ObamaCare quietly leaves mark on Medicare despite repeal push

Republican efforts to repeal ObamaCare will likely leave Medicare untouched, meaning former President Obama will leave his mark on the popular health program for more than 58 million elderly and disabled “There are changes to Medicare that are in the ACA that have taken effect that people are benefiting from today,” Juliette Cubanski , Kaiser Family Foundation Medicare policy program associate director, told The Hill Extra. “Medicare, the way it is now, is really popular.

Doctors have role to play in preventing kids and teens from smoking: task force

Primary-care doctors need to take a more active role in preventing young Canadians from starting smoking and helping those who have already taken up the habit to butt out for good, says a group of experts that develops clinical practice guidelines. That recommendation is at the heart of the first-ever guidance on smoking in children and youth aged five to 18, developed by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care.

crippling painBone donation gives life back

Sally Couch was facing the prospect of spending the rest of her life in a wheelchair before life-changing surgery three years ago. The 56-year-old has a surgeon to thank for her total spinal fusion, but also an elderly woman who donated her hip bone for a graft that has transformed her life.

Presence of day cares not linked to community risk of whooping cough among kids, study finds

But a new study out of Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health found that while you might think bringing more day care facilities to your block might make you and your neighbors sick more often, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Neal D. Goldstein, PhD, assistant research professor, led a team that looked into the density of day cares in Philadelphia and compared them to areas where cases of whooping cough occurred in the city.

Smart kids more likely to smoke cannabis

… than those who were not as clever. Information was gathered on their academic achievement at age 11 and collated with health behaviours from age 13/14 to 16/17 – deemed to be early adolescence – and from age 18/19 to 19/20, which are classed as late …

Is it safe to kiss your kids if you have a cold sore?

As a mother, any stories about weird health issues affecting children tend to catch my attention, and so it was not unusual for me to stop what I was doing to study this article from the New York Times about a three-year-old girl who apparently caught herpes in her eye after her mother had kissed her with an infected lip. So wait, if you have a cold sore, even if there is no blister or sign of infection, is it not safe to kiss your child on the face? I continued reading the article and the author, a medical student, quickly defined the answer to my panicked question.

Healthy Homes Happy Families Expo offers practical ideas for families from local experts

L to R: Children’s health advocate Kim Spencer has invited Dr. Ramon Ramos, Dr. Tassie Hargrove and Chelsea Dye along with other local wellness experts to share their wisdom at the Healthy Homes Happy Families Expo on Saturday, Feb. 25. ASTHMA, behavior issues, depression, diabetes, eczema, food allergies, obesity…there’s an alphabet soup of negative health conditions that are becoming increasingly more common in childhood. The Journal of American Medicine reports that chronic illness in American kids and teens has more than doubled since the 1990s, adding higher numbers to the pot: One in six has a developmental disability.

Buy: Flamingo Tassel Drop Earrings

Handmade in Thailand from cotton and brass, Bloom + Grace’s Flamingo tassel drop earrings contribute to social good just as much as personal style. The brand partners with local artisans across the globe, employing people in developing nations.

Former Four Diamonds Children Inspire Others to Keep Fighting

Both Brady Lucas and Ryan Mourey were diagnosed with leukemia as children and were supported by THON and the Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey. Today, they are both Penn State students and active in THON, the year-round fundraising effort to fight pediatric cancer that culminates in this weekend’s 46-hour dance marathon.

Proposed bill would allow ‘dental therapists’ to perform dental procedures

Need a tooth pulled or a cavity filled? Forget the dentist. A number of states are allowing or considering letting “dental therapists,” professionals with a lower level of training, do the job.  In dozens of countries and a handful of U.S. states, dental therapists also sometimes called advanced dental hygiene practitioners help fill gaps in access to oral care for low-income, elderly and disabled people, and in rural areas where few dentists practice, according to many public health advocates.  In Massachusetts, a group that lobbies on behalf of dentists has for the first time signaled a willingness to embrace the concept, though its proposal is viewed as unnecessarily restrictive by sponsors of a competing bill in the Legislature.  “We are not a silver bullet for helping access to dental care, but we are a great tool,” said Christy Jo Fogarty, a dental therapist in … (more)

Soft drinks, pizzas may put your child at liver disease risk7 min ago

London, Feb 15 Parents, take note! Kids who regularly consume foods with high fructose such as pizzas, sodas, sweetened beverages and biscuits may be at the risk of liver disease, a new study has warned. Researchers found that both dietary fructose consumption and serum uric acid concentrations are independently associated with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis .

Nicotine exposure in babies may cause hearing problems

London, Feb 13 – Babies exposed to nicotine before and after birth may be at an increased risk of developing hearing problems due to abnormal development in the auditory brainstem, researchers have found. The findings showed that the auditory brainstem — an area of the brain which plays a role in analysing sound patterns — may have abnormal development in kids when pregnant mothers are exposed to nicotine before and after giving birth.

Religious vaccine exemptions on the rise in New Jersey

More parents in New Jersey are choosing religious exemptions for child vaccinations, resulting in a steady increase in unvaccinated schoolchildren. The number of unvaccinated school-age children has public health experts worried, while vaccine-choice supporters say families are making the best decisions for their kids.

A brain injury is two times more likely to develop attention problems

Washington D.C. [USA], Feb. 11 : People with mild to moderate brain injuries are two times more likely to have developed attention problems and those with severe injuries are five times more likely to develop secondary Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in an average of seven years after injury, reveals a study. Researchers from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in the US presented the study at annual meeting of the Association of Academic Physiatrists in Las Vegas.

New study finds screen time for kids not that bad

A new study from Stetson University in Florida has found that limiting screen time for children and teens is not as necessary as previously thought. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently dropped its recommendation of only two hours of screen time a day for children and teens, which corroborates evidence that screen time recommendations are often estimates and not clear.