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Ohio's children are fat and getting fatter. The problem has reached such alarming proportions that a new, powerful coalition of businesses and health-care advocates is pushing for statewide standards designed to make Ohio students healthier. A study by the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease found that Ohio's obesity rates could eclipse 50 percent by 2018, with associated health-care costs surpassing...
November 17, 2009
ROCKVILLE, Md., Nov 16, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - A U.S. task force Monday said women in their 40s should put off having routine annual mammograms because of possible "serious negatives harms." The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which is responsible for government policy on prevention, recommends in a paper to be published Tuesday in Annals of Internal Medicine that women wait until age 50 to have...
November 17, 2009
SALT LAKE CITY, Nov 16, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - A new drug undergoing a clinical trial at the University of Utah could help some cystic fibrosis patients' daily life and longevity, researchers said. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic condition that causes cells to improperly manufacture a protein resulting in the production of a thick, sticky mucus that clogs and damages lungs and causes digestion problems....
November 16, 2009
Marcela Astralaga's 7-year-old daughter, Daniella, just got over swine flu. But she still doesn't intend to get the H1N1 flu vaccine for her 3 1/2 -year-old daughter, Andrea, or for herself. "I mistrust new shots," says Astralaga, a Miami bank sales manager. "I think we just have to get sick once in a while." To the frustration of public health officials struggling to speed delivery of swine flu vaccine,...
November 16, 2009
WASHINGTON, Nov 16, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - Twenty-five percent of U.S. adolescents admit texting while driving and say their parents do it, too, a phone survey released Monday showed. The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project findings come from focus groups and phone surveys, The Washington Post reported. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said distracted driving accounted...
November 16, 2009
An ingredient derived from the vine noted for gobbling up native Southeast landscapes could help treat alcoholism, according to a study. Kudzu contains a substance called daidzin, which could make drinking alcohol an unpleasant experience. The researchers developed a synthetic form of daidzin, which they say shows promise in laboratory tests. It works like this: *The synthetic daidzin inhibits an enzyme...
November 16, 2009
Earlier this year, lawmakers agreed to temporarily subsidize health insurance for laid-off workers, providing a big discount for coverage until they got back to work. That worked out nicely for people who found a job before their subsidy expired. But many people who qualified for the benefit are still unemployed. The economic stimulus bill signed into law in February subsidizes 65% of COBRA premiums...
November 16, 2009
Except for scattered cancellations of high school blood drives because of high absenteeism, the H1N1 pandemic doesn't seem to have had much of an impact on the nation's blood supply. No case of seasonal flu transmitted through a blood transfusion has ever been reported anywhere in the world, according to a draft guidance issued Friday by the Food and Drug Administration. And so far, the FDA says, the...
November 16, 2009
If Americans continue to pack on pounds, obesity will cost the USA about $344 billion in annual medical-related expenses by 2018, eating up about 21% of health-care spending, says the first analysis to estimate the future medical costs of obesity. These calculations are based on the projection that in 10 years 43% of Americans adults may be obese, which is roughly 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight,...
November 16, 2009
ORLANDO - It isn't often that a study involving a couple of hundred people shakes up medical science. That's what happened Monday, when doctors formally reported that lowly niacin, a B vitamin, did a significantly better job of shrinking artery plaque than a billion-dollar blockbuster called ezetimibe, the active ingredient in the cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin. "The results are very clear," says...
November 16, 2009
LOS ANGELES, Nov 17, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - U.S. researchers say people entering their seventh decade may be more disabled than those of prior generations. Researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, examined two sets of data that included information on several disabilities, such as difficulties performing household chores or walking from room...
November 16, 2009
ROCHESTER, Minn., Nov 17, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - U.S. health experts say nuts - walnuts, almonds, pistachios - pack a lot of nutrition into a tasty package. The experts, writing in the Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource, say almost any kind of nuts contain nutrients - such as omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, 1-arginine and plant sterols - that benefit heart health and help with cholesterol control. Eating...
November 16, 2009
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Nov 10, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - U.S. researchers say they have been able to grow new penile tissue in labs and implant it into rabbits to restore their sexual function. Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, says the technique could has the potential to be used to treat severe erectile...
