WASHINGTON ― President-elect Donald Trump distinguished himself on the campaign trail as the rare Republican candidate promising not to cut Social Security and Medicare. But Republicans in Congress have other plans for the two popular social insurance programs ― and they are wasting no time rolling them out. Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas), chairman of the House […]
Category: Medical
U.S. Life Expectancy In Decline, has Researchers Puzzled
American life expectancy is in decline for the first time since 1993, when H.I.V.-related deaths were at their peak. But this time, researchers can’t identify a single problem driving the drop, and are instead pointing to a number of factors, from heart disease to suicides, that have caused a greater number of deaths. A study […]
Trump Says He Will Lower Drug Prices
President-elect Donald Trump promised to drive down the cost of medicines, defying investors who saw a boon in his election last month and injecting himself again into a contentious economic debate. “I’m going to bring down drug prices,” Trump said, according to a transcript of an interview posted on Time magazine’s website as it named him its […]
Half Of Americans Want Obamacare To Stay Or Expand
Some 49% of Americans want Trump and Congress to either expand Obamacare or continue implementing the law as it is, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Thursday. Another 26% want the entire law repealed, while 17% would like the law scaled back. Trump and GOP Congressional leaders have said they plan to take […]
New HIV vaccine could mean end of disease…
JOHANNESBURG – A new vaccine against HIV, to be tested in a trial to be launched in South Africa Wednesday, could be “the final nail in the coffin” for the disease if it is successful, scientists say. The study, called HVTN 702, aims to enroll 5,400 sexually active men and women aged between 18 and […]
Abortion Rates Lowest Since Before Roe v. Wade
The rate and number of abortions in the United States is at its lowest in decades, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2013, the latest year for which there is data, the rate was half of what it was in 1980, according to the centers’ annual report. There […]
Mom Suing Transgender Daughter for Transitioning From Male to Female
A mother of five kids is suing her 17-year-old transgender child — along with the teen’s supportive school district, school principal, and various local health service providers — after the teen transitioned from male to female without her mom’s express permission. “If this had been a child custody case, I would’ve had my day in court,” […]
Terminally Ill Teenager In UK Wins Court Battle To Be Frozen
A judge on the High Court in London granted a dying British teenager’s request to be cryogenically frozen. The ruling was last month, but media coverage was restricted while the girl was still alive. A 14-year-old girl in the U.K. who was dying of cancer won the right to be cryogenically frozen, in a case […]
World Health Organization Says Zika Epidemic Is Here To Stay
After a nine-month emergency designation, the WHO reclassified Zika as a long-term epidemic similar to other mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and yellow fever. Dr. Peter Salama, WHO’s emergency program executive director, stressed at a press conference the announcement was not “downgrading the importance of Zika,” rather “sending the message that Zika is here to stay […]
Doctors Discover New Antibody In Fight Against HIV
Scientists have discovered an antibody that can powerfully neutralize many variants of the most common strain of HIV, opening up a door for researchers to explore treatment and prevention options for the potentially fatal virus. Antibodies ― proteins created by our immune system that are in charge of spotting and neutralizing potentially harmful substances in […]
Surgeon General Murthy Says Addiction Is A Brain Disease, Not A Moral Failing
In 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Luther Terry issued a landmark report on tobacco and health that changed the course of American history, spurring the decline of smoking in the United States. More than 50 years later, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy hopes he can do something similar for addiction. Murthy’s new report on alcohol, drugs […]
Past depression could mean worse chances to beat breast cancer
(Reuters Health) – Women with a history of depression may have lower survival odds with breast cancer than patients without past mental health problems, research in Denmark suggests. In the study of more than 45,000 women with early-stage breast malignancies, 13 percent of patients previously treated with antidepressants died within five years of their cancer […]