Premature ventricular contractions happen when one of the heart’s lower chambers (ventricles) contracts early. This common, usually harmless condition is often described as feeling as though the heart has skipped a beat.
A study in New Zealand showed that simple and relatively inexpensive modifications to the home environment significantly reduced the number of falls people experienced over three years.
Holiday heart syndrome is a temporary irregular heartbeat that may result from consuming too much alcohol. It can be made worse by salty food and caffeine.
Electronic devices such as computers and smartphones are now common tools used in health care. Doctors and patients use them to access electronic records and health apps and to communicate with each other.
Generic discount drug programs, which offer many generic medications for just a few dollars, are gaining in popularity.
Cold weather brings a number of health risks for older adults, such as cold and flu, hypothermia, dry skin, heart attack, and falls.
Keeping the leg and hip muscles strong and coordinated helps prevent knee injuries and reduce pain.
In the last 2 years, more than 700 young children needed hospital care after exposure to laundry detergent “pods,” a new study finds. One child died. Pods are brightly colored, single-use packets of concentrated laundry detergent. The membrane around them dissolves in water. The new study looked at numbers from U.S. poison control centers. They covered the years 2012 and 2013. In all, 17,230 children under age 6 were reported exposed to laundry detergent from pods. About 4 out of 5 tried to eat the pod. About 3 out of 4 children were under age 3. For more than 1,300 children, the exposure caused a moderate or major medical problem. Of those who required a hospital stay, 100 needed a tube in the throat to help them breathe. Researchers said kids who bite into the pods get a concentrated squirt of liquid into the mouth. This can cause them to swallow toxic chemicals, cough or choke.
Older longtime smokers and ex-smokers on Medicare soon may be able to get screening tests for lung cancer. These tests can find cancers early enough that they may be curable. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the policy change November 10. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended the screening for certain smokers last year. As a result, private insurers will be required to cover screening beginning in 2015. But Medicare officials waited so they could review the evidence and potential costs. The proposed policy will cover a low-dose chest CT scan each year for certain high-risk smokers and ex-smokers. They must be age 55 to 74 and have a smoking history of at least 30 pack-years. The number of pack-years is equal to packs per day multiplied by years of smoking. Ex-smokers can get screened if they quit within the last 15 years.