Annual cervical cancer screening bad idea: Panel
(Credit:
CBS/iStockphoto)
(CBS/AP) Should women get annual screenings for cervical cancer?
Not according to a new guidelines issued Wednesday by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The guidelines suggest that getting a Pap test every year may do more harm than good. Instead, the task force said women should get a Pap smear once every three years.
Do poor neighborhoods promote obesity, diabetes?
Vickie Webb, 43, checks her blood pressure in her apartment in Durham, N.C., Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011. Webb, lived in the projects in Durham, N.C. for several years before a housing agency helped relocate her and her husband to a better neighborhood.
(Credit: AP)(CBS/AP) Is robust health a matter of real estate? New research shows that women who move to affluent areas are a lot less likely to become obese or develop diabetes than those living in poor neighborhoods.
PICTURES: Diabetes: 10 Deadliest Myths
The study kicked off in the 1990s, when federal officials offered thousands of poor women in city public housing a chance to live in affluent neighborhoods. Cut to 10 years later, and the relocated women had lower rates of diabetes and extreme obesity.
Continue »Breast cancer study shows radiation cuts recurrence, ups survival
(Credit:
istockphoto)
(CBS) Does radiation really benefit breast cancer patients? New research shows that women who receive radiation after undergoing lumpectomy live longer and are less likely to experience a recurrence of cancer.
PICTURES: 25 breast cancer myths busted
Researchers analyzed the results of several studies involving nearly 11,000 breast cancer patients who had undergone "breast-conserving" surgery (rather than mastectomy) and found that post-operative radiation reduced the risk for recurrence over the next decade from 35 percent to 19 percent.
Has America gone crazy for antidepressants?
(Credit:
istockphoto)
(CBS) Antidepressant use is skyrocketing. A new CDC report shows that over a 10-year period the use of the pills has risen a staggering 400 percent.
PICTURES - Depression nation: 16 saddest states
The report - based on surveys and screenings of 12,000 Americans from 2005 to 2008 shows that 11 percent of Americans aged 12 and over are taking an antidepressant.
Continue »Listeria outbreak tied to water, dirty equipment
(Credit:
AP)
(CBS/AP) What caused the Listeria outbreak that so far has killed 25 and sickened scores? Government health officials are eyeing pools of water on the floor and dirty equipment at a Colorado farm's cantaloupe packing facility.
PICTURES: 15 deadliest food myths
Investigators found Listeria on equipment in the Jensen Farms facility and on fruit that had been held there.
Continue »
Health-care study shows Americans get raw deal
(Credit:
iStockphoto)
(CBS) How healthy is U.S. health-care system? Not very. In a comprehensive new assessment of the system that covers 42 measures of health-care delivery, the U.S. scored 64 out of 100.
"Costs were up sharply, access to care deteriorated, health system efficiency remains low, disparities persisted, and health outcomes failure to keep pace with benchmarks," concluded the authors of the 2011 National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance.
What Facebook friends mean for brain size
(Credit:
istockphoto)
(CBS) Having lots of Facebook friends might mean more than lots of birthday wishes. A new study suggests the more Facebook friends you have, the more gray matter you'll have in your brain.
What's gray matter? It's the brain tissue that gathers and processes sensory information, and is linked to intelligence and memory.
Continue »Heart failure hospitalizations drop 30 percent
(Credit:
istockphoto)
(CBS/AP) The nation has a new reason to take heart. Over the past decade, hospital stays for heart failure dropped 30 percent in Medicare patients.
The drop is forceful evidence that the U.S. is making headway in reducing the billion-dollar burden of a common condition - and America's #1 killer.
Continue »Pediatricians call TV a no-no for kids under two
PICTURES - Oops! 8 ways parents make kids fat
The statement - which reaffirms a similar one issued by the academy in 1999 - says that 90 percent of parents permit their children under age two to watch TV or other electronic media - even though research suggests that kids that young are incapable of following sequential screen shots or dialog. By age three, almost one in three children have a TV in their bedroom.
Nev. man seeks surgery for 100-pound scrotum
(Credit:
Las Vegas Review-Journal)
(CBS) For people who complain about carrying a big burden, the strange plight of Wesley Warren Jr. offers a dose of perspective.
The 47-year-old Las Vegas man has a huge, painful, and disabling scrotum, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Continue »
