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Shots - Health News
6:03 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

The Human Voice May Not Spark Pleasure In Children With Autism

Credit Rich Pedroncelli / AP
Instructional assistant Jessica Reeder touches her nose to get Jacob Day, 3, who has autism, to focus his attention on her during a therapy session in April 2007.

The human voice appears to trigger pleasure circuits in the brains of typical kids, but not children with autism, a Stanford University team reports. The finding could explain why many children with autism seem indifferent to spoken words.

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Shots - Health News
4:40 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

After Long Search, Komen Foundation Replaces Brinker As CEO

Credit Getty Images
Nancy Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, seen at a dinner honoring the recipients of the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors in December.

The Komen Foundation for the Cure has a new chief executive.

Dr. Judith Salerno, 61, a geriatrician, is replacing Nancy Brinker, the philanthropy's founder and longtime CEO, the group said Monday.

"Judy's years of proven leadership in public policy and research make her the right choice to lead all aspects of Komen's mission," said Linda Custard, chair of the Komen board, in a statement.

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The Two-Way
3:59 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

FTC Can Sue Firms In 'Pay For Delay' Drug Deals, Court Rules

Credit Reed Saxon / AP
The Supreme Court has ruled that the FTC can challenge arrangements between makers of generic drugs and makers of brand-name products such as AndroGel, seen here on a computer monitor screen.

When the maker of a brand-name drug pays a maker of generic drugs to not produce a lower-priced version of their product, the Federal Trade Commission can challenge the arrangement on antitrust grounds, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. The ruling may end the era of what regulators call "pay-for-delay" deals.

The justices voted 5-3 to allow a case to go forward in which the FTC is challenging one of many such deals. Several companies are involved in the case, including Solvay Pharmaceuticals, maker of AndroGel, and generic-drug maker Actavis.

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Shots - Health News
2:31 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

When Sibling Fights Go Beyond Harmless Kid Stuff

Credit iStockphoto.com
Beheading Barbie is the kind of aggression that can cause sibling distress.

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 6:02 pm

I'll never forget the time my big brother sank his fork in the back of my hand after I snitched food off his plate.

But all siblings fight, right? So I was more than a little skeptical of a study saying that sibling aggression can cause serious mental health problems like depression and anxiety.

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Health Care
5:26 am
Mon June 17, 2013

Smartphones Help Bridge Gaps In Electronic Medical Records

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 1:13 pm

Hospitals, doctors and Medicare are making it easier for people to have access to their own health records. Some app developers have even created ways to have health information available even on a smartphone.

Shots - Health News
2:59 am
Mon June 17, 2013

To Find Out How The Health Law Affects You, Ask The President

Credit Stephen Lam / Getty Images
President Obama encourages people to sign up for health insurance exchanges in San Jose, Calif., on June 6.

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 1:13 pm

Call it the Affordable Care Act, call it Obamacare, call it whatever you want — it's coming. And soon. In less than four months people without health insurance will be able to start signing up for coverage that begins Jan. 1.

A lot has been said about the law, most of it not that understandable. So starting now, and continuing occasionally through the summer and fall, we're going to try to fix that.

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Shots - Health News
6:39 am
Sun June 16, 2013

Coping On Father's Day Without Dad

Originally published on Sun June 16, 2013 9:29 am

Steven's father had been diagnosed with cancer. The doctors didn't think he would make it. Pale and bald, he didn't look himself. Steven wanted to take a picture, made a video, just in case. Dad refused. "I got so mad," Steven remembers. "I regret not just coming up to him and saying, 'Dad, five minutes.' "

Steven's dad died on June 12, 2011. "The only time I can hear his voice is on our answering machine for two seconds," Steven says. "Hi, Heinz family, leave a message."

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Shots - Health News
2:50 pm
Fri June 14, 2013

Doctors To Vote On Whether Cheerleading Is A Sport

Credit Charlie Neibergall / AP
University of Louisville cheerleaders hurled into the air during the first half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball semifinal game against Wichita State in April.

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 7:43 am

This weekend the American Medical Association will kick off its annual exercise in medical democracy.

