Author: KnowledgeHippo
Record: Global warming is intensifying both threats.As humans warm the planet, both heat waves and wildfires are becoming more severe and long-lasting in the American West. This also means they are more likely to overlap. Researchers estimated that two-thirds of California’s land area experienced heat and heavy smoke from wildfires at some point during the state’s record fire year of 2020.Both risks are harmful to health in their own right: Heat stress increases cardiac strain, and fire smoke inhalation can worsen lung conditions. The new study, led by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California,…
The doctor is in. So does the yogi.A sharp shift in health care is taking place as more than a third of American adults now supplement or replace mainstream medical care with acupuncture, meditation, yoga and other therapies long considered alternative.In 2022, 37 percent of adult pain patients used nontraditional medical care, a marked increase from 19 percent in 2002, according to research published this week in JAMA. The change has been driven by increasing insurance reimbursement for clinical alternatives, more scientific evidence of their effectiveness, and increasing patient acceptance.”It’s become part of the culture of the United States,” said…
About 3.8 million people in the United States — four times the number two years ago — are now taking the most popular weight-loss drugs, according to the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, an industry data provider.Some of these recipes are for diabetes. The drugs are Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy (the same drug sold under different brand names) and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound (also the same drug).The pent-up demand is even greater because many people who want the drugs cannot find or afford them. Without insurance coverage, people have to pay out of pocket. If they get…
Even though the signs of approaching dementia were impossible to ignore, Joseph Drolet dreaded the prospect of moving his partner into a long-term care facility.Mr. Drolet, 79, and his sweetheart Rebecca, 71, retired attorneys and prosecutors in Atlanta, had been a couple for 33 years, although they kept separate homes. In 2019, she started getting lost while driving, managing her finances, and struggling with the TV remote. The diagnosis – Alzheimer’s disease – came in 2021.Over time, Mr. Drolet moved Rebecca (whose last name he asked to be withheld to protect her privacy) into his home. But serving as her…
Brian Moody, executive editor of the Autotrader website, told me he expected more manufacturers to adopt automated safety technology in the coming years, “at lower prices and in more types of vehicles.” However, he continued: “These are businesses we’re talking about, and they’re in business to make money. They don’t want to be sued, and I’m not so cynical as to think they don’t care about deaths — they do. But at the risk of being dumb, the cost is a consideration.” A young driver in the market for a $40,000 vehicle might find one with a suite of so-called…
With temperatures in Chicago dipping below freezing, electric vehicle charging stations have turned into scenes of despair: dead batteries, crashed drivers and lines stretching out into the street.”When it’s cold like this, cars don’t work well, chargers don’t work well and people don’t work so well,” said Javed Spencer, an Uber driver who said he had done little else in the past three. days apart from charging your rental Chevy Bolt and worry about being stuck with a dead battery — again.Mr Spencer, 27, said he set off on Sunday for a charging station with 30 miles left on his…
As Teslas and other electric vehicles dazzle car buyers with futuristic technology and dreams of a gasoline-free future, hybrid cars are starting to seem like yesterday’s news. Sales of the Toyota Prius, the benchmark for hybrids, have dropped 85% in a decade.Now, a slowdown in electric car sales growth has led General Motors, Ford Motor and Volkswagen to back away from ambitious targets for these vehicles. And hybrid sales are strong, underscoring what may be 2023’s enduring reality check: Many Americans are highly receptive to electrification, but not ready for an all-electric car.”Consumers want the same experience they had” with…
The Biden administration on Friday issued guidelines making most of the country eligible for tax credits to offset the cost of installing electric vehicle chargers.Consumers and businesses can claim the credit for charging equipment installed for public or private use in homes or business premises. The initiative aims to make it more affordable for Americans to use electric vehicle chargers, which will need to be widely available in the United States to meet the Biden administration’s goal of having electric vehicles make up half of new car sales by 2030.Before Friday’s guidance, it was unclear which areas could qualify for…
Tesla’s profit from electric car sales fell in the final three months of last year due to price cuts aimed at fending off increasingly fierce competition, the company said on Wednesday, warning of a tough year ahead.Fourth-quarter earnings nearly doubled to $7.9 billion, from $3.7 billion a year earlier. But $5.9 billion of those gains came from a tax benefit. Without this one-off accounting effect, profit would have declined.Tesla cut prices for the two cars that make up the bulk of its sales – the Model 3 sedan and the Model Y sport utility vehicle – as automakers such as…
Mobile phones can track what we say and write, where we go, what we buy and what we search online. But they’re still not being used to track one of the biggest threats to public health: accidents caused by drivers distracted by their phones.More than a decade after federal and state governments realized the dangers of cell phone use while driving and began passing laws to stop it, there is no definitive database of the number of accidents or deaths caused by distraction of mobile phone attention. Security experts say current estimates likely underestimate a worsening problem.The absence of clear…