CNN – Health

By Jen Christensen, CNN Doctors know that drugs called statins lower a person’s risk of a stroke due to a blood clot. But a new study shows that the inexpensive medications can also decrease the risk of a first stroke as a result of an intracerebral hemorrhage, the deadliest kind. An intracerebral hemorrhage is when

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN Neck pain may have many causes: Stress, poor posture, texting, injuries from sports, car or other accidents and chronic illnesses such as fibromyalgia, to name a few. But there’s another culprit you may not be considering — how you sleep. “Generally, when you wake up with neck pain, either your pillow

By Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News It wasn’t the Thanksgiving holiday any of us had expected. Two weeks before, my 94-year-old father-in-law, Melvin Zax, suffered a stroke after receiving dialysis and was rushed to a hospital near his residence in western New York. There, he underwent a series of tests over the course of several

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN Colon cancer has claimed another life. Emmy Award and Golden Globe winner Kirstie Alley, best known for her roles in the television sitcoms “Cheers” and “Veronica’s Closet,” died Monday at age 71 after battling cancer that was “recently discovered,” according to a family statement. A representative for Alley confirmed to CNN

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN More than 1,200 pregnant and postpartum women died of a drug overdose in the US in 2020, with overdoses involved in more than 1 in 6 pregnancy-associated deaths that year, according to a new study. Drug overdose deaths reached record levels nationwide during the Covid-19 pandemic, and research published Tuesday suggests

By Dana Santas, CNN For many people, back pain can make it difficult to function in everyday life. It affects how you move, feel and think, leaving you with no choice but to take some kind of action to alleviate the pain. But what if, instead of being reactive, you took small daily steps to

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN A chill is in the air, and you all know what that means — it’s time for cold and flu season, when it seems everyone you know is suddenly sneezing, sniffling or worse. It’s almost as if those pesky cold and flu germs whirl in with the first blast of winter

By Brenda Goodman, CNN This year’s flu shot appears to be “a very good match” to the circulating strains, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a news briefing Monday. However, she noted that flu vaccinations are lagging behind the pace of previous years. Through the end of October,

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN Hearing aids might be an important tool in the effort to prevent cognitive decline and dementia, according to a new study. Research has established that hearing loss in an important risk factor in developing dementia, but whether intervening with the hearing loss will also treat the progression of cognitive decline has

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN We all eat them — ultraprocessed foods such as frozen pizza and ready-to-eat meals make our busy lives much easier. Besides, they are just darn tasty — who isn’t susceptible to hot dogs, sausages, burgers, french fries, sodas, cookies, cakes, candy, doughnuts and ice cream, to name just a few? If

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN Pfizer and BioNTech have submitted an application to the US Food and Drug Administration for their updated Covid-19 vaccine to be used as the third shot in the three-dose primary vaccine series for children ages 6 months through 4 years. The vaccine makers announced on Monday that if authorized for emergency