TUESDAY, Sept. 26, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- One in every 14 American adults has suffered from long COVID, a new federal survey has found.About 7% of adults have ever had long COVID and more than 3% still have it, according to the 2022 National Health Interview Survey.The survey, published Tuesday as an NCHS Data Brief, also found that certain groups are more likely to develop long COVID -- women, young adults, the less wealthy and people living in rural areas or small towns.Children have been much less likely to develop the syndrome, the survey found. A little more than 1% of all U.S. children have ever had long COVID, and about half a percent continue to have it.Long COVID involves clusters of different symptoms that affect different parts of the body. These symptoms can include...

TUESDAY, Sept. 26, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Heart failure can make everyday activities and exercise tough to carry out, but yoga might be a beneficial add-on to standard care.A new study from India finds this ancient practice improves quality of life and cardio functioning.“Our patients observed improvement in systolic blood pressure and heart rate compared to patients who were on medication without yoga,” said lead study author Ajit Singh, a research scientist at Manipal Academy of Higher Education. (Systolic blood pressure is the first number in a blood pressure reading.)In heart failure, the heart muscle is either too weak or too stiff to pump properly. This can lead to fluid buildup, shortness of breath and other complications.How might yoga help?“Yoga is a combination of...

TUESDAY, Sept. 26, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Transgender people have a tough time receiving adequate medical care due to issues like voyeurism, being treated as abnormal and even being denied care due to their gender identity, a new study finds. “I would say what I read was not surprising at all, based on things I have heard from trans members,” said Tari Hanneman, director of the Health and Aging Program at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. She reviewed the findings, but was not involved with the study. “I've heard stories of patients basically being treated as a medical oddity," Hanneman said. "I've even heard horror stories of some residents or medical students taking photographs and things like that, that are just completely inappropriate.”The study aimed to understand...

TUESDAY, Sept. 26, 2023 (HealthDay News) – The lax enforcement of age limits by many online marijuana dispensaries makes it easier for minors to buy weed, claims new research that looked at online weed sales in 32 states.“It is imperative to require strict age-verification procedures prior to cannabis purchases online and to establish stringent surveillance of online marijuana dispensaries to protect youth,” wrote the authors of the new study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.The authors looked at age-verification policies and other practices of 80 online dispensaries. About 18.8% of dispensaries “required no formal age verification at any stage of the purchasing process,” according to the study.Meanwhile, more than 80% accepted “non-traceable” payment...