Healthcare

Anti-smoking measures advance to KC council

A Kansas City Council committee on Wednesday approved three anti-smoking measures that critics said wrongly include electronic cigarettes and premium cigars. Taken together, the three ordinances raise the legal age for purchasing tobacco products and e-cigarettes from 18 to 21 and add e-cigarettes, also known as vapes, to the city’s ban on indoor smoking, including…

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Children o the floor listening to announcement.

Take 5 For Your Health

Children’s Mercy South Gets New Name To Reflect Its Statewide Reach Children’s Mercy Hospital, which opened its first clinic in Kansas nearly 30 years ago and now has eight spread across the state, has changed the name of its facility in Overland Park from Children’s Mercy South to Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas. Dr. Randall L….

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A 'pesticide free zone' sign hangs at the Somerset Ridge Vineyard and Winery near Paola, Kansas. Owner Dennis Reynolds says potential changes to the state's weed eradication laws could threaten his vineyard. (Andy Marso | Heartland Health Monitor)

Take 5 for your health

Weed Eradication Changes In Kansas Draw Environmental Concern The rows of grapevines at Somerset Ridge Vineyard and Winery near Paola, Kansas, are withering, with dying leaves and shriveling fruit. But that’s expected this time of year. The prospect of it happening in the middle of the growing season concerns owner Dennis Reynolds more. Grapes are a…

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Novel Cancer Treatment At KU Signals Start Of ‘Remarkable Revolution’

Carl Adams has an aggressive form of blood cancer that has resisted multiple attempts to treat it through chemotherapy. So in September, the 47-year-old father of two young daughters traveled halfway around the world with his family from their native Australia to The University of Kansas Cancer Center. There, a clinical trial is underway to…

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Dr. Marc Hahn

KC Osteopathic School On Track To Open Joplin campus

New campus provides opportunity for model curriculum and chance to provide doctors to an underserved region.

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Truman Medical Centers and the University of Missouri-Kansas City operate University Health, a new outpatient clinic on Hospital Hill in Kansas City. (Photo: Andy Marso | Heartland Health Monitor)

Take 5 for your health | Nov. 3

Truman Clinic Aims To Fill Health Care Hole In Downtown Kansas City Downtown Kansas City, Mo., has a new outpatient surgical center and the University of Kansas School of Medicine has some local competition as it trains the next generation of KC doctors. Leaders of Truman Medical Centers and the University of Missouri-Kansas City School…

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Kansas Kids Count Shows Improvements But Persistent Problems

An annual report on child well-being in Kansas shows some positive trends, but they’re overshadowed by persistent problems. Among the improvements cited in the 2015 Kansas Kids Count report: There are fewer uninsured children in Kansas. “That dropped to 5.5 percent in 2014,” says Shannon Cotsoradis, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children. “That’s an all-time low,…

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Panel of supporters

Wyandotte County Could Lead Region In hiking Legal Age For Cigarette Sales

Smokers in the county would have to be at least 21 to legally purchase cigarettes under a plan under consideration.

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Kim Richter, who runs the tobacco cessation program at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas, says her average patient has been smoking for 29 years. (Photo: Dave Ranney | Heartland Health Monitor)

Take 5 for your health

KU Tobacco Cessation Expert Sees ‘Big Disparity In Who’s Smoking And Who’s Dying’ Studies have shown that nearly half of the cigarettes consumed in the United States are smoked by people thought to have a mental illness. At the same time, people who have a mental illness die an average of 25 years earlier than those…

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Jordan Elder

KC effort aims to snuff out teen smoking

Effort aimed at raising cigarette purchase age to 21

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