Health

Wednesday, 19 December 2012 23:57

Feds Warn School Featured in ABC News Report: Shock Devices Violate Law

Written by Carmen Cox

Authors: Carmen Cox

Courtesy Cheryl McCollins(BOSTON) -- A Boston area school for severely disabled children has received a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over its use of devices that administer shocks to its students when they misbehave, a form of restraint that is at the extreme end of a practice that has lawmakers...

Published in Health

Wednesday, 19 December 2012 15:32

How Can Professional Santas Avoid the Flu?

Written by Joshua Cohan

Authors: Joshua Cohan

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A lot of kids must sit on Santa’s lap before he can hop in his sleigh on Christmas Eve, but Santa has to be extra careful during flu season if he wants to stay healthy into the New Year.
John Sullivan, a professional Santa Claus in Chicago, said he never turns down a child, even if the...

Published in Health

Wednesday, 19 December 2012 11:28

Most States Underprepared for Public Health Emergencies

Written by Jeanette Torres

Authors: Jeanette Torres

Comstock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- There are persistent gaps in the nation’s ability to respond to public health emergencies, according to a new study from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Trust for America’s Health, despite a series of recent tragic events like 9/11, anthrax threats and Hurricane Katrina.
One...

Published in Health

Wednesday, 19 December 2012 08:36

Woman Dies After Receiving Smoker's Lungs in Transplant

Written by Jeanette Torres

Authors: Jeanette Torres

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Jennifer Wederell, a 27-year-old British woman with cystic fibrosis, died of lung cancer after she received the lungs of a heavy smoker in an organ transplant.
According to BBC News, Wederell had been on the waiting list for a lung transplant for 18 months when in April 2011, she was...

Published in Health

Wednesday, 19 December 2012 07:45

Newtown Shooting Puts Spotlight on US Mental Health Care -- Again

Written by Jeanette Torres

Authors: Jeanette Torres

DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- It has not yet been confirmed whether Adam Lanza had been diagnosed with mental illness, but the 20-year-old, who murdered his mother, then drove to a Newtown, Conn., elementary school and gunned down 20 first-graders and six adults, has again shined the spotlight on care for the...

Published in Health

Wednesday, 19 December 2012 08:58

Patients Who Google Hemorrhoids May Want to Avoid Doctor

Written by Jeanette Torres

Authors: Jeanette Torres

NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Google's annual roundup of the year's top search trends revealed that people took to the Internet to learn more about Whitney Houston, Hurricane Sandy and Big Bird, but an unlikely pain in the butt joined the group, too: hemorrhoids.
The top trending health issue in the United...

Published in Health

Wednesday, 19 December 2012 07:32

Germany's Merck suffers setback with cancer drug

Written by Administrator

BERLIN (AP) -- German pharmaceutical company Merck KgaA says a late stage trial of a new lung cancer drug has failed to meet expectations.......

Published in Health

Tuesday, 18 December 2012 20:33

Trauma Surgeons Call for 'War on Ammunition'

Written by Carmen Cox

Authors: Carmen Cox

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(MIAMI) -- Skyla Davis was shot before she was even born.
Her mother, Tiffany Davis, 27 and eight months pregnant, was leaving a convenience store Dec. 9 in Miami when gang members started shooting in her neighborhood.
One bullet struck her in the brain; another hit her in the abdomen, piercing her womb and...

Published in Health

Tuesday, 18 December 2012 18:32

Researchers Tell Kids to Drink Their Milk -- But How Much?

Written by Carmen Cox

Authors: Carmen Cox

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(TORONTO) -- Pediatricians often recommend milk to help kids grow strong bones. We tell our children to drink milk, but how much "moo" juice is too much of a good thing?

A Canadian study of more than 1,300 children helps with the answer.

Published in the journal Pediatrics, the research found...

Published in Health

Tuesday, 18 December 2012 15:42

Paralyzed Mom Controls Robotic Arm Using Her Thoughts

Written by Joshua Cohan

Authors: Joshua Cohan

University of Pittsburgh/UPMC(PITTSBURGH) -- After years of paralysis, the one thing Jan Scheuermann wanted was to feed herself. Now, thanks to a mind-controlled robotic arm, Scheuermann has done just that.
Stricken with spinocerebellar degeneration since 1996, Sheuermann, 52, has progressively lost control of all motor...