To satisfy the public’s craving for sweetness and concern about the health effects of sugar, food companies have increasingly turned to sugar substitutes. Natural and artificial sweeteners are added to everything from sodas to toothpaste, lip balm to snack items. Now, studies are raising concerns about the health effects of these substitutes. Late last month, […]
Category: Personal
The sad state of U.S. life expectancy
Just before Christmas, federal health officials confirmed life expectancy in America had dropped for a nearly unprecedented second year in a row – down to 76 years. While countries all over the world saw life expectancy rebound during the second year of the pandemic after the arrival of vaccines, the U.S. did not. Then, last […]
Deadly fungal infection spreads across U.S.
A drug-resistant and potentially deadly fungus has been spreading rapidly through U.S. health care facilities, a new government study finds. The fungus, a type of yeast called Candida auris, or C. auris, can cause severe illness in people with weakened immune systems. The number of people diagnosed with infections — as well as the number […]
Will you pay $130 a shot for Covid vaccine?
The U.S. government paid around $10 billion in the early years of the pandemic to develop and purchase Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine as part of Operation Warp Speed. So far, any American who wants the shot has paid nothing out-of-pocket for it — the federal government has footed the bill. But once it’s time to switch […]
Brain-eating amoeba kills Florida resident
A Florida resident has died after becoming infected with a rare brain-eating amoeba, officials say. Health experts in Charlotte County, in southwest Florida, say the victim was probably infected after rinsing their nasal sinuses with tap water. Naegleria fowleri infects the brain through the nose. Officials say that drinking it is not dangerous. Infections are […]
Zero-calorie sweetener linked to heart attack & stroke
A sugar replacement called erythritol – used to add bulk or sweeten stevia, monkfruit and keto reduced-sugar products – has been linked to blood clotting, stroke, heart attack and death, according to a new study. “The degree of risk was not modest,” said lead study author Dr. Stanley Hazen, director of the Center for Cardiovascular […]
Covid-19 ‘intentionally released’ by China says virologist
A Chinese virologist who sounded the alarm in early 2020 about where the coronavirus came from said Monday the U.S. has reached a “milestone achievement” after a classified intelligence report from the Energy Department reportedly found the virus most likely originated in a Chinese lab. Dr. Li Meng Yan told “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in September […]
US report says Covid ‘most likely’ originated from lab leak
The Covid-19 pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report from the U.S. Energy Department. The report, which was included in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office, was recently provided to the White House and other lawmakers. Sources told the Wall […]
George Mason study says vaccine mandates ‘did nothing’
A new study from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University concluded that COVID-19 vaccine mandates in nine major cities did not appear to make a difference in terms of curbing cases deaths from the pandemic. The study examined mandates and statistics from Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, […]
Do you need an optometrist or ophthalmologist ?
This past November, a patient asked optometrist Kaitlin Soracco to remove a bulge of skin on her eyelid. Such skin tags can be excised right there in the office using procedures Soracco studied and observed in optometry school almost a decade ago. Yet in California, where Soracco works, as well as in 32 other states, […]
Mental health care demand stretches hospitals
Hospitals and clinics are stretched well beyond their capacity to treat patients who need mental health care, according to new federal data — utilizing 144% of inpatient beds designated for psychiatric treatment. The figure underscores a long ongoing crisis in the country’s shortage of psychiatric inpatient beds. The overflowing figure, tallied by the Substance Abuse […]
COVID Still a Public Health Emergency says WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that COVID-19 continues to constitute a public health emergency of international concern, its highest form of alert. The pandemic was likely in a “transition point” that continues to need careful management to “mitigate the potential negative consequences,” the agency added in a statement. It is three years […]