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Tag: HealthDay

  • Poison Control Centers Save America Billions Of Dollars Every Year, Report Finds

    By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, Jan. 26, 2026 (HealthDay News) — U.S. poison centers are an amazing investment, according to a new study, saving the nation $3.1 billion every year in medical costs and lost productivity.

    For every dollar invested in poison centers, communities receive $16.77 in benefits, according to the report by the RAND think-tank on behalf of the organization America’s Poison Centers.

    These benefits include reduced ER use, shorter hospital stays, lower risk of premature death, better public health tracking and improved patient outcomes, RAND researchers wrote.

    “Our findings demonstrate that the economic and societal value of poison centers is significant,” lead researcher David Metz, a senior analyst at RAND, said in a news release. “Poison centers take strain off an already-burdened emergency health system, while saving lives and money.”

    The U.S. Poison Center Network is made up of 53 regional poison centers and their national accrediting organization, America’s Poison Centers.

    These centers serve every U.S. state and territory and provide free, confidential advice on managing poison exposures 24/7, researchers said in background notes.

    However, overall funding for the centers decreased by 8% between 2011 and 2024, leading America’s Poison Centers to commission the RAND study into the true value they provide.

    Besides the money saved, poison centers also offer harder-to-quantify benefits like poison prevention efforts, emergency preparedness, disaster response, and better peace of mind for communities and health care providers, the report said.

    “Behind every number in this report is a real person who got immediate, expert help when they felt most vulnerable,” Richard Fogelson, CEO of America’s Poison Centers, said in a news release.

    “It was inspiring for us to see RAND measure the widespread impact of our network and how it dramatically reduces health care costs for the nation,” Fogelson added. “The report also reinforces the crucial role poison centers have in detecting and responding to the growing number of public health threats and disasters, enabling rapid and often life-saving coordination with federal, state and local agencies and first responders.”

    Based on the report’s findings, America’s Poison Centers estimates that federal funding for the centers save $450 million a year in health care costs. However, that funding has been affected by changes to federal programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

    Despite the reduction in funding, poison centers have continued to modernize and now offer service through text and live chat services as well as the national hotline phone number.

    “Poison centers have been serving and protecting our communities for more than 70 years,” said Dr. Chris Holstege, director of the Blue Ridge Poison Center in Charlottesville, Virginia.

    “While we continue to evolve with technology and the changing health care landscape, the reliability, expertise and trustworthiness of poison centers have not changed,” Holstege said in a news release. “Today, many poison centers are also doing more with less, responding to natural disasters, providing education to families and health care providers, and monitoring trends and emerging threats.”

    For help with a suspected poisoning, call 800-222-1222 or visit PoisonHelp.org.

    SOURCES: America’s Poison Centers, news release, Jan. 21, 2026; Poison Prevention, Treatment, and Detection as Public Health Investments, Jan. 21, 2026

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  • HHS Announces New Study of Cellphone Radiation and Health

    TUESDAY, Jan. 20, 2026 (HealthDay News) — U.S. health officials plan a new study investigating whether radiation from cellphones may affect human health.

    A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said the research will examine electromagnetic radiation and possible gaps in current science. 

    The initiative stems from numerous concerns raised by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has linked cellphone use to neurological damage and cancer.

    “The [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] removed webpages with old conclusions about cell phone radiation while HHS undertakes a study on electromagnetic radiation and health research to identify gaps in knowledge, including on new technologies, to ensure safety and efficacy,” HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said.

    He added that the study was directed in a strategy report from the president’s Make America Healthy Again Commission.

    Many states already have partial or complete bans on wireless communication devices, including cellphones and tablets, during the school day — a move aimed at improving kids’ mental and physical health.

    At the same time, health officials say existing evidence has not changed. 

    The National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, says that “evidence to date suggests that cellphone use does not cause brain or other kinds of cancer in humans.”

    SOURCE: NBC News, Jan. 16, 2026

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  • Young Adults With IBD Face Insurance, Cost Barriers To Care, Survey Finds

    By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTUESDAY, Jan. 6, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Young adults are having a tough time accessing treatment for their inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a new study says.

    They are more likely to face insurance barriers and financial strain to get proper care for their IBD, researchers reported today in the journal Crohn’s & Colitis 360.

    “These numbers demonstrate a clear gap in support and guidance for young adults as they transition from pediatric care and begin managing their own health insurance,” said Laura Wingate, chief education, support and advocacy officer at the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation.

    “The data show that not only are younger patients at greater risk of having to jump through insurance hoops to access essential medications, they also face substantial financial pressure — often working extra jobs just to afford care,” she said in a news release.

    For the study, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation surveyed nearly 1,800 people with IBD, of whom 13% were young adults 18 to 25. IBD includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

    Results showed that young adults were significantly more likely to experience insurance-mandated step therapy, in which patients are required to try a lower-cost medication first before they can get coverage for the drug their doctor prefers.

    About 35% of young adults had to go through step therapy to get their meds covered, compared with 27% of adults 26 and older and 20% of pediatric patients under 18.

    Young adults also were less sure about how to manage coverage issues with their insurer.

    More than one-third (35%) reported low confidence in knowing which questions to ask their insurance company, compared to 25% of caregivers of pediatric patients.

    Young adults were also more likely to need to hustle for cash to cover their IBD care expenses, the survey found.

    About 18% of young adults took on extra jobs or more work hours to cover health care or insurance costs for their IBD, compared with 11% of adults and caregivers of pediatric patients, the study found.

