Health Headlines

Hi, I'm Dr. Cindy Haines of HealthDay TV... making news this week ... helping foot injuries heal, an easier form of CPR, and seat belt use during pregnancy. First up: Foot injuries are a serious threat in people with diabetes. These may heal slowly and can develop severe infections. In a new study, researchers followed 93 patients with diabetes and foot ulcers for six months. They measured depression and anxiety in the patients at the beginning of the study, and also asked how the patients coped with challenges. Depression was associated with a greater chance of the foot injuries not healing during this period. And having a confrontational coping style - in which people tend to be more controlling and competitive - was also associated with poorer healing. Next up: A recent study supports a simpler form of CPR. Researchers reporting in the New England Journal of Medicine had emergency dispatchers give different kinds of CPR directions to bystanders who were witnessing someone in cardiac arrest. The bystanders were told how to give CPR either with chest compressions alone or with mouth-to-mouth breathing. While a similar number of patients from each group made it out of the hospital alive, certain types of patients had a better chance with chest compressions alone. And finally: Statistics have shown that about 130,000 American women are involved in traffic accidents each year. In a recent study from Japan, researchers put a crash-test dummy built to resemble a pregnant woman through different kinds of crashes. In crashes without a seatbelt against an object in front of the car, the pressure in the dummy's belly peaked at the point where the dummy struck the steering wheel. In rear-impact crashes without a seatbelt, the dummy flew forward into the steering wheel, but this didn't happen when it was wearing a seatbelt. I'm Dr. Cindy Haines of HealthDay TV, with the news that doctors are reading; health news that matters to you.