Health
C.D.C. Site Restores Some Purged Files After ‘Gender Ideology’ Ban Outcry
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention purged from its website thousands of pages that included terms such as “transgender,” “L.G.B.T.” and “pregnant person,” to comply with an executive order barring any material that promoted “gender ideology.”
By Monday, some of the pages had reappeared, in part in response to intense media coverage, backlash from the scientific community and concern for the public’s health, according to a senior official with knowledge of the matter.
The purge had also swept up vaccine information statements, which must be given to patients before they can be immunized; guidelines for contraception; and several pages on how race and racism affect health outcomes. Also removed was a database containing 20 years of H.I.V. data that doctors rely on to determine whether a pregnant woman lives in an area of high H.I.V. prevalence and should be tested for the virus in her third trimester.
Some of these resources were also reinstated, but the return was not entirely smooth. Charts and tables in the H.I.V. database could be reached through a Google search, for instance, but the C.D.C.’s own portal remained broken.
C.D.C. employees are “fully and completely implementing the executive order,” said a senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. But “historical data, articles, and clinical guidelines continue to be available,” the official said. “That essentially is how this is being applied.”
The shake-up accompanied two other directives also aimed at expunging information on certain topics. C.D.C. scientists were ordered late on Friday to withdraw any pending publications, at any scientific journal, that mention the forbidden terms, according to an email viewed by The New York Times.
Separately, a directive prohibiting C.D.C. employees from holding scientific meetings or communicating with other organizations or the public was indefinitely extended on Saturday, when it was expected to lapse, according to another email obtained by The Times.
“I am very fearful and I am very angry about what is happening right now,” said Dr. Ina Park, an expert in H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted infections at the University of California, San Francisco.
The directive also targeted pages on other government websites, including a webpage on Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, under the aegis of the Health and Human Services Department. That provision forbids “discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics), in covered health programs or activities.” It, too, was back online on Monday.
The C.D.C.’s recommendations are the bedrock of clinical practice in the United States. Every hospital’s procedural manuals are filled with the agency’s documents, and clinicians regularly refer to the recommendations, on the website or through the agency’s app.
Now, however, searching for some terms leads to a dead link or to pages that have been stripped of key details, or the search yields a suggestion to explore another topic instead. For instance, a search for the word “abortion” suggests that the user “also try: adoption.”
Some pages — for instance, those on transgender health — were expected to remain absent because they might promote “gender ideology.”
“I have no idea what that term means,” said Dr. Richard Besser, who served as acting director of the C.D.C. in 2009.
“We’re not talking here about ideology — we’re talking about public health,” he added. “We’re talking about people whose lives are being put at risk.”
The disappearance of the pages is already affecting medical care. In Washington State, Dr. Tim Menza, a medical director for King County’s sexual health clinic, worried that hard-won progress against early syphilis in gay and bisexual men would be lost.
Dr. Jessica Weyer, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Concord, N.H., said she could not guide her patients’ choice of contraception without access to the complex eligibility criteria. For instance, the guidelines for birth control include recommendations for patients with various medical conditions. They also list drug interactions that must be taken into account and give providers information on newer methods like vaginal rings.
“If a patient has high blood pressure or migraine headaches, I need to know what’s safe for her,” Dr. Alison Stuebe, an obstetrician-gynecologist in North Carolina, said.
The C.D.C. website is ostensibly being altered to comply with Mr. Trump’s executive orders on diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility and “defending women.” But vaccine information statements and contraception guidelines are unrelated to those orders, Dr. Weyer said.
“This just seems like a purposeful removal of important information providing safe contraception, which I view as terrifying,” she said. “It sounds like they want to control women, not defend women.”
Although the executive orders did not mention race, several resources on structural racism and health disparities in certain communities also disappeared on Friday.
In the United States, race and ethnicity are strongly linked to health. Black and Native American women are two to three times as likely as white women to die during pregnancy and after childbirth, and their babies face roughly twice the risk of dying before their first birthday. Diabetes, obesity and other chronic diseases are also much more prevalent, and life expectancy is lower, among racial and ethnic minority groups.
