Drinking just a glass of wine a day increases women’s risk of breast cancer, as well as several other types of the disease, a new study concludes. The research, carried out among more than a million UK women, says that alcohol accounts for 5,000 cases of breast cancer every year.
What do we know already?
Many of us enjoy relaxing with a glass of wine at the end of the day. But it’s an unpalatable fact that alcohol can damage your health, especially Read the rest of this entry »

No such luck.
Carter, a technical editor for a District consulting firm and mother of twin boys and a girl, is facing steep increases in out-of-pocket expenses for health coverage this year. What she shells out for premiums and co-pays more than offsets any fuel savings. Her employer picks up 50 percent of the coverage for her family, up from 33 percent a few years ago. But because insurance costs have soared, she says she’s actually paying $200 Read the rest of this entry »

The information in this column is intended for informational purposes only, and does not constitute medical advice or recommendations by the author.  Please consult with your physician before making any lifestyle or medication changes, or if you have any other concerns regarding your health.
The cholesterol-lowering statin drugs have become one of the most commonly prescribed classes of medications in the world, and nearly 20 million patients Read the rest of this entry »

The annual report, from the National Center for Health Statistics, is based on the most recent data available from a variety of health sources. It covers health issues across ages and includes for the first time a section on 50 million young adults ages 18-29, a group that is “understudied,” says lead author Amy Bernstein.
• About one-third are obese, and one-third are overweight.
• About 30% do not have health insurance.
• Read the rest of this entry »

Geography makes a difference. The “medical tourism” idea – traveling to cheaper places for expensive procedures – is growing. You don’t need to go to Mexico, Singapore or India to save. Even in the U.S. there are now cheaper places. It may not always justify the trip, but sometimes it will. Suppose you live in northern California and have relatives in Cincinnati, Ohio. Aetna’s tool shows that an in-network cholesterol screening is $21 in Cincinnati Read the rest of this entry »

FRIDAY, Feb. 13 (HealthDay News) — An umbilical cord blood transplant from an unrelated or unmatched donor can still help children with deadly conditions such as cancer and sickle cell anemia, Duke University Medical Center researchers report.
They noted that unrelated cord blood may be easier to obtain than adult bone marrow, which means more patients would be able to receive treatment.
“Our study found that using cord blood can be effective, Read the rest of this entry »

Copayments are forever. The debate over healthcare affordability often focuses on monthly premiums, but it’s the relentless, never-ending drain from copayments and other expenses not covered by health insurance that often gets people into trouble. And these days, people are financially stretched to the point where it doesn’t take much to cause hardship: Expenses exceeding just 2.5 percent of family income can do it, according to a
released today Read the rest of this entry »

With the arrival of winter, H5N1 avian
is on the rise again in Asia and Egypt.
The outbreaks are part of an annual trend: cases peak between December and March each year in birds as well as humans.
Children have died from it recently in Indonesia and Egypt, and a Cambodian teenager tested positive but survived.
this year. That is well below the 59 recorded last year and the peak of 79 recorded in 2006. All 30 deaths this year occurred in Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

Americans love television, no doubt about it. And researchers have been monitoring just how beneficial that love can be — at least when it comes to spreading health and medical messages. Now they have a powerful example.
Writers for the show “Grey’s Anatomy,” working with the Kaiser Family Foundation, wove specific and accurate information about HIV transmission into a storyline about a pregnant HIV-infected woman. The resulting episode, which Read the rest of this entry »