    “The research highlights a need for targeted educational resources, improved insurance navigation assistance and policy attention to mitigate the unique challenges faced by young adults with IBD,” lead researcher Dr. Ross Maltz said in a news release. He’s a pediatric gastroenterologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

    SOURCES: Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America, news release, Jan. 6, 2026; Crohn’s & Colitis 360, Jan. 6, 2026

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  • AI Could Help Make Liposuction Safer, Experts Say

    By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, Jan. 2, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Considering some plastic surgery as part of a New Year’s makeover?

    A newly developed AI model is promising to make liposuction a safer procedure by accurately predicting blood loss among patients.

    Overall, the AI was 94% accurate in predicting the amount of blood a person would lose during high-volume liposuction, researchers report in the January 2026 issue of the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

    “Developing and implementing our AI model for predicting blood loss in liposuction is a groundbreaking advancement that promises to improve patient safety and surgical outcomes,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Mauricio Pérez Pachon, a research fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

    “By harnessing the evolving nature of AI, we may move toward a future where operations are smarter, safer and more tailored to the individual needs of each patient,” the team wrote.

    Liposuction is the most frequent cosmetic surgery procedure performed worldwide, with more than 2.3 million patients receiving the treatment each year.

    Although liposuction is generally safe, excessive blood loss is a potentially serious problem, especially when higher volumes of fat are being removed from a person’s body, researchers said.

    For the new study, researchers trained an AI device on data from 621 patients who underwent large-volume liposuction at two clinics, one in Colombia and one in Ecuador.

    The team then tested the AI’s accuracy among another 100 liposuction patients from the two clinics.

    Results showed “excellent agreement” between predicted blood loss volumes and the actual amount of blood lost, researchers said. The standard deviation was 26 milliliters, or less than nine-tenths of an ounce.

    “Such accuracy reinforces the model’s potential as a decision-support tool in body contouring procedures, where anticipating intraoperative blood loss is crucial for patient safety and operative planning,” the researchers wrote.

    “Surgeons can use the predicted blood loss estimates to make informed decisions about perioperative management, such as the need for blood transfusions, fluid management and other critical care measures,” the team added.

    The research team plans to conduct additional studies to further refine the AI model, including training with data provided by surgeons around the world.

    “We believe that future research into AI technology has limitless potential to enhance patient safety, and we look forward to continued development in this area,” Pérez Pachon said.

    The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has more on liposuction.

    SOURCES: Wolters Kluwer Health, news release, Dec. 24, 2025; Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, January 2026

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  • Money Worries Speed Up Heart Aging, Increase Risk Of Death

    By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, Dec. 29, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Fretting over making ends meet ages your heart just as much as classic risk factors for heart disease, a new Mayo Clinic study says.

    Financial strain and food insecurity are the strongest drivers of accelerated heart aging, researchers reported in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

    The heart aging associated with money and food worries is similar to that caused by conventional risk factors like diabetes, high blood pressure and prior heart attack, researchers concluded.

    This aging increases people’s risk for heart disease and heart-related death, researchers said.

    “Our study highlights the critical role of social determinants of health in cardiac aging and mortality,” senior researcher Dr. Amir Lerman said in a news release. He’s director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

    For the study, researchers estimated the heart aging of more than 280,000 people treated by the Mayo Clinic between 2018 and 2023, using an AI-enabled electrocardiogram (ECG) to track the wear-and-tear age of each person’s heart compared to their birth age.

    The team compared that data against a questionnaire that assessed the patients’ social determinants of health — factors like stress, exercise, social connection, housing, financial strain, food insecurity, transportation needs, nutrition and education.

    These non-medical factors can have a significant impact on a person’s health and risk of death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

    “Our current research was motivated by the observation that traditional risk factors do not explain and contribute equally to cardiovascular disease,” Lerman said. “There are social factors that we do not identify or inquire about from our patients that may potentially reverse biological aging.”

    Overall, social determinants of health most influenced a person’s cardiac aging, compared to traditional risk factors, results showed.

    And among those social determinants of health, financial strain and food insecurity were the most impactful when it came to accelerated aging of a person’s heart.

    Researchers concluded that social factors like financial strain, housing and lack of exercise can be used to predict a person’s risk of heart-related death, matching or surpassing conventional risk factors.

    For example, financial strain increased risk of premature death by 60% and housing instability by 18%, compared to 10% for a previous history of heart attack and 27% for smoking, the study said.

    “Identifying the most important risk factors for cardiac aging allows for targeted preventive intervention in the community and empowers physicians to engage in patient-centered care, addressing the social context that contributes to heart disease,” Lerman said.

    SOURCE: Mayo Clinic, news release, Dec. 18, 2025

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  • Metal Shards Spark Nationwide Recall of Ready-to-Eat Holiday Kielbasa

    By Deanna Neff HealthDay ReporterTUESDAY, Dec. 23, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Olympia Provisions has recalled about 1,930 pounds of ready-to-eat holiday sausage.

    The recalled meat is wrapped and vacuum-sealed in 16-ounce clear pouches and labeled “OLYMPIA PROVISIONS UNCURED HOLIDAY KIELBASA.”

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced the Class I recall on Dec. 19 due to possible metal or other fragments in the meat. 

    Consuming the recalled kielbasa may pose serious health risks to consumers.

    The ready-to-eat sausages were manufactured on Oct. 14, 2025, and carry a “BEST IF USED BY” date of 02/19/26 printed on the side of the label.

