain brought on by ...Read more

Mark Wilson/Getty Images North America/TNS

LGBTQ+ researchers sue Trump administration over grant terminations

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

BALTIMORE — An association of LGBTQ+ and allied health professionals sued the Trump administration last week on behalf of researchers whose funding related to LGBTQ+ health issues was terminated.

GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality filed the suit against the National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Health and ...Read more

Roisin Rands/KFF Health News/TNS

This news might ruin your appetite -- and summer

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

It’s a marvel of food technology: ice cream that resists melting.

In a video explaining the science behind it, a seller of food chemicals shows scoops of ice cream holding their shape under hot lights. The super ingredient? Polysorbate 80.

Polysorbate 80 is an emulsifier, a chemical used to control the consistency of thousands of supermarket...Read more

Oliver Contreras/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

'MAHA moms,' psilocybin therapy, anti-vaxxers: LA's wellness movement's path to the White House

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

LOS ANGELES — On Oct. 29, 2022, the universe told Dr. Casey Means her fate lay in Los Angeles.

President Donald Trump’s new pick for surgeon general wrote in her popular online newsletter of her epiphany, which came during a dawn hike among the cadmium-colored California oaks and flames of wild mustard flower painting the Topanga Canyon: �...Read more

(Katheryn Houghton/KFF Health News)/KFF Health News/TNS

Federal cuts ripple through a bioscience hub in rural Montana

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

HAMILTON, Mont. — Scientists are often careful to take off their work badges when they leave the campus of one of the nation’s top research facilities, here in southwestern Montana’s Bitterroot Valley.

It’s a reflection of the long-standing tension caused by Rocky Mountain Laboratories’ improbable location in this conservative, blue-...Read more

Spotmatik/Dreamstime/TNS

She survived a stroke at 21. Now, she helps other survivors find meaning in their story

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The spring of Molly Buccola's senior year at Santa Clara University, she ran the Los Angeles marathon. The next month, she and her boyfriend enjoyed a fun Sunday tooling around on bikes they borrowed from Buccola's sister, Kelley Solberg, who lived nearby.

The next morning, Buccola didn't feel up to her usual 6 a.m. run, and she slept through ...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

Plant-based proteins may help lower high blood pressure risk

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Eating more minimally processed plant-based proteins – such as beans, nuts and lentils – may lower the risk for high blood pressure, according to new research.

The study, published recently in the Journal of the American Heart Association, also suggested that minimally processed animal proteins could be included in weekly meal plans without...Read more

Farxiga Reduces Man's A1C Level Enough To Avoid Diabetes

Health Advice / Keith Roach /

DEAR DR. ROACH: My question is: What is the difference between prediabetes and diabetes, and which do I have? I am male, 85 years old, 170 pounds, and 6 feet and 1 inch tall. I was treated for heart disease with Coreg, Crestor, isosorbide, lisinopril and amlodipine.

About one year ago, the cardiologist added 5 mg of Farxiga for its heart and ...Read more

Screening for dry eye

In the blink of an eye, relentless screen use causes dry eye. And these days, around half of 18- to 25-year-olds suffer from the condition and 90% have at least one symptom. Those symptoms include gritty or burning eyes, blurred vision, sensitivity to light, redness, stringy mucus, itching, pain, or discomfort wearing contacts. In addition, ...Read more

Mario Tama/Getty Images North America/TNS

Skittles removes controversial additive targeted by RFK Jr.

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Mars Inc.’s Skittles candies are no longer being made with titanium dioxide, a chemical that whitens foods, brightens colors and makes candy appear shiny, the company confirmed to Bloomberg News.

The ingredient was removed from all Skittles production at the end of last year, a spokesperson said.

The additive was banned in the European ...Read more

4 changes to Medicare in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Medicare provides health care for 68.5 million beneficiaries. The One Big Beautiful Bill, passed by the House and in debate in the Senate, contains several provisions that would impact Medicare, including cuts to some programs.

The cost of the pending legislation would trigger automatic cuts to Medicare and some other programs; fortunately, ...Read more

 

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