November 16, 2009
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Nov 10, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - U.S. researchers say they have been able to grow new penile tissue in labs and implant it into rabbits to restore their sexual function. Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, says the technique could has the potential to be used to treat severe erectile...
November 16, 2009
The theory of food addiction is getting tons of press lately. I think it's partly because of popular new books like David Kessler's The End of Overeating, on top of a whole slew of earlier books about sugar addiction. There has also been a lot of hyped-up media reporting on the latest research, with headlines suggesting that "Junk food is as addictive as heroin" or "Hormones turn hungry people into...
November 16, 2009
Pharmaceutical companies promote testosterone gel as an elixir for old men with low energy or low sex drive - but researchers at the University of Minnesota will put those claims to the test. The U announced Monday it is one of 12 sites for a $45 million federal trial of testosterone gel. The study of 800 men will be one of the largest to examine the gel and whether it can reverse the symptoms that...
November 16, 2009
The Internet's power to make something "go viral" has surpassed the phrase's original meaning. Sneeze once, you might pass a virus to the person next to you. Post something online, the entire world might get infected. Take the H1N1 vaccine: Late last month, the search term "H1N1 vaccine dangers" hit Google's top 10 searches. A video of a cheerleader supposedly crippled after getting the flu vaccine...
November 16, 2009
Most Pennsylvanians are concerned about catching swine flu, but fewer than half say they are likely to get the H1N1 vaccine if it's available, according to a new Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll. Amid almost daily media reports about the pandemic flu, the poll puts a finger on the public pulse when it comes to the H1N1 virus. Of the 402 people across Pennsylvania who were polled during a two-week...
November 16, 2009
Nov. 16 - HIGH POINT - There are hundreds of pages of legislation in the latest health care reform bill passed by the Congress last week, mirroring the hundreds of negative ways that doctors say the health care meltdown has affected healthy living habits in North Carolina. Just ask Dr. John McSadden. As a physician at High Point Family Practice, he has seen the number of yearly checkups, mammograms,...
November 16, 2009
Nov. 16 - HIGH POINT - A rising number of visits to the emergency department at High Point Regional Hospital could be a product of patients putting off preventative care appointments in order to save money, some physicians say. Dr. John McSadden said he has seen patients putting off yearly check-ups and blood tests at High Point Family Practice, where he serves as a physician, in efforts to save funds...
November 15, 2009
JACKSON, Miss. People with AIDS, activists and health care professionals want the Obama administration to provide more money to combat the disease's toll in the rural South. That will be the message Monday in Jackson, when a top White House aide holds a community discussion to gather input on a national strategy to combat the disease. Patrick Packer of the Southern AIDS Coalition says the South leads...
November 15, 2009
Mary Kate Cash had just turned 11 when she got sick. She had "horrible, almost paralyzing" stomach aches. She lost 10 pounds in just a couple of weeks. She just wanted to sleep all the time. Cash's mother, a nurse, knew something was seriously wrong. At Duke Hospital, the whole family got the word on exactly what was wrong: Cash had Crohn's disease, a chronic, debilitating gastrointestinal illness...
November 15, 2009
Erfurt, Germany (dpa) - An autopsy has been ordered on a man who died five hours after receiving a vaccination against swine flu, officials in the central German city of Erfurt said Monday. Germany has bought 50 million doses of the vaccine to offer free to as many of its 80 million people who want protection, but an old and passionate controversy about whether vaccines are good or bad has flared anew...
November 15, 2009
ORLANDO - The blockbuster cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia suffered a major setback Sunday when doctors released the results of a second study in as many years that raises concerns about how well the drugs work. The new study found that a prescription version of the drug niacin, used in different forms for half a century, reduced artery plaque significantly better in eight months than ezetimibe,...
November 15, 2009
LOS ANGELES, Nov 16, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - Direct-to-consumer advertising of drugs offers some benefits but also has significant risks that can be magnified, U.S. researchers said. "American television viewers see as many as 16 hours of prescription drug advertisements each year, and the reality is that these ads are not doing a good job of helping consumers make better decisions about their health,"...
November 15, 2009
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