The NPR (11/30) “Shots” blog reports, “The number of people who have trouble paying their medical bills has plummeted in the last five years as more people have gained health insurance through the Affordable Care Act and gotten jobs as the economy has improved.” A report “from the National Center for Health Statistics released Wednesday shows that the number of people whose families are struggling to pay medical bills fell by 22 percent, or 13 million people, in the last five years.” This year, about “20 million people…have health insurance because of the ACA, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.” That figure “includes about 10 million people who gained coverage through the expansion of Medicaid and another 10 million who buy insurance on the Obamacare exchanges or are young adults covered through their parents’ insurance.”

Related Links:

— “Millions Of People Are Having An Easier Time Paying Medical Bills,”Alison Kodjak, NPR, November 30, 2016.

Healio (11/29) reports the Food and Drug Administration “is calling for further research on earlier stages of Alzheimer’s disease to attack the disorder head on.” In a press release, Eric Bastings, MD, deputy director of FDA’s Division of Neurology Products, said, “There may be a window of opportunity to affect the disease before people experience symptoms.”

Related Links:

— “FDA calls for more research in early Alzheimer’s disease, Healio, November 29, 2016.

HealthDay (11/28, Dotinga) reports that research suggests “chronically ill women who don’t use the internet may struggle with worse health.” Investigators came to this conclusion after analyzing “information provided by hundreds of American women aged 44 and older with at least one chronic condition,” such as “heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, emphysema and anxiety.” The findings were published in the Journal of Women’s Health.

Related Links:

— “Many Women With Chronic Ills Don’t Use Online Tools,”Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, November 28, 2016.

According to Medical Daily (11/28, Borreli), “long-term marijuana use may reduce blood flow to the brain, specifically the hippocampus, and increase the susceptibility for Alzheimer’s disease,” researchers found by using single photon emission computed tomography to help gain data from “approximately 1,000 current or former marijuana users and about 100 healthy participants” while “at rest and during a mental concentration task.” The findings were published online Nov. 24 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Related Links:

— “Effects Of Smoking Marijuana On The Human Brain: Drug Reduces Blood Flow To Hippocampus, Increasing Alzheimer’s Disease Risk,”Liza Borreli, Reuters, November 28, 2016.

Reuters (11/28, Seaman) reports, “Pregnant women who get the flu…are not increasing their baby’s risk for an autism spectrum disorder (ASD),” research suggests.

The NPR (11/28, Shute) “Shots” blog reports that “getting a flu shot while pregnant” also appears not to increase the risk for ASD.

MedPage Today (11/28, Walker) reports researchers arrived at both conclusions after examining “data from 196,929 children in Kaiser Permanente Northern California inpatient and outpatient databases who were born from 2001 to 2010.” The findings were published Nov. 28 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Flu – or flu vaccine – in pregnancy not tied to autism in kids,”Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, November 28, 2016.