Архив рубрики: Здоровье Америка

In 2021, Jacqueline Barber agreed to try Ozempic because her doctor swore it would “work wonders” for her diabetes. A few months later, the vomiting started.

Barber, who is 49 and lives in Kentucky, threw up constantly, so much that she started sleeping on the couch with a garbage can beside her every night. But the drug was keeping her blood sugar under control and her endocrinologist didn’t think it could be the cause of such persistent vomiting, so she stayed on it—even as she began “wasting away,” her muscles deteriorating so much that she needed a walker and her front teeth crumbling from exposure to stomach acid.

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Unable to keep food down, Barber’s weight dropped by more than 100 pounds over roughly one year on Ozempic, until her doctors finally agreed she should stop taking the medication. “It was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Barber says. “My family thought I was getting ready to die.”

Around the same time she stopped ..

Historically, medical research has been male-dominated in terms of subjects as well as researchers, even though women make up half of the world’s population. As a result of this gender bias, insights into various diseases and findings about medications have often been extrapolated from men and applied to women. But women aren’t just smaller men. Women’s bodies are decidedly different from men’s, with unique organs, genes, hormones, and other key differences.

It’s not surprising, then, that men and women experience many of the same diseases but develop different symptoms. With heart attacks, for example, the most common symptom is chest pain for men and women—but women may be more likely to experience other symptoms, such as shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting, or jaw pain. Women and men also metabolize and respond to many drugs differently. And there are gender-based variations in the physiological mechanisms underlying pain.

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Some of these differ..

There’s no proven cure for a cold, but many people have remedies they swear by when they’re feeling under the weather. (Chicken soup or citrus fruit, anyone?) One common strategy is taking tablets or lozenges that contain zinc, a natural mineral that helps the immune system fight back against bacteria and viruses.

But many experts don’t recommend that people pop zinc tablets at the first sign of a sniffle. Dr. Katharine DeGeorge, a family-medicine physician at the University of Virginia who has studied cold remedies, is one of them. “Some people might benefit,” she says. “But that comes at a cost—a monetary cost, and a risk of adverse events, too.”

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Zinc users do have some science to back their decision. Some research suggests that zinc may stop the cold virus from binding to cells in the body and copying itself, potentially shortening the length of an illness. (Some scientists have researched whether zinc has the same effect against other viruses, s..

If you want to excel at pickleball, cake-decorating, or playing the piano, you’ll probably sign up for a class or enlist an instructor. But what about talking? Communication is one of the cornerstones of successful personal and professional life—yet many of us never receive any formal training on how to do it well.

“We copy what our parents do, and then what our teachers and friends do,” says Raele Altano, a communication coach who also dispenses tips to her social-media following. “We assume that’s the standard—it definitely comes from our upbringing.”

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That can lead to a lot of blunders, from hijacking the conversation to shutting down when things don’t go our way. Investing time in learning to better communicate, meanwhile, can improve the way we represent and advocate for ourselves, Altano says, while also boosting confidence. “It impacts all areas of life, whether it’s dating, asking for a raise, presenting in a public-speaking environment,” or e..

If you want to excel at pickleball, cake-decorating, or playing the piano, you’ll probably sign up for a class or enlist an instructor. But what about talking? Communication is one of the cornerstones of successful personal and professional life—yet many of us never receive any formal training on how to do it well.

“We copy what our parents do, and then what our teachers and friends do,” says Raele Altano, a communication coach who also dispenses tips to her social-media following. “We assume that’s the standard—it definitely comes from our upbringing.”

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That can lead to a lot of blunders, from hijacking the conversation to shutting down when things don’t go our way. Investing time in learning to better communicate, meanwhile, can improve the way we represent and advocate for ourselves, Altano says, while also boosting confidence. “It impacts all areas of life, whether it’s dating, asking for a raise, presenting in a public-speaking environment,” or e..

NEW YORK — A pig at an Oregon farm was found to have bird flu, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday. It’s the first time the virus has been detected in U.S. swine and raises concerns about bird flu’s potential to become a human threat.

The infection happened at a backyard farm in Crook County, in the center of the state, where different animals share water and are housed together. Last week, poultry at the farm were found to have the virus, and testing this week found that one of the farm’s five pigs had become infected.

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The farm was put under quarantine and all five pigs were euthanized so additional testing could be done. It’s not a commercial farm, and U.S. agriculture officials said there is no concern about the safety of the nation’s pork supply.

But finding bird flu in a pig raises worries that the virus may be hitting a stepping stone to becoming a bigger threat to people, said Jennifer Nuzzo, a Brown University pandemic res..

Climate change is increasingly disrupting people’s sleep.

High nighttime temperatures led to 5% more hours of sleep lost worldwide over the past five years compared to the period between 1986 and 2005, according to the latest edition of the Lancet’s study of climate and health. It marks the first time the prestigious medical journal has examined this metric. Sleep loss peaked in 2023, the hottest year on record, when there was a 6% rise.

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The eighth annual Lancet Countdown on health and climate change report, authored by 122 global experts, found that high temperatures, drought and heavy rainfall are increasingly impacting people’s health. In 2023, a record 512 billion potential hours of labor were lost globally due to high temperatures. Heat-related deaths in people over the age of 65 reached the highest levels on record, 167% higher in the 1990s.

“This isn’t just about extreme weather events,” said Jeremy Farrar, chief scientist at the World Heal..

Organ and cell transplants are potentially life-saving treatments for a variety of medical conditions, but their success depends on how long the transplanted cells or tissues can survive in their new host. Drugs that suppress the immune system to minimize rejection must strike a delicate balance between being powerful enough to hold back the recipient’s immune system from destroying the donated material, without being too potent to cause toxic reactions.

In a study presented at the Summit on Stem Cell Derived Islets in Boston, researchers report on encouraging results using an experimental immunosuppressive drug in people with Type 1 diabetes. People with the disease no longer make enough insulin in their pancreas to break down sugar in the foods they eat, and have to monitor their blood sugar levels and inject themselves with insulin for the rest of their lives. In some cases, the insulin shots become ineffective and patients need more aggressive treatment: usually a transplant of is..

If you already head to the doctor’s office once a year for an annual physical: good job. If you don’t, let this be your reminder to go ahead and book that appointment—and perhaps let go of some of your anxiety surrounding your check-up.

And yes, you should schedule an annual physical exam even if you feel relatively healthy. “Many of us may only visit a doctor when we are sick, but having a primary care doctor and an annual physical is important,” says Dr. Heather Viola, an assistant professor of medicine and primary care physician at Mount Sinai Doctors-Ansonia in New York City. “It’s important to establish a relationship with a physician that you trust, and this starts with yearly well visits.”

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Here’s who should schedule an annual physical, what to expect at the appointment, and how to ease anxiety leading up to your yearly exam.

Why should you get an annual physical?

One of the reasons doctors advocate so strongly for annual physicals is because..

Seniors and people who are immunocompromised should get not just one but two COVID-19 shots this respiratory virus season. That’s the new recommendation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

People in these groups should get the vaccines six months apart in order to stay protected against the disease, the agency’s vaccine group recently agreed.

Here’s what to know about the new advice.

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Why the need for more than one shot this season?

The recommendation follows a summer COVID-19 surge that led to more hospitalizations among the most vulnerable Americans. While rates are currently low, health experts are concerned they could spike again during the holiday season, when people travel more and gather in larger groups. The guidance went a step further for people who are immunocompromised due to conditions like cancer; they can receive three or more doses during this respiratory disease season, depending on how weakened their im..