MONDAY, Oct. 18, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Colin Powell, the first Black person to become Secretary of State and a military leader who helped shape U.S. foreign policy for decades, died Monday of complications from COVID-19. He was 84."General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from COVID-19," the Powell family wrote in a Facebook post. "We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American," they said, noting he was fully vaccinated. Powell becomes one of the most high-profile American public figures to die after having a "breakthrough" coronavirus infection, although there were factors that raised his risk of severe COVID-19 infection greatly, experts...

MONDAY, Oct. 18, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers may have found a noninvasive way to temporarily open the brain's borders to allow tumor-fighting medication inside.By necessity, the brain is shielded by a layer of specialized cells called the blood-brain barrier. Its job is to allow needed substances in -- like oxygen and sugar -- while keeping out substances that could be toxic.Unfortunately, that means medications often cannot penetrate the brain to any great extent to treat tumors or damaged tissue.Now scientists are reporting a first: They used an advanced ultrasound technique to noninvasively -- and temporarily -- open the blood-brain barrier in four patients with breast cancer that had spread to the brain.That allowed the researchers to deliver the drug trastuzumab...

MONDAY, Oct. 18, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- When states spend money on programs that reduce poverty, fewer children are abused and neglected, fewer end up in foster care and fewer die, a new study reveals.Researchers found that for every additional $1,000 that states spent on federal, state and local benefit programs per person living in poverty, there was a 4% reduction in substantiated child abuse, a 2% reduction in foster care placements and about an 8% reduction in fatalities. Many people would say this is reason enough to direct public spending in this way. Yet, there's also a fiscal advantage to doing so because investments in these programs may offset some of the long-term costs, according to the study. "Child abuse and neglect is a public health crisis and it needs a public...

MONDAY, Oct. 18, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Pop singer Britney Spears was at the height of her fame in 2008 when, through a series of arcane legal maneuverings, her father gained conservatorship over her and took control of her personal and financial affairs.Spears' plight and the #FreeBritney movement has shone a bright spotlight on America's guardianship system, which experts say is shrouded in secrecy, ripe for abuse and in desperate need of reform.About 1.3 million guardianship or conservatorship cases are active at any given time in the United States, managing assets that total at least $50 billion for people whose rights have essentially been stripped from them, according to the National Council on Disability.Most guardianships are run by family members and benefit the person who's...