Federal officials recently warned that ''nightmare bacteria'' are becoming increasingly resistant to even the strongest antibiotics, and represent a growing threat to hospitals and nursing homes nationwide, according to this article from The Washington Post. At a news conference, Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and ...

The Mediterranean diet slightly reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, and strokes, in particular, according to a new study from The New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers compared three different diets in people at heightened risk for cardiovascular disease. All of the diets were very different from the typical American diet, ...

A new BMJ study suggests that older women who take large amounts of calcium may be at increased risk of heart disease and death, according to this article from The New York Times. By following 61,433 women born between 1914 and 1948 for an average of 19 years and confirming causes of death, Swedish researchers also used questionnaires to record ...

Being physically fit in middle age may lower the risk of dementia in old age, according to a study from The Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers examined 19,458 healthy adults younger than age 65 who took a treadmill fitness test as part of a broader health examination between 1971 and 2009. Researchers then followed the subjects' Medicare ...

Penn State Live's Medical Minute recently released an article on the non-surgical treatment of osteoarthritis. Treatment options include the following: exercise aquatic therapy oral medications supplements joint injections. For a detailed look at each option, click here for the full article.

Doctors are now using Botox to treat female incontinence, according to an article from Penn State Live. While Botox isn't a first treatment choice, it is FDA approved for patients who have urge incontinence caused by an overactive or neurogenic bladder. The procedure works like this: Doctors place a scope inside the patient's bladder, thread a ...

Elderly people with hearing loss may be at risk of developing cognitive deficits sooner than those whose hearing is intact, according to a new JAMA Internal Medicine study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine. After examining 1,984 older adults who participated in the Health ABC Study, Dr. Frank Lin, a hearing specialist and epidemiologist, ...

Diets high in sugar and fat may not impact the health outcomes of older adults ages 75 and up, according to researchers at Penn State and GeisingerHealthcare System. The research--which appeared in the Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging--suggests that placing elderly people on restrictive diets for weight loss or to help treat other ...

Danish researchers found that higher blood levels of C-reactive protein, or CRP, are associated with a greater risk of psychological stress and clinical depression, according to this article from The New York Times. Elevated levels of CRP, which is a byproduct of inflammation in the body, were thought to be linked to an increased risk of heart ...

People who experience chronic shortness of breath, or dyspnea, may have a new way to help alleviate their discomfort, according to a Penn State College of Medicine pulmonology researcher. Dyspnea--which most often affects people with chronic respiratory and cardiac disease--has various causes, but few treatments. Generally patients ...