U.S. Gun Suicides Continue Record Rise

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 27, 2025
• Full Page

Gun-related suicides in the U.S. reached record highs for the third straight year in 2023, a new report on gun violence says.

About 27,300 gun-related deaths — 58% of all gun deaths — were suicides in 2023, according to research from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg S...

Fasting Might Not Be Necessary Prior To Surgery, Review Concludes

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 27, 2025
• Full Page

Fasting is a well-known hassle associated with surgery.

Patients are required to go without food or liquid for hours because of fears they’ll vomit while under anesthesia, potentially causing pneumonia if stomach contents are inhaled.

But this long-standing p...

Many Kids Unnecessarily Hospitalized Following Allergic Reactions

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 27, 2025
• Full Page

Many kids are spending a lot of unnecessary time under observation in a hospital following a sudden allergic emergency, a new study concludes.

About 17% of kids are admitted for overnight observation following a scary allergic reaction to food, medicine or insect bites, ...

High-Fiber Diet Reduces Risk of Hardened Arteries

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 27, 2025
• Full Page

Noshing on veggies, grains, beans and other high-fiber foods can help your heart as well as your gut health, a new study says.

People with low-fiber diets are more likely to have narrowed arteries caused by the buildup of plaque, researchers reported recently in the jour...

Body Fat Analysis, Waist Size Better Than BMI For Assessing Health

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 27, 2025
• Full Page

A person’s body fat percentage provides a better estimate of their risk for early death than their body mass index (BMI), a new study says.

People with a high body-fat percentage were 78% more likely to die within 15 years from any cause and 3.6 times more likely t...

Ex-Vaccine Panelist Speaks Out on Firing, New Committee

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 26, 2025
• Full Page

The federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has been soberly and deliberately helping set U.S. vaccination policy for more than 60 years.

During that time, its members have been thoroughly vetted through a grueling nomination process, before they take...

Senate Grills CDC Nominee Susan Monarez on Agency Cuts

• I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter
• June 26, 2025
• Full Page

THURSDAY, June 26, 2025 (HealthDay News) —  The woman tapped to lead the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says she supports science, vaccines and public health programs — but she dodged key questions about recent cuts to the agency during ...

CDC Pulls Vaccine Slide After Expert Cites Study Doesn’t Exist

• I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter
• June 26, 2025
• Full Page

A presentation scheduled for a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine meeting today claimed that a vaccine preservative could cause long-term brain effects — but the study it cited doesn’t appear to exist.

The slide, posted online Tuesd...

Illinois Reports First West Nile Virus Case of 2025

• I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter
• June 26, 2025
• Full Page

Illinois has confirmed its first human case of West Nile virus this year, health officials say.

The person, who lives in southern Illinois, was hospitalized with complications from the mosquito-borne virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

NIH Stops Canceling Research Grants Following Court Ruling

• I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter
• June 26, 2025
• Full Page

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has stopped canceling biomedical research grants after a federal judge said hundreds of those cuts were illegal.

This decision comes just days after U.S. District Judge William Young ordered the NIH to restore more than 900 cancele...

Online Videos For Kids Rife With Junk Food Messaging

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 26, 2025
• Full Page

Kids watching YouTube videos are being hammered with messages promoting junk food like candy, sugary drinks, fast food and sweet or salty snacks, a new study says.

About 75% of 6- to 8-year-olds and 36% of 3- to 5-year-olds were fed promotions for junk food while watchin...

Typos, Slang Trip Up AI Medical Assessments

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 26, 2025
• Full Page

Common human typing errors can trip up artificial intelligence (AI) programs designed to aid health care workers by reviewing health records, a new MIT study says.

Typos and extra white spaces can interfere with AI’s ability to properly analyze patient records, res...

Wastewater Can Accurately Predict COVID-19 Surges

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 26, 2025
• Full Page

Keeping tabs on COVID-19 outbreaks is as easy as tracking a city’s wastewater, a new study says.

Levels of the COVID virus, SARS-CoV-2, found in wastewater samples accurately predicted by a week the rise and fall of case counts in a community, researchers reported ...

Updated COVID Vaccines Effective Against New Strains

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 26, 2025
• Full Page

Updated COVID-19 vaccines are keeping up with new coronavirus strains and remain effective for keeping people out of the hospital, a new study says.

The study, which examined the effectiveness of the 2023-2024 COVID vaccines against the XBB and JN.1 Omicron variant waves...

Education Suffers After Even A Single Brush With Childhood Trauma

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 26, 2025
• Full Page

Violence, addiction and abuse can keep children a step behind other kids when it comes to their education, a new study says.

Children who’ve experienced only a single traumatic event are more than twice as likely to be chronically absent from school due to health p...

School Vaccination Requirements Widely Supported By Americans, Poll Says

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 26, 2025
• Full Page

There’s widespread support among Americans for requiring that kids be vaccinated before they can go to school, a new Harvard survey has found.

About 4 in 5 U.S. adults (79%) say parents should be required to have their kids vaccinated against preventable diseases l...

Insurers Promise to Speed Up Delays in Health Care Approvals

• I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter
• June 25, 2025
• Full Page

Getting approval from your insurance company before a procedure or treatment may soon get a little easier.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said this week that several of the nation’s largest health insurers have agreed to change how t...

Texas Governor Blocks THC Ban, Keeping Gummies and Vapes Legal

• I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter
• June 25, 2025
• Full Page

THC-infused gummies and vape pens will stay legal in Texas — at least for now.

Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a bill on Sunday that would have banned the sale and use of THC consumables across the state, The Associated Press reported. 

These products c...

Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton Tears Achilles in Game 7 of NBA Finals

• I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter
• June 25, 2025
• Full Page

Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton tore his right Achilles tendon during the team’s loss in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, the team confirmed.

The injury happened with about five minutes left in the first quarter. Haliburton was driving to the basket when he suddenly...

Monthly Obesity Shot Shows Big Weight Loss in Trial

• Carole Tanzer Miller HealthDay Reporter
• June 25, 2025
• Full Page

Alternatives to weekly injections of weight-loss drugs may on the way.

A monthly dose of a new drug called MariTide helped participants in a phase 2 clinical trial shed about 20% of their body weight over a year, researchers reported Monday in The New England Journal...