Author: tara_kaprowy
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Troubling statistics discussed at prescription-drug summit
Staggering statistics were revealed this week at the Orlando-based National Rx Drug Abuse Summit, including one survey that found 2 million people age 12 and older started using prescription pain...
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Diabetes can cause gum disease and tooth decay
Though it’s commonly known that diabetes can affect organ function and eyesight, an oral-health expert points out that the disease can also cause tooth decay and gum disease. “Diabetics with...
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Beshear vetoes parts of budget, but health spending is intact
Though Gov. Steve Beshear vetoed 45 parts of the state budget yesterday evening, health-related spending was safe from the cut. The budget will help reduce caseloads for social workers who...
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Beshear tells national audience legislature should pass pill-mill bill
Today, Gov. Steve Beshear again called on legislators to pass a bill Thursday that would crack down on so-called pill mills and thus curb prescription drug abuse. Speaking at the...
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U of L researcher gets $3.4 million to replicate studies of stem cells for heart treatment
Dr. Roberto Bolli of the University of Louisville has received a $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to test the validity of several recent studies by replicating them. The studies...
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Rx Drug Abuse Summit in Florida, organized by Ky. group, set to start as lobbying on ‘pill-mill bill’ continues to ramp up
By Tara Kaprowy Kentucky Health News As a bipartisan group of political leaders pushes the General Assembly to pass a bill Thursday that would crack down on “pill mills” that...
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Pain-pill problem has spread to new areas from Appalachia
Sales of hydrocodone (the key ingredient of Vicodin, Norco and Lortab) and oxycodone (the main ingredient in OxyContin, Percocet and Percodan) skyrocketed in new parts of the country as the...
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Like nurse practitioners in medical field, dental profession needs mid-level providers, expert argues
With 50 million Americans living in poor or rural areas where there are no dentists to go to — and that number expected to rise by more than 5 million...
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UK doctors first to perform triple ablation, a special form of cardiac catheterization
Ollie Whitaker of Whitesburg is the first known patient to have undergone triple ablation surgery, in which a catheter is inserted through a patient’s blood vessels to remove a faulty electrical...
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Two gene variants identified as risk factors for childhood obesity
The largest ever genome-wide study has identified two new gene variants that increase the risk of common childhood obesity. “We have definitively identified and characterized a genetic predisposition to common...