More Americans Can't Afford Health Care, Prescriptions

The inability to pay for health care has reached a new high in the United States, a new study says.

More than one-third of Americans — an estimated 91 million people — say they couldn't afford to access quality health care if they needed it today, according to the latest West Health-Gallup Healthcare Affordability Index.

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Swallowing Disorder Not Widely Known, Understood By Public

Insomnia and vertigo are health conditions so well-known that movies have been named after them.

But only a quarter of Americans know about a condition that occurs even more often than vertigo or insomnia, called dysphagia, a new study says.

Dysphagia is a condition in which people have trouble swallowing, due to nerve, muscle or str...

Drug Overdose Deaths Rising Faster in Black Americans, Study Finds

Black Americans have been dying from drug overdoses (OD) at higher rates than white Americans, a new study says.

Both Black men and women are at greater risk of a fatal OD compared to white people, researchers reported April 1 in JAMA Network Open.

The OD death rate for Black men surpassed the rate for white men in 2016, and...

Eye Exam Can Assess Risk Of Delirium Following Surgery

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul.

The eyes also might help detect seniors at risk for a common syndrome in which they emerge from surgery in a state of delirium, new research suggests.

Seniors who have thicker retinas are about 60% more likely to develop post-surgical delirium, researchers reported April 1 in the journal...

Experts Concerned as NIH Axes Critical Vaccine Study Funds

Hundreds of U.S. research projects aimed at boosting vaccine confidence have been shut down -- just as preventable diseases like measles and flu are on the rise.

Since Jan. 20, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has canceled more than 1,600 research grants. 

Around 300 of those were for vaccine-related projec...

Brain Implant Lets Woman Talk After 18 Years of Silence Due to Stroke

For nearly two decades, a stroke had left a woman unable to speak -- until now. 

Thanks to a new brain implant, her thoughts are being turned into real-time speech, giving her a voice again for the first time in 18 years.

The device was tested on a 47-year-old woman with quadriplegia who lost her ability to speak after a stroke....

Major Job Cuts at NIOSH Pose Risks to Worker Safety, Critics Warn

A major round of job cuts at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) could weaken efforts to protect American workers, according to federal health officials.

About two-thirds of NIOSH staff -- roughly 875 people -- may lose their jobs as part of a larger restructuring ordered by U.S. Department of Health and Human...

Microplastics Linked To High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Stroke

Microplastics appear to be contributing to chronic diseases in shoreline areas of the United States, a new study suggests.

High blood pressure, diabetes and stroke rates are higher in coastal or lakefront areas with greater concentrations of microplastics in the environment, researchers reported at a meeting of the American College of Card...

Pregnant Women, New Moms Dying More Often From Heart Conditions

The heart-related death rate among pregnant women and new mothers more than doubled between 1999 and 2022, researchers have found.

Just under 9.1 mothers for every million people died from heart-related diseases in 2022, up from 3.6 per million in 1999, according to results presented Sunday at the American College of Cardiology’s ann...

Navigators Help Patients Get Colonoscopy For Suspected Cancer

Personalized support can help more people at risk of colon cancer attend a potentially life-saving colonoscopy appointment, a new study says.

About 55% of people assigned a patient navigator got a follow-up colonoscopy after their stool test revealed a risk of colon cancer, compared with nearly 43% of patients who were simply notified of t...

GLP-1 Drug Use For Weight Loss Has Soared, Costing Billions

The number of Americans taking cutting-edge weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound has skyrocketed in recent years, a new study says.

The number of people without diabetes taking a GLP-1 drug more than tripled between 2018 and 2022 in the U.S., researchers reported March 31 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Sp...

Fasting Outperforms Calorie Cutting, Clinical Trial Says

Fasting every other day can prompt more weight loss than simply cutting calories, a new clinical trial shows.

People who undertook 4:3 intermittent fasting lost just under 8% of their body weight within a year, compared to a 5% loss among people who cut their daily calories by about a third, researchers reported March 31 in the Annals ...