Medications that have transformed the treatment of obesity may also help people drink less alcohol, according to new government-funded research. The study was small — just 48 adults — and lasted a little more than two months, so it’s not the final word. Experts say it’s not yet clear how safe these drugs are for [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — The winter virus season is in full force, and by one measure is the most intense in 15 years. One indicator of flu activity is the percentage of doctor’s office visits driven by flu-like symptoms. Two weeks ago, that number was higher than the peak of any winter flu season since [...]
A study of the carbon-storing capacity of a wetland area along the Olentangy River north of the Ohio State campus revealed that man-made features of the ecosystem diminish over time in their ability to capture and store atmospheric carbon. According to a news release, university researchers examined soil core samples taken from two constructed freshwater [...]
Dairy cattle in Nevada have been infected with a new type of bird flu that’s different from the version that has spread in herds since last year, Agriculture Department officials said last week. The detection indicates that distinct forms of the virus known as Type A H5N1 have spilled over from wild birds into cattle [...]
Andrea Meneses stumbled on a direct primary-care clinic because of a crisis. Her grandmother, visiting Wisconsin from Bolivia, did not have insurance but needed to see a doctor fast. One of the grandchildren accidentally put her insulin in the freezer instead of the refrigerator. Meneses reached out to friends in a panic and one recommended [...]
An increasing number of adults are being diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Diagnoses have been rising for decades but seem to have accelerated in the last few years. A recent study suggested that more than 15 million adults — roughly 1 in 17 — have been diagnosed with ADHD. The condition always starts in childhood, but [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nothing doctors prescribed controlled Michael Garrity’s dangerously high blood pressure — until they zapped away some nerves on his kidneys. If that sounds weird, well, kidneys help regulate blood pressure in part through signals from certain nerves. The new treatment disrupts overactive renal nerves. “My blood pressure would spike and I’d run [...]
“Particularly Dangerous Situation,” or PDS, warnings were first used to warn of tornado outbreaks in the Midwest. More than a decade ago, three meteorologists proposed expanding their use to disasters such as ice storms, floods and hurricanes, and now they are being used to warn of wildfires. “It catches the attention, it really heightens that [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — A century ago, iodine deficiency affected kids across large swaths of the country. It mostly disappeared after some food makers started adding it to table salt, bread and some other foods, in one of the great public health success stories of the 20th century. Yet today, people are getting less iodine [...]
JARWENG, South Sudan (AP) — Noble Prize-winning peacemaker Jimmy Carter spent nearly four decades waging war to eliminate an ancient parasite plaguing the world’s poorest people. Rarely fatal but searingly painful and debilitating, Guinea worm disease infects people who drink water tainted with larvae that grow inside the body into worms as much as three [...]