    Packages have the establishment number — “EST. 39928” — inside the USDA mark of inspection.

    The contamination came to light through after a consumer reached out to the Portland, Ore., company, which then notified FSIS. To date, there have been no confirmed reports of medical emergencies or injuries.

    The recalled meat was distributed to retail shops in California, Oregon and Washington. 

    However, because the company sells its artisanal products through its website, the sausages were also shipped to online customers nationwide. This makes it crucial for anyone who purchased holiday meat through the internet to see whether it’s part of the recall.

    Safety inspectors are particularly worried about the product’s long shelf life. Because the kielbasa is fully cooked and vacuum-sealed, it can be stored for months. 

    Federal officials expressed concern that many consumers might have the product sitting in their refrigerators or freezers, unaware of the potential hazard.

    If you find one of these packages in your home, discard the sausage immediately or return it to the place of purchase for a full refund.

    Health officials urge anyone who believes they may have suffered an injury from consuming the meat to contact a health care provider.

    Consumers with food safety questions can call the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-674-6854 or send a question via email to MPHotline@usda.gov. 

    SOURCE: U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service, recall announcement, Dec. 19, 2025

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  • One Week Less on Social Media Linked to Better Mental Health

    WEDNESDAY, Nov. 26, 2025 (HealthDay News) — For many young adults, social media is where life happens: Friendships, news, stress, all rolled into a single screen.

    But a new study suggests that stepping away, even for just one week, may help ease anxiety, depression and sleep problems.

    Researchers tracked 295 young adults ages 18 to 24 who agreed to limit their social media use for seven days. Each participant was paid $150 to be in the study.

    For the study, these young adults shrunk their average screen time from just under two hours a day on social platforms down to about 30 minutes a day.

    After the week ended, participants completed mental health surveys. On average, the researchers found:

    • Anxiety symptoms dropped by 16.1%

    • Depression symptoms dropped by 24.8%

    • Insomnia symptoms dropped by 14.5%

    The study, published Nov. 24 in JAMA Network Open, showed the biggest improvement in people who already had more serious depression symptoms.

    However, participants did not report changes in loneliness.

    Study co-author Dr. John Torous, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston, told The New York Times that cutting back on social media shouldn’t “be your first-line or your only form of care.”

    “If you’re struggling with a mental health condition, and you have treatment already,” he added, “it’s likely worth experimenting to see whether reducing social media helps you feel better.”

    He warned that the results aren’t a guarantee for everyone. Some participants felt much better, while others noticed little change.

    “The averages are encouraging,” he said, “but they definitely don’t tell the full story, the variance was just so tremendous.”

    One reason is that the study was not a randomized trial. Instead, people volunteered to take part, which means they may have expected improvements before the trial.

    “The subjects would have known how they were expected to behave, and likely simply changed their responses accordingly,” Christopher Ferguson, a psychology professor at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida who was not involved in the research, told The Times.

    Other experts, however, say the findings still add something useful to the ongoing conversation about social media and mental health.

    Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer of the American Psychological Association, called social media breaks “a simple and free solution that seems to lead to quick improvement.”

    “This is a solution that will empower most parents and young people themselves,” he said in a report published by The Times. “Use far less social media, and there is a reasonable chance that young people will start to feel a lot better.”

    But experts in the field stress that results have been mixed in previous studies. Some research has found only small or no benefits from “digital detoxes,” and it’s uncertain whether the effects last long term.

    SOURCE: The New York Times, Nov. 24, 2025

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  • Quitting a GLP-1 Before Pregnancy Linked to Higher Weight Gain, Complications

    By Ernie Mundell HealthDay ReporterTUESDAY, Nov. 25, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Women who stop taking a GLP-1 weight loss/diabetes medication just prior to a pregnancy appear to be at higher odds for excess weight gain and complications while pregnant, new research shows.

    As the study authors pointed out, potential risks to the fetus of using a GLP-1 while pregnant remain unclear, so current recommendations advise discontinuing the drugs prior to or during a pregnancy.

    However, doing so may bring about its own hazards, concluded a team from Mass General Brigham in Boston.

    “Additional studies are needed on the balance of pre-pregnancy benefits of GLP-1s with the risks associated with interrupting them for pregnancy,” said study senior author Dr. Camille Powe. She’s a Mass General Brigham endocrinologist and co-director of the Diabetes in Pregnancy Program at Massachusetts General Hospital.

    According to study lead author and pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Jacqueline Maya, the use of GLP-1s by women “has increased dramatically.”

    Speaking in a hospital news release, she said the study focused on how GLP-1 “discontinuation affects weight gain and outcomes during pregnancy.”

    To do so, the researchers tracked the medical records of almost 1,800 pregnancies cared for by the Mass General Brigham healthcare system between 2016 and 2025.

    Most of these pregnancies occurred among women with obesity.

    Outcomes for women who had received a GLP-1 prescription “within three years before and up to 90 days after conception” were compared to women who had not gotten a GLP-1 prescription during that time.

    Differences in outcomes were significant.

    Women who’d stopped the drugs prior to a pregnancy had an average weight gain during their pregnancy that was 7.2 pounds higher than women who hadn’t used a GLP-1, the researchers said.

    The GLP-1 group also had a 32% higher odds that the amount of weight they gained while pregnant was unhealthy.

    As for complications, women who’d discontinued a GLP-1 prior to pregnancy had a 30% higher risk of developing diabetes while pregnant, a 29% higher risk of blood pressure issues during pregnancy, and a 34% higher risk for preterm delivery, the study found.

