Scientists Track Brain Function as Folks Watch Movies

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 6, 2024
• Full Page

A person’s brain performs an intricate juggling act while watching a movie, a new study demonstrates.

Scans showed that 24 different brain networks and regions engage from scene-to-scene, based on hard it is to follow the movie or what’s currently on the scre...

Florida Fails to Pass Amendment Legalizing Recreational Weed

• Robin Foster HealthDay Reporter
• November 6, 2024
• Full Page

A ballot measure to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in the state of Florida failed on Tuesday.

While 55.9% of Florida voters backed the proposed amendment, it did not reach the 60% threshold needed to make the initiative part of the state's constitution.

Abortion Rights Measures Pass in 7 States, Fail in 3

• Robin Foster HealthDay Reporter
• November 6, 2024
• Full Page

In election results that showed protecting women's reproductive freedoms matter to a majority of Americans, abortion rights measures passed in seven states and failed in three.

Missouri, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New York, Maryland and Montana all backed those rights, w...

U.S. Diabetes Rates Rise to Nearly 1 in 6 Adults

• Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter
• November 6, 2024
• Full Page

Nearly 16% of American adults -- that's close to 1 in 6 -- now has diabetes, according to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Increasing age and widening waistlines greatly increase the odds for the disease, which happens when the bo...

Winter's Onset Brings Mood Changes to Many Americans, Poll Finds

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 6, 2024
• Full Page

Many Americans experience a “winter funk” as the days grow shorter and temperatures turn colder, a new American Psychiatric Association poll reports.

Two-fifths of Americans (41%) said their mood declines during the winter months, according to the APA's Healt...

How a Move Away From Beef Could Help the Planet

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 6, 2024
• Full Page

Eating fewer burgers and steaks could pay big dividends for Mother Earth, and human health, by combatting climate change, a new study suggests.

Small cutbacks in beef production among wealthy nations could remove 125 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, re...

Little More Learning Might Not Save Your Aging Brain

• Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter
• November 6, 2024
• Full Page

In 1972, Britain bumped up the total school years mandated for its children from 15 to 16 years.

That created a "natural experiment": Would Britons who got that extra year of education fare any better, neurologically, as they aged?

Unfortunately, the answer is "no....

Drowsy Driving: Not Taken as Seriously as Drunk Driving, But It Can Kill

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 6, 2024
• Full Page

Folks are more likely to drive drowsy than drive drunk, even though both raise the risk of a fatal crash, a new survey shows.

About 4 in 10 adults say they’ll find alternative transportation when they haven’t gotten enough sleep, according to the poll from th...

COVID Vaccine Mistrust Levels Aren't Budging, Study Finds

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 6, 2024
• Full Page

More than a third of Americans continue to express mistrust in the science behind COVID vaccines, a new study finds.

This level of mistrust has remained relatively consistent, expressed by 36% of people in 2021, 33% in 2022 and 36% in 2023.

People who lost a famil...

PCOS Plus Obesity Can Be Hazardous in Pregnancy

• Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter
• November 6, 2024
• Full Page

Women who are pregnant but who also have the ovarian cyst disorder polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are at higher odds of giving birth to an underweight baby, new Norwegian research shows.

The risk rises even higher if the woman with PCOS is also obese, the study found.<...

Mpox Spread in Congo May Be Slowing

• Robin Foster HealthDay Reporter
• November 5, 2024
• Full Page

In an early sign that the mpox outbreak in Africa might be ebbing, some health officials report that case counts seem to be stabilizing in the Congo, the epicenter of the outbreak.

The World Health Organization first declared the mpox outbreak a global health emerge...

Fish Oil Supplements Might Help Prevent Cancer

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 5, 2024
• Full Page

The omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in fish oil supplements might help protect people from cancer, a new study claims.

Study participants with higher levels of omega-3s had lower rates of colon, stomach, lung and other digestive tract cancers, researchers found.

Li...

22 Pesticides Linked to Prostate Cancer Risk

• Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter
• November 5, 2024
• Full Page

Exposure to any one of 22 pesticides may bring heightened odds of developing prostate cancer, a new analysis suggests.

The study was conducted over decades because prostate cancer is known to grow very slowly, noted a team led by Dr. Simon John Christoph Soerensen, of St...

A Visit to the ER Can Often Precede a Cancer Diagnosis

• Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter
• November 5, 2024
• Full Page

Canadian researchers have found that about 1 in every 3 people newly diagnosed with cancer experienced at least one emergency department visit sometime during the three months prior to their diagnosis.

Many of the visits ended up being caused by symptoms related to the c...

Medicaid Covers GLP-1 Meds for Obesity in Just 13 States

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 5, 2024
• Full Page

Poorer folks’ access to blockbuster weight-loss drugs through Medicaid remains limited, a new KFF analysis has found.

Only 13 states currently allow Medicaid to cover treatment of obesity using glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist (GLP-1) medications, researchers discov...

Why Treatments Can Fail Folks With 'Wet' Macular Degeneration -- and What Might Really Work

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 5, 2024
• Full Page

Current treatments sometimes fail to help people with “wet” age-related macular degeneration -- and researchers now think they know why.

Wet AMD is caused by an overgrowth of blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensing tissue at the back of the eye. The ve...

Banning Menthol Cigarettes Might Drive Smokers to Quit-Smoking Therapies

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 5, 2024
• Full Page

Banning menthol cigarettes could help convince smokers quit the habit, a new study finds.

People who prefer menthol cigarettes would rather buy nicotine gum or other nicotine replacement therapies than switch to traditional tobacco cigarettes, researchers reported recent...

Diabetes Can Damage Your Eyes' Retinas: An Expert Explains

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 5, 2024
• Full Page

People with diabetes face a number of health challenges related to their chronic condition, and loss of vision due to retinal damage is one of them.

“Diabetes can silently damage a person’s most precious sense, their sight, before symptoms even appear. That&r...

Higher Heart Rate May Help Spur A-fib in Black Patients

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 5, 2024
• Full Page

An elevated heart rate could provide an important clue to which Black adults often have a dangerous heart rhythm disorder, a new study finds.

Higher resting heart rate is associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation, researchers found.

What’s more, t...

In a National First, an Idaho Health Department Is Refusing to Give COVID Vaccines

• Robin Foster HealthDay Reporter
• November 4, 2024
• Full Page

In what may be a first for the United States, a regional public health department in Idaho will no longer provide COVID-19 vaccines, following a close vote by its board.

“I’m not aware of anything else like this,” said Adriane Casalotti, chief of govern...