Архив рубрики: Здоровье Америка

Modern doctors aren’t just caregivers; they’re also clerks. They spend much of their day seeing patients and much of what remains drafting and inputting clinical notes of those visits. That takes a toll. More than 45% of physicians suffer from burnout, according to the American Medical Association—and the clerical demands of their work, which often spill into their evenings, are a documented part of the cause.

But now there may be a solution: According to a new study published in JAMA Network Open, artificial intelligence systems known as ambient documentation technology, which record patient visits and draft notes for the doctors, can reduce burnout rates by nearly 31%.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

“This incredible reduction in burnout [is] really bringing joy back to medicine,” says Dr. Rebecca Mishuris, a primary care physician, chief medical information officer at Mass General Brigham, and co-senior author of the study. “I want to make sure that everyone is given a fair cha..

Sweet dreams are more like a pipe dream when 12 a.m. turns into 2 a.m.—and you still can’t stop worrying about all the work you have to do, the bills you need to pay, the argument you had with your sister, and the feeling that you maybe, probably, definitely are going to die sooner than you should because of a lack of sleep.

Experts say almost everyone experiences this kind of middle-of-the-night panic at some point. “The most basic and common reason why we get more anxious at night is because of the decrease in the amount of distraction and activity we have going on,” says Michael G. Wetter, a clinical psychologist and director of psychology in the division of adolescent and young adult medicine at UCLA Medical Center. “Our mind goes off road, and there’s nothing to guide us and keep us on track and focused and feeling productive.”

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

So what should you do about your racing thoughts at night? Thrash around until the sun comes up? Open your laptop and s..

More than 750 public health workers sent a letter to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday, urging him to “stop spreading inaccurate health information” and guarantee employees’ safety, in the wake of a shooting at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this month.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

The letter—signed by both named and anonymous current and former staffers at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), CDC, and National Institutes of Health who noted they signed the letter in their “own personal capacities”—said the attack on the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta on Aug. 8 “was not random.”

“The attack came amid growing mistrust in public institutions, driven by politicized rhetoric that has turned public health professionals from trusted experts into targets of villainization—and now, violence,” public health workers said in the letter, which was also addressed to members of Congress. “CDC is a public hea..

When your friend’s heart is broken, you might struggle to offer words of support. What can you say to help relieve the pain of feeling abandoned, rejected, wronged, or destined to a life alone?

Choose wisely: “These words, for better or worse, stay with people,” says Natalia Juarez, a relationship coach who helps people navigate breakups. The end of a relationship is a pivotal moment that can splinter your friend’s routines, identity, and future plans, and they’ll remember the way you showed up for them even when they can no longer summon the exact tint of their ex’s eyes.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Beware of common pitfalls that might offend your friend, Juarez cautions, like glibly telling them that time heals all wounds. That kind of “toxic positivity” can “minimize their pain,” she says. And resist the temptation to tell them that the best way to get over one person is to—well, get intimately acquainted with another. “It’s insensitive,” she says, and both men and women hav..

After they took too many pills, after their mother found them unconscious on their bedroom floor, after paramedics couldn’t get them to respond, after being life-flighted to a children’s hospital and intubated, and after days in a medically induced coma, 13-year-old Taylor Little finally woke up.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Regaining consciousness after this first suicide attempt in Nov. 2015 was “the most immense disappointment I’d ever felt,” Little recalls. “I was so upset I was still alive.”

And “the first thing I asked after I got my tube out,” Little says, “was, ‘Can I have my phone?’”

Little, who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, joined Instagram when they were 11. It didn’t take long before they were introduced to self-harm videos on the platform, Little says. They spent much of the next seven years contemplating suicide, attempting it at least twice. They stabilized only after getting off social media entirely.

Now Little is among more than 1,80..

The Food and Drug Administration has warned the public not to consume certain frozen shrimp products sold at Walmart due to possible contamination with Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope.

It said the warning affects the Great Value brand of raw frozen shrimp sold at the superstore, adding that anyone who purchased the products should dispose of them.

A statement from the agency said the FDA was “actively investigating reports of Cesium-137 (Cs-137) contamination in shipping containers and frozen shrimp products” shipped from Indonesia.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

It said that the U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) had detected Cs-137 in shipping containers at four U.S. ports: Los Angeles, Houston, Savannah, and Miami. Containers that tested positive for the isotope have been denied entry to the U.S.

The FDA added that although it had not confirmed the presence of contamination in any commercial product in the United States, the shrimp products appear “to have been prepare..

There are more parasites than any other organism on Earth—which is one of the reasons Emmitt Jolly finds the common but misunderstood creatures so fascinating. “That is the most successful form of life,” says Jolly, a professor of biology at Case Western University. People often assume that honor would go to insects, but “the reality is that every insect you find is parasitized by something.”

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Sometimes, humans are too. Nearly 850 species of parasites are known to infect people; some, like the potentially deadly plasmodium parasite that causes malaria, are well-known. Others fly more under the radar.

We asked Jolly and other experts how parasites are transmitted, what it feels like to be infected, and what you can do to protect yourself.

How people get parasites

Parasites truly live up to their name. “They take something from the host but do not give anything back,” says Bobbi Pritt, a professor of laboratory medicine and pathology and the chair of ..

When you’re ready to get your flu vaccine this year, you have a convenient new option: you can skip the doctors’ office or pharmacy and inoculate yourself. FluMist, a vaccine sprayed up the nose to protect people from serious influenza symptoms, is now available for anyone in the U.S. to order online and administer to themselves or others at home.

FluMist, made by AstraZeneca, has been available since 2003. But even though it’s relatively easy to administer, it still required a health care professional to give to people. in Sept. 2024, however, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it for at-home use without a health care professional—making it the first flu vaccine that people can give themselves.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Here’s what to know.

How does FluMist work?

FluMist is the only nasal vaccine approved in the U.S. It’s administered as two spritzes—one in each nostril—and stimulates antibodies against the influenza virus in the nasal passages and bloodstrea..

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced it will wind down funding for mRNA vaccine development—which could prove to be one of the costliest, deadliest decisions HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will make during his tenure. HHS has already scaled back access to and recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines—a decision experts are deeply concerned about—and Kennedy’s frequently misinformed views on vaccines continue to fan the flames of anti-vaccination attitudes. Now, Kennedy’s failure to fully explore the potential of mRNA vaccines could stagnate research that has the potential to save millions of lives around the world.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

The dark cloud of COVID-19, one of the deadliest infectious disease outbreaks in history, can hardly be thought of as having a silver lining. But the nearest thing to a glimmer of a positive would be that the fast development of COVID-19 vaccines helped prevent many more deaths and led to rapid progress..

Never mind the popular image of Americans as sedentary, housebound, and living on the couch. It turns out a whopping 80% of us are physically active, according to a new report from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. That’s 247 million people getting up and breaking a sweat as opposed to just 20%, or 62 million, who remain exercise averse. It’s a continuation of a recent trend in the U.S.—and it’s fueled in part by the astonishing growth in one sport in particular.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Pickleball saw a 46% increase in players from 2023 to 2024—and a jump of 311% in just the past three years.

The authors of the report surveyed participation in 124 sports and activities from 2019 to 2024, analyzing online interviews with 18,000 people. Far and away, the researchers found, the most popular physical activity Americans choose is walking for fitness—it’s free, easy, and requires no investment at all beyond a comfortable pair of shoes. For more than 115 million active..