Health & WellnessS


Bandaid

US: 1 in 5 Medicare patients readmitted within month

New York - One in five Medicare patients end up back in the hospital within a month of discharge, a large study found, and that practice costs billions of dollars a year. The findings suggest patients aren't told enough about how to take care of themselves and stay healthy before they go home, the researchers said. A few simple things - like making a doctor's appointment for departing patients - can help, they said.

The study found that a surprising half of the non-surgery patients who returned within a month hadn't even seen a doctor between hospital stays.

Attention

Insomnia Linked to Suicidal Thoughts, Attempts

But researchers say it's not clear if one causes the other

New research provides more evidence of a link between sleeplessness and suicidal thoughts or attempts, although it's not clear whether insomnia actually makes people want to kill themselves.

Still, the findings suggest that "persistent sleep problems might be an important contributor to suicidal thinking," said study author Dr. Marcin Wojnar, a research fellow at the University of Michigan and an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Warsaw in Poland.

Researchers have connected insomnia to suicide before. But the new study, said to be the most comprehensive of its kind, looks at the population as a whole, not mentally ill people in particular.

Ambulance

Fainting in America Can Carry a $10,000 Price Tag

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© Kenn Kiser
There's really no good time or place for a blackout, though some are significantly worse than others. Mine, one subzero evening in downtown St. Paul, Minn., last December, fell solidly on the inauspicious side of the spectrum.

The Level 2 lobby of the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts was teeming with people waiting for the second half of a fine production of Irving Berlin's White Christmas to begin. I was standing with my mom, sister and her three young-adult kids. Through the windows of a dazzling curtain-wall that spans the front of the trapezoidal building, I was admiring the golden lights on the canopy of trees in the park across the street. On the warm side of the glass, a professional trio of carolers had just finished a short intermission set. I was in a good mood; a fantastic woman in Duluth was expecting my call after the show to finalize plans for our first date the next night.

Bizarro Earth

Vietnam Pollution Threatens Health

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© Agence France PresseMotorcyclists during rush hour in Ho Chi Minh City, Feb. 25, 2009.
As Vietnam's economy has boomed in recent decades, so too have pollution levels in its major cities, with experts concerned that air pollution could pose a major public health concern.

"Environmental pollution in Vietnam is a real problem," said Tuong Lai, former dean of Vietnam's Social Science Institute.

"It's not just foreign visitors who have complained about our dust pollution - people in our country are also very dissatisfied with it," he said.

A study conducted by employment consultants ORC Worldwide put economic boomtowns Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi on a list of the 20 worst cities in the world in which to live and work, for environmental reasons.

Attention

Scientists Find Link between Autism and Vinyl Flooring

Children who live in homes with vinyl floors, which can emit chemicals called phthalates, are more likely to have autism, according to research by Swedish and U.S. scientists published Monday. The study of Swedish children is among the first to find an apparent connection between an environmental chemical and autism.

The scientists were surprised by their finding, calling it "far from conclusive." Because their research was not designed to focus on autism, they recommend further study of larger numbers of children to see whether the link can be confirmed.

Bernard Weiss, a professor of environmental medicine at University of Rochester and a co-author of the study, said the connection between vinyl flooring and autism "turned up virtually by accident." He called it "intriguing and baffling at the same time."

Bulb

The Stunning Consequences of Sleep Deprivation

Nothing feels worse than hearing your alarm clock ring in the morning when your body is screaming for a few extra hours of rest. Given the opportunity, who wouldn't get more sleep? If I had a choice between a year of unlimited Easter candy and a year of unlimited sleep, I'd say "Bye-bye Cadbury" and "Hello, bed!"

Many people don't get as much sleep as they should. Since the invention of the light bulb, people sleep about 500 hours per year less than they used to. Whether we're kept awake by our partner's snoring or we stay up too late watching TV, we wake up tired, groggy, and cranky. No wonder the coffee industry does so well. Unfortunately, sleep deprivation has some side effects and they can't all be remedied with a little extra caffeine.

Calculator

Scientists do marriage survival math

wedding
© Unknown
Scientists believe a mathematical model can determine whether a couple will live happily ever after or end up seeking a divorce.

Researchers claim that their technique has an accuracy of 94 percent and can predict the length of a marital relationship long before problems arise.

Developed by a team of British and American mathematicians, the formula has been tested on 700 newlyweds so far.

The team filmed couples while they discussed contentious issues such as money or in-laws - for 15 minutes and then scored their statements using a points system.

Syringe

The hidden dangers of 'safe surgery'

keyhole surgery
© GettyKeyhole surgery causes less pain and has quicker recovery times than traditional surgery but is harder to learn
Surgeons require 750 operations to perfect keyhole technique, study finds

Surgeons may take as many as 750 operations to learn how to perform keyhole surgery safely. Those who used the keyhole technique took three times as long to acquire the necessary skills compared with the traditional open operation, a study has found.

No patient wants to be the first to go under the surgeon's knife but the discovery that it is wise to wait until the 750th place on the list will alarm those who find themselves at the front of the queue.

In keyhole surgery, the instruments are introduced via tiny incisions in the abdomen and monitored via a camera. In traditional prostate surgery, the abdomen is opened and the prostate gland exposed and surgically removed.

Keyhole surgery causes less pain and has quicker recovery times than traditional surgery but is harder to learn. Surgeons who began using the traditional technique and switched to the keyhole technique found the transition the hardest to make.

House

Sick Building Syndrome: Floods, Mold, Cancer, and the Politics of Public Health

It's spring, and flooding is again making headlines, although the 'sick building' and mold dangers following in the flood's wake are becoming better appreciated. But disturbingly highlighting the imperatives of such awareness, recently published research has - for the first time - shown the high cost of what the sickness that comes of 'sick buildings' can mean, with the potential for long-lasting disability now being a documented fact.

According to a ground breaking Swedish study appearing in The International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 45% of so-called 'Sick Building Syndrome' (SBS) victims - treated at hospital clinics - no longer have the capacity to work. Twenty percent of these sufferers are receiving disability pensions, 25% are "on the sick-list". Emphasizing SBS's devastating potential, the study warned that the possibilitiy "of having no work capabilities at follow up was significantly increased if the time from (SBS) onset to first visit at the hospital clinic was more than 1 year. This risk was also significantly higher if the patient at the first visit had five or more symptoms."

Health

Modified tobacco plant may block HIV

Owensboro, Kentucky-- A gel derived from a close relative to the tobacco plant is being tested as an affordable preventative measure for HIV, U.S. researchers said.

Kenneth Palmer, a senior scientist in the University of Louisville's Owensboro Cancer Research Program, has published research that suggests growing large quantities of the protein griffithsin found in the transgenic plant Nicotiana benthamiana can prevent human immunodeficiency virus from infecting cells of the immune system, the university's James Graham Brown Cancer Center said in a release.