MONDAY, Feb. 13 (HealthDay News) — Use of home oxygen in the United States has risen over the past decade, which has led to an increase in the number of patients with medical oxygen-related burn injuries, according to experts at the Burn Center at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
MONDAY, Feb. 13 (HealthDay News) — Merck’s Zioptan drops (tafluprost ophthalmic solution) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to lower pressure within the eye among people with high blood pressure of the eye (ocular hypertension) or open-angle glaucoma, the most common form of the disease.
Approval was based on five clinical studies involving 905 people, the drug’s maker said in a news release. The most common side effects included increased pigmentation of the iris and eyelids, and changes in the thickness and color of the eyelashes.
MONDAY, Feb. 13 (HealthDay News) — Routine screening at primary care clinics led to a two- to threefold increase in diagnoses of brain-function impairments such as dementia in older veterans, researchers say.
The new study included more than 8,000 U.S. veterans aged 70 and older who agreed to undergo a brief screening during a routine visit to a VA primary care clinic. None of the veterans showed signs of memory loss.
SATURDAY, Feb. 11 (HealthDay News) — The easier your name is to pronounce, the more likely you are to receive promotions at work and make friends, a new study suggests.
Using mock ballots, researchers from the University of Melbourne and New York University’s Stern School of Business also found politicians with simple names are more likely to get elected.
By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Feb. 10 (HealthDay News) — Researchers report that brain scans can help predict how people will perform a challenging mental task, a discovery that could lead to a better understanding of how the mind learns new things.
The researchers found that what they once thought was “noise” in the brain, like static from a television, actually plays a major role and “is very important for understanding how the brain does things,” said study author Dr. Maurizio Corbetta, a professor of neurology at Washington University at St. Louis.
FRIDAY, Feb. 10 (HealthDay News) — Most children and teens who deliberately injure themselves are discharged from emergency rooms without an evaluation of their mental health, a new study shows.
The findings are worrisome since risk for suicide is greatest right after an episode of deliberate self-harm, according to researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Feb. 9 (HealthDay News) — Getting behind the wheel within three hours after using marijuana nearly doubles a driver’s risk of having an accident, a large new research review finds.
The risk is especially high for fatal crashes, and the risk is only a little less than that of people who drive drunk, Canadian researchers say.
By Madonna Behen
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Feb. 10 (HealthDay News) — More than 4 million Americans now live with an artificial knee, and increasing numbers of younger patients are undergoing knee replacement surgery, new research reveals.
Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston estimate that more than half of adults who are diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis will receive a total knee replacement in their lifetime.
THURSDAY, Feb. 9 (HealthDay News) — A case study of two men who were poisoned and turned blue after ingesting what they thought was a recreational drug that they had bought on the Internet highlights the dangers of such purchases, a new report claims.
The case study appears in the Feb. 10 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which is published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
THURSDAY, Feb. 9 (HealthDay News) –
People who suffer a rare type of fracture of the thigh bone while taking bone-building drugs known as bisphosphonates can cut the risk of a second fracture by discontinuing the medication, a new study says.
