Centene, a major insurer that has significantly expanded under the Affordable Care Act, is making a bold bet as the Trump administration renews its attacks on the federal health law. The company announced on Wednesday that it had agreed to buy WellCare, a smaller publicly held insurer based in Florida, for about $15.3 billion. The…
Centers that provide mammograms to screen for breast cancer will have to tell women whether they have dense breast tissue, which can increase the risk of cancer and mask tumors, the Food and Drug Administration announced in a proposed rule on Wednesday. Dense tissue can hide cancer from X-rays, making mammography less reliable. Women with…
Antifreeze contains chemicals that are toxic if a person ingests them. Antifreeze poisoning can be life-threatening and requires immediate medical attention. People add antifreeze to vehicle radiators to prevent the liquid coolant inside from freezing and overheating. Antifreeze typically contains ethylene glycol, methanol, and propylene glycol. Although the chemicals in antifreeze are relatively nontoxic, the…
When the number of reported flu cases goes up, so does the number of hospitalizations for heart failure. A study in JAMA Cardiology used data on 451,588 people, ages 35 to 84, in four geographic areas over four flu seasons, from 2010 to 2014. The researchers randomly sampled 2,042 hospitalizations for heart failure and 1,599…
Urban air pollution is associated with an increased risk for psychotic experiences in teenagers, researchers report. A study published in JAMA Psychiatry included 2,063 British teenagers whose health had been followed from birth through age 18. Almost a third of them said they had at least one psychotic experience, ranging from a mild feeling of…
A new study offers both hope and a subtle nudge to anyone who has slacked off on exercise in recent years. It finds that if people start to exercise in midlife, even if they have not worked out for years, they can rapidly gain most of the longevity benefits of working out. But the reverse…
A person can experience visual hallucinations for many reasons, including consuming hallucinogenic substances or as a symptom of schizophrenia. But what are the brain mechanisms that explain hallucinations? New research aims to reveal more about how hallucinations manifest in the brain. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) defines hallucinations as “perception-like experiences…
IMAGE: The neurons of the enteric nervous system — what role do they play in the regulation of the body’s immune response? view more Credit: Photo: Klose/Charité How can we further improve deep brain stimulation and its use in the treatment of neurological disorders? How does the nervous system regulate both protective and chronic immune responses?…
IMAGE: Dr. Verian Bader and Ana Sánchez Vicente are members of the research team headed by Professor Konstanze Winklhofer (in the background) which has revealed a new role of the protein… view more Credit: RUB, Marquard Researchers have identified a protein complex that marks misfolded proteins, stops them from interacting with other proteins in the cell…
It is common knowledge that as people grow older they lose a large part of their muscle mass – and neither are their bones what they once were. Researchers from Aarhus University, Denmark, working together with researchers at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam have now studied a new group of medication which could prove beneficial…