CNN – Health

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN When you hear “diet culture,” you probably think of models, movies and magazines. But it’s much too insidiously far reaching to be limited to what we take in from entertainment. Much of the world is entrenched in ideas that controlling food and movement to get closer to an ideal body type

By Jen Christensen and Deidre McPhillips, CNN The US public and even some health experts may have underestimated the Covid-19 vaccine made by Janssen, a division of Johnson & Johnson, new data shows. And there’s emerging evidence that it could still play an important role ahead. A study published Thursday in the medical journal JAMA

By Jen Christensen, CNN A month after the US Food and Drug Administration delayed key steps toward authorizing Covid-19 vaccines for children under 5, many parents are more eager for the shots than ever. Dr. Daniel Leonard, a pediatric hospitalist who is working on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine trial for these kids, said people are driving

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN Exposure in the womb to bisphenol A, commonly known as BPA, may increase the risk of asthma among school-age girls, according to a new study of over 3,000 pairs of mothers and children from six European countries. “We believe that the effect may be due to the fact that bisphenols can

By Tasnim Ahmed, CNN Continuing to face attacks from Russian forces, Ukrainian hospitals are strained by growing numbers of casualties and finite medical supplies. There are shortages across all types of medication, but limited access to insulin supplies has led to an uptick in conditions related to uncontrolled diabetes. “There’s been significant shortages of insulin

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN What are your sleep myths and facts? You know, the things you are absolutely sure you should do — and not do — to get a good night’s sleep. Studies show that most of us are practicing bad sleep habits without knowing it — which can lead to serious health consequences.

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN Frequent napping or regularly napping for extended periods during the day may be a sign of early dementia in older adults, a new study revealed. Elderly adults who napped at least once a day or more than an hour a day were 40% more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those who

By Nadia Kounang, CNN The latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the country lost 105,752 lives to drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending October 2021. And while most of those overdoses involved the illicit synthetic opioid fentanyl, experts say that an adulterated and contaminated drug supply is

By Katia Hetter, CNN To many parents’ dismay, a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the Covid-19 vaccine is less effective against the Omicron variant for children ages 5 to 11 than for older children and adults. Two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine reduced the risk of Omicron

By Brenda Goodman and Deidre McPhillips, CNN Two weeks after the United Kingdom dropped its last remaining Covid-19 mitigation measure — a requirement that people who test positive for the virus isolate for five days — the country is seeing cases and hospitalizations climb once again. Covid-19 cases were up 48% in the UK last

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN In our soda, tea, coffee and juice: We like to drink sugar. Americans eat about 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of sugar annually on average — and almost half of that comes from drinks, according to the American Heart Association. For people who are at risk for or have diabetes, drinks sweetened

By Jen Christensen, CNN The World Health Organization (WHO) said Sunday it is concerned the war in Ukraine could worsen the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is trying to do more to limit the spread of infectious diseases. Cases in the region are down from the previous week, but there’s significant risk there will be more

By Jen Rose Smith, CNN Life’s big questions drew Dr. Victoria Sweet to a career in medicine. “Your job is to deal with birth, suffering and death. It just captivated my imagination,” said Sweet, now a bestselling author and associate clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “Medicine attracted me because

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN You’re exhausted, your body yawning for sleep. Yet once your head hits the pillow, your mind is flooded with worry, making sleep elusive, at times impossible. Don’t fret, experts say: There are relaxation techniques you can use to calm that racing mind. “Think of these relaxation exercises as tools in your

By Melanie Radzicki McManus, CNN One benefit of the Covid-19 pandemic is that people are focusing more on their health and wellness. And a growing part of this focus involves assisted stretching, an industry that is developing rapidly. Take StretchLab, an assisted stretching company headquartered in Irvine, California. The business had 72 locations pre-pandemic. Today,

By Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent As we reach the second anniversary of the World Health Organization acknowledging Covid-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020, we appear to be standing on the edge of the endemic phase of this global health crisis. For many, that’s the moment when we hope we can

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN The federal government has taken clear steps toward a new phase of the Covid-19 pandemic in recent weeks: The Biden administration released the National Covid-19 Preparedness Plan, and new guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped masking recommendations for most of the country. As many Americans try

By Tasnim Ahmed, CNN When Kaitlyn Sinnamon was 20 weeks pregnant with her second child, doctors told her that her baby would be born with a heart defect that would require surgery at the beginning of his life. Easton Sinnamon was born at Duke University Hospital with single ventricle heart disease, which meant his heart

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN Are you burned out? If these three symptoms apply to you — a total lack of energy, a decline in your sense of belonging and a plummeting self-esteem — you could be a victim of burnout, experts say. After two years of living in a simmering pool of pandemic stress, you

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN Dogs may also be a doctor’s best friend. For patients suffering from pain in the emergency room, just 10 minutes with a four-legged friend may help reduce pain, according to a study published Wednesday. The results support what dog lovers everywhere have long suspected — canine affection cures all ills —

By Amanda Sealy, CNN Pfizer has begun a Phase 2 and 3 clinical trial of its Covid-19 antiviral treatment, Paxlovid, in children ages 6 to 17, the company said Wednesday in a news release. The study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of the treatment in children who have Covid-19 symptoms and a confirmed infection,

