Health News

The Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation’s hospital, run by the Navajo Nation and financed partly by the Indian Health Service, prides itself on having a higher than average rate of vaginal births among women with a prior Caesarean, and a lower Caesarean rate over all.

The national Caesarean rate, 31.8 percent, has been rising steadily for the last 11 years and is fed by repeat patients. In Tuba City, the overall Caesarean rate is only 13.5 percent.

Changes in malpractice insurance might help the rest of the nation reach this goal. The hospital and doctors in Tuba City are insured by the federal government, and therefore insurance companies cannot threaten to increase their premiums or withdraw coverage if they allow vaginal births after Caesarean.

Critics say that doctors are performing too many Caesareans, needlessly exposing women and infants to surgical risks and running up several billion dollars a year in excess bills.

A new study demonstrates that acupuncture may be an effective therapy for joint pain and stiffness in breast cancer patients who are being treated with commonly used hormonal therapies. Joint pain and stiffness are common side effects of aromatase inhibitor therapy.

To explore the effects of acupuncture on associated joint pain, a research team randomly assigned 43 women to receive either true acupuncture or sham acupuncture twice a week for six weeks. The women treated with true acupuncture experienced significant improvement in joint pain and stiffness over the course of the study. Pain severity declined, and overall physical well-being improved.

Additionally, 20 percent of the patients who had reported taking pain relief medications reported that they no longer needed to take these medications following acupuncture treatment.

Germs in your gut may help drive appetite, says new research into the link between obesity and bacteria.

Previous studies have shown that overweight people and normal-weight people harbor different types and amounts of microbes that naturally live in the intestine. To determine why, scientists are peering into mice.

Researchers transferred bacteria from the fat mice directly into the germ-free intestines of normal newborn mice.  Those mice began eating more and developed inflammation and insulin problems.

Researchers have discovered that exposure during pregnancy to Bisphenol A (BPA), a common component of plastics, causes permanent abnormalities in the uterus of offspring.

The study is the first to show that BPA exposure permanently affects sensitivity to estrogen.

Researchers used two groups of mice, one exposed to BPA as a fetus during pregnancy and another exposed to a placebo. The mice exposed to BPA as a fetus had an exaggerated response to estrogens as adults, long after the exposure to BPA.

The Supreme Court will soon decide whether drug makers can be sued by parents who claim their children suffered serious health problems from vaccines.

The justices have agreed to hear an appeal from parents in Pittsburgh who want to sue Wyeth over the serious side effects their daughter, six months old at the time, allegedly suffered as a result of the company's diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled the parents, saying a 1986 federal law bars their claims. That law set up a special vaccine court to handle disputes -- shielding companies from most lawsuits to help ensure a steady vaccine supply.

Only one state appeals court, the Georgia Supreme Court, has ruled that families can sue in a vaccine case. The vaccine industry has fiercely opposed the Georgia ruling, in which a couple alleged that their son suffered neurological damage after receiving vaccine booster shots that contained the preservative thimerosal.