Information on racial disparities is crucial for helping health care providers to focus on the groups most at risk, said Linda Goler Blount, president of the Women’s Black Health Imperative, an advocacy group. During the Covid pandemic, she noted, health researchers discovered that pulse oximeter devices, which measure blood oxygen levels, “didn’t work on people with dark skin.” That disparity might have contributed to higher death rates among communities of color.
“If we can’t collect data by race, ethnic identity and gender identity, we’re going to see mortality rates increase,” Ms. Blount said.
Mr. Trump’s orders purged more than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen U.S. government websites. In some cases, the executive orders also targeted the work of private citizens.
A memo to the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which publishes papers from both government and academic researchers, gave employees until 5 p.m. on Friday to scrub the agency’s publication, Patient Safety Network, of terms including “transgender,” “nonbinary,” “L.G.B.T.” and “gender identity.”
Among the roughly 20 research papers that were taken down was one from 2022 detailing how clinicians can better identify emergency room patients at risk of suicide. The paper’s lead author, Dr. Gordon Schiff, is the director of quality and safety for the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care; he is not a government scientist. The paper was flagged for a single line: “High risk groups include male sex, being young, veterans, Indigenous tribes, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning (L.G.B.T.Q.).”
Dr. Schiff said he was shocked by the new administration’s “extreme censorship.” “This whole idea that the risk factors or commentary should be based on political ideology rather than data and truth is a pretty scary prospect,” he said.
Some experts are exploring the legality of the administration’s deleting content from federal websites and papers written by C.D.C. scientists. But in the case of Dr. Schiff’s paper, the administration clearly crossed the line, said Larry Gostin, director of the World Health Organization Center on Global Health Law.
“To me, that’s classic viewpoint censorship in violation of the First Amendment,” Mr. Gostin said.
“While the administration may be able to silence government health officials carrying out their official duties, it cannot drag private scientists into its web of censorship,” he added. “And all that censorship for expressing a single word with which the government objects.”
Health
Quitting smoking could offer a major benefit beyond heart and lung health, study finds
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People who quit smoking may reduce their risk of developing dementia later in life, according to new research.
A team of researchers at a university in China analyzed data from more than 32,000 adults over a 25-year period and found that former smokers had a lower risk of dementia compared to people who continued smoking.
The findings were published in the journal Neurology.
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During the study period, researchers documented 5,868 cases of dementia.
Participants who quit smoking during the study had a significantly lower risk of developing dementia than current smokers. Their risk was similar to people who had quit smoking before the study began and those who had never smoked.
New research suggests that quitting smoking may lower the chance of developing dementia later in life. (iStock)
The researchers also found that dementia risk continued to decline the longer a person remained smoke-free, approaching that of never-smokers after about seven years.
The benefits appeared strongest among people who gained little or no weight after quitting.
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“Our findings suggest that quitting smoking may support long-term brain health, but they also highlight that what happens after quitting matters,” lead researcher Hui Chen said in a statement.
The reduction in dementia risk was most pronounced among people who experienced little or no weight gain after they stopped smoking. (iStock)
Zaid Fadul, a Harvard-trained physician and chief medical officer of Bespoke Concierge MD who was not involved in the research, said the findings add to growing evidence that quitting smoking can help protect long-term brain health.
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“The key takeaway is that the brain appears to benefit from smoking cessation at virtually any stage,” Fadul told Fox News Digital.
“Smoking contributes to chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and damage to blood vessels that supply the brain, all of which are associated with cognitive decline and dementia risk.”
Fadul said the findings should encourage smokers who may feel it is too late to quit.
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“Importantly, it is rarely ‘too late’ to quit,” he said.
“While earlier cessation offers the greatest benefit, the body and brain begin recovering soon after smoking stops.”
Experts say it is almost never too late to quit smoking, as the body and brain start to recover soon after a person stops, although quitting earlier provides the greatest health benefits. (iStock)
Improvements in circulation, reduced inflammation and better cardiovascular health can help preserve cognitive function later in life, according to Fadul.
“Every year without tobacco is a step toward lowering future dementia risk and improving overall health,” he said.
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While the findings were encouraging, the study does have limitations.
Researchers identified an association between quitting smoking and a lower risk of dementia, but the study was not designed to prove that ending smoking directly prevents the condition.
Other health, lifestyle and environmental factors may have also influenced participants’ outcomes.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for further comment.
