Архив рубрики: Здоровье Америка

Some lucky sleepers climb into bed, close their eyes, and are out cold within five minutes. Others stare at the ceiling for an hour, check the clock, try to find a fresh angle of the ceiling to observe, and then toss, turn, and repeat, every night, week after week.

Insomnia affects 10% to 15% of the U.S. population, and it’s usually caused by a variety of biological and behavioral factors, says Dr. Sairam Parthasarathy, director of the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center for Sleep, Circadian and Neuroscience Research. Women, people who work nights, and seniors are among those most at risk. It often runs in families, and recently, experts concluded that COVID-19 can trigger new insomnia.

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While everyone will experience the occasional sleepless night, usually brought on by stress or lifestyle changes, chronic insomnia occurs three or more nights a week, lasts more than three months, and can’t be fully explained by a health problem. “For those w..

Parvovirus B19, a respiratory virus that causes a telltale “slapped-cheek” rash, is on the rise in the U.S., according to an Aug. 13 alert from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

There’s no routine surveillance for parvovirus in the U.S., but several indicators suggest the virus is spreading widely right now, the CDC says. Doctors have reported unusual numbers of parvovirus-related complications among two high-risk populations: pregnant people and patients with blood diseases. And as of June, laboratory data hinted that about 10% of the U.S. population—and 40% of kids ages 5 to 9—had antibodies in their blood suggesting they were recently infected, the CDC’s alert says.

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Here’s what to know about parvovirus B19 as the virus circulates.

What is parvovirus B19?

Parvovirus is a common respiratory illness, with “mini-outbreaks” occurring roughly every three to four years, according to the National Library of Medicine (NLM). In de..

Online health influencers have plenty to say lately about oils. We should cook with certain oils, banish others from our pantries, swish them around our mouths for flawless gumlines, and lather our bodies and hair with them for everlasting beauty. About the only purposes not suggested for oils are finding lost socks and doing our taxes.

The focus on oils isn’t exactly new; they’ve been praised and debated for eons. The difference today is that scientific research can help separate fact from fiction. But studies are often misunderstood or rejected in favor of personal anecdotes that may be unreliable.

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Here are the biggest oil myths going around the internet, according to scientists.

Myth #1: It’s bad to cook with olive oil

The unrefined version of olive oil—extra virgin, or EVOO—provides significant health benefits, especially in preventing heart disease. However, some online gurus say cooking with EVOO is problematic because of its low smoke point..

If you’ve been putting off a colonoscopy, you’re not alone. The fasting is uncomfortable, the prep is disagreeable, and the procedure itself requires you to be put to sleep. But colonoscopies are more than worthwhile, since they’re the gold standard for detecting colon cancer.

So who should schedule a colonoscopy, and what can you expect from the procedure? Dr. Meir Salama, chief of gastroenterology at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Yonkers, N.Y., explains what to know to get the most out of this potentially life-saving tool.

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Who should be tested?

The answer to that question is simple: everyone. This year, more than 106,000 Americans will develop colon cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. Since the mid-1990s, rates have been increasing by 1% to 2% per year in people younger than 55. Nobody is immune to colon cancer and no one, therefore, should pass up this critical precaution.

Just when you should start is another matter. Salama say..

Heman Bekele whipped up the most dangerous of what he called his “potions” when he was just over 7 years old. He’d been conducting his own science experiments for about three years by that point, mixing up whatever he could get his hands on at home and waiting to see if the resulting goo would turn into anything.

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“They were just dish soap, laundry detergent, and common household chemicals,” he says today of the ingredients he’d use. “I would hide them under my bed and see what would happen if I left them overnight. There was a lot of mixing together completely at random.”

But soon, things got less random. For Christmas before his 7th birthday, Heman was given a chemistry set that came with a sample of sodium hydroxide. By then, he had been looking up chemical reactions online and learned that aluminum and sodium hydroxide can together produce prodigious amounts of heat. That got him thinking that perhaps he could do the world some good. “I thought th..

LONDON — The World Health Organization has declared the mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency, with cases confirmed among children and adults in more than a dozen countries and a new form of the virus spreading. Few vaccine doses are available on the continent.

Earlier this week, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the mpox outbreaks were a public health emergency, with more than 500 deaths, and called for international help to stop the virus’ spread.

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“This is something that should concern us all … The potential for further spread beyond Africa and beyond is very worrying,” said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The Africa CDC previously said that mpox, also known as monkeypox, has been detected in 13 countries this year, and that more than 96% of all cases and deaths are in Congo. Cases are up 160% and deaths are up 19% compared with the same period last year. So far, ther..

In your 20s and 30s, heart disease can seem like a far-off concern. It’s more common among people 75 or older than in any other age group.

But there’s good reason to think about your heart health decades earlier: “While young adults often associate heart disease with people in their parents’ and grandparents’ ages, it’s never too early to start prevention,” says Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist, author, and clinical associate professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. “In fact, 80% of heart disease is preventable.”

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If there’s just one thing you do for your heart when you’re young, it should be increasing your physical activity, experts agree. “Exercise is the foundation of heart-disease prevention, and combining aerobic exercise with resistance training has been shown to have the greatest impact on preventing and managing heart disease,” Goldberg says. That’s because physical activity taxes your heart and lungs, helping them to adapt to the stre..

If you’re asked to share a few fun facts about yourself, you’re probably not going to rattle off your blood pressure or cholesterol levels (even if your “good” cholesterol is, well, really good). But you should have a solid sense of what those numbers are, experts say. Why? “That old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is absolutely correct,” says Dr. Josh Septimus, an internal medicine physician with Houston Methodist Hospital. A small number of conditions, including heart disease and metabolic disorders, cause an enormous amount of suffering. “If we can identify a few things that help us prevent those morbidities, it’s very much worth your time.”

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That said, you don’t have to know everything. Experts widely pan full-body health scans, for example, that claim to catch early signs of problems like cancer. And while it’s certainly possible to track and analyze your health data via smartwatches and other gadgets, you’re not necessa..

A fast-spreading mpox outbreak in Africa was declared a continent-wide public health emergency, as the region’s main health advisory body invoked this power for the first time as it moved to marshal resources.

The declaration will prompt countries in the region to share timely information on mpox’s spread with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, helping it to better tap financial aid, Jean Kaseya, director general of the Addis Ababa-based agency, said on Tuesday.

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“Today I commit to you that African citizens will lead this fight with every resource at our disposal,” he told a virtual press briefing. “We’ll work with government, international partners and local communities to ensure that every African, from the bustling cities to the remote area, is protected.”

A mutated mpox strain has spread to at least six African countries, infecting about 15,000 people and killing more than 500 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this year ..

Face it: sometimes, you’re just too busy to pay attention to your skin. What’s a harried person to do, when skin-care routines touted online often have 10+ steps?

We went straight to the source—five dermatologists—for their desert-island tip: the one thing you absolutely must do every day for your skin. The answer was unanimous.

1. Always apply sunscreen

Everyone agreed: The No. 1 thing you can do to take care of your skin is apply sunscreen daily.

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“Applying sunscreen every day is the most important thing you can do to keep your skin looking healthy and prevent skin cancer,” says Dr. Sara Perkins, assistant professor of dermatology at the Yale School of Medicine. “Ultraviolet radiation can lead to hyperpigmentation, fine lines, and wrinkles, not to mention basal and squamous cell skin cancer and melanoma.”

Sunscreen is a no-brainer if you work outdoors or live in a warm, sunny city. But even if you spend most of your time indoors or live somewhe..