    The team saw no differences when it came to risks for high or low birth weight or Cesarean delivery.

    Because the study was retrospective in nature, it couldn’t prove that GLP-1 discontinuation caused any excess in pregnancy risks, only find associations.

    Still, Powe said the findings might put women with obesity in a quandary when debating whether to use a GLP-1 prior to a pregnancy.

    “We need to do more research to find ways to help manage weight gain and reduce risks during pregnancy when stopping GLP-1 medications,” she said.

    Find out more about how GLP-1 medications work at the Mayo Clinic.

    SOURCE: Mass General Brigham, news release, Nov. 24, 2025

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  • Compensation Claims More Frequently Rejected For Families Of Black Murder Victims

    By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, Nov. 21, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Grieving families of Black murder victims are more likely to be denied their claims for victim compensation, a new study reports.

    These families are more likely to file for victim compensation following their loss, but face disproportionately high denial rates, researchers recently reported in the journal Race and Justice.

    “Victim compensation was designed to help grieving families, but current practices reinforce racial inequities instead of alleviating them,” lead researcher Daniel Semenza, director of research at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center and associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health, said in a news release.

    In the United States, the federal government compensates victims to help them recover from violent crime, and every state now runs its own victim compensation program, researchers said in background notes.

    These programs typically reimburse crime victims directly for medical costs, mental health care, relocation assistance, lost wages, crime scene cleanup and funeral costs, researchers said.

    For the new study, researchers examined nearly 60,000 compensation claims filed by the families of murder victims across 18 states from 2015 to 2023.

    Families of Black murder victims filed the most claims, amounting to nearly 23,000 during the study period. By comparison, Hispanic families filed more than 14,000 claims, and white families more than 9,500.

    This makes sense, given that Black Americans represent just under 14% of the U.S. population but account for 54% of all murder victims, researchers noted.

    However, Black families were more likely to have their claims rejected, results show.

    The approval rate for claims from Black families was just under 82%, compared to 87% for white families and 89% for Hispanic families.

    “Families of Black homicide victims file the most victim compensation claims, but their claims are disproportionately denied,” Semenza said.

    Researchers found that “contributory misconduct” — the victim’s involvement in a criminal act — was the cited reason for 30% of all denials, but represented more than 57% of denials for claims from Black families.

    “This overrepresentation suggests that law enforcement’s assessment of victim behavior may disproportionately penalize Black victims and families, reinforcing racialized narratives of criminality and implicit victim blaming,” researchers wrote.

    In essence, Black families are denied support following their loved one’s murder, despite the family having nothing to do with criminal activity, researchers said.

    “This process pathologizes and punishes Black families, by suggesting that the victim’s alleged misconduct renders their family undeserving of support,” researchers concluded.

    SOURCES: Rutgers University, news release, Oct. 27, 2025; Race and Justice, Oct. 24, 2025

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  • U.S. Making No Progress In Protecting Pregnancy Health, March Of Dimes Report Card Says

    By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Nov. 20, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The United States has received another barely passing pregnancy health grade from the March of Dimes after another year in which 1 out of 10 babies were born prematurely.

    It’s the fourth consecutive year the nation has received a historically low D+ grade, the March of Dimes said in its 2025 Report Card.

    The national preterm rate remains at 10.4%, which means that nearly 380,000 babies were born prematurely in 2024.

    That rate is among the highest of all developed nations, the March of Dimes said.

    “As a clinician who has seen how much is possible when we get it right, these data are deeply frustrating,” Dr. Michael Warren, the March of Dimes chief medical and health officer, said in a news release.

    “We have known about risk factors for preterm birth, including prior history or preterm birth, chronic disease, and unequal access to care, for years,” Warren said.

    In the report card, the March of Dimes noted that:

    • Racial disparities are worsening, with preterm birth rates among Black moms nearly 50% higher than the overall rate.

    • Disparities also exist among women covered by Medicaid, who have a preterm rate of nearly 12% compared to under 10% for women with private insurance.

    • Fewer than 25% of pregnant women did not begin prenatal care in the first trimester — the fourth straight year of decline.

    • Conditions that contribute to premature births continue to increase among pregnant women, including high blood pressure by 6% and diabetes by 8%.

    Infant mortality remained stable at 5.6 deaths per 100,000 live births, with more than 20,000 babies dying before their first birthday in 2023.

    “This year’s report card shows that while we remain stalled in our progress on preterm birth, we are also losing ground in other critical areas of maternal and infant health,” Cindy Rahman, president & CEO of the March of Dimes, said in a news release.

    Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, and Pacific Islander moms die at two to three times the rate of White moms during and after pregnancy, the report card said.

    “Our country is stuck in a maternal and infant health crisis where too many families are being forgotten,” Rahman said. “We must confront the systemic inequities that leave families of color and those covered by Medicaid at higher risk, improve access to early prenatal care, and tackle the growing burden of chronic disease — because every mom and baby deserves the chance for a healthy start.”

    The 2025 March of Dimes Report Card can be read here.

    SOURCES: March of Dimes, news release, Nov. 17, 2025; March of Dimes Report Card, 2025

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  • COVID Vaccination Safer For Kids’ Heart Health Than Infection, Study Says

    By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Nov. 6, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The COVID vaccine is safer for kids’ heart health than if they become infected with the coronavirus, a new study has found.

