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14 Jul

HealthDay Now: Are you being “gaslighted” by your doctor?

HealthDay’s Mabel Jong is joined by Dr. Christine Metz, professor and endometriosis researcher at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, and April Summerford, an endometriosis patient and advocate, to discuss the reasons why women are particularly vulnerable to medical gaslighting and what can be done if you find yourself in this situation.

14 Jul

HealthDay Now: Endometriosis Patients Face Medical “Gaslighting”

HealthDay’s Mabel Jong is joined by Dr. Christine Metz, professor and endometriosis researcher at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, and April Summerford, an endometriosis patient and advocate, to discuss the reasons why women are particularly vulnerable to medical gaslighting and what can be done if you find yourself in this situation.

Health News Results - 425

THURSDAY, June 8, 2023 (HealthDay News) – A new survey of cancer centers find that chemotherapy shortages are affecting most of them, prompting last-minute changes in treatment for numerous types of cancer.

About 93% of the centers surveyed said they were experiencing shortages of the drug ...

Folks who are loaded down with medical debt are less likely to survive a bout of cancer, a new study reports.

Researchers found that U.S. counties where more residents have medical debt in collections also had more cancer deaths, compared to counties with less medical debt.

“This association was seen for all cancers combined, and the five major cancer types: lung, colorectal, panc...

U.S. gun deaths and injuries in children have risen at astronomical rates. Yet, among kids on Medicaid, only about two of every five children who get shot receive mental health care within six months of these traumatic incidents, researchers say.

The need is great, given that more than 11,250 U.S. kids experienced nonfatal firearm injuries in 2020.

“There are many thing...

Americans aren't living as long as people in dozens of other developed nations — and the problem is worse than previously thought, a new study reveals.

People in more than 50 countries on six continents have been outliving Americans for more than 70 years, according to the new research.

“The new study challenges two assumptions that have influenced previous research on the U.S. ...

An exceptionally pricey gene therapy cure for sickle cell disease could soon be available, but it’s not clear whether insurance companies will balk at the cost and deny coverage.

On the surface, the gene therapy does not appear as cost-effective as the grinding medical care that sickle cell patients now receive, according to a new analysis.

Gene therapy applied just once to a sick...

Black men die from prostate cancer more frequently than other men. They also shoulder the greatest burden of advanced prostate disease around the world.

Now, new research shows genetics are not to blame.

Rather, the culprit is treatment disparities, researchers report.

“I believe this is the largest and most representative genomic study of advanced prostate cancer in men of...

Black Americans face a greater risk of early death than white people do, and now a new study points to the reasons why.

Known as the social determinants of health, these eight factors are critical for health and well-being.

The reason that Black adults in the United States have a 59% higher risk of premature death than white adults can be linked to disparities in employment, income...

Older Americans are increasingly likely to log into “patient portals” to access their health care information — but confidence levels vary.

About 78% of people aged 50 to 80 now use at least one patient portal, according to the new University of Michigan (U-M) National Poll on Healthy Aging.

Five years ago, just 51% in this age range used patient portals, the researchers sai...

When it comes to diagnosing sleep apnea, current screening methods may put Black patients at a disadvantage, new research suggests.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a serious sleep disorder characterized by disrupted breathing during sleep. An initial screening tool might be an overnight pulse oximeter test — a small device clipped on to a fingertip that measures blood oxygen levels.

Many seniors skip or stretch prescription medications due to costs despite being insured by Medicare, a new U.S. study finds.

Roughly 20% of older adults reported taking less medication than prescribed or not taking medication because of cost, the researchers found.

"We also found that most respondents wanted to talk with their doctors about medication costs and would want their d...

Pregnancy is a difficult and potentially dangerous time in a woman's life, and U.S. women say they aren't getting the support they need while they're expecting, a new HealthDay/Harris Poll has found.

Nearly 2 in 5 women who are pregnant or have ever been pregnant (37%) say they have experienced barriers to getting needed care.

Worse, women in their prime childbearing years (18 to 34...

Over the past two decades, premature deaths have cost Black Americans over 80 million more lost years of life, compared with white Americans, a new study finds.

The study is the latest to highlight the nation's longstanding racial disparities in health and l...

Americans will continue to be able to get free preventive health care services -- at least for now.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans temporarily blocked a lower court decision on Monday, pausing a ruling that challenged an Affordable Care Act provision that all health plans cover certain care, the New York Times reported.

The earlier ruling i...

During the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the only ways to see a doctor was via video or phone appointment, and it turns out many people with cancer still prefer telemedicine visits over in-person ones.

The recent end of the U.S. public health emergency will remove some of the flexibilities that were put in place during the pandemic to allow for wider use of telemedicine...

While the official COVID-19 public health emergency has ended, the virus hasn't disappeared.

Some of the special programs put in place during the pandemic have ended, however, and the University of Michigan offers a guide to help Americans understand what's changed and what hasn't.

