A recent social media video challenge encourages people to cook chicken in NyQuil (acetaminophen, dextromethorphan, and doxylamine) or another similar OTC cough and cold medication, presumably to eat. The challenge sounds ridiculous. But it could also be very unsafe. Boiling a medication can make it much more concentrated and change its properties in other ways. Even if you don’t eat
The debate about the origins of the medieval Black Death pandemic (AD 1346–1353) has focused on evidence from cemeteries in the Chüy Valley near Lake Issyk-Kul in modern-day Kyrgyzstan. These sites are thought to have victims of a 14th-century epidemic because of the tombstone dated 1338–1339 that attributes deaths to ‘pestilence’. In a new study, an international team of researchers reports
A new study finds that weight loss was most associated with an increased intake of legumes, and decreased intake of meat, fish, and poultry. Participants on the vegan diet lost an average of 13 pounds and 9.1 pounds of fat mass. Body weight and fat mass did not decrease in the group that made no diet changes. “Our research shows
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affects some 1.6 million Americans. Approximately 30% of these patients develop depression. Is there a link between the 2 conditions? A new study from Keck Medicine of USC shows that patients diagnosed with IBD were 9 times as likely to develop depression then the general population. In addition, their siblings who did not suffer from IBD were almost twice as
New findings from the National Poll on Healthy Aging show that most people over 50 years of age say their health is as good as it was before the start of the pandemic in March 2020, or even better. While the majority of the results were positive, 20% of those in their 50s and early 60s, and 14% of those over
A new RAND Corporation report finds that during 2020 the prices paid by employers and private insurers for both inpatient and outpatient services averaged 224% of what Medicare would have paid. Unlike many other studies that have examined health care price variation, this study reports prices and identifies hospitals and groups of hospitals under joint ownership (hospital systems) by name. The
New research finds that not getting enough good quality sleep undermines an individual’s attempts to keep weight off after dieting. The good news is that about 2 hours of vigorous physical activity per week can help promote better sleep. “It was surprising to see how losing weight in adults with obesity improved sleep duration and quality in such a short
Clinical trials are necessary to help identify safe and effective methods for preventing, diagnosing, and treating diseases. However, a systematic review published in the journal Med finds that clinical trial protocols often do not reference accessible, relevant trials and do not document systematic searches for relevant clinical trials. Subsequently, ethics review committees receive an incomplete picture of the research landscape
The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions estimate that 151,726 nursing home residents and staff have died from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The effect of the pandemic on staffing and providing high-quality nursing home care has been devastating. A report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that wide-ranging systemic changes are needed to
The Stress in America™ 2021 Survey conducted by the Harris Poll on behalf of the American Psychological Association found that 32% of Americans were so stressed out about the coronavirus pandemic that they were struggling to make even basic decisions such as what to wear, or what to eat. The reported stress varied by age group. The data showed that