Linda Carroll

Parents should “treat button batteries the same way they treat cleaning chemicals or the knives in the kitchen,” said a pediatric emergency doctor.

Avoiding weight gain in middle age doesn’t require a complicated change in diet, a new study suggests. Researchers in the United States analyzed more than two decades of data from almost 137,000 people and found less weight gain among people who ate more whole grains, fruit and nonstarchy vegetables — such as broccoli, carrots and spinach — and fewer refined grains, starchy vegetables and sugary drinks. The study, published Wednesday in the BMJ, shows “the quality of the carbohydrates in a pers…

The coronavirus isn’t the only pathogen that can cause symptoms that last months, or even years, after an initial infection is overcome, a new study published Friday in The Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine suggests. In an analysis of data from 10,171 U.K. adults, the researchers found evidence of a “long cold” syndrome that can follow infection with a variety of common respiratory viruses, including common cold viruses and influenza. While some of the symptoms of long Covid and long colds overlapped,…

As more Americans are being diagnosed with multiple chronic health problems at younger ages, for the first time, the American Heart Association is identifying a new medical condition that reflects the strong links among obesity, diabetes and heart and kidney disease. According to an advisory released Monday, the goal in recognizing the condition — cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome, or CKM — is to get earlier diagnosis and treatment for people at high risk of dying from cardiovascular dis…

If you’re concerned that by hitting the snooze button multiple times in the morning you could be hurting your sleep, you can sleep easy: For most people, “snoozing” has no impact on sleep quality, a new study suggests. What’s more, for some, hitting the button multiple times over 30 minutes may spark alertness more quickly than sleeping through without a break, according to the study, published Wednesday in the Journal of Sleep Research. The study found “that snoozing for 30 minutes in the morni…

People who have no choice but to sit at a desk for hours on end may have seen, in recent years, a slew of headlines about the scary consequences of sitting for long periods of time — and how even regular exercise couldn’t undo the damage. Research published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, however, finds that about 22 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous activity may provide an antidote to the ills of prolonged sitting. What’s more, the researchers found that, as a person’s ac…

After an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot accused of trying to bring down a plane midflight said he had consumed “magic mushrooms” before boarding, psychedelic researchers say the event should be a cautionary tale, especially for people who think they might be able to overcome a tenacious mental illness by taking a psychedelic drug on their own. Over the last five years, research on psychedelic drugs as part of a therapy for mental conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anx…

Only a fraction of people at high risk for lung cancer are getting screened for the disease even though it kills more in the United States than breast, colorectal and prostate cancers combined. New American Cancer Society guidelines will allow millions more to become eligible for regular scans that can detect tumors early enough to save lives. With one important exception, the new guidelines echo existing recommendations from the highly influential U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. In 2021,…

A 41-year-old who follows most of the guidelines for a healthy heart may have an actual biological age of 36. Then there’s the 53-year-old who doesn’t get enough sleep, doesn’t exercise regularly and has high levels of bad cholesterol who may actually have a biological age closer to 57, according to a new analysis presented at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association on Monday. Biological aging may be slowed significantly when people adopt the eight behaviors recommended by the heart…

Deaths due to cardiac arrest in college athletes have been steadily declining over the last 20 years, a new study finds. An analysis of data from more than 2 million NCAA athletes revealed that 143 had died after a cardiac arrest that occurred while they were playing their sport and that there was wide variation in the risk of death after a sudden heart stoppage, depending on the player’s race, gender and sport, according to the research presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Hea…