More than 60% of households with children in the United States have struggled with serious financial problems during the coronavirus pandemic, a new poll shows. Black and Hispanic households with children have borne the brunt of the hardships, which include struggles to afford medical care, depletion of household savings and difficulty paying debts, the poll found. Conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the poll surveyed more than 3,400 adults, 1,000 of whom were living with children under the age of 18, between July 1 and Aug. 3. Of the Hispanic households with children that responded, 86% reported these difficulties; in Black households, 66% reported them. In white households, the number hovers around 50%. The stark racial differences were surprising, as they surfaced after federal and state governments invested heavily in programs for communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic, Robert Blendon, a director of the study behind the report and a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, told The New York Times. “So much money was spent to put a cushion under households,” Blendon said. Still, “the numbers of people in trouble, that is the shock,” he added. Experts worry that the financial fallout from the pandemic could be even worse than the poll depicts, as government measures to support households…  read on >

Isolation due to the pandemic and failure to get hearing aids checked has fueled anxiety, depression and more hearing loss for many seniors. “This has been a very difficult time as senior facilities and individuals try to balance poor health outcomes related to COVID-19 versus poor health outcomes related to social isolation,” said Catherine Palmer, president of the American Academy of Audiology. Unfortunately, older adults who use hearing aids may be using them less, because they think there’s no one to interact with. This can reduce sound input to the brain and lead to auditory deprivation. The individual will be seen as not hearing as well and needing extra effort when communicating. “Family members and friends should encourage their loved ones to continue to use their hearing aids — there is always sound around us,” Palmer said in an academy news release. Hearing aids also need maintenance. For some, their hearing aids may not be working well or at all and they are unable to visit their audiologist for routine care. “If an individual continues to use their hearing aid when it is not working, it functions like an earplug — actually blocking sound,” said Palmer, who’s also an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Many audiologists provide online telehealth and curbside care for those who cannot go into a clinic safely. Some senior…  read on >

Young women who suffer a particularly deadly condition after a heart attack are 11% more likely to die from it than men, a new study finds. Not only that, women aged 18 to 55 are less likely to receive the tests and aggressive treatment that men routinely receive, and are more likely to die in the hospital, the researchers added. “It’s very difficult to understand exactly what’s causing this,” said lead researcher Dr. Saraschandra Vallabhajosyula, a clinical fellow in interventional cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. “A lot is related to unconscious or conscious bias when it comes to women and when it comes to acute cardiac conditions,” he said. Much of the bias can be traced to doctors, the family or the health care system, Vallabhajosyula said. Also, women who have heart attacks don’t always have the same symptoms as men, which can result in misdiagnosis, he added. “They have atypical symptoms, such as belly pain, headaches, things that you don’t typically associate with having a heart attack,” Vallabhajosyula said. That’s why many heart attacks in women are missed. Women are also more likely to dismiss their symptoms and wait longer before going to the hospital, which makes their condition worse and opens the door for a deadly condition known as cardiogenic shock, he explained. Cardiogenic shock occurs when the heart…  read on >

TUESDAY, Sept. 29, 2020 (Healthday News) — The global coronavirus pandemic reached a grim new milestone on Tuesday: One million dead. Americans made up more than 200,000 of those deaths, or one in every five, according to a running tally comprised by Johns Hopkins University. “It’s not just a number. It’s human beings. It’s people we love,” Dr. Howard Markel, a professor of medical history at the University of Michigan, told the Associated Press. He’s an adviser to government officials on how best to handle the pandemic — and he lost his 84-year-old mother to COVID-19 in February. “It’s people we know,” Markel said. “And if you don’t have that human factor right in your face, it’s very easy to make it abstract.” It’s taken the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 virus just 8 months to reach a worldwide death toll that’s meant personal and economic tragedy for billions. Right now, more than 33 million people worldwide are known to have been infected with the new coronavirus, the Hopkins tally found. In the meantime, Americans struggle to stay ahead of the virus. The U.S. government announced Monday that at least 100 million rapid COVID-19 tests will be distributed to states in the coming weeks. Who will get them first? The White House is urging governors to use the tests to help reopen schools, the Associated Press reported.…  read on >

If you’re in an area of the United States at risk for flooding during one of the most active hurricane seasons ever, there are a number of precautions you should take, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says. Make a plan for your household, including your pets, so that you and your family know what to do, where to go and what you will need to protect yourselves from flooding as well as COVID-19. Gather supplies, including nonperishable foods, cleaning supplies and water for several days, in case you have leave your home immediately or if services are cut off in your area. You should have at least three days’ worth of supplies on hand, including one gallon of water per day for each person and pet, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends. If possible, include items such as soap, hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol, disinfecting wipes and household cleaning supplies that you can use to disinfect frequently touched surfaces. After a flood, you may lack access to these supplies for days or even weeks. Take into account the specific needs of each person and pet in your household, including medication. Include extra batteries and charging devices for phones and other critical equipment. Know types of flood risk in your area. Go to FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center…  read on >

Challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic may increase the risk of suicide, so it’s crucial to know the warning signs, a mental health expert says. Suicide is often preventable, because people considering suicide want help, according to Dr. Ahmad Hameed, a psychiatrist at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Penn. “A majority of the time, individuals who survived a serious suicide attempt say they were relieved that they are alive and that someone was there to listen to them and understand what they were going through,” Hameed said in a Penn State news release. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study conducted in June found a rise in mental health conditions during the pandemic. Thirty-one percent of respondents reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, and 11% said they had seriously considered suicide in the preceding 30 days. “About 90% of individuals who die by suicide have either a diagnosed or diagnosable mental health disorder,” Hameed said. For people already prone to anxiety, health concerns, potential job loss and worries about loved ones during the pandemic can seem unbearable. “It’s time for loved ones, friends and family members to be really mindful of any potential behaviors they might see in a person with a mental health condition,” Hameed said. Some of the signs to look for include: Is a person’s…  read on >

Challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic may increase the risk of suicide, so it’s crucial to know the warning signs, a mental health expert says. Suicide is often preventable, because people considering suicide want help, according to Dr. Ahmad Hameed, a psychiatrist at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Penn. “A majority of the time, individuals who survived a serious suicide attempt say they were relieved that they are alive and that someone was there to listen to them and understand what they were going through,” Hameed said in a Penn State news release. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study conducted in June found a rise in mental health conditions during the pandemic. Thirty-one percent of respondents reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, and 11% said they had seriously considered suicide in the preceding 30 days. “About 90% of individuals who die by suicide have either a diagnosed or diagnosable mental health disorder,” Hameed said. For people already prone to anxiety, health concerns, potential job loss and worries about loved ones during the pandemic can seem unbearable. “It’s time for loved ones, friends and family members to be really mindful of any potential behaviors they might see in a person with a mental health condition,” Hameed said. Some of the signs to look for include: Is a person’s…  read on >

Over the years electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) — commonly known as “shock therapy” — has gotten a bad rap. But new research out of Italy suggests that reputation may be unwarranted. Investigators found that among bipolar patients who fail to respond to standard treatments, ECT can be a lifesaver, preventing out-of-control mood swings and dramatically lowering suicide risk. The study — among the largest of its kind — tracked 670 Italian adults who had ECT for bipolar disorder at a single psychiatric clinic between 2006 and 2019. “Importantly, 84% of patients showing high risk of suicide before ECT were no longer considered overtly suicidal after treatment,” said lead author Dr. Giulio Brancati, a resident in clinical and experimental medicine at the University of Pisa. “Overall, 72% of patients showed a good response to ECT,” Brancati added. For about six in 10, ECT appeared to offer relief from an array of debilitating symptoms — including delusions, aggressiveness, uncooperativeness, emotional oversensitivity, physical hyperactivity and paranoia. Depression and anxiety were alleviated in just over one-quarter of the patients. Based on the findings, Brancati said, “ECT should be considered a valuable treatment for severe episodic syndromes,” especially the kind of overexcitement, restlessness, hostility and suspiciousness that can arise when manic, depressive and psychotic symptoms intertwine. The study team noted that bipolar disorder affects about 1% of the population. It can…  read on >

FRIDAY, Sept. 25, 2020 (Healthday News) — The U.S. coronavirus death toll passed 7 million on Friday, with California the hardest hit state so far in a pandemic that has crippled the country for more than six months. The United States has been averaging about 41,500 cases daily, down from the pandemic’s midsummer peak, but states in the Midwest and West are seeing case numbers climb, The New York Times reported. In California, the case count has now passed 800,000, the Times reported, but the figure does not capture the state’s current situation. Recently, California has been reporting a relatively low number of new cases daily, the newspaper said. It was less than a month ago that the United States reached 6 million cases, the Times reported. It took over three months for the country to record its first million cases. Despite those startling case counts, herd immunity is far from sight: The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a Senate committee on Wednesday that 90% of Americans are still at risk of contracting the virus. “The preliminary results in the first round [of a very large, ongoing CDC study] show that a majority of our nation, more than 90% of the population, remains susceptible,” Dr. Robert Redfield testified. “A majority of Americans are still susceptible to this virus.” At…  read on >