Health

WASHINGTON - Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, are urging their colleagues to pass the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. This legislation is intended to expand access to primary care but it languished in... Read More

Bite Helper is a battery-powered, wand-like device capable of neutralizing itches from bug bites through thermal-pulse technology which delivers concentrated heat and vibration to a specific area where someone has been bitten by an insect.  The device increases circulation, blood,... Read More

The mass shooting of nine people at a San Jose light rail yard last Wednesday morning prompted the Stanford Blood Center, headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., to spring to action to support the victims.   “On Wednesday morning, we got a... Read More

Vaccination rates, which reached a peak of 3.38 million shots per day in April slowed to fewer than 2 million doses per day in May. In response on Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced a “month of action” to urge more... Read More

Waking up just one hour earlier could reduce a person’s risk of major depression by 23%, suggests a new genetic study published May 26 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. The study of 840,000 people, by researchers at University of Colorado... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Johnson & Johnson is asking for Supreme Court review of a $2 billion verdict in favor of women who claim they developed ovarian cancer from using the company's talc products. The case features an array of high-profile... Read More

Consuming more than three cups of coffee per day can decrease the risk of "all- cause mortality," according to recent research from South Korea published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The researchers were examining the association between... Read More

More than a year after COVID-19 appeared in the U.S., dentists continue to have a lower infection rate than other front-line health professionals, such as nurses and physicians, according to a study published in The Journal of the American Dental Association. The... Read More

Twenty-Five states and the District of Columbia have fully vaccinated at least half of their population, the Centers for Disease Control said Tuesday. From a political perspective, 21 of those 25 states and the District of Columbia are blue states,... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden ordered U.S. intelligence officials to "redouble" their efforts to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, including any possibility the trail might lead to a Chinese laboratory.  After months of minimizing that possibility as... Read More

California state school nutrition policies and federal policies for school meals have mixed impacts on childhood obesity in children of Pacific Islander, Filipino and American Indian/Alaska native origins, according to a new study. The research was published this week in the open... Read More

The United States' leading Indian American civic and political organization, IMPACT, has launched what it describes as a seven figure campaign to compel the Biden administration to rush COVID-19 vaccines to India and help the country build its own vaccine... Read More

President Biden’s big push to get 70% of adults at least one shot by July 4th is now being supported by some of America’s largest dating sites, like Hinge, Ok Cupid, and Tinder, who will offer features to highlight vaccination... Read More

A study published this week indicates that just one session of storytelling can increase oxytocin, reduce cortisol and pain, and promote positive emotional shifts in children admitted into an intensive care unit. “As a storyteller myself I decided to investigate... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Everyone on a congressional panel Tuesday agreed that safe drinking water is an important health priority but several lawmakers disagreed that the Biden administration’s plan for pursuing it is practical. “I have a lot of doubts that it... Read More

WASHINGTON — Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been a vocal monitor of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, even sometimes criticizing the process in the U.K., which in many respects led the global vaccination effort earlier this year. Through his... Read More

Researchers at Envision Healthcare and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai recommend lowering the screening age for colorectal cancer from 50 to 45 years old based on new research.  The Mount Sinai team analyzed approximately 3 million colonoscopies performed... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — For Vanessa Gregson, the four-lane highway that borders the beach along San Francisco's Pacific Ocean is now an automobile-free sanctuary where she can blissfully ride her bicycle and enjoy the quiet. "You hear the beach. You... Read More

WASHINGTON - Tuesday, the US Department of Health and Human Services, through the Health Resources and Services Administration, announced that it is dedicating $4.8 billion from the American Rescue Plan to support the HRSA COVID-19 Uninsured Program. This funding will... Read More

The Pentagon signed an agreement to expand the production of more efficient syringes, which it announced on Monday, as part of the country’s national response to coronavirus.  According to the agreement, the U.S. allocated $27.3 million in government funding to... Read More

U.S. health officials and the State Department warned Americans this week against travel to Japan because of a surge in coronavirus cases in the country, which is preparing to host the Olympics in just two months. The alerts don’t ban... Read More

Many hospital beds are full. Waiting lists for outpatient treatment are bulging. And teens and adults seeking help for eating disorders are often finding it takes months to get an appointment. The pandemic created treacherous conditions for eating disorders, leading... Read More

Marna Gatlin, a 58-year-old from Portland, Ore., is the administrator of a Facebook support group for morbidly obese individuals. Gatlin has struggled with obesity for several years but found this past year to be more challenging.  “I decided during the... Read More

WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci says vaccinated Americans would “not necessarily” need to get booster shots this fall for further protection from COVID-19. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, told CBS “This Morning” on Friday that scientists would be... Read More

The World Health Organization and UNICEF launched a toolkit for helping adolescents thrive based on evidence-based guidelines for the promotion and prevention of mental health conditions, and programmatic guidance for people working in the health sector, social services, and education.... Read More

AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law on Wednesday a bill that not only bans abortions in the state before many women know they are pregnant, but, in a unique twist, gives private citizens the right to... Read More

WASHINGTON — Recent studies conducted by Pfizer-BioNTech and results of a follow-up to Phase III trials confirmed that protection against COVID-19 stays high — over 91% — for at least six months after receiving two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.... Read More

The Federal Communications Commission recently closed applications for health care providers to apply for a second round of funding for the COVID-19 Telehealth Program. “For over a year, health care providers have fought on the front lines of this pandemic... Read More

CARSON CITY, Nev. - Nevada lawmakers are fast-tracking emergency legislation to bolster web privacy protections after a nonprofit news organization revealed the state's COVID-19 vaccine information site contained the most trackers in the country. The legislation, introduced by Assembly Minority... Read More

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Normally conservative Alabama has become the latest state in the union to approve the use of medical marijuana in at least some circumstances. Gov. Kay Ivey signed the legislation Monday, a week after the state House of... Read More