By Katia Hetter, CNN As Covid-19 cases continue to fall and state and local governments lift remaining pandemic restrictions, many offices are asking employees to return to in-person work. We know that 60% of workers with jobs that can be done from home say they’d like to work from home most or all of the

By Brenda Goodman, CNN The man came to the ER at Charles Regional Medical Center in La Plata, Maryland, wide-eyed and scared. He couldn’t catch his breath. He was middle-aged, overweight and unvaccinated. He had also recently tested positive for Covid-19. Two weeks earlier, a doctor who had diagnosed the man during an urgent care

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN The rollout of the US government’s Covid-19 test-to-treat program is underway, with in-pharmacy clinics ordering shipments of Covid-19 antiviral medications and some locations expecting to offer the service within days. “We’ve had more than 1,000 pharmacy-based clinic sites register today, so that even exceeded our expectations for Day One of this

By Tasnim Ahmed, CNN Americans can now order a second set of free at-home Covid-19 rapid antigen tests from the federal government. Covidtests.gov, the website to sign up for the free tests, launched in January, when people could order a maximum of four tests per household. Households that took part in that first round can

By Travis Caldwell, CNN After Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo declared on Monday the state would issue guidance urging parents not to vaccinate their children against Covid-19, health experts and officials were quick to highlight the dangers of such a policy for individuals and for the country at large. Dr. Paul Offit, director of

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN The global Covid-19 death toll surpassed 6 million on Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Global daily deaths have been dropping quickly over the past month, down from about 11,000 a day in the second week of February to about 7,000 a day now — one of the lowest

By Elizabeth Cohen and Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN From the very beginning of his presidency, Joe Biden has pledged to make sure communities hit hardest by Covid-19 will receive sound information about the virus and access to vaccinations. “Equity (and) equality” remain “at the heart” of the government’s responsibility, Biden said at a White House briefing

By Jen Christensen, CNN While the pandemic is not over, experts say the US may be in for, at the very least, a “near normal” spring and summer, based on new US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. “I think the move from pandemic to endemic appears to be accelerating,” said Dr. William Schaffner,

By Kristen Rogers, CNN You might have heard that strengthening exercises most benefit your muscular and skeletal health, but they could have two other big perks: helping you prevent disease and live longer. Now we may know how much time to spend on those exercises, according to new research published Monday in the British Journal

By Megan Marples, CNN Mask mandates may be lifting in many parts of the United States, but don’t ditch your face coverings just yet. Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unveiled new mask guidelines that varied depending on your Covid-19 community level. If you live in a low- or medium-risk area,

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN Drug overdose death rates in the United States soared during the Covid-19 pandemic, and a new study suggests that Black and brown communities were hit hardest. Black people had the largest percentage increase in overdose death rates in 2020 — overtaking the rate among White people for the first time since

By Katia Hetter, CNN The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a new measure for determining Covid-19 community levels. According to these new metrics that now take into account hospitalizations and hospital capacity in addition to infection numbers, nearly 70% of the United States population resides in areas where masks are no

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN Russia’s attack on Ukraine has caused international outrage, and people around the world are feeling the stress and fear of watching the violence and wondering what will come next. That includes your children. With so many images of violence and so few answers, your kids likely are aware of the fighting

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN Entering menopause before age 40 is linked to a 35% higher risk of developing dementia later in life, a preliminary study finds. Premature menopause, as it is called, occurs when a woman’s ovaries stop creating hormones and the menstrual cycle ends by age 40. That’s about a dozen years earlier than

By Amanda Sealy and Deidre McPhillips, CNN As the United States emerges from the Omicron wave, Covid-19 testing has slowed to a fraction of what it was at the beginning of the year. In mid-January, as daily case counts reached their peak, about 2.5 million tests were processed each day in the United States. Now,

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN Most adults in the United States are getting back to some degree of pre-pandemic normalcy, but they’re divided over concerns and expectations for what’s next. Three surveys conducted in February — from the Kaiser Family Foundation, Axios/Ipsos and the Washington Post in collaboration with ABC News — asked adults to assess

By Megan Marples, CNN Some 80% of parents say they know little to nothing about CBD products, according to a new poll by C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health at the University of Michigan Health. The term CBD stands for cannabidiol, a chemical compound found in marijuana and hemp, the report said.

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN The overall number of babies born in the United States continues to follow a downward trend but “may be returning to pre-pandemic levels” now, a new federal report suggests. US births dropped 2% in the first half of 2021 compared with the year prior, according to the new National Center for

By Steve Almasy, CNN Abbott Nutrition is recalling one lot of Similac PM 60/40 powdered infant formula due to another report of a dangerous bacterial infection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration are investigating reports and complaints of infant illness related to formula from Abbott’s facility in

By Holly Yan, CNN Even some of the most ardent supporters of Covid-19 precautions are ditching mask mandates as health officials release new guidelines and hospitalizations plummet. Across the country, more governors are letting go of mask rules — including in states that have long held on to school mask mandates. California, Oregon and Washington