Get vaccinated

What hasn't changed is that the virus continues to cause serious...

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Wednesday issued a six-month extension for people seeking to fill controlled medication prescriptions via telehealth.

That ability had been set to expire along with the ending of the pandemic public health emergency on May 11.

“These medications, i...

Over the last decade, an aging American population has increasingly turned away from nursing homes in favor of trained caregivers who can provide critical help in the home with basic daily tasks.

But a new investigation warns the need for at-home care has vastly outpaced a much smaller growth in the pool of home care workers.

The result: between 2013 and 2019, the number of availabl...

Lack of transportation isn't just a hassle. When it delays getting care, it also ups the risk of emergency room use and death in adults, new research shows.

This is especially risky for cancer patients.

“Transportation barriers prevent many patients with cancer from accessing timely and effective care. Lack of reliable and affordable transportation can lead to missed appointments,...

The company that makes the opioid overdose nasal spray Narcan plans to have it available in pharmacies and online by late summer for a price of less than $50.

Emergent sent a response letter Thursday to Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who had sent a

  • Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
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  • April 21, 2023
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  • Experts recommend that women at least consider starting breast cancer screening once they turn 40. Now a new study suggests that is especially critical for Black women.

    Looking at data on U.S. breast cancer deaths, researchers found -- as other studies have -- that Black women in their 40s were substantially more likely to die of the disease than other women their age. The disparity was s...

    Patients with a common vascular disease that causes blockages in their leg vessels had both worse symptoms and outcomes if they were Black or poor, new research finds.

    The study from Michigan Medicine looked at more than 7,000 patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) who had a lower extremity bypass operation to improve circulation. PAD involves plaque blocking the vessels that ca...

    Poverty is the fourth-greatest cause of death in the United States, according to new research.

    Researchers at the University of California, Riverside estimate that poverty was associated with 183,000 deaths in 2019 among people 15 years and older.

    And that's a conservative estimate, they say, because the year was just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “Poverty kills as m...

    U.S. prison inmates may be severely undertreated for common chronic health conditions, such as asthma, type 2 diabetes, HIV and mental illness, new research suggests.

    While researchers lacked complete inmate data, they reached this conclusion through a variety of sources, including national health survey data from 2018 to 2020 and a commercial prescription database.

    They found that ...

    Hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children may soon be eligible to receive federally funded health care.

    President Joe Biden on Thursday announced...

    Getting care in the United States for lingering COVID-19 symptoms can be challenging, affecting long-term health and ability to work, a new study finds.

    Adults with so-called long COVID have had greater challenges with health care access and affordability than other adults, and these barriers to care have implications for their well-being, said lead researcher

  • Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter
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  • April 12, 2023
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  • The United States is in the middle of an opioid crisis, yet new research shows that only about 7% of Americans on Medicaid who have opioid use disorder receive residential treatment.

    This means that many people who could potentially benefit from what is more commonly known as "rehab" aren't getting the care they need to help them with their addiction.

    “We know residential care is...

    The death rate among babies born to teen moms has dropped over the past 25 years -- but racial disparities stubbornly persist, a new U.S. government study finds.

    Compared with the late 1990s, fewer babies born to teenage mothers are dying in their first year of life, according to the study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And those improvements have been seen among ...

    The U.S. Justice Department on Monday appealed a Texas court ruling that invalidates the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval in 2020 of mifepristone, the first of two drugs taken during a medical abortion.

    The ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas is “extraordinary and u...

    The so-called "Medicaid cliff" is a perennial threat for millions of American seniors whose incomes put them just above the poverty line.

    While impoverished seniors often have Medicaid to help cover their health care expenses, seniors who make just a little bit more have to pay the higher out-of-pocket costs of Medicare themselves.

    The upshot: They're much less likely to go to the ...

    Seasonal allergies are more common among Black and Hispanic people, but these patients are less likely to get the shots that could ease their symptoms, researchers say.

    “We already know that these underrepresented populations are more likely to suffer from allergic rhinitis [hay fever],” said researcher

    New research suggests that gender and money matter when it comes to getting a last-resort treatment after mechanical ventilation.

    Funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the study found that certain groups are more likely to receive advanced pulmonary support through ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation).

    Who is more likely to get it? Men, those with higher incomes an...

    It's safe to say that the debilitating loss of motor control that typifies Parkinson's disease is bound to undermine any patient's quality of life.

    But new research now suggests that race complicates the equation, with quality of life found to be worse overall among Black, Hispanic and Asian Parkinson's patients, when compared with their white peers.

    Still, study author

  • Alan Mozes HealthDay Reporter
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  • April 6, 2023
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  • Medicaid reimbursement for mental health services varies widely across the United States, making it hard for many folks who need help to get it, a new study finds.

    Researchers found as much as a fivefold difference among states in Medicaid reimbursement rates.

    Even though Medicaid, the go...

