Health News for You
As mayor of New York City, Mike Bloomberg wanted his constituents to be healthier. He cracked down on smoking in public, trans fats in restaurants, and he really, really wanted New Yorkers to drink less soda. Bloomberg’s famous “Big Gulp” ban sought to bar sodas larger than 16 ounces, but a judge said no. Before […]
People not washing their hands after going to the toilet, rather than undercooked meat, is behind the spread of a key strain of E. coli. Experts looked at thousands of blood, faecal and food samples. They found human-to-human transmission was responsible – “faecal particles from one person reaching the mouth of another”. Public Health England […]
Teenagers using social media for more than three hours a day are more likely to go to bed after 23:00 and wake during the night, UK research suggests. This affects one in three teens – with one in five spending five hours or more on apps like Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook every day, the study […]
Elite athletes have bad teeth despite putting more effort into looking after them than other people, a study shows. UCL scientists interviewed 352 British athletes, including those preparing to compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil. It showed they were far more likely to brush twice a day and floss between their teeth, […]
Despite a less-than-stellar track record on the issue, President Donald Trump used his State of the Union address Tuesday night to unveil new plans for tackling the spread of HIV. The president said he will implement a 10-year strategy to significantly reduce, if not end, the spread of HIV infections. “In recent years we have […]
By Michael Ollove Perhaps the chief takeaway from the rejected citizen initiative to expand Medicaid in Montana last month is this: Be careful when you poke a giant. Montana was one of four red states with Medicaid expansion on the ballot, and the only one where it failed. And the reason why, many close observers […]
It’s said that during the holidays, all roads lead home ― or, for those who have access, to the doctor. The holiday season is like being invited to a white elephant gift exchange only to find out that each beautifully wrapped box contains a different variation of stomach virus, cold, strep or the flu. Sick […]
By Christine Vestal The three red states — Idaho, Nebraska and Utah — that bucked their own Republican legislatures last month and approved Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act are likely to proceed, despite Friday’s ruling by a federal judge in Texas that the entire federal health care law is unconstitutional. Even in Montana, […]
Primary pupils in England’s poorest areas are four times more likely to be severely obese than in the wealthiest, according to the latest figures. Overall, the proportion of severely obese Year 6 pupils has risen from 3.6% in 2009-10 to 4.2% in 2017-18. Obese children are more likely to be bullied, stigmatised and have low […]
Poor mental health affects half of all employees, according to a survey of 44,000 people carried out by the mental health charity Mind. Only half of those who had experienced problems with stress, anxiety or low mood had talked to their employer about it. That’s something that must change, says Mind. Fear, shame and job […]
The British Dental Association says a “huge fall” in people on low incomes going to the dentist in England is because they fear being wrongly fined when they claim for free treatment. The most recent annual figures show almost 370,000 fines for people accused of “misclaiming” for free dental care. But dentists say many of […]
HACKLEBURG, Ala. — On a recent sultry summer afternoon, 81-year-old widow Nellie Allen sat on the porch of her one-story brick home, one in a strip of government-subsidized houses surrounded by fields and country roads. Allen makes do on $ 900 a month from Social Security. She raised four kids and never worked outside the […]
House Republicans have kept busy on the sidelines these past several weeks while most of us trained our focus on the immigration crisis. On June 19, the GOP proposed a plan to “balance” the country’s budget over nine years that would eviscerate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in order to pay for the more than […]