Does cracking your knuckles cause arthritis?
Have you heard the old wives’ tale that knuckle cracking will enlarge your knuckles? What about the one that cracking your knuckles causes arthritis?
There are many beliefs about this common behavior, but it’s time to debunk the myths about knuckle cracking.
Why do people crack their knuckles?
Harvard Health cites several possible reasons.
“Knuckle cracking is a common behavior enjoyed by many,” said Dr. Robert Shmerling, a rheumatologist and senior faculty editor at Harvard Health.
Poverty is America’s fourth leading cause of death
Poverty is the fourth-greatest cause of death in the United States, according to new research.
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Researchers at the University of California, Riverside estimate that poverty was associated with 183,000 deaths in 2019 among people 15 years and older.
And that’s a conservative estimate, they say, because the year was just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Poverty kills as much as dementia, accidents, stroke, Alzheimer’s and diabetes,” said David Brady, the study’s lead author and a UCR professor of public policy.
Vaginal swabs more reliable than urine for STI testing
Vaginal sampling should be the initial choice offered to patients undergoing testing for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and/or trichomoniasis, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the March/April issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.
Kristal J. Aaron, Dr.P.H., from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues conducted a systematic literature review to identify studies between 1995 and 2021 assessing the diagnostic sensitivity of commercially available assays for vaginal swabs versus urine specimens from women.
The researchers identified 28 eligible articles with 30 comparisons for Chlamydia trachomatis, 16 comparisons for Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and nine comparisons for Trichomonas vaginalis.
Do you live in one of America’s worst cities for dirty air?
Nearly one-third of Americans live in counties with unhealthy air, according to a new report from the American Lung Association.
One in three, or 120 million, people lives with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, the “State of the Air” report says.
While air quality has improved overall, there are major differences between Eastern and Western states and in air pollution exposure for white people and people of color, according to the association.
“The good news is that ozone pollution has generally improved across the nation, thanks in large part to the success of the Clean Air Act.”
How to get rid of bad breath
About 1 in 4 people worldwide experience bad breath, according to the Cleveland Clinic — but that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with it.
Discover the most common causes of bad breath (halitosis) and some tried and true ways to get rid of it, for good.
“Bad breath can have various causes, including diet, gastroesophageal reflux [GERD] and poor oral hygiene,” explained Cleveland Clinic dental hygienist Tenika Patterson, in a blog.
The Cleveland Clinic notes that the majority of bad breath cases are due to inadequate brushing, flossing and dental cleanings.
Daytime napping tied to incident atrial fibrillation risk
Daytime napping for more than 30 minutes is significantly associated with the risk for developing atrial fibrillation (AF), according to a study presented at the annual congress of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology, held from April 13 to 15 in Malaga, Spain.
Jesus Diaz-Gutierrez, M.D., of the Juan Ramon Jimenez University Hospital in Huelva, Spain, and colleagues examined the association between daytime napping and the incidence of AF. The analysis included 20,348 participants, free of AF at baseline, who were followed for a median time of 13.8 years.
The researchers found that compared with participants with short daytime napping (<30 minutes/day), those who slept ≥30 minutes/day exhibited a significant increased risk for incident AF.
Scientists get closer to a “universal” flu vaccine
Researchers are reporting progress on the path to a “universal” flu vaccine — one that would battle all strains of the virus and give the world a weapon against future flu pandemics.
In an early clinical trial, U.S. government scientists found that their experimental flu vaccine was able to coax recipients’ immune systems to produce “cross-reactive” antibodies. That is, they made antibodies against many strains of influenza type A — one of the two major groups of the virus.
Experts called the findings promising, in that the vaccine did exactly what you’d want in this early phase of testing.
However, it has not yet been shown to actually protect people from the flu.
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4 of the most common ways private health information was breached in 2022
4 of the most common ways private health information was breached in 2022
When cybercriminals want a lucrative target, many go after health care data. Health care is the most targeted sector for cyber criminals seeking to steal and sell Americans’ private information. Attacks in this sector have doubled since 2016 and are beginning to have increasingly severe consequences for privacy and patient outcomes.
