FRIDAY, Dec. 17, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Recovery from heart surgery can bring some pain. But a new study suggests patients don’t need potentially addictive prescription opioids to control that post-op discomfort. “This study shows that discharge without opioid pain medicine after cardiac surgery is extremely well tolerated by someContinue Reading

THURSDAY, Dec. 16, 2021 (HealthDay News) — It’s a phenomenon first identified in India earlier this year: Patients who have or are recovering from COVID-19 who then contract a sometimes deadly fungal infection known as mucormycosis — also known as “black fungus.” Now, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control andContinue Reading

THURSDAY, Dec. 16, 2021 (HealthDay News) — There may be a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, with U.S. health officials reporting an “unprecedented” decline in teens’ use of alcohol, marijuana, other illegal drugs and vaping. “We have never seen such dramatic decreases in drug use among teens in justContinue Reading

TUESDAY, Dec. 14, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Synthetic forms of the potentially lethal opioid fentanyl are flooding the illicit drug market, leaving a soaring number of fatal overdoses in their wake, a new U.S. report finds. The latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds thatContinue Reading

TUESDAY, Dec. 14, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Compared to previous coronavirus variants, Omicron appears to cause less severe illness, but is more resistant to the Pfizer vaccine, researchers at South Africa’s largest health insurer report. The team at Discovery Health analyzed 211,000 positive coronavirus cases during the country’s fourth wave,Continue Reading