Health
How 3 Women Reversed Fatty Liver Disease and Lost Nearly 300 Lbs. Combined
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Health
Just 5 minutes of prayer could have surprising health benefits, study finds
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Adult patients experienced significant relief from pain and anxiety after just five minutes of in-person prayer, as found in a randomized controlled trial.
The study, led by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Department of Family and Community Medicine, compared the effects of direct prayer to the effects of listening to music, revealing that prayer provided greater and more sustained relief for both symptoms.
“Prayer is powerful and beneficial on many levels,” Jesse Bradley, pastor of Grace Community Church in Washington, told Fox News Digital.
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According to statistics cited in the study, prayer is the most used form of complementary medicine in the United States, relied on by 43% of Americans.
The researchers focused on a practice known as proximal intercessory prayer (PIP), which is defined as in-person, face-to-face prayer directed toward another individual’s well-being.
The researchers tracked changes in the participants’ self-reported pain and anxiety levels at multiple intervals: immediately after the five-minute session, at two weeks and at six weeks. (iStock)
The research team recruited 180 adult patients from a family medicine waiting room, according to a press release. All participants had previously reported experiencing moderate to severe pain, anxiety or both.
Following their standard medical appointments, the patients were randomly assigned to one of two groups: the prayer group, in which participants received five minutes of in-person Christian prayer delivered by a trained volunteer, and the music group, where they spent five minutes listening to music.
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The researchers then tracked changes in the participants’ self-reported pain and anxiety levels at multiple intervals: immediately after the five-minute session, at two weeks and at six weeks.
“It was very well-received,” Katherine Jacobson, MD, assistant professor of family and community medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told Fox News Digital. She noted that 97% of participants said they were “neutral or supportive” when asked about having this kind of prayer available as part of their medical visits.
An expert described the transformative power of prayer through “healing and comfort,” and shared that he himself once went through a long, painful recovery process. (iStock)
The study, which was published in The Annals of Family Medicine, revealed that while patients in both groups showed improvements, those in the prayer group reported substantially greater relief.
Bradley, who was not involved in the study, described the transformative power of prayer through “healing and comfort,” and shared that he himself once went through a long, painful recovery process.
“Daily prayer was essential in my healing journey,” he shared.
SIMPLE DAILY HABIT MAY HELP EASE DEPRESSION MORE THAN MEDICATION, RESEARCHERS SAY
For pain reduction, the individuals who received in-person prayer experienced greater drops in pain intensity immediately following the session. This superior level of relief remained evident during the two-week follow-up compared to the music group, the researchers found.
For anxiety reduction, the benefits of prayer were even longer-lasting. The prayer recipients reported significantly greater reductions in anxiety immediately after the session, and these positive effects remained statistically significant at both the two-week and six-week checkpoints.
The prayer recipients reported significantly greater reductions in anxiety immediately after the session, and these positive effects remained statistically significant at both the two-week and six-week checkpoints. (iStock)
“We expected that patients who expected prayer to work would benefit more, but that wasn’t what we found,” Jacobson said.
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“Religious affiliation, religious intensity and expectancy of healing did not predict who improved,” he went on. “Benefits appeared across a wide range of patients, including those not of the Christian faith and those who did not expect the intervention to help them.”
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The study had some limitations, the researchers acknowledged, primarily that it could not prove that prayer itself caused the improvements.
The team also noted that patients receiving prayer had human contact, while the music control group did not. The eye contact and gentle laying of hands from the prayer volunteers may have had an impact, as that type of contact is known to reduce pain.
The researchers suggested that PIP could serve as a low-cost, non-pharmacologic and effective complement to standard medical care. (iStock)
The authors hope to conduct future studies with a control group that receives interpersonal contact but no prayer.
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“For physicians and health systems, the study supports continuing to ask patients about spiritual care preferences as part of whole-person care, and considering whether trained Christian volunteer prayer practitioners could be integrated into outpatient settings for interested patients,” Jacobson said.
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The researchers suggest that PIP could serve as a low-cost, non-pharmacologic and effective complement to standard medical care.
Rather than replacing traditional treatments, the authors indicate that this type of brief, faith-based intervention could be integrated into primary care settings to help manage pain and anxiety.
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