Childhood obesity rates are through the roof. In the past 30 years, the percentage of overweight kids has nearly tripled in every age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Obesity in children is defined as a body mass index, BMI, at or above the 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex.) The …
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FDA Announces New Effort to Fight Drug Errors, Surgical Fires
Around 1.5 million preventable medication errors occur in the American health system each year at a cost of over $4 billion annually, according to a new report released yesterday by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The report’s release marks the start of a new effort to reduce those numbers.
The FDA’s “Safe Use” …
Breast cancer survivors: Time to pump it up
Breast cancer surgeons have long wagged their fingers at patients warning them never to lift anything over 15 pounds, especially if lymph nodes were taken during surgery. Well, for any woman with a child (or groceries for that matter) the limitation is annoying at best, disempowering at worst.
That advice was rooted in the fear that …
For doctors, less sleep is linked with more mistakes
The debate over the lengthy hours and the sleepless overnight shifts that characterize medical training programs continues to rage, both in the U.S. and abroad. But new research published in the October 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association underscores that getting enough sleep isn’t only crucial for medical …
After ACL tears, younger patients and women more likely to need multiple surgeries
It’s a familiar scenario: after an initial surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)—one of the four major ligaments that connect the shin bone to the thigh bone and hold the knee in place—there is a long period of physical therapy and follow-up with the doctor. Yet, and in some cases, patients find themselves going
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What do U.S. healthcare professionals earn?
As the heated debate over health care continues, there has been plenty of talk about how the U.S. system stacks up to that of other countries, and how much American doctors earn compared with M.D.s in other parts of the world. But, how do salaries compare across the spectrum of jobs within the U.S. health care system? TIME turned to the
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Can Surgery Cure Migraines?
A new study claims that surgery — plastic surgery, no less — has the potential to cure migraines. Of 49 patients who underwent the new treatment (similar to a traditional forehead lift), more than half reported their migraines were completely gone — eliminated. In total, 83% said their migraine frequency had declined by at least half.
