We’re a stressed out society, and between the faltering economy and juggling the pressures of everyday life, it’s no wonder that 65 million of Americans suffer from hypertension.
High blood pressure is a combined product of stress, obesity, a high sodium diet, and some genetic factors that keep the pressure on blood vessels …
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) loosened its position on swimming lessons for toddlers younger than 4 years old.
Until now, the national pediatricians group has recommended against swimming lessons for very young children on the grounds that there was no evidence that early aquatic lessons reduced the risk of drowning or …
A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may provide some explanation for why the obesity rate among youngsters continues to climb.
According to the report, released by the government agency, most Americans don’t live in communities where they are encouraged — by parks, sidewalks and playgrounds — to become …
With experts predicting that the spring and summer allergy season will be one of the worst in recent years, researchers at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in New Orleans presented some intriguing …
More than one-third of the world’s population lives in an area at risk for transmission of dengue fever, but the Florida Keys haven’t traditionally been among them.
Federal health officials report, however, that 28 residents and visitors to Key West, Fla., were infected with dengue fever between July 2009 and April 2010 — the …
It took nearly six months but the General Medical Council (GMC) in the U.K. has pulled Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s license to practice medicine in the United Kingdom.
Wakefield is the researcher who nearly single-handedly fueled parental concerns about the link between vaccines and autism. In 1998, he published a paper in the medical …
In a bit of welcome news on infant mortality rates worldwide, researchers at University of Washington are reporting a lower death rate for children under five than previous UNICEF estimates had calculated.
According to a new assessment of data, including birth and death records, as well as census and survey results, the authors found …
Surviving cancer is definitely a good thing, and no group of patients has benefited more from recent advances in cancer care than the youngest patients. Among cases of the most common childhood cancers, five year survival rates have jumped from 25% in the 1970s to 80% today.
But because young survivors are more likely to live years, …
As any parent knows, children, especially infants and toddlers, like to put things in their mouths, and the smaller the object, it seems, the more attractive it becomes for tiny appetites.
Writing in the journal Pediatrics, researchers at Georgetown University and George Washington University report on a disturbing rise in youngsters …
In all the time I’ve covered health and medicine issues, nothing has been more polarizing than the debate over childhood immunizations. And while scientific evidence continues to mount against a causal connection between vaccines and developmental disorders such as autism, there was one concern voiced by some parents that seemed to …
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that 1 in 8 public swimming pools is in violation of health and safety codes — and that pools at day care centers and children’s facilities seem to be the most frequent offenders. The findings, based on an analysis of more than 120,000 public pool inspections
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After surviving a heart attack, it makes sense that people want to avoid any activity that could cause their ticker to falter again. Yet, as the Associated Press reports, according to new research presented this week at a conference of the American Heart Association in Washington, D.C., because of lack of information about their risk,
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Having excess belly fat in middle-age may increase the risk for dementia later in life, according to results of a new study published this week in the Annals of Neurology. In an analysis of 733 middle-aged men and women, researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine found that not only was higher body mass index (BMI)
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