Dr. Robert Franke, who fought to live in a retirement home that rejected him because of his HIV status, died December 26. He was 78. Franke wanted to be closer to daughter Sara Franke Bowling in Little Rock, Ark., so he applied to live at Fox Ridge, an assisted-living facility. He moved in after fulfilling residency requirements, but after it was discovered that he is HIV-positive, Franke was abruptly ejected from his home. After working with Lambda Legal, he settled with the facility’s operators in 2010. Scott Schoettes, Lambda Legal HIV project director, called Franke “courageous” and added that his crusade paved the way for more seniors living with HIV as they seek elder care. Get more…
Crusading HIV-Positive Senior Dies at 78
Low-Dose Aspirin to Prevent First Heart Attack or Stroke? Not So Fast
Modest benefits might not outweigh bleeding risk, evidence review suggests.
By Denise MannHealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Jan. 9 (HealthDay News) — For years, people have been told that low-dose aspirin can help reduce their risk of dying from a heart attack, stroke or cancer even if they are healthy. Now, a new evidence review calls this advice into question.
Low-dose daily aspirin therapy does not reduce risk of dying from cardiovascular disease or cancer, according to a new study in the Jan. 9 online edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Could A Nicotine Patch Slow Dementia?
It’s hard to escape the warnings of the dangers of smoking, but one component of cigarettes – nicotine – might actually have a therapeutic use, preliminary research suggests.
A small study, published Monday in the journal Neurology, finds that using a nicotine patch may help symptoms of mild cognitive impairment, a condition characterized by a noticeable memory problem. Many, but not all, patients with mild cognitive impairment will go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease; scientists are still working on predicting who is most at risk.
A nicotine patch releases nicotine slowly over a number of hours. Get more…
N.C. to recommend money for sterilization victims
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – It’s a question that has not been answered before and doesn’t have an easy solution: How do you repay people for taking away their ability to have children?
North Carolina’s Eugenics Compensation Task Force is the first in the nation to tackle that question and is set on Tuesday to recommend how much to pay victims of forced sterilization, along with whether the victims’ descendants are eligible for the money.
“If we all agree that there is no amount that restore somebody’s loss of ability to procreate, then it’s understood that the ultimate figure is an attempt to put out an active apology instead of a verbal apology,” said task force member Demetrius Worley Berry, a Greensboro attorney. Get more…
U.S. Heart Attack Patients Readmitted Most Often: Study
TUESDAY, Jan. 3 People who have heart attacks in the United States are far more likely to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days than people in 16 other countries, a new study indicates.
Researchers suspect that the average length of stay, which was just three days in the United States compared with at least six days in other countries, is the main reason for the higher readmission rates. When they completed an analysis that adjusted the data for length of stay, they found that location was no longer a predictor of readmission.
“We found two striking predictors of 30-day readmission. Having multi-vessel disease and being in the U.S. This difference is probably multifactorial, but the length of stay is the shortest in the U.S.