    Children who get COVID have an increased risk of rare heart complications including blood clots, heart inflammation and low platelet counts that lasts up to a year after their infection, researchers report in the December issue of the journal, The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.

    By comparison, COVID vaccination caused only a short-term higher risk in heart inflammation that lasted about a month, researchers said.

    “Although these conditions were rare, children and young people were more likely to experience heart, vascular or inflammatory problems after a COVID-19 infection than after having the vaccine — and the risks after infection lasted much longer,” lead researcher Alexia Sampri said in a news release. She’s a senior health data scientist with the University of Cambridge in the U.K.

    This is an early look that compares the longer-term risks of COVID vaccination with the risks posed by COVID infection, researchers said.

    Prior research has shown that vaccination can cause rare cases of myocarditis among young people, but that risk hadn’t been held up against the heart health risks that come with infection, researchers said.

    For the study, researchers analyzed health records for nearly 14 million children younger than 18 in England between 2020 and 2022, during the height of the COVID pandemic.

    During that period, 3.9 million children and teens had a first COVID diagnosis, and 3.4 million were vaccinated against COVID using mainly the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, researchers said.

    The team looked at a short list of specific rare complications that might occur following either COVID infection or vaccination:

    • Arterial and venous thrombosis (clots in blood vessels)

    • Thrombocytopenia (low levels of platelets in the blood)

    • Myocarditis or pericarditis (inflammation of the heart and its surrounding tissue, respectively)

    • Systemic inflammatory conditions

    After being infected with COVID, kids’ risks for these conditions rose within the first month of infection, researchers found. They were:

    • 2.3 times higher for artery clots and nearly 5 times higher for vein clots

    • 3.6 times higher for low levels of platelets

    • 3.5 times higher for myocarditis or pericarditis

    • Nearly 15 times higher for inflammatory conditions

    Infected children’s risk remained higher for up to 12 months later for vein blood clots (39%), low platelet levels (42%), and myocarditis or pericarditis (42%).

    On the other hand, the COVID vaccine increased only the risk of myocarditis or pericarditis by 84%, the study found. That elevated risk lasted for a  month following vaccination, then returned to normal levels.

    “Using electronic health records from all children and young people in England, we were able to study very rare but serious heart and clotting complications, and found higher and longer-lasting risks after COVID-19 infection than after vaccination,” said senior researcher Angela Wood, associate director of the British Heart Foundation Data Science Center.

    “Whilst vaccine-related risks are likely to remain rare and short-lived, future risks following infection could change as new variants emerge and immunity shifts,” she added in a news release.

    Overall, COVID infection led to 2.2 extra cases of myocarditis or pericarditis per 100,000 children, while COVID vaccination caused only 0.9 extra cases per 100,000, researchers said.

    “Parents and carers have faced difficult choices throughout the pandemic,” researcher Pia Hardelid, a professor at University College London, said in a news release. “By building a stronger evidence base on both infection and vaccination outcomes, we hope to support families and health care professionals to make decisions grounded in the best available data.”

    SOURCE: Health Data Research UK, news release, Nov. 4, 2025

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  • How A Brain Pressure Disorder Causes Vision Loss — And Who Might Be Affected

    By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Oct. 30, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Doctors think they’ve figured out a way to predict who might lose vision due to a high brain pressure disorder.

    Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) occurs when there’s unexplained pressure buildup in the fluid that cushions the brain in the skull, researchers explain in the journal Neurology.

    If untreated, IIH can lead to blindness, researchers said. It mainly affects women of childbearing age who are obese.

    Researchers found that changes in the optic disc – the place inside the eye where the optic nerve connects to the retina – can predict who will develop blind spots in their vision or lose sharpness of vision.

    “The number of cases of idiopathic intracranial hypertension has been increasing, and it mainly affects young women, so we need more information about who is more likely to develop vision problems and how that process works,” senior researcher Dr. Dagmar Beier, a clinical professor of neurology with the University of Southern Denmark, said in a news release.

    Symptoms associated with IIH include chronic, disabling headaches, double vision, loss of vision, hearing problems and nausea, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

    For the new study, researchers analyzed 154 people with IIH treated at two headache centers in Denmark between January 2018 and September 2022. The patients’ average age was 28.

    Of those, 147 had papilledema, or swelling of the optic disc due to high pressure in the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain, researchers found.

    About 7 in 10 patients (69%) had developed scotomas, or blind spots in their vision that can be temporary or permanent, the study found. In addition, 1 in 4 (26%) had lost some sharpness of vision, also known as reduced visual acuity.

    All the patients received medicines to reduce their high brain pressure. After it went away, half still had scotomas and 13% still had reduced visual acuity, although none developed full-fledged blindness.

    Researchers identified two specific problems that led to vision loss among these patients.

    One group’s papilledema led to damage in the optic nerve fibers of the retina, causing blind spots.

    The other group’s papilledema caused problems in the macula – the center of the retina – which resulted in lost sharpness of vision.

    Based on this, researchers developed a scoresheet to help doctors predict which patients with IIH will go on to develop vision problems.

    “This score needs to be validated by external groups before it can be considered ready for use, but we identified the severity of papilledema and the disorganization of the inner layer of the retina as major predictors for who will have persistent vision problems,” Beier said.

    The findings were published Oct. 29.

    SOURCE: American Academy of Neurology, news release, Oct. 29, 2025

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  • Women Get More From Exercise Than Men

    By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterWEDNESDAY, Oct. 29, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Women benefit much more from exercise than men, reaping many more gains with considerably less work, a new study reports.

