Архив рубрики: Здоровье Америка

There has been a lot of back and forth over actions that President-elect Trump will take in his second term, not least of which involve health. As the president who oversaw the COVID-19 response—which public-health experts say was lacking in many ways, aside from the development of vaccines—Trump has made sweeping statements about what the future of the American health care system will look like under his leadership.

He’s promised to “make America healthy again,” and allow long-time vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “to go wild on health. I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines,” Trump said in the weeks leading up to the election.

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Trump has criticized what he perceives as corruption in major government health agencies: from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one of the most globally respected infectious disease agencies; to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which o..

President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris means U.S. health policy may soon be shaped, at least in part, by one of the country’s most notorious vaccine skeptics: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

At this point, no one knows exactly what Trump’s second term will mean for vaccine policy or health policy more broadly. But Kennedy, who is infamous for peddling debunked views of vaccines and science, is poised to play a major role in defining Trump’s health legacy. “I’m going to let him go wild on health. I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines,” Trump said of Kennedy at an October campaign rally in New York City.

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Though it’s unclear whether Kennedy would serve in an official role within the Trump Administration, he is reportedly involved in discussions about who should head federal health agencies, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and ..

If Donald Trump is elected for a second time, his presidency may threaten what’s lauded as one of the top public-health triumphs of the 20th century: adding fluoride, a mineral that helps prevent tooth decay, to drinking water.

That’s due to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the notorious vaccine skeptic whom Trump has said will play a big role in health care in his administration if he is elected. “On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy recently wrote on X. (Trump, in an interview with NBC News, said Kennedy’s proposal “sounds OK.”)

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Adding fluoride to drinking water reduces rates of cavities by around 25%, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says. Some U.S. communities began doing so in the 1940s, and today about 72% of the U.S. population that receives water from public utilities drinks fluoridated water, according to the CDC. Decisions about whether to use..

Every presidential election is consequential, and therefore potentially stressful, but this contest seems to carry added weight. In a recent poll conducted by the American Psychological Association, 77% of people surveyed said that the future of the country was a significant source of stress, and 56% said they feared that the election results would spell the end of democracy in the U.S.

That stress and anxiety will likely extend beyond Election Day. What if your candidate doesn’t win? After emotionally investing in a candidate’s policies and character, how do you reconcile the inevitable feelings of disappointment, anger, and additional anxiety as you confront the reality of living under a leader you didn’t support?

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How to manage the storm of emotions

First, say experts, give yourself time to process the strong emotions churning after the results are announced. “Begin by acknowledging your feelings,” says Lynn Bufka, deputy chief of professional pra..

Everyday anxiety can lead to sleepless nights—so ratchet that up to existential fear about the future of democracy, and it’s probably safe to assume you’re not going to get much shuteye on Election Night.

According to a recent American Psychological Association survey, 25% of adults have already lost sleep over the U.S. presidential election, even before it skidded into its feverish final hours. Experts report hearing pretty much the same. “I see nine clients a day, and the election comes up in six of those sessions,” says Alex Banta, a therapist in Columbus, Ohio. “It’s been on everyone’s minds, and it’s completely normal to struggle with sleep leading up to such a big election.”

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Of course, when we don’t get much sleep, we’re prone to heightened feelings of stress, anxiety, and crankiness. “Any time we lose sleep, we lose emotional resilience,” Banta says. “We all have an ability to maintain and control our emotions, and if you don’t get sleep, that..

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..