Report: Health law’s small biz tax credit could expand coverage

As the provisions of the Affordable Care Act begin to be implemented, many small businesses in the United States will be able to take advantage of new tax credits, a new report states. During the first phase of the act, some businesses employing some 16.6 million workers will be eligible for these tax credits, according to the report released Thursday from the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation. “The new law is likely to have a significant …

New test may ‘revolutionize TB care,’ diagnosing

Scientists are reporting a major advance in diagnosing tuberculosis: A new test can reveal in less than two hours, with very high accuracy, whether someone has the disease and if it’s resistant to the main drug for treating it. The test could revolutionize TB care and replace the 125-year-old process used now, which is slow and misses more than half of all cases, experts say. A better test would be a powerful tool to curb TB in poor countries, where most people spread the lung disease before they are …

Diet drug Meridia raises heart attack, stroke risk

A company-sponsored study found that the weight-loss drug Meridia raised heart attack and stroke risk in patients with pre-existing heart disease, according to a report out today. The publication comes just two weeks before the Food and Drug Administration is to convene an advisory panel of outside experts to discuss the fate of Meridia, which the agency approved in 1997. “It is difficult to discern a credible rationale for keeping this medication on the market,” concludes an accompanying editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine . Based on preliminary data, the FDA’s counterpart for the European Union suspended Meridia’s marketing license in January, but the FDA only added stronger information on the label …

Active minds delay dementia but speed decline once it hits

Poring over crossword puzzles, reading and listening to tunes may slow or delay brain decline at first, but being mentally active might speed up dementia once it hits, new research suggests. “The person who has had a more mentally stimulating lifestyle may have more signs of disease in his brain, but the brain has been able to compensate for it better,” says study author Robert Wilson, professor of neurological sciences and behavioral sciences at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, whose research appears in Neurology this week. GAMES: Crossword, Sudoku, word round-up and more FORUM: Share tips and tricks with fellow puzzle …

‘Breakthrough’ melanoma drug shrinks tumors

A small study of an experimental drug for advanced melanoma — a brutal disease that often kills within nine months — is giving rare hope to doctors and patients. For the first time, doctors say, new therapies that include the drug allow them to envision a time when they might be able to keep melanoma patients alive for years, treating the tumor as they would a chronic disease. Q&A: Learn more about this promising new drug The pill, known as PLX4032, doesn’t cure melanoma, and it helps only the roughly 50% of melanoma patients whose…

Katrina still has emotional grip on thousands of children

Five years later, Hurricane Katrina continues to wreak havoc in the lives of thousands of children who suffer from serious emotional disturbances, often compounded by a lack of stable housing, a study reports today. Children displaced by the storm are nearly five times more likely than other kids to have severe emotional disturbances, and fewer than half of the children believed to need psychological help got it, the study says. It’s published in the journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness . “A significant number of children are still living under dangerous and traumatic conditions of persistent displacement,” says study co-author Irwin Redlener, director of Columbia University’s National…

Most senior citizens learn to adapt to the loss of a partner

For months after her husband of 52 years died last spring, Laurel Frisch struggled to read a book. She couldn’t make decisions; she only occasionally left her Rockville home. In those rare moments when she could summon the energy, she wandered aimlessly through stores. This Story Experts seek ways to handle the coming boom in old age Telemedicine improves elder care at home Aging Well: Taking away more than the keys Scientists visit Montana man for secrets to a very long life Wisdom…

Belly fat may double risk of death for older adults

CHICAGO (AP) — If you are feeling a bit big around the waistline, take note: Belly bulge can be deadly for older adults, even those who aren’t overweight or obese by other measures. One of the largest studies to examine the dangers of abdominal fat suggests men and women with the biggest waistlines have twice the risk of dying over a decade compared to those with the smallest tummies. WALKING: Trims belly fat AB TONING: Revolutionary sneaker or overhyped gimmick? FAMILY FITNESS CHALLENGE: Ideas for exercise together Surprisingly, bigger waists carry a greater risk of death even for people whose weight is “normal” by the body mass index, or BMI, a standard measure based on weight and height. “Even…

Renewed effort to lure doctors to rural areas faces obstacles

ESMONT, VA. — Sarah Carricaburu slipped her sleek new iPhone into her purse for the day. With no signal here deep in the woods, it’s useless. She swiveled away from her desktop computer, which can’t access the Internet, and glanced at the manila folders of patient records neatly stacked on a shelf by nurses. This Story Will the country doctor keep calling? Tough choices in underserved areas “I grew up in the age of electronic medical records,” said Carricaburu, 33, a primary care physician who was raised in the Washington suburbs. “Coming here was like stepping back in time. …

Cancer patients quit life-extending drugs in recession

In 2009 and 2010, as the economic collapse shuddered across the globe, oncologists in California noticed a troubling trend: Three patients who had had serious tumors under control for as long as eight years reappeared in the clinic with massive cancer regrowth which, in one case, required emergency surgery. In retrospect, this downturn in fortunes should have been predictable: The economic recession had forced the patients to discontinue a life-extending medication. “In all three cases, the patients developed new symptoms and came in after having missed an appointment or two without us knowing that they had stopped the drug,” said Dr. Katie Kelley, co-author of a letter-to-the-editor in the Aug. 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine , which describes …

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