OREBRO, Sweden, Sep 16, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - Patients with lesser degrees of celiac disease symptoms, such as intestinal inflammation, have a modestly increased risk of death, Swedish researchers say. Celiac disease - an immune disorder triggered by gluten exposure in those who are genetically sensitive - results in mucosa abnormalities in the small intestine. The study, published in the Journal...
September 16, 2009
SAN DIEGO, Sep 16, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - Members of the U.S. military exposed to combat multiple times were more likely to self-report high blood pressure than non-combatants, researchers say. Lead author Nisara S. Granado, an epidemiologist at the Department of Defense Center for Deployment Health Research at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, Calif., and colleagues analyzed 36,061 service...
September 16, 2009
The nation is headed for strong heat waves in coming decades that will hit cities and farmers and threaten wildlife with extinction, a new global warming report warns. The report, "More Extreme Heat Waves: Global Warming's Wake Up Call," sponsored by medical, environmental and civil rights organizations, comes as a legislative fight over a climate change bill gets ready to resume next month in Congress....
September 15, 2009
WASHINGTON - An average family health insurance policy now costs more than some compact cars, and four in 10 companies will likely pass more of that expense on to workers, according to a closely watched survey of businesses released Tuesday. The average cost of a family policy offered by employers was $13,375 this year, up 5% from 2008, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational...
September 15, 2009
A smile crosses Bob Blackwell's face as he gently lifts his camera to his eye and zooms in on a black-and-yellow swallowtail butterfly hovering near the same flower as a yellow finch. A little while later, Blackwell, 66, rests in the shade of a gazebo at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Va., where he enjoyed a balmy late summer morning recently, snapping images of nature. "Doing this ..." he...
September 15, 2009
So the kids are back in school, and like most parents, I'm delighted to know that my daughters have returned to their familiar routine, and a place dedicated to enriching their minds. Still, I'm no dummy. I also know that when the dismissal bell rings, the teaching continues at home. After all, there are plenty of lessons to bestow on our kids besides calculating the length of the hypotenuse or parsing...
September 15, 2009
Food-borne illnesses sicken 76 million people, cause 725,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths nationwide every year. Yet most people are clueless about proper safety and storage techniques that can prevent the spread of food-borne illnesses, commonly caused by bacteria and viruses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "People think they can keep (cooked) rice in the refrigerator...
September 15, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO - Some people who are infected with the pandemic flu appear to shed infectious virus for 10 or more days after they're infected, researchers reported Monday. Two studies reported separately by researchers in Canada and Singapore found that roughly one in five patients continue shedding the new H1N1 virus, or swine flu, with one study suggesting that patients may still shed virus despite...
September 15, 2009
PROVIDENCE, R.I., Sep 15, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - Nearly one-quarter of a million people addicted to heroin are incarcerated annually, but many U.S. prisons have no addiction treatment, researchers say. The study, published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, finds 55 percent of prisons offer addiction treatment under any circumstances and less than half provided any linkage to community drug treatment...
September 15, 2009
BERKELEY, Calif., Sep 15, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - Using sophisticated modeling, U.S. researchers showed H1N1 flu infection rates vary via pathways of exposure - touching, coughing, inhaling air. Dr. Mark Nicas of the University of California Berkeley's School of Public Health and Dr. Rachael M. Jones of the University of Illinois Chicago's School of Public Health say while healthcare workers and caregivers...
September 15, 2009
The NCAA has recommended volleyball programs suspend traditional pre- and post-match handshakes in an effort to limit the spread of the H1N1 flu virus, a measure health experts say will do to little to safeguard athletes against the global outbreak. Volleyball and wrestling are the only NCAA sports in which handshakes between opposing athletes are mandated. The volleyball rules committee made the handshake...
September 15, 2009
Some swine flu victims remain contagious more than eight days after their symptoms have vanished, much longer than expected, said two studies presented at a meeting of experts. Currently, US health authorities recommend that people who contract the A(H1N1) virus wait 24 hours after the fever has subsided before returning to their normal activities to avoid any risk of spreading the disease. However...
September 15, 2009
BALTIMORE, Sep 15, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - Untreated alcohol and drug addiction in the United States remains at pandemic levels, with little change from year to year, an expert says. Victor Capoccia, director of the Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap initiative - a nationwide effort to expand addiction treatment - says 23 million Americans are addicted to alcohol and drugs, but only one in 10 are...
