Author: Al Cross
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Humana leaving some state health-insurance exchanges to cut its Obamacare losses
Humana Inc. said last week that it may leave some state health-insurance exchanges to cut its losses, and then left two, in Alabama and Virginia. “Humana also continues to reel...
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In many people, OxyContin doesn’t give 12-hour pain relief as advertised, and that can cause an addiction problem
Oxycontin tablets (Los Angeles Times photo by Liz Baylen) Why have so many people become addicted to the painkiller OxyContin? We know about the overselling of the drug by its...
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Leading tobacco foe is fighting Big Tobacco again, this time because the industry has taken over the electronic cigarette trade
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News One of the nation’s top anti-tobacco advocates told his Kentucky allies last week that the debate about electronic cigarettes makes him feel like he’s...
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FDA launches its first advertising campaign aimed at rural youth about the dangers of smokeless tobacco
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today launched a campaign on the dangers of smokeless tobacco among rural teens. FDA is expanding its “The Real Cost” campaign “to educate rural,...
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Women in small-town America aren’t living as long as before; alcohol, drugs, food, housing, jobs, education, pollution to blame
By Trudy Lieberman Rural Health News Service Those of us who grew up in small rural communities in the 1950s and ’60s expected to have longer life spans than our...
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If legislature won’t help protect Kentuckians from the health threat of tobacco, local governments should, Herald-Leader says
Since the Kentucky General Assembly “adjourned without tackling the addiction that kills the most Kentuckians, tobacco,” local communities need to take up the challenge, the Lexington Herald-Leader said in an...
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Study indicates fast food contains industrial chemicals linked to health problems such as infertility, diabetes and allergies
People who eat a lot of fast food have higher levels of chemicals that “have been linked to a number of adverse health outcomes, including higher rates of infertility,” especially...
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Spring fever: If over-the-counter medicines don’t quell your allergies, it’s a good time to see an allergist
By Ann Blackford University of Kentucky The beauty of spring is upon us, but as lovely as it may be to look at, it can wreak havoc in your nose,...
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Rural drug-overdose rates, high in Kentucky, blamed partly on limits on treatment medication and mental-health services
“People in rural areas of Appalachia are more likely to die early deaths than in other parts of the country,” and a big reason is that they “die from drug...
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In Pineville, a new administrator from a Texas management firm is shaking up the local hospital in an effort to save it
Kentucky Health News The crisis in rural hospitals is driven not only by changes in federal reimbursement and patients’ increasing preference for larger hospitals, but in some towns by managerial...