Health

Being diagnosed with a chronic illness can be a distressing and disorienting experience. Surveys of people who have chronic diseases have found that many experience a sense of powerlessness, and that they tend to view their condition as more than a threat to their health; it’s also seen as a threat to their psychological well-being, as well as their social and personal identities.All of these experiences may be heightened among people with lupus, a complex autoimmune condition that tends to arise unexpectedly and in relatively young patients. The unpredictable and highly variable course of the disease can contribute to feelings of uncertainty and lack of control. Patients are likely to worry about how their life will change, or whether they’ll be able to pursue long-held ambitions. In many...

Hong Kong residents no longer have the world’s longest life expectancies, with the city relinquishing its crown to Japan as Covid and overall stress weighs on local lifespans. Women in Hong Kong were expected to live until 86.8 years old on average in 2022, compared with 87.1 for their Japanese counterparts, according to the latest statistics published this week by the city’s government. Data for 2023 has not yet been released.Life expectancy for men in the Asian financial hub was 80.7—the same as in Singapore, but shorter than Sweden, Japan and Norway, the data show.Read More: China Unveils Extensive ‘Silver Economy’ Plan to Adapt to Aging PopulationFor years, Hong Kong consistently topped global longevity surveys—ever since overtaking Japan in the early 2000s. But residents are growing i...

Emma Lembke joined Instagram when she was 12. The last of her friend group to sign up, she had sensed the appeal of the app in the gazes of friends; people who used to look at her now looked at their phones. “I thought to myself, ‘There has to be something incredibly magnetic and magical and connective that pulls people into these apps,’” recalls Lembke, who’s now 21 and founder of the Log Off Movement, a non-profit that aims to help kids use social media in a healthier way. She soon began spending five or six hours a day mindlessly scrolling—and says her mental health and well-being deteriorated. Lembke recalls quantifying her worth by tracking likes, comments, and followers, and taking down posts that didn’t perform well enough. “It felt as though I was honestly addicted,” she says. “Whe...

NEW YORK — Sixty years ago, the U.S. surgeon general released a report that settled a longstanding public debate about the dangers of cigarettes and led to huge changes in smoking in America.Today, some public health experts say a similar report could help clear the air about vaping.Many U.S. adults believe nicotine vaping is as harmful as — or more dangerous than — cigarette smoking. That’s wrong. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and most scientists agree that, based on available evidence, electronic cigarettes are far less dangerous than traditional cigarettes.But that doesn’t mean e-cigarettes are harmless either. And public health experts disagree about exactly how harmful, or helpful, the devices are. Clarifying information is urgently needed, said Lawrence Gostin, a public healt...

Getting COVID-19 today is much less scary and more common than it was three years ago. By now, many people have had it not just once, but two, three, or even more times. Most of the time, repeat infections aren't as severe as they were the first time, leading to a sense of complacency about getting COVID-19 over and over. But reinfections aren't harmless. As cases continue to rise and more variants arrive on the scene, infectious-disease experts are warning that repeat infections could have cumulative, lasting effects.“There is some early evidence starting to show that if you had COVID-19, there can be all sorts of problems after getting infected” and reinfected, says Dr. Robert Murphy, professor of medicine and executive director of the Havey Institute for Global Health at Northwestern’s ...

GENEVA — The head of the U.N. health agency said Wednesday holiday gatherings and the spread of the most prominent variant globally led to increased transmission of COVID-19 last month.Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said nearly 10,000 deaths were reported in December, while hospital admissions during the month jumped 42% in nearly 50 countries—mostly in Europe and the Americas—that shared such trend information."Although 10,000 deaths a month is far less than the peak of the pandemic, this level of preventable deaths is not acceptable," the World Health Organization director-general told reporters from its headquarters in Geneva.He said it was “certain” that cases were on the rise in other places that haven't been reporting, calling on governments to keep up surveillance and provide continued ...

Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths—and in some cases, adults—returning to the issue the year after a wave of high-profile bills became law and sparked lawsuits.As legislatures begin their work for the year, lawmakers in several states have proposed enacting or strengthening restrictions on puberty-blocking drugs and hormone treatments for minors. Bills to govern the pronouns kids can use at school, which sports teams students can play on, and the bathrooms they can use are back, as well, along with efforts to restrict drag performances and some books and school curriculums.LGBTQ+ advocates say that most of the states inclined to pass bans on gender-affirming care have done so, and that they now expect them ...

About a year ago, I was declared cancer-free after four months of chemotherapy at Providence St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. I had been diagnosed with low-grade B cell non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. This was not my first encounter with cancer. I’d had breast cancer a number of years prior, which was treated with radiation and then a full mastectomy. I realize I’m lucky. I had caring, attentive doctors and nurses who saved my life. I also realize how much progress has been made in cancer research and I am deeply grateful.Yet despite that, cancer has become epidemic. Approximately 40% of people in the U.S. will develop cancer and over 1.96 million new cases were expected to be diagnosed in 2023, according to the National Cancer Institute.I’m a cancer survivor but also a climate activ...

You probably know a lot of sick people right now. Most parts of the U.S. are getting pummeled by respiratory illness, with 7% of all outpatient health care visits recorded during the week ending Dec. 30 related to these sicknesses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Many people are sick with flu, while others have RSV or other routine winter viruses. But COVID-19 is also tearing through the population, thanks largely to the highly contagious JN.1 variant. Just like every year since 2021, this one is starting with a COVID-19 surge—and Americans are getting a good glimpse of what their “new normal” may look like, says Katelyn Jetelina, the epidemiologist who writes the Your Local Epidemiologist newsletter.“Unfortunately,” she says, “signs are pointing to t...

January 12, 2024 9:47 AM ESTA preliminary review of side effects from popular drugs used to treat diabetes and obesity shows no link with suicidal thoughts or actions, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday.But the agency also said officials cannot definitively rule out that “a small risk may exist" and that they'll continue to look into reports regarding more than a dozen drugs, including Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. Patients taking the drugs should report any concerns to health care providers, the FDA said.The review follows a recent federally funded study that showed that people taking semaglutide, the medication in Ozempic and Wegovy, had a lower risk of suicidal thoughts than those taking other drugs to treat obesity and diabetes. The review came after European regulato...