Архив рубрики: Здоровье Америка

Anti-transgender policies have caused a rise in suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youth, according to a new Trevor Project study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

The peer-reviewed study found that when states pass anti-transgender laws—with policies like bathroom bans, which bar trans students from using the bathroom that matches their gender identity, or challenges to gender marker updates, which make it more difficult for trans people to have their accurate gender on state IDs—suicide attempts among trans and nonbinary youth ages 13 to 17 increased from 7% to 72%.

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“There’s nothing inherent in transgender, nonbinary young people that makes them at greater risk for suicide,” says Ronita Nath, vice president of research at the Trevor Project. “They’re placed at greater suicide risk because of the stigma and mistreatment experienced in society, including these discriminatory laws and policies.”

Read More: Anti-LGBTQ+ Po..

The U.S. military has been protecting the home front for nearly 250 years—and doing a bang-up job of it. In recent decades, however, the military has also been polluting the home front, most notably with a toxic chemical never heard of in the era of muskets and drums: PFAS. That’s becoming a major problem—one that is now teeing up a major clash between environmental groups and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the one hand and the Department of Defense (DoD) on the other.

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Short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS is an umbrella term for more than 12,000 substances colloquially known as “forever chemicals,” because that’s pretty much how long they linger in the environment and the body. PFAS have been linked to increased risk of kidney, testicular, and other cancers; changes in metabolism; higher cholesterol; low birthweight; pregnancy-related hypertension; damage to the immune system, and more. Virtually no one is safe: according ..

You’re standing in line at the grocery store or waiting for an elevator. You have no more than a minute to kill. And yet, before you’ve even processed what you’re doing, you’ve pulled out your phone and have begun to mindlessly scroll through TikTok or Instagram.

Sound familiar? It does to Adrian Ward, an associate professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin who studies people’s relationships to technology. “It’s not even an urge,” he says. “There’s no intention.” In his experience, checking your phone is often automatic.

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Research suggests plenty of people do the same thing. Maxi Heitmayer, a teaching fellow who studies human-computer interaction at the London School of Economics and Political Science, found in a small 2022 experiment that only 11% of people’s smartphone checks were in response to a notification. The other 89% of the time, they checked their phones totally unprompted, often without thinking throug..

Steph Berend’s seven-year-old son has a speech disorder and sensory issues. But her efforts to see a specialist near their home in Spokane, Wash., have been stymied. Her child has been on waitlists at two different practices for more than a year, and is now on two others that are 15 months long. While Berend’s son waits to see a pediatric neurologist, he is suffering from uncontrolled muscle movements and sounds, and bullying at school, says Berend, a dental hygienist.

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It’s a problem parents face across America: a shortage of pediatricians, and especially pediatric specialists. Medical students aren’t going into pediatrics at high rates, and that’s leading to coverage gaps. According to one study, about 8% fewer medical students went into pediatrics in 2020 than in 2015, while other specialties have seen big increases. In 2024, about 30% of pediatric residency programs did not fill open positions. As a result, says Sallie Permar, chair of the Departme..

At least 210 pregnant people faced criminal charges for “conduct associated” with pregnancy in the first year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade—the highest number documented in a single year, according to a new report by Pregnancy Justice, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting pregnant people’s rights.

The report, released on Tuesday, covered prosecutions initiated from June 24, 2022 to June 23, 2023, but researchers plan to document all charges of pregnancy criminalization in the country in the years since the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022. The report defines pregnancy criminalization as occurring “when the state wields a criminal law to render acts associated with a pregnancy, pregnancy loss, birth, and/or associated healthcare the subject of criminal prosecution.” Pregnancy criminalization can include abortion criminalization, but is not limited to it. The majority of the pregnancy-related charges documented in the report, for..

Concerns about the dangers of mosquito-borne viruses are on the rise after the first New York resident to contract eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) since 2015 died last weekend, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Monday.

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“Eastern equine encephalitis is different this year. While we normally see these mosquitoes in two to three counties each year, this year they have been in 15 counties so far, and scattered all over New York State,” said State Health Commissioner James McDonald in a press release on Monday. “This life-threatening mosquito-borne disease has no commercially available human vaccine and must be taken seriously. Mosquitoes, once a nuisance, are now a threat.”

The virus, which is contracted through the bite of an infected mosquito, has been on the rise across the Northeast, prompting Massachusetts coastal towns to shut down parks and playgrounds to better protect residents amid concerns about the deadliness of the disease. Some 30% ..

Following a summer uptick of COVID-19 infections, Americans will soon be able to order free COVID-19 tests this fall.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has not yet provided an official date that the nasal swab tests will be available, but says kits should be ready to order by the end of September. The initiative is rolling out ahead of the holiday season, when colds, flus and other illnesses become more common.

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Households will be able to obtain four free antigen COVID-19 tests by visiting COVIDtests.gov, a repeat of the 2023 program. And the department says that these tests will be able to “detect current COVID-19 variants and can be used through the end of the year,” according to its website.

The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that test positivity for COVID-19 stood at 14.9%, a decrease from the 17.8% high reached in August, though that number is still elevated. By comparison, in May, positiv..

It’s fall, which means it’s time to get updated on the winter season shots. That includes vaccines for flu, RSV (for babies and the elderly) and, for anyone six months or older, COVID-19.

While the new mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech have dominated the COVID-19 vaccine story, there is another type of shot that uses a more traditional vaccine-making technology, used by Novavax. The vaccine is generating interest among some people online who prefer the more tried and true approach behind the company’s shot, so here’s what you need to know.

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How is Novavax’s vaccine different from mRNA vaccines?

Novavax uses a protein-based vaccine strategy, which means people getting the vaccine receive a protein made by the virus that their body’s immune systems then see as foreign and mount responses against. mRNA vaccines, by contrast, include snippets of mRNA genetic material from the COVID-19 virus’ spike protein.

Novavax makes its vaccine by first..

(TOKYO) — If you’re trying to lose weight and want a new way to do it, stair-climbing as a regular exercise — or just adding a few flights a day — might be for you.

It’s accessible, and research shows it’s more effective than walking on level ground.

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“Overall, it is a fact that stair-climbing gets you fit faster and consumes more calories,” said Lauri van Houten, vice president of the International Skyrunning Federation, which oversees a wide range of disciplines that involve vertical climbing.

This includes disciplines like mountain running above 2,000 meters (about 6,500 feet) or events like the Stairclimbing World Championships.

These competitions are for the very fit, but we’re talking here about adding a few minutes of stair-climbing as a daily routine and raising awareness about its effectiveness for all ages.

“How many calories will I burn is the question everyone wants to know,” van Houten said. “Here’s the good news: The overall energy ex..

As the saying goes, there’s an app for that. And inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, is no exception.

IBD is an umbrella term for chronic inflammation-related conditions affecting the digestive system, most commonly Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Both can result in waves of symptoms, typically called flares or flare-ups, involving diarrhea, stomach pain, fatigue, and weight loss. In addition to medication, many treatment plans involve diet and lifestyle changes that require careful compliance and diligence. And that’s where apps come in.

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For example, as part of your IBD management, you might see your doctor every six months or so. They’ll likely ask you how you’re feeling, how your symptoms have changed over that time, how you’ve been sleeping, how stressed you’ve been—all challenging details to remember off the top of your head.

But an app that offers symptom and lifestyle habit tracking lets you record all of that information and keep it ..