The group's House of Delegates will meet in Chicago to vote on resolutions that range from a demand that private insurers pay doctors at least as much as Medicare does to a call for federal legislation affirming the right of doctors to talk about gun safety with patients.

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The Salt
12:29 pm
Fri June 14, 2013

Sorry, Dr. Oz, Green Coffee Can't Even Slim Down Chubby Mice

Credit Aidan / via Flickr
Raw, green coffee beans. To roast or not?

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 1:54 pm

The diet world has a new golden child: green coffee extract.

A "miracle fat burner!" "One of the most important discoveries made" in weight loss science, the heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz said about the little pills — which are produced by grinding up raw, unroasted coffee, and then soaking the result in alcohol to pull out the antioxidants.

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NPR Story
11:27 am
Fri June 14, 2013

Human Genes Not Patentable, Supreme Court Says

Originally published on Fri June 14, 2013 4:13 pm

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that the mere act of isolating a DNA sequence does not make human genes patentable. Mary-Claire King, who helped discover the breast cancer gene at the center of the court dispute, discusses the ruling and its implications for genetics.

Shots - Health News
10:10 am
Fri June 14, 2013

Scientists Go Medieval To Solve Ancient Leprosy Puzzle

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 7:43 am

Look through a series of 15th century woodcuts, and you'll find that the leper is as much an icon of medieval art as the crown or the cross.

Leprosy was so common in Europe during the Middle Ages that it's estimated 1 in 30 people was infected with the bacteria. But by the turn of the 16th century, after the crusades had swept across Europe, the disease mysteriously disappeared. And it never returned.

This left scientists puzzled. Did the bacteria mutate to become less harmful, or did Europeans become resistant to the germs?

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Shots - Health News
3:16 pm
Thu June 13, 2013

Haiti Moves A Step Closer Toward Eradicating Elephantiasis

Originally published on Thu June 13, 2013 7:13 pm

Haiti has finally carried out a nationwide campaign to get rid of the parasitic worms that cause elephantiasis.

Haiti has waged other campaigns against the condition, characterized by severe disfiguration of the legs and arms. But until now, it has never managed to adequately reach residents of the chaotic capital Port-au-Prince.

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Shots - Health News
1:38 pm
Thu June 13, 2013

Judge Reluctantly Approves Government Plan For Morning-After Pill

Credit AP
This brand may have a near-monopoly in emergency contraception.

Originally published on Thu June 13, 2013 4:11 pm

An obviously unhappy Judge Edward Korman has approved the Obama administration's proposal to make just one formulation of the morning-after birth control pill available over the counter without age restrictions.

But in a testily worded six-page memorandum, the federal district judge made it clear he is not particularly pleased with the outcome. He has been overseeing the case in one way or another for more than eight years.

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Shots - Health News
12:53 pm
Thu June 13, 2013

Prevention Pill Cuts HIV Risk For Injecting Drug Users

Credit Jeff Chiu / AP
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says doctors should prescribe Truvada, a once-a-day pill for HIV, to help prevent infections in IV drug users.

A once-a-day pill has been proven to lower the risk of getting HIV among needle-using drug addicts, just as it does among heterosexual couples and men who have sex with men.

Among 2,400 injecting drug users in Bangkok, those assigned to take a daily dose of an antiviral drug Viread, or tenofovir generically, had half the risk of getting HIV over a four-year period as those who took a placebo pill. Among those who took tenofovir faithfully, there were 74 percent fewer infections.

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The Two-Way
12:03 pm
Thu June 13, 2013

U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin To Step Down

Credit Jacquelyn Martin / AP
Surgeon General Regina Benjamin speaks on health disparities in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 2012.

After four years on the job, the nation's top doctor is leaving. U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin announced late Wednesay that she plans to step down next month.

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Shots - Health News
12:02 pm
Thu June 13, 2013

Could Brain Scans Reveal The Right Treatment For Depression?

Credit iStockphoto.com
Talk therapy is best for some people; antidepressants are better for others. Scientists say PET scans might help figure out early on what treatment a person needs.

