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Sleep interrupted - Apnea a common disorder that disturbs sufferers’ dozing
WASHINGTON - Sleeping used to be one of my favorite activities - until I got lousy at it.
Nurse’s notes - Increase quality of end-of-life care
End-of-life care can be defined as the health care provided to persons who are very ill, are not expected to improve and will most likely die in the near future.
Dairy case confusion - Today, there’s more to milk than fat content
Patty Sullivan is stumped by the dairy case. One kind of milk promises to make her children smarter. Another claims to come from healthier cows. Unable to sort all that out, she reaches for conventional Costco milk.
NURSE’S NOTES - With cancer diagnosis, cope in healthy ways
“You have cancer.”
Health care’s forgotten - On remote reservations, service doesn’t meet needs
CROW RESERVATION - Ta’shon Rain Little Light, a happy little girl who loved to dance and dress up in traditional American Indian clothes, had stopped eating and walking. She complained constantly to her mother that her stomach hurt.
NURSE’S NOTES - Rare but serious blood disorder
Neutropenia is a blood disorder that occurs when someone has an abnormally low number of white blood cells called neutrophils. The body protects itself against the constant risk of infection by making a lot of neutrophils. They attack and destroy invading bacteria, viruses and fungi. People with neutropenia are at high risk for infections from other people, the environment and their own normal bacteria.
Rehab in Hamilton - Center opens at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital
HAMILTON - Abby Jessop and her mom had a thing or two to tell the crowd gathered Friday afternoon for grand opening of the Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital Rehabilitation Center.
NURSE’S NOTES - Cause of pelvic pain remains unknown
Pelvic pain, or vulvodynia, can affect any part of the vulva and surrounding area, extending in some cases to the inner thighs. A woman suffering from vulvodynia may experience daily, intermittent or cyclic pain that can negatively affect her in many ways. It is neither sexually transmitted nor indicative of cancer.
HEALTHY START - Watch for children’s milestones
Children grow and develop at different rates. While each child has a different family and environmental experience, most children pass through a specific set of developmental milestones as they grow.
School sense - Teachers turn to rooms to calm or stimulate children
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - In this room, unlike anywhere else in his life, Eric Kercado, who is profoundly deaf and has limited vision, is in control.
Docs, med students embrace smartphones
To his frustration, Steven Schwartz often encounters patients who have no idea what each of the pills they’ve been popping is called.
SKIN DEEP? Exotic - and expensive - creams have little data to back claims
Gold - not just for jewelry! Green tea - not just for a caffeine buzz! Caviar - not just for impressing dinner guests!
NURSE’S NOTES - Incontinence can be treated
For a variety of reasons, it is common for women to experience urinary incontinence at some point in their lives. In fact, as many as 15 million Americans experience incontinence - twice as many women as men.
NURSE’S NOTES - Shaking baby is never OK
A recent Missoulian article provided details about deliberate homicide charges brought against a Missoula man whose 3-month-old son died last year from brain injuries that court records said were related to shaken baby syndrome.
'Walk it off’ - Growing number taking steps to health
PELHAM, N.H. - Brian Bishop was eating and stressing himself to death until a heart attack at age 28 got his attention. Now, after losing more than 100 pounds, he is a poster child - literally - for a national program to walk to a healthier lifestyle.
NURSE’S NOTES - Women have surgery options
Many women have to have gynecologic surgery in their lives, due to conditions such as uterine fibroids, endometriosis, uterine prolapse, excessive bleeding, or cervical or uterine cancer. In fact, hysterectomy procedures are the second most common surgical intervention for women in the United States.
Drink to think - Beverage manufacturers touting L-theanine for mental endurance
Loaded with caffeine and taurine to stimulate the central nervous system, energy drinks have become the go-to solution when you need a quick, energizing pick-me-up.
NURSE’S NOTES - Nurses play crucial role in quality care
There are 2.9 million registered nurses in the United States, including 7,160 in Montana. That’s four times as many RNs as physicians in the U.S. Almost every time a patient visits a hospital or clinic, he or she works with a nurse. It seems logical then, to assume that nursing has an effect on patient outcomes. What are some of these effects and how can we measure them?
HEALTHY START COUNCIL - Benefits of eating meals at home go beyond nutrition
Let’s be honest - it’s tough for parents to find the time to plan, prepare and share family meals while remaining relaxed enough to enjoy them.
