Month: April 2015
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Researchers discover why common blood-pressure medicine doesn’t work for some people: your kidneys don’t want to lose salt
Each year, more than 120 million prescriptions are written around the world for thiazide drugs, which lower salt to treat high blood pressure. High blood pressure affects 28 percent of...
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Study suggests that adolescent exposure to alcohol can negatively affect learning, memory and behavior in adulthood
A study at Duke University suggests that repeated exposure to alcohol during adolescence causes long-lasting changes in the part of the brain that controls learning and memory. The study, published in...
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Federal agency offers a consumer-friendly website that ranks patients’ experiences in your local hospitals
Consumers now have access to a website that ranks 3,500 hospitals around the country on patients’ experiences to help them choose a hospital and better understand the quality of care...
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Study shows that removing a clot that causes a stroke leaves victims with higher functional independence
In Kentucky, strokes cause about 5 percent of deaths, and the state had the 11th highest stroke mortality rate in 2009, according to data from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health...
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Elementary-school students prompt Middlesboro smoking ban
UPDATE, May 20: The council passed the ban with one member opposing it. Gary Mills said, “I don’t think it’s the government’s right to intrude on businesses owned by individuals....
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Southern Kentucky physician expands his in-school clinics; already in Russell County, will be in Adair County next year
Dr. Eric Loy (Columbia Magazine photo) An entrepreneurial physician in Southern Kentucky has developed a way to deliver school health services that could have a broader impact on communities. Cumberland...
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Anthem gives $140,000 for 3-county program to cut smoking by pregnant women, still at 21.9% in Ky., among highest in U.S.
Health departments in Christian, Hopkins and Madison counties will start a program called Giving Infants and Families Tobacco Free Starts, with a $140,000 grant to the state health department from...
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Smokers using electronic cigarettes are less likely to quit smoking than those who don’t use the devices, California study finds
The sudden increase in use of electronic cigarettes has prompted questions about whether they actually help people quit smoking. A study published online in the American Journal of Public Health found...
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New treatment for symptoms of advanced Parkinson’s disease approved by FDA and unveiled at UK
Portable infusion pump used to deliver Parkinson’s drug The University of Kentucky unveiled a new treatment for people with advanced symptoms of Parkinson’s disease at a news conference April 21...
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Kentucky re-bidding Medicaid managed care contracts to address complaints of patients, advocates and health-care providers
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News State officials are re-bidding Medicaid managed-care contracts that cover more than 1.1 million Kentuckians. The news came as a delight and surprise to many...