Originally published on Thu June 13, 2013 3:39 pm

Finding the right treatment for depression can be a struggle. People find relief with the first treatment only 40 percent of the time. Trying different antidepressants or therapies can take months, which means months of suffering.

Scientists are trying to better the odds by searching for signals in the body or in behavior that could be signposts to the right treatment. Researchers at Emory University say that PET scans of the brain may help predict which people do better on SSRI antidepressants, and which would benefit most from cognitive behavioral therapy instead.

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Shots - Health News
10:21 am
Thu June 13, 2013

New York Hospitals Shelve Rivalries For Proton Beam Project

Credit Wikimedia Commons
An image with radiation doses from proton therapy superimposed.

During the recent debate in Washington, D.C., over whether to let to local competing hospital systems build rival proton beam therapy centers, an obvious question was raised: Why not team up?

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Shots - Health News
5:08 pm
Wed June 12, 2013

In Arizona, An Unlikely Ally For Medicaid Expansion

Credit Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, points during an intense conversation with President Obama after he arrived at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Ariz. She has since made light of the incident in trying to rally support for a Medicaid expansion in the state.

Originally published on Wed June 12, 2013 6:20 pm

The Arizona Legislature is debating whether to extend Medicaid to about 300,000 people in the state. The expansion is a requirement to get federal funding under the Affordable Care Act.

The big surprise is who has been leading the charge: Republican Gov. Jan Brewer. She's one of President Obama's staunchest critics and has confounded conservatives in her own party by supporting the expansion.

Google the words "Brewer" and "Obama." You'll get a now-famous image of Brewer wagging her finger at the president on the tarmac last year when she met him in Phoenix.

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Medical Treatments
2:36 pm
Wed June 12, 2013

Life Resumes: Looking Ahead With Suleika Jaouad

Originally published on Wed June 12, 2013 4:43 pm

Two years after Suleika Jaouad was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, she is cancer free. A month before her 25th birthday, she is starting to travel and think about her career again. As part of TOTN's "Looking Ahead" series, Jaouad reflects on regaining a bit of normalcy.

Health
2:21 pm
Wed June 12, 2013

Fighting To Breathe: Living With COPD

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive lung disease that slowly robs sufferers of the ability to breathe. COPD is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., surpassed only by cancer and heart disease. There are treatments, but no cure for the disease.

Shots - Health News
1:14 pm
Wed June 12, 2013

Chopped: How Amputated Fingertips Sometimes Grow Back

Originally published on Thu June 13, 2013 3:38 pm

When a kid lops off a fingertip with a cleaver or car door, there's a chance the end of the digit will grow back. The fingerprint will be gone, and the tip may look a bit strange. But the flesh, bone and nail could return.

Now biologists at New York University have figured out just how this lizard-like regeneration happens in mice. There's some secret sauce at the nail cuticle that makes it possible, scientists report Wednesday in the journal Nature.

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Shots - Health News
12:29 pm
Wed June 12, 2013

Go Easy On The Soy Sauce, Bro, It Could Kill You

Credit Aaron Tam / AFP/Getty Images
Keep the soy sauce on your food, and use it in moderation.

Originally published on Thu June 13, 2013 3:39 pm

First, let's spoil this tale right away by telling you the 19-year-old man in Virginia who downed a quart of soy sauce on a dare survived.

It's a happy ending of sorts. But the guy had a close call. And you definitely don't want to try it.

While there's been quite a debate lately about whether the salt in the modern American diet is risky, there's no question that a massive amount of salt ingested quickly can lead to death.

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Consumer
9:40 am
Wed June 12, 2013

Hands-Free Gadgets in Car Don't Mean Driving Is Risk-Free

Credit AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety
A University of Utah volunteer drives through Salt Lake City's Avenues neighborhood as a camera tracks her eye and head movement. Another device records driver reaction time, and a cap fitted with sensors charts brain activity.

Originally published on Wed June 12, 2013 11:49 am

If you've felt smug and safe using built-in, voice-controlled technology for text messages, email and phone calls while driving, forget it. There are some sobering findings about the risk of distraction from the American Automobile Association and the University of Utah.

