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Innovative Kidney Donor 'Voucher' System Is Saving Lives

THURSDAY, June 24, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- In the world of chronic kidney disease, the dilemma is not uncommon: A relatively young patient with kidney trouble may need a transplant down the road, and an older family member is more than ready to step up. But the need for a kidney transplant, while predictable, is not immediate...

Lost Sense of Smell Returns for Almost All COVID Survivors

THURSDAY, June 24, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- A year on, nearly all patients in a French study who lost their sense of smell after a bout of COVID-19 did regain that ability, researchers report.

"Persistent COVID-19-related anosmia [loss of smell] has an excellent prognosis, with nearly complete recovery at one year," acco...

Drop in Life Expectancy From COVID Much Worse for Black, Hispanic Americans

THURSDAY, June 24, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- The COVID-19 pandemic dealt a significant blow to life expectancy in the United States, researchers say.

Overall, American life expectancy dropped by just over one year in 2020. But researchers found the pandemic hit minority groups even harder, shaving more than three years of...

Potato Chips, Fatty Lunches Greatly Raise Your Heart Risks

THURSDAY, June 24, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- A steady lunch routine of cheeseburgers and fries may shorten your life, but loading your dinner plate with vegetables could do the opposite.

Those are among the findings of a new study looking at the potential health effects of not only what people eat, but when.

Researc...

AHA News: After a Stroke at 26, Determined Athlete Fights Back

Jesse Shea felt a little cloudy when he got up for work on a Monday. He chalked it up to being out later than usual to watch football with friends.

Jesse drove to the dock in Cape May, New Jersey, where he worked on a tugboat for a salvage operation. It was a demanding job, mentally and physically. But at 26, Jesse, a former college soccer...

FDA to Add Warning to Pfizer, Moderna Vaccines About Rare Heart Issues in Young

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that it will add a warning to the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines about mild, rare cases of heart inflammation seen in some teens and young adults following vaccination.

The news came after a meeting of an advisory panel to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention,...

Clot-Removing Procedure Can Sometimes Backfire for Stroke Patients

THURSDAY, June 24, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- When someone suffers a stroke, doctors can often remove the culprit clot obstructing blood flow to the brain. Now, a new study sheds light on why those successful procedures do not always translate into a good outcome.

Researchers found that when clot retrieval takes more than ...

COVID Caused Biggest Drop in U.S. Life Expectancy Since World War II

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the largest decline in U.S. life expectancy since World War II, a new study finds.

Between 2018 and 2020, overall life expectancy in the United States fell by 1.87 years.

But there were significant racial differences. Life expectancy fell 1.36 years among whites, 3.25 years among Blacks and 3.88 years...

For People With Heart Failure, Statins May Lower Cancer Risk Too

Many people with heart failure take a cholesterol-lowering statin, and new research suggests those pills might also lower their odds for cancer.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 87,000 people in Hong Kong who had no history of cancer and were hospitalized for heart failure between 2003 and 2015.

They were followed until they ...

Mental Confusion an Early Warning Sign of Severe COVID-19

COVID-19 patients with mental confusion are at increased risk for a severe form of the illness, a new study finds.

Researchers analyzed the electronic health records of more than 36,000 COVID-19 patients at five Florida hospitals. Of those, 12% developed severe COVID-19.

Patients with mental confusion were three times more likely to ...

1 in 3 Caregivers for Elderly May Be Untrained, Unscreened

A new report raises questions about the training and qualifications of many caregivers for the elderly across the United States.

The study by the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, found that nearly a third of Americans who arranged for paid care of a frail elderly adult or person with dementia hired someone from outside ...

People Over 80 Benefit From Surgery for Benign Brain Tumors

Surgery for the most common type of benign brain tumor should be considered for patients 80 and older, Finnish researchers say.

Meningiomas originate in the meninges surrounding the brain, and the primary treatment is surgery. But the risks of operating increase with age, so surgery for meningioma patients who are 80 and older is rare in m...

Body's 'Signals' May Feel Different in People With Anorexia, Depression

The brain interprets physical signals differently in people with depression, anorexia and some other mental health disorders, new research shows.

British scientists examined "interoception" -- the brain's ability to sense internal conditions in the body -- in 626 patients with mental health disorders and a control group of 610 people witho...

C-Section Babies Miss Out on Mom's 'Microbiome,' But Treatment Can Change That

WEDNESDAY, June 23, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- When a baby is born, the mother's body provides a pathway into the world, but the journey also exposes them to beneficial bacteria that live in and on their mom. But that critical exchange doesn't happen during a cesarean section delivery.

Now, researchers report that swabbing...

Study Suggests COVID Vaccine Booster Shots Will Be Needed

One dose of a two-dose mRNA COVID-19 vaccine is enough to protect previously infected people, but it's likely they and everyone with two doses will still require booster shots at a later date, a new study suggests.

That's because antibodies triggered through either natural infection or vaccines decline at about the same rate, the Universit...

No Good Evidence Weight Loss Supplements Work: Study

WEDNESDAY, June 23, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Losing weight is hard, but many weight loss supplements promise to make the journey easy. Unfortunately, there's little high-quality research to back these claims, a new study shows.

Hundreds of weight loss supplements like green tea extract, chitosan, guar gum and conjugated ...

Pandemic May Have Created a 'Baby Bust,' Not Boom

The pandemic not only cost hundreds of thousands of American lives, but it also appears to have triggered a deep drop in births, U.S. health officials reported Wednesday.

Until 2020, the birth rate had been declining about 2% a year, but that rate dropped to 4% with the start of the pandemic, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease ...

Rash, Itch After COVID Vaccine Rare & Quickly Resolves

Rashes, itchiness and other skin problems can develop after people receive COVID-19 vaccines, but such problems are rare and go away quickly, new research shows.

For the study, the researchers looked at more than 40,000 employees of a Boston hospital system who received two-dose mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (such as the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine...

AHA News: Silent Heart Attacks All Too Common, and Often Overlooked

In 2014, Marian Butts was hospitalized for fluid in her lungs. Right before being released, a cardiologist told her she had some heart damage from a previous heart attack. That was a shock to her and her family.

Years before, the Chesapeake, Virginia, resident, who has diabetes, had been treated for ongoing acid reflux and indigestion. Tha...

Alligator Attack Nearly Cost This Firefighter Dad His Arm

You might not believe it, but Florida firefighter Carsten Kieffer was incredibly lucky when a 12-foot alligator leapt into his boat and chomped down on his right forearm.

Just about no one else thought so, and that went double for Kieffer: Both main bones in his arm were broken, and a big bite had been taken out of the back of his forearm....