Drata used reports on health data breaches from the Health and Human Services Department’s Office for Civil Rights to find the four most common culprits in 2022. The analysis includes breaches of unsecured protected health information affecting 500 or more people and is limited to those that were submitted to the Secretary of Health and Human Services within the calendar year 2022. Breaches come from various locations, including emails, servers, portable electronics, paper, and film.
Few breaches came from improper disposal of medical files—just four breaches in 2022 fell into this category.
There were more than 700 health data breaches in the United States in 2022, affecting more than 52 million people. Of those, only 1 in 5 has been resolved, by addressing the causes of the breach or assisting its victims with protecting themselves, or both. Most breaches remain under investigation.
1. Hacking/IT incident
– Number of breaches: 564 (19% resolved, 81% under investigation)
– Individuals affected: 44.2 million
– Most common locations of breached information: Network server; email
Electronic record-keeping is relatively new in the health care industry. In 2008, just 9% of hospitals and 17% of office-based physicians used a certified electronic health records system. But by 2021, 96% of hospitals and 78% of office-based physicians used them, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Because the industry has less experience protecting electronic data, its companies also have less experience with cybersecurity, which means criminals have had an easier time hacking into servers and emails to steal information.
One such attack occurred in April 2022, when OneTouchPoint, a Wisconsin-based mailing and printing services provider for health care organizations, discovered a ransomware attack that left encrypted files on its servers. The compromised systems contained personal health information such as names, addresses, birth dates, family histories, medications, and specific health services belonging to than 2.6 million people seen by at least 34 organizations, including Humana, Kaiser Permanente, and several Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliates.
2. Unauthorized access/disclosure
– Number of breaches: 115 (23% resolved, 77% under investigation)
– Individuals affected: 7.7 million
– Most common locations of breached information: Paper/films; network server
Breaches don’t always happen when a bad actor from outside a company infiltrates a server. Employees can also conduct data breaches if they access information stored in electronic health records when it’s not part of their job to do so. Health care companies can also inadvertently disclose patient information to other entities.
That’s what happened with Advocate Aurora Health, a Chicago-area company that operates 27 hospitals. In October 2022, the company disclosed a data breach that occurred through its use of tracking pixels provided by Google and Meta, Facebook’s parent company. The pixels were supposed to help Advocate Aurora Health understand users’ interaction with its websites, but they also sent health information—which by law should have been protected—belonging to 3 million patients to Facebook and Google.
3. Theft
– Number of breaches: 22 (14% resolved, 86% under investigation)
– Individuals affected: 462,035
– Most common locations of breached information: Portable electronic devices; paper/films
Doctors and other health care providers must keep medical records on file in case they have to defend against a medical malpractice lawsuit. Each state sets the length of time that’s required, which is generally five to 10 years, but there are some extremes, such as the 30 years required for hospitals in Massachusetts.
The slow adoption of electronic health records means a lot of paper files and microfilms are sitting in storage and can be vulnerable to theft. That was the case for SAC Health System, which in March 2022 discovered that someone had broken into one of its off-site storage facilities. The loss included six boxes of paper documents that may have included patients’ personally identifiable information and codes for their health diagnoses. Nearly 150,000 people were affected by this breach.
4. Loss
– Number of breaches: 12 (42% resolved, 58% under investigation)
– Individuals affected: 20,306
– Most common locations of breached information: Portable electronic devices
Human error can also account for a portion of data breaches when information is lost. Sometimes this occurs when patient health information is put on a USB storage device or another external data storage device that goes missing. Other times, documents that are shipped never make it to their destination.
In one case, Virginia-based health care provider The Art and Science of Dermatology discovered that a computer was missing from its offices and could have been breached by an unauthorized user. In this instance, 4,500 patients’ health information was vulnerable to theft.
This story originally appeared on Drata and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
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