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More elderly Americans are choking to death

NEW YORK (AP) — It was the scariest choking incident David Palumbo had ever seen. The 88-year-old man had been dining at a Providence, Rhode Island, Italian restaurant in September 2019. Now he was unconscious, with a piece of bread lodged in his windpipe. Precious minutes went by as first responders were unable to help him with CPR or the Heimlich maneuver. In an ambulance on the way to the hospital, the elderly man's skin was blue, and firefighters worried he was going to die. Palumbo — a fire department captain — used a scissors-like device called Magill forceps to pull the ...

Researchers try new ways of preserving more hearts for transplants

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two university hospitals are pioneering new ways to expand lifesaving heart transplants for adults and babies — advances that could help recover would-be heart donations that too often go unused. The new research aims to overcome barriers for using organs from someone ...

Health Matters: Many benefits to healthy muscles

ESCANABA — Wellness is an interesting term, thrown about carelessly in the media. But it should carry significance for most adults. It incorporates physical, mental, and social factors, and will aid in providing a sense of well-being. Achieving this state should be the goal of everyone. Ignore at your own risk. Attaining wellness is challenging but it can help to focus on perhaps the most important component, muscle. Hopefully this statement doesn’t lead you to immediately imagine a gym rat, proudly flexing his biceps. But muscle health and mass is essential in any effort toward ...

14 million children did not receive a single vaccine in 2024, UN estimates

LONDON (AP) — More than 14 million children did not receive a single vaccine last year — about the same number as the year before — according to U.N. health officials. Nine countries accounted for more than half of those unprotected children. In their annual estimate of global vaccine coverage, released Tuesday, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said about 89% of children under 1 year old got a first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine in 2024, the same as in 2023. About 85% completed the three-dose series, up from 84% in 2023. Officials ...

American kids have become increasingly unhealthy

American kids have become increasingly unhealthy By The Associated Press The health of U.S. children has deteriorated over the past 17 years, with kids today more likely to have obesity, chronic diseases and mental health problems like depression, a new study says. Much of what researchers ...

The US is having its worst year for measles in more than three decades

The U.S. is having its worst year for measles spread in more than three decades, with a total of 1,288 cases nationally and another six months to go in 2025. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that the national case count surpassed 2019, when there were 1,274 cases for the year and the country almost lost its status of having eliminated the vaccine-preventable illness. That could happen this year if the virus has nonstop spread for 12 months. This year's outbreaks, some of them interconnected, started five months ago in undervaccinated communities in ...