Health

A blood test for colon cancer performed well in a study published Wednesday, offering a new kind of screening for a leading cause of cancer deaths.The test looks for DNA fragments shed by tumor cells and precancerous growths. It's already for sale in the U.S. for $895, but has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and most insurers do not cover it. The maker of the test, Guardant Health, anticipates an FDA decision this year.In the study, the test caught 83% of the cancers but very few of the precancerous growths found by colonoscopy, the gold standard for colon cancer screening. Besides spotting tumors, colonoscopies can prevent the disease by removing precancerous growths called polyps.But some people avoid the exam because of the hassle of getting time off work or the da...

NEW YORK — U.S. marriages have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels with nearly 2.1 million in 2022.That's a 4% increase from the year before. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the data Friday, but has not released marriage data for last year.In 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 1.7 million U.S. weddings—the lowest number recorded since 1963. The pandemic threw many marriage plans into disarray, with communities ordering people to stay at home and banning large gatherings to limit the spread of COVID-19.Read More: Why You Shouldn't Love Your Kids More Than Your PartnerMarriages then rose in 2021, but not to pre-pandemic levels. They ticked up again in 2022 and surpassed 2019 marriage statistics by a small margin.New York, the District of Columbia, ...

The popularity of farmed Atlantic salmon on dinner tables worldwide has been a disaster for the king of fish. A new study determined that 865 million farmed salmon have died in mass die-offs in the last decade. The scientists blame the deaths on several factors, from ocean warming caused by climate change to the aquaculture industry’s overuse of antibiotics and pesticides and its aggressive attempts to increase production. Beyond the staggering number of dead fish, the findings raise questions about the future of growing salmon in cages on the ocean—and aquaculture in general.Salmon farming has expanded rapidly in the past 25 years into a $20 billion-a-year industry. Farmed salmon are advertised as an environmentally friendly and sustainable solution to the need for animal protein for the ...

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is imposing stricter limits on a chemical used to sterilize medical equipment after finding a higher-than-expected cancer risk at facilities that use ethylene oxide to clean billions of devices including catheters and syringes.A rule finalized Thursday will reduce ethylene oxide emissions by about 90% by targeting nearly 90 commercial sterilization facilities across the country, the EPA said. The companies will also have to test for the antimicrobial chemical in the air and make sure their pollution controls are working properly.The new rule will "safeguard public health from this pollution–including the health of children, who are particularly vulnerable to carcinogens early in life,'' said EPA Administrator Michael Regan. “We’ve arrived at...

If you’re like millions of people worldwide, Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, is very much on your mind this week. That’s because of a royal kerfuffle that erupted recently, when Middleton—who had not been seen in public since January when she underwent abdominal surgery—released a cheery Mother’s Day photo of herself and her children. The next day, the Associated Press pulled down the photo because it turned out to have been digitally altered. Other news agencies followed suit, and Kensington Palace issued an apology signed by Kate.Predictably, this was catnip to conspiracy theorists, who speculated endlessly online about her health, mental and physical well-being, and whereabouts. “None of it makes sense. Where is Catherine? Why is the palace being so secretive about the royals’ he...

Olivia Munn recently revealed in an Instagram post that a free, easy tool saved her life. Her ob-gyn used a questionnaire designed to calculate a person's risk of breast cancer, which revealed Munn had an increased chance of developing the disease. That led to further tests and an early diagnosis of Luminal B cancer in both breasts and quick treatment.The Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool, which her doctor used, isn’t new. It doesn’t involve any high-tech gadgets, doesn’t require a doctor, and doesn’t even cost anything. Experts say more women should know about it and complete it after they turn 35. Here's what to know.What is the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool?Released in 1989 by the National Cancer Institute, the online questionnaire takes less than five minutes to complete and pret...

How many times have you heard that squashing stress is crucial for good health? Stress has become such a wellness buzzword that the quest to get rid of it can feel, well, stressful. But stress isn’t always the enemy. In fact, research suggests some is actually good for you, with potential benefits ranging from enhanced brain function to healthier aging.In recent decades, some people have grown overly fearful of stress, concluding that it's "the most horrible thing that can happen to you," says Daniela Kaufer, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. But “it’s a much more complex story," she says. "Stress is a vital, required response.”What is stress, anyway?For one thing, it’s ubiquitous: research suggests people feel at least some stress on up to 90% o...

DALLAS — Confined to an iron lung after contracting polio as a child, Paul Alexander managed to train himself to breathe on his own for part of the day, earned a law degree, wrote a book about his life, built a big following on social media and inspired people around the globe with his positive outlook.Alexander died Monday at the age of 78 at a Dallas hospital, said Daniel Spinks, a longtime friend. He said Alexander had recently been hospitalized after being diagnosed with COVID-19 but he did not know the cause of death.Read More: To Fight COVID-19, Ford Is Planning to Manufacture Ventilators. This Isn’t the First Time the Automaker Has Made Medical DevicesAlexander contracted polio in 1952, when he was 6. He became paralyzed from the neck down and he began using an iron lung, a cylinder...

NEW YORK — For years, scientists have known people who use neti pots can become infected with a brain-eating amoeba if they use the wrong kind of water. On Wednesday, researchers linked a second kind of deadly amoeba to nasal rinsing.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report that for the first time connects Acanthamoeba infections to neti pots and other nasal rinsing devices.Officials also renewed their warning that extremely rare, but potentially deadly, consequences can come from flushing nasal passages with common tap water.“We published this study because we want people to be aware of this risk,” said the CDC's Dr. Julia Haston.What are neti pots?Neti pots are one of the better known tools of nasal rinsing. They look like small teapots with long spouts, and usua...

Working out is great for your skin. It increases blood flow to all your organs—skin included—delivering oxygen and nutrients along with it. But if you exercise in a full face of makeup, you might be hurting your skin health, not helping it.To find out what makeup does to skin during exercise, researchers applied a drug-store-brand cream foundation to the foreheads and under-eye areas of 43 university students. They left the bottom halves of everyone's faces makeup-free. All of the students then ran on a treadmill for 20 minutes.“Our hypothesis was that makeup can block pores partially or completely, and because pores are important for evaporation, sweating, and getting rid of debris, makeup would negatively impact skin health,” says Sukho Lee, a professor in the department of counseling, h...