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Parents may try to limit how much soda their children and teens consume, given all the sugar and empty calories the drinks contain, but now there might be yet another reason to limit soda consumption. Soda may make teens more aggressive, according to new research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Some teenagers get

The PCSK9 monoclonal antibody evolocumab (Repatha, Repatha Repatha Amgen) was well tolerated and effectively lowered LDL cholesterol by 38% compared with placebo in a randomized controlled trial in pediatric patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) already taking statins with or without ezetimibe. “HAUSER-RCT is the largest study and the first placebo-controlled randomized trial of a PCSK9

It’s been in the news for years now: opioids are addictive, even when prescribed for legitimate reasons. But a new study shows that even for a relatively simple surgery, the pain-leveling power bestowed in a script is still there. As is the potential for addiction. In the 1990s, when doctors began to prescribe opioids to help their

Initiation of rhythm control with antiarrhythmic drugs and/or ablation in patients with early, recently diagnosed atrial fibrillation led to a significantly lower risk for major adverse cardiovascular outcomes, compared with a rate control strategy, during more than 5 years of follow-up. The results, from the large randomized EAST-AFNET 4 trial, were presented by Paulus Kirchhof,

Longer, more frequent daytime naps in elderly adults predicted a higher risk of incident Alzheimer’s dementia over time, an actigraphy study showed. Elderly people who napped more than once a day had 1.3-fold increased risk in developing future Alzheimer’s dementia, reported Peng Li, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues, at the

Millions of pregnancy tests are sold every year in the United States and at a cost of a little over $10 for a box of 2, they take just a few minutes and a bit of urine to give you the results. Now, Abbott Laboratories is promising a COVID-19 antigen test that is similar in

Anorexia nervosa may stunt the growth and impact the future height of teenage girls, according to data from 255 adolescents. Illness and malnutrition during critical child and adolescent growth periods may limit adult height, but the effect of anorexia nervosa (AN) on growth impairment and adult height has not been well studied, wrote Dalit Modan-Moses,

There’s a new category to consider if you ever plan to relocate: what the locals pay for their prescription drugs. Folks in San Francisco pay 18% above the national average; folks in Denver pay 33.8% below. Think about that – it’s close to a 52% range. (Yes, that’s what we said, too.) These data, compiled by the

Pulsed field ablation (PFA) targeting areas beyond the pulmonary vein appeared to provide short-term lesion control without esophageal injury in persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) in the single-arm PersAFOne study. Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is often insufficient for persistent AF but more extensive ablation is an area of controversy. Trials of posterior wall ablation have yielded

Bookmark the website, make it a “web app” for your smartphone! Just start using Patient Decision Aids from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. Last week, one of my favorite and most noncompliant patients showed up for a walk-in appointment after missing months of care during the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of the visit, she

“There’s an app for that.” It seems there is an app for just about anything these days. And, as you listen to your favorite podcast or favorite song on Spotify, you might hear ads for apps to help you manage your mental health. They promise you can “get help on your own time, at your

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. A key member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force wasn’t in the meeting that decided on the updated CDC guidelines that say people without COVID-19 symptoms may not need to get tested. Anthony Fauci, MD, the director of the National

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s decision to revise its COVID-19 testing guidelines has prompted shocked reactions from many experts. Previous guidance clearly said, “testing is recommended for all close contacts.” That is, anyone who thought they had come into contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19 should be tested. The revised guidelines indicate that

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a statement today in response to concerns that revised COVID-19 testing guidelines might result in an increase in disease transmission. Asymptomatic individuals who come into close contact with people suspected

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced on Thursday that reforming “Stark Law” regulations on self-referral will take longer than expected, drawing concern from physicians. The administration set a new deadline of Aug. 31, 2021, to issue a final rule, a year later than promised in the spring. By then, the political landscape and personnel may

In the summer of COVID 19, swimming pool installers, in all compass directions, have been inundated with pool orders. There are obvious benefits to owning a swimming pool or hot tub, as both can alleviate stress, improve flexibility and offer low impact therapy.  “The demand is through the roof,” said Sabeena Hickman, president and CEO of the

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s been known that older men have a higher risk of getting very sick and dying than older women. A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature says that may be because women’s

It’s been in the news for years now, opioids are addictive, even when given for legitimate reasons. News stories across the country have shown an average mom, dad, son or daughter who took the pain killers after a medical or dental procedure, only to quickly become addicted. And yet, the prescriptions continue. In the 1990s,

George Azar, MD, is a cardiology resident at Saint George Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon. Saint George is less than a mile from the Beirut port where a warehouse filled with ammonium nitrate exploded on August 4th, killing over 200 people and injuring thousands more. These are Azar’s recollections of that day. August 4th was just

Disclaimer: This post is from GomerBlog, a satirical site about healthcare. Leaders of “Operation Warp Speed” (OWS), the government program tasked with developing a COVID-19 vaccine, insist that despite the name, their top priority is safety, not speed. As proof, they announced today that the phase I trials will enroll 7.8 billion participants. “This will

Despite denials from e-cigarette manufacturers, teens are attracted to vaping because of the ease of use, kid-friendly flavors and advertising tactics that make vaping look cool. They also may believe that vaping is safer than smoking traditional cigarettes – something they’ve been warned against for years. Vaping isn’t trouble-free though, even if e-cigarettes don’t contain

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has removed the boxed warning about the risk of leg and foot amputations for canagliflozin (Invokana, Invokamet, Janssen), a sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitor for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, the agency announced today. As previously reported by Medscape Medical News, the FDA added the boxed warning to

It may be disconcerting that Google tracks your searches, including those you may do for your health, but sometimes that tracking comes in handy. Like when someone does some research about how often people search for “chest pain” or “myocardial infarction.” Researchers from the Mayo Clinic took advantage of Google Trends to learn about how

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has revoked the umbrella emergency use authorization (EUA) it granted in May for intubation boxes once thought to keep healthcare providers safer when performing procedures on patients with COVID-19. The FDA specified in its announcement

I was 16 years old and being given a car ride to a cricket match by one of my teammates. He was our opening batsman and a good cricket player — I’m guessing around 40 to 50 years old. He started asking about how my education was going. I told him that I was about

Smokers hear it all the time. They should quit smoking. But for many, it’s much easier said than done. The addiction is strong. But if any smoker needs yet another reason to quit, it may be this one: Smokers who have atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat, can cut their risk of having a stroke if

The ratio of two proteins easily obtained from the urine of deceased donors can help predict how viable a donor kidney will be once transplanted into a recipient, the observational Deceased Donor Study indicates. By helping determine in advance how successful transplantation of the donor kidney will be, this clinical tool should broaden the pool

On Sunday the Food and Drug Administration approved an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19.  “The known and potential benefits of the product outweigh the known and potential risks of the product,” the FDA said in a press release. During a Sunday press conference President Donald Trump said of the emergency