September 15, 2009
The numbers are troubling: An estimated 17.6 million adults in the USA are either alcoholics or have alcohol problems, according to the National Institutes of Health. By some estimates, one-third of alcoholics are women. Yet if you were to ask a woman's friends and family if she has a drinking problem, they might very well say no. When Paula Tokar, 26, told her friends she was getting sober and wouldn't...
September 15, 2009
What's in your shower head? Don't wanna know, do you? Too late, you're reading this. It's disease-causing "mycobacteria" microbes stuck in their own slime. "Microbes are everywhere, so in fact finding them in showers is not a surprise," says Laura Baumgartner of the University of Colorado-Boulder, an author of a new study. "Finding large numbers of mycobacteria was a bit of a surprise, though." The...
September 14, 2009
DALLAS, Sep 15, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - Knowing your blood pressure and your family's health history are key to getting a handle on high blood pressure, a U.S researcher says. Blacks are more prone to early onset of high blood pressure, Dr. Shawna Nesbitt, associate professor of internal medicine and a hypertension specialist at University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, said in a statement. "While...
September 14, 2009
DURHAM, N.C., Sep 15, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - The prevalence of anxiety, depression and substance dependency may be about twice as high as the mental health community has thought, U.S. researchers say. Duke University psychologists Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi and colleagues from the United Kingdom and New Zealand used data from a long-term study of more than 1,000 New Zealanders from birth to...
September 14, 2009
KINGSTON, England, Sep 13, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - Four of the 12 children ailing as a result of an E. coli outbreak in the English county of Surrey are seriously ill, health officials say. The Health Protection Agency said since children likely came into contact with the bacteria during a recent visit to the Godstone Farm, which has since been closed to the public, The Sunday Telegraph reported. To...
September 14, 2009
When Robyn Broomell was pregnant a few years ago, she needed advice from a specialist at the University of Maryland Medical Center because she is a diabetic. But Broomell, 35, of Rising Sun, never set foot in the specialist's Baltimore office. Instead, she met him several times by videoconference while she was at an Elkton hospital, saving her the trip down Interstate 95. "At first, I was kind of leery"...
September 13, 2009
In no other September in recent history has Arizona experienced such widespread influenza, Arizona Department of Health Services spokeswoman Laura Oxley said Friday. The current flu outbreak is entirely due to the H1N1 virus, which never really went away after making its first appearance in the spring, she said. Health officials are bracing for the possibility that the 2009 H1N1 strain, as doctors...
September 13, 2009
(Ivanhoe Newswire) - Smoking causes cancer, emphysema and heart disease. It's no secret that smoking deteriorates one's health, yet kicking the bad habit remains a difficult task. New research reveals how your own memories may make quitting even harder. Researchers explain why many smokers urge to light up after meals, while drinking alcohol or driving home from work. The brain normally connects environmental...
September 13, 2009
Apparently clinging to their independence, some men refuse to get out of the car when their wives drop in to check out a retirement living community, but not Carl Skurdal. The Williston, N.D., native has lived in Billings for a dozen years and he has spent five years trying to talk his wife, Arvella, into selling their Billings home and moving into a retirement home. After checking out all the West...
September 13, 2009
High school Steel mill NATRONA HEIGHTS, Pa. On crisp fall mornings in the Allegheny River valley, the fog that hangs over Highlands High School usually burns off by the first bell. What remains in the air is the question. Almost a year after tests by USA TODAY found significant levels of two potentially toxic metals in the air outside the school, local health officials expanded their own monitoring...
September 13, 2009
Although the delivery of her first son, Nicholas, went as planned, Mara Vaughan began thinking a change of venue for her second child's birth might be in order. In labor with Nicholas at a hospital, "I felt like I was so limited in how much I could move around, what positions I could be in. If I were at home, I could be a little more distracted. I could look out my windows. I could be on the first...
September 13, 2009
PARIS, Sep 13, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) - Concerned about the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, the French government is urging young and old to forego "la bise," the light cheek-to-cheek kiss, officials said. La bise is a social greeting instilled in French children from a very young age, CNN reported Sunday. Students are being told to forego la bise and instead write a sign of their their affection on heart-shaped...
September 13, 2009