    A new study shows that money, or lack of it, can stand in the way of follow-up testing after an abnormal mammogram result.

    Just over one-fifth of U.S. women surveyed by researchers said they would skip additional testing if they had to pay a deductible or co-pay.

    Of 714 women who responded when asked if they'd have follow-up imaging if they had to pay for all or part of it, 21% said...

    Telehealth appointments — meetings with a doctor through a phone or video call — are valuable tools in the fight against opioid use disorder in the United States, researchers say.

    The use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with medications for addiction, reduced the risk for fatal overdose among Medicare recipients, a new study finds.

    The study findings support co...

    When a child is hospitalized, cost may not be the greatest worry but the out-of-pocket expense can be substantial in the United States, even for those with insurance.

    A Michigan Medicine study found that U.S. families covered by private insurance s...

    People covered by Medicaid insurance may not have easy access to some of the most effective, longer-acting birth control methods, new research claims.

    Investigators found that while about 48% of physicians who treat Medicaid patients provided prescription contraception like the birth control pill, only 10% offered longer-acting methods like IUDs and implants. Birth control is considered a...

    In state after state, doors are quickly slamming shut on the ability of doctors to provide gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

    The newest restriction is set to take effect Thursday in Florida, where that state's Board of Medicine decided last month to ban the use of all puberty blockers, hormone therapies and/or surgeries for any patient under 18, whether or not those minors hav...

    Black patients are dying of pulmonary fibrosis, a devastating disease marked by progressive scarring of the lungs, at significantly younger ages than white patients.

    A new study probes factors contributing to earlier onset of disease, hospitalization and death in Bl...

    Do all patients get the same amount of face-to-face time when visiting their primary care doctor?

    Apparently not, claims a new study that found Black and Hispanic patients -- as well as patients with public health insurance like Medicaid or Medicare -- tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to the length of office visits.

    In some cases, shorter visits can potentially ...

    A growing number of Americans are feeling the effects of the health care staffing crisis in the United States, a new HealthDay/Harris Poll has revealed.

    Health care has witnessed the greatest recent increase in consumers affected by staffing shortages, more so than retail, hospitality, education, customer support and manufacturing, poll results show.

    More than a third (35%)...

    Young adults in the United States carry an increasing burden of heart health risk factors, making it more likely they'll suffer a heart attack and stroke as they age, a new study warns.

    More adults ages 20 to 44 are obese and diabetic than a decade ago, and they are more likely to have poorly controlled blood pressure, according to the study published March 5 in the

  • Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
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  • March 6, 2023
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  • Older Black men are more likely than others to die after surgery, according to a new study.

    Black men have a higher chance of dying within 30 days of surgery compared to Black women and white adults, and their odds of death after elective procedures is 50% higher when compared to white men, researchers found.

    This may be because of the “especially high cumulative amounts of stres...

    When Black patients struggle with dementia, they are less likely to receive helpful medications than their white peers, a new study warns.

    Researchers looked at how often patients received one or more of five classes of medications commonly given to dementia patients living at home.

    The study builds on prior research that has identified a racial gap in use of dementia medicine among...

    America's health care workforce is under unprecedented strain, and leaders of the medical profession are scrambling to shore up doctors and nurses who are burning out in record numbers.

    Nearly two-thirds (63%) of a nationwide group of doctors and nurses said they are experiencing a moderate or great deal of burnout at work, according to a new HealthDay-Harris Poll online survey.<...

    Black women are not getting the tests they need to diagnose uterine cancer early, according to a new study.

    Previous research had found that Black patients are less likely to receive early diagnoses than people from other racial and ethnic groups. The new study showed that it's because Black women were more likely to face testing delays or to not get recommended tests at all.

    That m...

    Doctors have dubbed kids' progression from eczema to asthma the "atopic march," and they know more about how it affects white children than their Black counterparts.

    Research scheduled for presentation at an upcoming meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) sheds new light on racial disparities.

    The atopic march typically begins early in life with ato...

    Email has become an easy and essential form of communication between patients and physicians -- so much so that doctors are deluged daily with messages from patients.

    Now, some hospitals and health systems have started charging for doctors' responses to those messages, depending on the amount of work needed to respond. Only a handful of health systems have started billing for these, and t...

    Without dental coverage, many American seniors on Medicare stop getting the fillings and crowns they may need, a new study finds.

    The result isn't pretty.

    “Without dental coverage for adults who are eligible [for] Medicare, we are seeing a rise in loss of teeth after age 65 among nearly 1 in 20 adults, which represents millions of Americans,” said

  • Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
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  • February 9, 2023
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  • Americans received unprecedented access to health care during the pandemic, including hassle-free public insurance and free tests, treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.

    Now, they need to prepare for most of that to unwind, experts say.

    “Essentially, Congress and the administration moved to a model of universal health coverage for COVID vaccines, treatments and tests” during the ...

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