    These results show that “one-size-fits-all” exercise guidelines are misguided, in that they assume both sexes derive the same benefit from the same amounts of exercise, researchers concluded.

    “Compared with male individuals, females derive equivalent health benefits with only half the exercise time,” wrote the research team led by Jiajin Chen, a research associate with the Xiamen University Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in China. “The findings might have potential to encourage females to engage in physical activity.”

    For the study, researchers analyzed data collected on more than 85,000 participants in UK Biobank, a long-term health research project in the United Kingdom. The people in the study wore activity trackers on their wrists.

    Results showed that to reduce their risk of heart disease by 30%, men need to get 530 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical exercise each week.

    Women only need to exercise 250 minutes a week — less than half — to achieve a comparable benefit, researchers found.

    Overall, women who met the guideline target of 150 minutes of exercise weekly had a 22% lower risk of heart disease, compared to a 17% lower risk in men who met the same target.

    There are some possible reasons why women might respond better to exercise, researchers said.

    “Physiologically, circulating estrogen levels are much higher in females than in males, and estrogen can promote body fat loss during physical activity,” researchers wrote.

    Men and women also have crucial differences in the composition of their muscle mass that might help explain why exercise provides better benefits among females, researchers noted.

    These results come in the midst of a gender gap in which women are less physically active and less likely than men to properly address their heart disease risk factors, researchers said.

    “This study provides strong evidence that a one-size-fits-all approach cannot and should not be used to guide physical activity recommendations for men and women,” Dr. Emily Lau, director of the Women’s Heart Health Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, wrote in an accompanying editorial.

    “Despite this apparent female physical activity advantage, previous work has shown that women are consistently less physically active and less likely to achieve recommended activity targets, highlighting the need to more specifically tailor physical activity recommendations to women,” Lau added.

    SOURCES: Nature, news release, Oct. 27, 2025; Nature Cardiovascular Research, Oct. 27, 2025

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  • New Nonhormonal Drug Approved to Treat Menopause Symptoms

    By Deanna Neff HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, Oct. 27, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new nonhormonal treatment to help women manage menopause symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats.

    Elinzanetant (Lynkuet), a once-daily pill, is expected to be available within weeks.

    These uncomfortable symptoms affect up to 80% of women during menopause and can last a decade or more, significantly affecting quality of life and sleep, according to The Menopause Society.

    For women seeking treatment who cannot safely take hormone therapy or are uncomfortable with it, this new option is another tool in the toolbox.

    “To have nonhormonal options for them is tremendously important,” Dr. JoAnn Manson, an endocrinologist and professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, told The New York Times.

    Elinzanetant is the first FDA-approved drug that works by targeting and blocking two specific types of receptors in the brain. 

    These receptors are involved in the body’s temperature regulation system. By blocking them, the drug helps stabilize a woman’s internal thermostat, reducing the frequency and severity of hot flashes and night sweats.

    The manufacturer, Bayer, says the once-daily pill will be available to women in November.

    A similar nonhormonal drug, fezolinetant (Veozah), blocks one receptor.

    Experts believe the additional receptor blocked by elinzanetant may also regulate sleep, potentially treating sleep disturbances caused by menopause.

    Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton, a trial investigator and professor at the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, told The New York Times that patients in the clinical trials experienced significantly less sleep disturbance in addition to fewer hot flashes.

    She said the clinical trials, which focused on postmenopausal women aged 40 to 65 with persistent hot flashes, showed:

    • Symptom improvement began just one week after patients started the treatment.

    • At 12 weeks, more than 70% of women reported at least a 50% drop in the frequency of their hot flashes. This improvement continued, with over 80% reporting the same reduction at 26 weeks.

    Common side effects reported included headache, fatigue and joint pain. 

    Since a few patients showed elevated liver enzyme levels, Lynkuet will not be recommended for women with known liver issues. As with fezolinetant, patients taking elinzanetant will be advised to have regular liver function tests.

    Dr. Jewel Kling, a menopause expert at the Mayo Clinic, said she was relieved to see “no clear sign of liver toxicity in the trials of elinzanetant.” 

    She cautioned, however, that rare side effects sometimes appear only once a drug is widely available.

    SOURCES: The New York Times, Oct. 24, 2025; Bayer, news release, Oct. 24, 2025

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  • Dear College Students: Essential Tips to Avoid Getting Sick on Campus

    By Deanna Neff HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, Oct. 13, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The college experience is a whirlwind of late nights, crowded dorms and shared spaces — a perfect storm for germs.

    Getting sick can get in the way of work and play and could hurt academic performance.

    And with students living in close quarters, upper respiratory infections, mononucleosis (mono) and even bacterial meningitis tend to spread rapidly.

    To keep students healthy, medical experts offering guidance in U.S. News & World Report recommend focusing on personal hygiene, proper rest and smart social habits.

    Below, key strategies to boost your immunity and avoid campus illness:

    Stay current on vaccines: Immunizations train your body to fight disease. Staying up-to-date with your school’s recommended shots, especially the COVID-19 vaccine and annual flu shots, is key. Isabel Valdez, a physician assistant at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston notes, “I primarily recommend those two because once you get the flu or COVID, you may be out for a week or two — just feeling under the weather.”

    Wash your hands: The simplest defense can be the most effective. Germs live on high-touch surfaces like door handles, desks and keyboards. Wash your hands regularly with soap and water and use alcohol-based hand sanitizer when you’re on the go.