Working through flu - Outbreak highlights push for law on paid sick leave
NEW YORK - You wake up one morning and you’re feeling achy and feverish. The directions from health officials battling swine flu are clear: Stay home from work. Don’t risk infecting others. And certainly don’t send a sick kid to school.
Camp aims to keep young athletes injury-free
It almost seems like you could get hurt trying to prevent injuries.
Science of swine flu - Unpredictability marks the most recent strain of disease to spread
Some time in the last few years, as the world’s attention was focused on the bird flu that killed hundreds of people in Asia, another bird flu strain infected pigs.
NURSE’S NOTES - Focus of stroke protocols is quick treatment
It used to be that if you had a stroke, your treatment options were pretty slim. Now, however, emergency care providers say, “Time lost is brain lost.”
Beating diabetes - Association to look at whether control equals 'cure’
JoAnne Zoller Wagner’s diagnosis as prediabetic wasn’t enough to compel her to change her habits and lose 30 pounds. Not even with the knowledge her sister had died because of diabetes.
Nurse’s notes - Climate change, health danger
“Human health is a subsystem of the Earth’s health. You cannot have well humans on a sick planet.”
Nurse’s notes - More to public health than disease control
What do immunizations, maternal-child health, nutrition and communicable disease control have in common? All can be found under one roof at the Missoula City-County Health Departments’ Health Services Division.
Foods we should eat ...foods we shouldn’t - Study gathers best science for a heart-healthy diet
CHICAGO - What we know for sure about diet and what protects the heart is a relatively short list.
NURSE’S NOTES - Have a plan to survive any disaster
Natural disasters occur throughout the world on a daily basis n as we’ve seen recently from the tragic earthquake in Italy.
HEALTHY START COUNCIL - Buying local, in bulk isn’t expensive
Why is it that the idea of buying locally brings to mind higher prices?
Squeeze on vices - Amid economic downturn, data indicate Americans are smoking and drinking less
It took a moment to make the connection, but Jake Sawyers says the recession has been good for him, or at least for his health.
Paperless health care? 1 hospital's long journey Internet-based therapy shows promise for insomnia Final rules out for government stem cell research Calif. regulators warn of pot's cancer capability Jackson kids face hurdles to coping with his death Mexico wins praise for swine flu response Study: New flu inefficient in attacking people Advocates are back with real health care stories Federal probe finds problems with chelation study Scrub tech may have exposed thousands to hepatitis
AP Top Health News At 4:42 p.m. EDT
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Baby Riley Matthews wheezed noisily on the exam table. "He's belly-breathing," the emergency-room doctor said worriedly - Riley's little abdomen was markedly rising and falling with each breath, a sign of respiratory distress....
CHICAGO (AP) -- Sleepless people sometimes use the Internet to get through the night. Now a small study shows promising results for insomniacs with nine weeks of Internet-based therapy. No human therapist is involved. The Internet software gives advice, even specific bedtimes, based on users' sleep diaries. Patients learn better sleep habits - like avoiding daytime naps - through stories, quizzes and games....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government is creating a master list of which embryonic stem cells qualify for taxpayer-funded research, now that President Barack Obama has lifted restrictions on the field....
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- It might take Californians a puff or two to get their heads around an apparent contradiction recently enshrined in state law. The same marijuana smoke that doctors can recommend to ease cancer patients' suffering must soon come with a warning saying it causes the disease....
CHICAGO (AP) -- No matter how unusual their lives may have been so far, Michael Jackson's children now face a universal trauma felt by all kids who suddenly lose a parent....
CANCUN, Mexico (AP) -- As swine flu runs rampant in the Southern Hemisphere winter, world health experts are concerned that some hard-hit countries have been reluctant to take forceful measures to protect public health....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With swine flu continuing to spread around the world, researchers say they have found the reason it is - so far - more a series of local blazes than a wide-raging wildfire. The new virus, H1N1, has a protein on its surface that is not very efficient at binding with receptors in people's respiratory tracts, researchers at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology report in Friday's edition of the journal Science....
CHICAGO (AP) -- When carpenter Greg Douglas crashed his pickup truck, his toolbox hit him and smashed his ribs and collarbone. After a month in the hospital, the medical bills hit him even harder, totaling $165,000....
A federal investigation has found that heart attack survivors enrolled in a study of a controversial alternative medicine treatment were not told enough about potential dangers from the drug being tested, including death....
DENVER (AP) -- A former surgery technician may have exposed thousands of Colorado patients to hepatitis C when she swapped her own dirty syringes for ones filled with a powerful narcotic, federal authorities said Thursday....
