For patients being treated for uncomplicated acute appendicitis, quality of life (QOL) is similar at seven years after appendectomy or antibiotic therapy, according to a study published online Feb. 19 in JAMA Surgery. Suvi Sippola, M.D., from Turku University Hospital in Finland, and colleagues assessed postintervention QOL and patient satisfaction…
Being overweight may raise your risk for advanced prostate cancer
A new study links being overweight in middle age and later adulthood to a greater risk of advanced prostate cancer. Jeanine Genkinger, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and colleagues published the study in Annals of Oncology, the journal of the European Society for Medical…
Coronavirus contact lenses: How to clean your contact lenses properly amid COVID-19
Coronavirus has been declared a public health emergency across the world, having spread to more than 75 countries and infecting a total of 92,288 people. Public Health England has published medical advice helping to minimise your risk of catching the killer infection. Express.co.uk has compiled a guide to help you…
China’s virus crackdown leaves millions working at home
In the middle of a phone call with a customer, an important visitor knocks on Michael Xiong’s door: his 3-year-old son. Xiong, a salesman in Chibi, a city near the center of a virus outbreak, is one of millions of people in China who are obeying government orders to work…
Naming the new coronavirus: Why taking Wuhan out of the picture matters
Stop calling the novel coronavirus outbreak the “Wuhan coronavirus,” and start getting comfortable with “COVID-19.” That’s the World Health Organization’s recommended name for the disease. While identifying a new disease by its place of origin seems intuitive, history demonstrates that doing so can harm the people who live there. Consequences…
First virus-free guests abandon blocked Spanish island hotel
Some guests started to leave a locked-down hotel on Spain’s Tenerife island on Friday after undergoing screening for a new virus that is infecting hundreds worldwide. Reporters at the scene saw several families and couples having their temperatures checked Friday morning by what appeared to be medical personnel wearing protective…
Luxembourg reports first coronavirus case, linked to Italy
This transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 — also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19 — isolated from a patient in the US. Virus particles are shown emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. The spikes on the outer edge of the virus particles give…
Hair loss warning: Doctors reveal the dangerous truth behind popular hair loss remedy
Hair loss can be very distressing so people are often willing to pursue unorthodox practices in a bid to treat it. This makes them especially vulnerable to unfounded claims, which can be both costly and harmful. Doctors are calling out a particular practice that has become popularised on YouTube and…
Beyond child’s play, hula-hooping can benefit your health and fitness
In a bid to get fit, it helps to think outside the box. So, instead of pounding the pavement or hitting the gym, hordes of people are picking up hoops and hula-ing their way to better health. I’ve decided to join them. Which is how I find myself in a…
Mercury can attenuate the beneficial health effects of fish
Higher serum long-chain omega-3 fatty acid concentration, a marker for fish consumption, was beneficially associated with cardiac performance in middle-aged and older men from eastern Finland. However, methylmercury exposure, mainly through certain fish species, attenuated these associations, according to a new Ph.D. thesis from the University of Eastern Finland. Coronary…