Health Glance
A new report by the U.S. surgeon general greatly broadens the list of disease evils linked to cigarettes and concludes that urgent, aggressive action is needed to further reduce smoking rates and save lives. The report, released Friday, recommends prevention efforts that especially target groups most vulnerable to smoking, including low-income Americans and ethnic minorities and youth.
If smoking rates persist unchanged, 5.6 million American children alive today will die prematurely because of smoking, the report finds. It pegs the economic costs of smoking at $289 billion a year or more in medical care and productivity losses.
Surgeon general links smoking to even greater array of illnesses
New York governor announces plan for medical marijuana at hospitals
New York State is poised to allow 20 hospitals to distribute medical marijuana, Gov. Andrew Cuomo formally announced Wednesday.
"Research suggests that medical marijuana can help manage pain and treatment of cancer and other serious illnesses," Cuomo said in the annual State of State speech in Albany.
"We will establish a program allowing up to 20 hospitals to prescribe medical marijuana, and we will monitor the program to evaluate the effectiveness and the feasibility of a medical marijuana system," Cuomo added, without elaborating.
1964 surgeon general's report may have saved 8 million in U.S.
Eight million U.S. lives were saved by anti-smoking measures enacted since a pivotal surgeon general's report 50 years ago this month, researchers estimate.
First author Theodore R. Holford, professor of biostatistics and member of Yale School of Public Health's Cancer Center, and six other researchers who are part of the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network found about 17.6 million Americans died since 1964 due to smoking-related causes. However, 8 million lives were saved by increasingly stringent tobacco-control measures that commenced with the Jan. 11, 1964, release of a surgeon general's report on the affects of smoking.
Sealant Inspired By Beach Worm Could Become Surgical Superglue
So far, they've tested the glue only in animals. So the sealant is far from reaching the operating room or battlefield. But del Nido hopes the adhesive will eventually replace traditional sutures and staples for some operations, especially heart surgery.
OECD: Switzerland tops 34 nations for life expectancy at 82.8
Switzerland leads a study of 34 nations for life expectancy at 82.8 years, followed by Japan at 82.7, Italy at 82.7, Spain at 82.7 and Iceland at 82.4.
Health at a Glance, a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, analyzed data from 34 countries and found the OECD average life expectancy was 80.1 last year.
Higher health spending per capita tends to be associated with lower mortality rates and higher life expectancy, but this is not the case for the United States. The relatively low life expectancy of Americans is particularly striking given how much they spend on their healthcare.
Scientists create elaborate 'drug delivery vehicle' to fight cancer
A new approach to designing anti-cancer drugs, developed by researchers at two North Carolina universities, shows just how complex the products of the rapidly emerging field of engineered drug therapies can be.
The nano particle they created is essentially a tiny machine that performs a sequence of tasks in a preset, specific order to overcome cancer cells. It persuades a cancer cell to latch onto it, and then it uses first one method, then another to kill the cells.
US Supreme Court refuses to grant Obamacare emergency stay
The Supreme Court has refused a group of doctors' request to block implementation of the nation's new health care law.
Chief Justice John Roberts turned away without comment Monday an emergency stay request from the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons, Inc. and the Alliance for Natural Health USA.
They asked the chief justice Friday to temporarily block the law, saying Congress had passed it incorrectly by starting it in the Senate instead of the House. Revenue-raising bills are supposed to originate in the lower chamber.
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