The proliferation of hands-free technology "is a looming public safety crisis," AAA CEO Robert Darbelnet says. "It's time to consider limiting new and potentially dangerous mental distractions built into cars."

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Shots - Health News
5:16 pm
Tue June 11, 2013

Administration's Plan For Morning-After Pill Pleases No One

Credit ASSOCIATED PRESS
Plan B One-Step might be the only emergency contraceptive available to all ages without a prescription.

Originally published on Tue June 11, 2013 6:20 pm

Reaction was swift to the Obama administration's announcement Monday night that it was dropping a long-running legal battle to keep age restrictions on one type of the morning-after birth control pill.

But like just about everything else in this decade-long controversy, the latest decision has pleased just about no one.

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The Salt
5:12 pm
Tue June 11, 2013

Tender Beef, Without The Pathogens: USDA Proposes Labeling Rules

Credit iStockphoto.com
Meat tenderized the old-fashioned way. The industrial method is a mechanized process involving needles.

Originally published on Tue June 11, 2013 6:27 pm

In order to make tough cuts of beef more tender, the industry uses a mechanical tenderizing process that involves piercing the meat with needles.

This is effective in breaking up the tough muscle fibers, but there's a downside, too: a higher risk of surface bacteria making their way into the cut of meat, which can set the stage for food poisoning. That's a particular concern when it comes to the center of meat cuts, which don't get heated to the same temperatures as the exterior.

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Shots - Health News
4:17 pm
Tue June 11, 2013

Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea Rises In Great Britain

Credit Images from the History of Medicine
A public health poster from 1952 encourages Americans to get checked for sexually transmitted diseases. Gonorrhea is the second-most-common sexually transmitted disease in the U.S., with more than 300,000 cases reported in 2011.

Originally published on Wed June 12, 2013 12:31 pm

Forms of gonorrhea that don't respond to the last line of antibiotics have rapidly spread in Great Britain, expanding the reach of drug-resistant disease.

The number of gonorrhea cases with decreased sensitivity to the front-line drug cefixime increased by nearly six times from 2004 to 2011 in England and Wales, a team from the U.K.'s Health Protection Agency reported Tuesday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

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Consumer
2:26 pm
Tue June 11, 2013

Pushed Off the Job While Pregnant

Originally published on Tue June 11, 2013 8:20 pm

At a time when most pregnant women work, there are new efforts to keep companies from unfairly targeting employees because of a pregnancy. The allegations of pregnancy discrimination persist and have even risen in recent years despite a decades-old law against it, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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The Salt
12:36 pm
Tue June 11, 2013

Za'atar: A Spice Mix With Biblical Roots And Brain Food Reputation

Originally published on Fri June 14, 2013 11:27 am

NPR Morning Edition Host Steve Inskeep recently traveled to Damascus for a series of reports on the ongoing war in Syria. He sent this postcard from the road.

Dear Salt:

On my first day in Damascus, I went walking in the ancient bazaar — narrow stone-paved streets surrounding a great stone mosque. The mosque is so old, it used to be a church during the Roman Empire, and before it was a church, it was a pagan temple. The bazaar is surely as old as the mosque, for Damascus is a historic city of trade.

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Shots - Health News
11:47 am
Tue June 11, 2013

How CT Scans Have Raised Kids' Risk For Future Cancer

Credit iStockphoto.com
Use of CT scans has doubled for children under five and tripled for older children.

Originally published on Wed June 12, 2013 6:40 am

Doctors are prescribing too many CT scans for children, a study says, even though they know that the radiation used in the tests increases children's lifelong risk of cancer.

Choosing other tests and dialing back the radiation used in the scans would prevent 62 percent of related cancers, according to Diana Miglioretti, a biostatistician at the University of California, Davis, who led the study.

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Shots - Health News
9:40 am
Tue June 11, 2013

A Delay In Relief From Copays For Costly Drugs

Credit iStockphoto.com
Expensive prescriptions drugs can stretch people's finances, even if they have insurance.

For people with a chronic or serious illness, drugs that can help slow or cure the disease often put a financial strain on even the best insurance coverage.

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