Health Library

Lots of Americans Want Health Care Via Their Smartphone TUESDAY, June 18 (HealthDay News) -- Plenty of Americans are eager to use their mobile phones and tablet computers to better manage their health care, a new poll finds -- though the nation has a way to go before we're all consulting Dr. Smartphone. In a Harris Interactive/HealthDay survey released Tuesday, more than one-third of respondents who are online said they were "very" or "extremely" interested in using smartphones or tablets to ask their d...

Low Blood Sugar May Raise Dementia Risk in Diabetics: Study MONDAY, June 10 (HealthDay News) -- Low blood sugar in older adults with type 2 diabetes may increase their risk of dementia, a new study suggests. While it's important for diabetics to control blood sugar levels, that control "shouldn't be so aggressive that you get hypoglycemia," said study author Dr. Kristine Yaffe, a professor of psychiatry, neurology and epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco. The study of nearly 800 p...

Lightning Survivor Describes Her Ordeal FRIDAY, June 6 (HealthDay News) -- Susanne LaRiviere was working on a movie set in Malaysia when she and a friend decided to spend a long holiday weekend on the island of Pangkor Laut in a type of local resort called "sea villas." The villas are built on stilts in the ocean. Each villa has a bathroom with an oversized tub that's open to the sea. "After an amazing weekend, we were scheduled to return to the mainland Monday morning via a Chinese junk boat we had hir...

Low Breast-Feeding Rate Linked to Early Deaths, Illnesses: Study THURSDAY, June 6 (HealthDay News) -- Low breast-feeding rates in the United States are a serious threat to women's health and a drain on the nation's health dollars, according to a new study. Researchers concluded that low breast-feeding rates may be linked to as many as 5,000 cases of breast cancer, nearly 54,000 cases of high blood pressure and almost 14,000 heart attacks among American women each year. But some experts question the stud...

Listeria Food Poisoning Hits Elderly, Moms-to-Be Hardest: CDC TUESDAY, June 4 (HealthDay News) -- Soft cheese and raw produce have caused many recent listeria outbreaks in the United States, and at least 90 percent of cases typically occur among seniors, pregnant women, newborns and people with weakened immune systems, a new U.S. health report says. Pregnant women are 10 times more likely to get this serious form of food poisoning than others in the general population, and the risk is 24 times higher am...

Lawn Mower Injuries Often Caused by Distraction SUNDAY, May 26 (HealthDay News) -- Each summer, lawn mower accidents send countless numbers of people to the emergency room. Mishaps often involve serious injuries to the fingers, hands and feet. Often caused by a moment's distraction, injuries may require a team of specialists and months of reconstructive surgeries -- even such as replacing a severed thumb with a big toe -- experts warn. "Too many people are injured each year because of lawn mower-related...

Low-Income, Minority Parents More Open to HPV Vaccine for Girls, Study Says FRIDAY, May 24 (HealthDay News) -- Low-income, minority parents have more realistic views about their teens' sexual activity and are more open to vaccinating their daughters against the cervical cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV), a small new study contends. Conversely, white, middle-class parents are more likely to put off vaccination for their daughters, according to researchers from the Boston University School of Medi...

Low Prenatal Iodine May Affect Child's Brain Development THURSDAY, May 23 (HealthDay News) -- Mild to moderate iodine deficiency during pregnancy may have a negative long-term impact on children's brain development, British researchers report. Low levels of the so-called "trace element" in an expectant mother's diet appear to put her child at risk of poorer verbal and reading skills during the preteen years, the study authors found. Pregnant women can boost their iodine levels by eating enough dairy pro...

Long-Term Use of Antibiotic May Help Those With COPD TUESDAY, May 21 (HealthDay News) -- Thousands of Americans, many of them smokers or ex-smokers, suffer from the lung condition known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Now a new study finds that patients placed on the common antibiotic azithromycin may be able to cut down on hospitalizations due to flare-ups of the disease. "Given that exacerbations of COPD can be life-threatening, prevention of such events is critical," said Victoria Ri...

Latest Edition of Psychiatry's 'Bible' Launched Amid Controversy MONDAY, May 20 (HealthDay News) -- As the American Psychiatric Association unveiled last week the latest edition of what is considered the "bible" of modern psychiatry, the uproar over its many changes continues. "This is unprecedented, the amount of commentary and debate and criticism," said Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). "It's been an interesting phenomenon, but the evidence is what ...