Архив рубрики: Здоровье Америка

Strep infections are most well known for causing strep throat, which can be treated with antibiotics. But this type of bacteria can also cause more serious illnesses—even flesh-eating infections.

The bacteria responsible for the more serious infections are on the rise. In a report published April 7 in JAMA, researchers led by those at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that cases of invasive group A Streptococcus have been steadily increasing in the U.S. over the last decade, from 2013 to 2022. The data also showed that the bacteria are resistant to some commonly used antibiotics.

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Here’s what to know about the rise in strep infections.

What is group A strep?

Group A Streptococcus bacteria can cause illnesses from the common strep throat to sepsis, toxic shock syndrome, and necrotizing fasciitis (more commonly known as flesh-eating bacterial infections). Cases of strep throat aren’t considered invasive, but if the bacter..

TikTok is full of content creators claiming that eating certain foods helped them get pregnant—particularly those with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a hormone disorder that can affect fertility and metabolic health. But how truthful are those claims?

According to nutrition and fertility experts, while certain dietary plans may help some people with fertility, no one food or eating style is guaranteed to get you pregnant. The relationship between food and fertility is nuanced, they say, and people should be wary of any absolutist health claims they may encounter on social media.

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Videos making these claims “definitely can throw off our clients on their journey,” says McKenzie Caldwell, a registered dietitian nutritionist and founder of Feed Your Zest Nutrition & Wellness, a private practice that offers nutrition counseling for people who are dealing with reproductive health conditions.

“People are just sharing their personal experience vs. what ..

For an emergency medicine physician, a typical shift is a front-row seat to the worst days of people’s lives—a whirlwind of drama, frustration, quiet victories, devastating losses, and unfiltered humanity. And then, it’s onto the next patient’s room to do it all over again.

Maybe that’s why, as an emergency medicine attending physician in Chicago, I love The Pitt. My team’s work life is reflected onscreen, and watching the show evokes powerful emotions—at times, it feels as if the entire health care system rests on the shoulders of this small group of doctors and nurses. The show offers audiences a raw glimpse into a health care system on the brink. It shines a light on complex, urgent issues—hospital boarding, limited resources, and the mounting toll of trauma and mass casualty events—that affect both patients and the people working tirelessly to save them.

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I’ve heard that it’s an intense, gruesome watch for some. But as tense and uncomfortable as ..

Calvin Sun was a healthy 37-year-old when a full-body MRI scan showed a cyst in his kidney. Sun saw a urologist who was cautiously optimistic that it wasn’t cancerous and offered him a surgery appointment several weeks away to inspect the kidney and operate if necessary. “I was like, how about tomorrow?” Sun recalls.

As an ER doctor, Sun is used to decisive problem-solving. It’s the “right mindset” for undergoing a whole-body MRI, he says. “You have to be willing to take 100% responsibility for the consequences, good and bad.”

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Instead of traditional scans, like CTs or MRIs of a specific part of the body, full-body MRI scans require just an hour to image you from head-to-toe. Celebrities and influencers are holding them up as a pillar of preventive health to catch problems early on, wherever they’re hiding—before they become hard-to-treat diseases. Dwyane Wade, for example, recently credited a whole-body MRI with alerting him to an early-stage kidney ..

A new study found that the rates of pregnancy-related death in the U.S. increased by nearly 28% between 2018 and 2022, with large disparities based on state, race, and ethnicity.

The study, published in JAMA Network Open on April 9, analyzed four years of nationwide data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers found that there were 6,283 pregnancy-related deaths during that time. The study determined that the rate increased from 25.3 pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 live births in 2018 to a peak of 44.1 in 2021, before dropping slightly to 32.6 in 2022. The increase occurred across all the age groups that researchers analyzed, but people between the ages of 25 and 39 experienced the highest increase, according to the study.

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The study didn’t investigate why the rates of pregnancy-related death increased over the four-year period. But researchers noted in the study that the COVID-19 pandemic could have had an impact on..

Commenting on someone else’s hygiene is one of the more delicate conversation topics. You are, after all, critiquing a person’s body and health habits. But it’s a thorny road to go down: Hygiene issues can stem from medical or even financial issues. “Someone with bad breath could have something going on with their dental work—maybe they can’t afford to go to the dentist, so they’re stuck with something in their mouth that’s making it not smell so good,” says Katie Moore, a clinical psychologist in Irvine, Calif.

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Is it worth risking the potential awkwardness and saying something? Context matters, Moore says: If you’re never going to see the person again, she recommends staying mum. But if it’s a close friend or partner, and a recurrent problem? You’re probably not the first to notice, so you could be doing them a favor by bringing it up. The key is proceeding with tact—sometimes humor, sometimes concern. Talk to them face-to-face and privately, don’t a..

BOISE, Idaho — As a measles outbreak spreads through other states, Idaho is ending publicly funded vaccinations for people living in the U.S. illegally.

A new law recently signed by Republican Gov. Brad Little will halt a variety of public benefits for those in the U.S. unlawfully, including communicable disease testing, prenatal and postnatal care for women, crisis counseling and some food assistance for children.

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The Idaho law, which takes effect July 1, appears to be the first limiting public health benefits since President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to enhance eligibility verification and ensure that public benefits aren’t going to ineligible immigrants. Similar measures have been proposed in several other states.

The restrictions on public benefits are part of a broader effort in Republican-led states to support Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Some states have denied driver’s licenses, revoked in-state college tuition rates..

The White Lotus creators started planting seeds about Thailand’s deadly pong pong tree in the very first episode.

“What am I supposed to do here all week without my phone?” a petulant Saxon asked hotel worker Pam. “Eat a bunch of fruit?” Even then, Pam’s response clearly foreshadowed future events: “We do have a lot of amazing fruit here, but I wouldn’t eat that,” she responded. “That is the fruit of the mighty pong pong tree, and the seeds of the fruit are toxic.”

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In the finale, Tim Ratliff tossed the pong pong seeds into the blender—and ended up accidentally poisoning Lochlan, who then recovered. But how realistic was the portrayal? We asked medical toxicologists what to know about the so-called “suicide tree”—and how Lochlan managed to survive.

The “suicide tree” is famous in Southeast Asia

Throughout this season of The White Lotus, Ben Namam has gotten the same text from his friends over and over: “Is this tree real?” It sure is, he told them. ..

A second unvaccinated school-aged child in West Texas died from a measles-related illness, a hospital spokesman confirmed Sunday, as the outbreak continues to swell.

Aaron Davis, a spokesperson for UMC Health System in Lubbock, Texas, said that the child was “receiving treatment for complications of measles while hospitalized” and did not have underlying health conditions. The hospital declined to say which day the child died.

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Neither the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the Texas State Department of State Health Services include the death in their measles reports issued Friday. Spokespeople for the state health department, the CDC and the U.S. Health and Human Services Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.

A unvaccinated school-age child died in February in Lubbock — the first measles death in the U.S. in a decade. In early March, an adult in New Mexico who was unvaccinated and did not seek medi..

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited the epicenter of Texas’ still-growing measles outbreak on Sunday, the same day a funeral was held for a second young child who was not vaccinated and died from a measles-related illness.

Kennedy said in a social media post that he was working to “control the outbreak” and went to Gaines County to comfort the families who have buried two young children. He was seen late Sunday afternoon outside of a Mennonite church where the funeral services were held, but he did not attend a nearby news conference held by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the outbreak.

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Seminole is the epicenter of the outbreak, which started in late January and continues to swell — with nearly 500 cases in Texas alone, plus cases from the outbreak believed to have spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Mexico.

The second young child died Thursday from “what the child’s doctor describe..