    Prioritize sleep: Getting at least seven hours of sleep at night is vital for a strong immune system. Sleep helps the body produce necessary proteins called cytokines that help fight infection. Valdez warns that lack of sleep “really reduces that immune battery to fight infections.”

    Practice kitchen hygiene: Space is tight in dorms, and some students resort to washing dishes in bathroom sinks, which are highly contaminated surfaces. This creates a serious risk for food poisoning from pathogens like E. coli or norovirus. Use a designated kitchen area to handle, store and clean food and utensils.

    Disinfect after sweating: Gyms, locker rooms and contact sports are breeding grounds for staph infections, including the dangerous, antibiotic-resistant MRSA. These infections start on the skin but may spread deep within the body. To prevent this, it’s important to always shower right after a workout or practice, avoid sharing towels and use disinfectant spray to wipe down shared equipment before and after use. As Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, advises on skin infections, “Don’t play with it, don’t ignore it and have it inspected.”

    Cover your feet: Athlete’s foot, plantar warts and MRSA can be picked up by walking barefoot in public areas. Always wear sandals, flip-flops or slippers in dorm showers, locker rooms and around pools.

    Avoid sharing drinks and utensils: Though often called the “kissing disease,” mononucleosis (mono) also spreads easily by sharing cups, water bottles or eating utensils. Avoiding shared items also protects against strep throat, flu and COVID-19.

    Be mindful of crowds and smoke: Bacterial meningitis — a serious brain and spinal cord inflammation — spreads through close contact, particularly in crowded settings. Schaffner points out that if “you’re standing within a foot or two of people, laughing and singing, that close contact will promote the spread of the bug.” Irritation inside the nose and throat from smoking can also make you more susceptible to bacteria growing there, according to the Meningitis Research Foundation.

    Keep distance from sick friends: While impossible to avoid a sick roommate entirely, take precautions. If someone in your dorm is ill, wash your hands frequently, disinfect shared surfaces and consider wearing a mask for an extra barrier.

    Practice safe sexual health: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) don’t always show symptoms. The best defense is consistent protection with condoms. The more partners you have, the greater your risk; getting regular checkups at the student clinic is crucial.

    Eat a healthy diet and exercise: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends college students eat a nutritious diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, limit junk food and get at least 30 minutes of exercise most days of the week.

    If you experience symptoms such as skin irritations, sore throat, fever or nausea, seek help at your student clinic.

    SOURCE: U.S. News & World Report, Oct. 6, 2025

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  • New Approach Targets Social Skills to Help Schizophrenia Patients Heal

    SUNDAY, Oct. 12, 2025 (HealthDay News) — A new study from Case Western Reserve University suggests a major shift in schizophrenia treatment: One that focuses on helping patients better interpret social cues.

    “We’ve been treating schizophrenia with a one-size-fits-all approach for decades,” Jessica Wojtalik, an assistant professor at the Cleveland university’s school of applied social sciences, said in a news release. “Now we have a specific target that could help young patients get their lives back on track much faster.”

    The findings — published recently in the journal Psychiatry Research — identify a key brain function known as social inference skills as a potential new focus for early treatment. It’s a person’s ability to “read between the lines” in social situations.

    Schizophrenia, a serious mental illness that affects how people think, feel and behave, often begins during the teenage years when the brain is still developing, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. 

    This timing can have lifelong effects on relationships, learning and emotional control.

    The new study found that improving patients’ ability to interpret tone, body language and sarcasm — skills essential for navigating everyday interactions — could help them function better in everyday life.

    “Think of social inference as your brain’s social detective work,” lead author Anju Kotwani, a doctoral student in applied social sciences at Case Western, said in a news release. “It’s how you figure out what someone really means when they say ‘fine’ in a certain tone or how you know when someone is being sarcastic versus serious.”

    The research team studied 102 patients in the early stages of schizophrenia and found that social cognition (the brain’s ability to understand and respond to social cues) serves as a critical link between basic thinking skills and day-to-day functioning.

    Their results suggest that training programs that strengthen social inference skills through structured computer games or guided worksheets could be more effective than traditional methods focused on memory or attention alone.

    Researchers hope the findings will help shape new community-based treatment programs aimed at young folks newly diagnosed with schizophrenia.

    “Addressing both thinking skills and social understanding offers the best hope for functional recovery in early schizophrenia,” Kotwani said.

    SOURCE: Case Western Reserve University, news release, Oct. 8, 2025

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  • CDC Leaves COVID Vaccination Up to Patients

    TUESDAY, Oct. 7, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has dropped its recommendation that all Americans receive routine COVID-19 shots, leaving the decision up to patients and doctors.

    The shift follows new guidance from a panel of vaccine advisers appointed by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who fired the CDC’s longstanding vaccine advisory group earlier this year. 

    Until now, the CDC had recommended annual COVID boosters for everyone 6 months and older.

    But the new panel — created by Kennedy, who has publicly questioned vaccine safety — voted last month to remove that recommendation. The CDC signed off on the change this week.

    “Informed consent is back,” Interim CDC Director Jim O’Neill said as he approved the move.

    “Past guidance deterred health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination,” he said.

    However, some doctors criticized the statement, noting that informed consent has always been part of the vaccine process.

    “To make a statement that informed consent is back implies that it had gone away. In no way has it gone away,” Dr. Jesse Hackell, a retired New York pediatrician who has coauthored several American Academy of Pediatrics vaccine policies, told The Associated Press.

