Category: harvardhealth_news_UNDEFINED

Inaccurate health information is everywhere these days, from conspiracy theories about COVID-19 to unsubstantiated product claims. This includes both misinformation, which is spread by someone who essentially doesn’t know better, and disinformation, which is spread deliberately to promote an agenda. Both mass media and social media are allowing bad information to reach large swaths of people quickly, making it difficult for many people to tell the good from the bad. People can ensure what they’re seeing is accurate by relying on their doctors, public health officials, and other trusted resources.

Sweeteners come in many varieties, including table sugar, honey, and maple syrup, high-fructose corn syrup and agave syrup. But regardless of type, from a biochemical and metabolic standpoint they are all virtually the same. Unfortunately, too much of any type is bad for one’s health.

Women are disproportionately affected by conditions that cause chronic pain, but they sometimes have difficulty getting a definitive diagnosis as to what is causing their pain and may be less likely to receive appropriate treatments even when they do.

A study published online Dec. 16, 2020, by JAMA Network Open found that injecting a steroid directly into the joint to reduce inflammation led to the quickest recoveries from frozen shoulder, a condition that causes pain and immobility in the joint.

A study found that people who had common surgical procedures on their surgeon’s birthday were more likely to die following the procedure compared with those who had surgery on other days of the year.

Researchers compared two common weight loss procedures, gastric bypass and laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, and found that although the gastric bypass group lost slightly more weight, both groups saw the same improvements in quality of life after the procedure.

Following recent controversy over the drug Crestor, considering the potential side effects of statin drugs along with their benefits is worthwhile.

Treatments for heart disease have changed dramatically since President Eisenhower’s heart attack in 1955. Highlights of the advances include techniques to restore a normal heart rhythm and to repair blocked heart arteries, the development of medications to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and advice about lifestyle habits.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a measure of the variation in time between heartbeats. Low HRV is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, whereas people with high HRV tend to have higher fitness levels and be more resilient to stress.