    Major medical organizations continue to recommend COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women, children and adults at higher risk of serious illness. 

    They argue that the administration’s new stance could mislead the public about vaccine safety, which has been proven in billions of doses given worldwide.

    The CDC also said patients, especially older adults, should consult with their doctors, nurses or pharmacists about whether vaccination is right for them.

    Further, the decision also clears the way for the government’s Vaccines for Children program to continue offering free COVID shots to eligible families.

    In a separate update, the CDC also accepted a panel recommendation that children under age 4 receive their first chickenpox (varicella) shot separately from the combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) vaccine. 

    Research has shown that the combination shot carries a higher risk of fever and related seizures.

    Since 2009, the CDC has preferred giving these shots separately for first doses, and about 85% of toddlers already receive the varicella vaccine on its own, the agency said.

    SOURCE: The Associated Press, Oct. 6, 2025

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  • Babies More Likely To Die If Mother Passes During Or After Pregnancy

    By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTUESDAY, Oct. 7, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Protecting newborns’ lives starts with protecting the health of an expecting mother, a new study says.

    Infants are 14 to 22 times more likely to die if their mother dies during pregnancy or just after delivering a newborn, researchers reported recently in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

    “If we want to protect infant health, the first step is to recognize the shared health outcomes between mothers and their infants,” said lead researcher Eugene Declercq, a professor of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health.

    “Improving women’s health is a worthy goal in itself, but this research reminds us that healthier mothers are also the foundation for protecting the health of their infants and, ultimately, their families,” Declercq said in a news release.

    For the new study, researchers tracked more than 1.6 million live births that occurred in Massachusetts between 1999 and 2020. Among them, there were 474 pregnancy-related deaths.

    The infant death rate was more than 14 times higher when a mother died during pregnancy or following delivery, researchers found.

    Infants’ death rate increased higher if maternal deaths occurred following severe health problems during pregnancy. In those cases, infants’ death rate was 22 times greater.

    Even babies born at term who survived their mother’s pregnancy-related death were still 35% more likely to be hospitalized within their first year of life, results showed.

    The overall pregnancy-associated maternal death rate in Massachusetts was more than 29 deaths per 100,000 live births.

    When moms died, the infant death rate was 55 for every 1,000 live births, researchers found.

    The infant death rate rose to nearly 88 deaths per 1,000 live births if a mother died after suffering a pregnancy-related health problem like kidney failure, high blood pressure, eclampsia or sepsis.

    And these results might actually be sunny compared to the rest of the nation, researchers said. During this period, Massachusetts had the lowest infant death rate in the U.S.

    These results come during a politically motivated push to reduce or eliminate maternal mortality review committees operating in some states where mothers’ death rates are higher, researchers said.

    Georgia, Texas and Arkansas all have taken steps to limit their review committees, to prevent review of how abortion bans or Medicaid policies might affect the maternal death rate, Stateline reports.

    The U.S. currently has the highest maternal death rate of any developed nation, with more than 22 deaths for every 100,000 live births in 2022, according to the Commonwealth Fund.

    By comparison, New Zealand has nearly 14 deaths per 100,000 live births, Canada more than 8 per 100,000, France more than 7 per 100,000, the U.K. fewer than 6 per 100,000 and Germany, Austria and Japan fewer than 4 per 100,000.

    “Pregnancy-associated death is a tragedy in and of itself, but its consequences can extend to a family and community,” the research team concluded in its paper.

    “This research suggests the need to broaden the scope of the U.S. maternal mortality crisis to emphasize the importance of protecting maternal health to preserve infant health,” researchers wrote.

    SOURCES: Boston University, news release, Sept. 26, 2025; Obstetrics & Gynecology, journal, Sept. 25, 2025

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  • FDA Approves Tremfya for Pediatric Plaque Psoriasis, Active Psoriatic Arthritis

    By Lori Solomon HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Oct. 2, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Tremfya (guselkumab) for the treatment of plaque psoriasis and active psoriatic arthritis in children 6 years of age and older.

    The approval is for pediatric patients living with either moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, who are candidates for systemic therapy or phototherapy, or active psoriatic arthritis. This approval expands indications of use beyond the initial adult population and is the first and only pediatric approval for an interleukin-23 inhibitor.

    The approval is based on results from the phase 3 PROTOSTAR study in which the coprimary end points of Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) 90 and Investigator’s Global Assessment (IGA) score of 0/1 were achieved at week 16. More than half of patients (56 percent) receiving Tremfya achieved PASI 90 versus 16 percent of patients receiving placebo. For IGA score, at week 16, two-thirds (66 percent) of patients receiving Tremfya achieved high levels of skin clearance (score 0/1) versus 16 percent of patients receiving placebo. Complete clearance (IGA 0) at week 16 was achieved by nearly 40 percent of pediatric patients receiving Tremfya versus 4 percent on placebo.

    “Despite advancements in the treatment of pediatric plaque psoriasis and active psoriatic arthritis, there continues to be a significant gap in available therapies for these debilitating immune-mediated diseases that impact a child’s physical and emotional well-being during critical years,” study investigator Vimal Hasmukh Prajapati, M.D., from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, said in a statement. “The approval of Tremfya offers physicians, as well as parents and care partners, an established treatment option with proven safety and demonstrated efficacy that can significantly improve the signs and symptoms in children living with these diseases.”

    Approval of Tremfya was granted to Johnson & Johnson.

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