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- Health Care Crisis in America (ABC News)
Provides articles about the status of health care and suggestions on getting better health care. 1-04
- How to Fight for Your Fair Share of Care (ABC News)
Provides recommendations, such as finding a doctor willing to persist with the insurance companies. 1-04
News
- -01-05-04 Teens in the U.S. are the Fatest (ABC News)
"Teenagers in the United States have higher rates of obesity than those in 14 other industrialized countries, including France and Germany, a study of nearly 30,000 youngsters ages 13 and 15 found."
"Among American 15-year-olds, 15 percent of girls and nearly 14 percent of boys were obese, and 31 percent of girls and 28 percent of boys were more modestly overweight." 1-04
- 01-03-04 Study: Football Hits Similar to Crashes (ABC News)
"Football players were struck in the head 30 to 50 times per game and regularly endured blows similar to those experienced in car crashes, according to a Virginia Tech study that fitted players' helmets with the same kinds of sensors that trigger auto air bags."
"The data so far surprised team physician P. Gunnar Brolinson, who said he didn't realize players were absorbing so many serious hits, especially since only about five came off the sidelines this season with concussions."
"The helmets measure hits in multiples of the force of gravity. Half of the hits recorded this season were greater than 30 Gs, Duma said. The hardest hits measured more than 130 Gs."
" 'An impact of 120 Gs would be like a severe car accident, which you could survive if you were wearing a seat belt,' Duma said." 1-04
- 01-05-04 Coffee Reduces Risk of Diabetes (CBS News)
" 'We found that heavy coffee consumption substantially reduced the risk of Type 2 diabetes in both men and women,' said Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health."
"By 'heavy' coffee consumption -- researchers mean 6 or more cups a day -- but what they found was startling. Among the thousands of men and women followed for the study, male coffee drinkers had a 50 percent reduction in diabetes risk. The risk for women was reduced by 30 percent."
"Even those who drank decaf saw some benefit." 1-04
- 01-06-04 State Tobacco Programs Fail (CBS News)
"Most states have failed to pay for tobacco-prevention programs and protect people from second-hand smoke despite receiving billions of dollars in settlement money to take such measures, according to a report."
"The American Lung Association's report, released Tuesday, gave 38 states grades of F for failing to fund tobacco prevention and control programs. Thirty-five states received F's for their smoke-free air laws." 1-04
- 01-08-04 FDA Rejects Silicon Implants (CBS News)
"The Food and Drug Administration has rejected Inamed Corp.'s bid to bring silicone gel breast implants back on to the market, the company announced. "
"The decision was greeted with relief by women's groups who had insisted that the implants were never properly studied under FDA's strict requirements for other medical devices." 1-04
- 01-08-04 Study: Danger from Farmed Salmon (CBC News)
"Eating too many farm-raised salmon is potentially dangerous, according to a new study, probably because they're being given contaminated feed."
"People should not consume more than a few meals of farm salmon every month, warn the researchers, who looked at hundreds of fish from around the world."
"The levels of toxins found in farmed salmon are about 10 times higher than in species from the wild, according to the scientists who worked on the study. Although salmon raised in northern Europe is ranked as the most dangerous, given the global nature of the industry they said the warning is universal." 1-04
- 02-06-04 Flu Research Breakthrough (CBS News)
"The 1918 flu that killed 20 million people appears to be more birdlike than previously thought, according to findings by U.S. and British researchers that could help explain why it was the deadliest influenza strain ever recorded."
"The research, conducted separately by scientists at the Scripps Institute in La Jolla, Calif., and at Britain's Medical Research Council, used lung samples preserved from victims of the 1918 flu to reconstruct a protein crucial to their infection."
" 'These were not little steps but big strides toward understanding, at the structural and molecular level, what it is about these strains that make them dangerous,' said Dr. Gregory Poland, a flu specialist at the Mayo Clinic who reviewed the research."
"Different influenza strains spread around the world annually. Every so often a strain tough enough to kill millions emerges, and experts believe the world is overdue for another pandemic. Unraveling what made the 1918 flu so vicious could help doctors better react if a similar strain returns."
"Asia's current bird flu, a strain known as H5N1, clearly can jump directly from poultry to people - at least 16 people have died of it this winter. Most cases have been traced directly to contact with sick birds, although human-to-human transmission has not been ruled out in one instance." 2-04
- 02-06-04 Medicare Ads Opposed (CBS News)
"Several Congressional Democrats have asked the General Accounting Office to investigate the use of taxpayer money on ads publicizing recent changes to Medicare."
"The Department Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicare, announced the $12.6 million ad campaign this week and unveiled a 30-second television commercial that anchors the effort. The ad proclaims: 'Same Medicare. More benefits.' "
"Charles Rangel of New York — complain that the ad misleads when it says "It's the same Medicare."
Democrats contend Medicare is not the same. The new law includes restrictions on Medigap prescription insurance, introduces means-testing of premiums for supplemental or Part B Medicare and indexes deductibles for Part B to inflation. Neither the TV nor print ad mentions any of those changes." 2-04
- 03-09-04 Obesity Catching Up to Smoking As Leading Cause of Death (ABC News)
"Obesity is quickly catching up to smoking as the No. 1 cause of death in the United States, government researchers said on Tuesday, and a concerned federal government launched an advertising campaign aimed at getting Americans to eat better and exercise more."
"A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed tobacco use was still the leading cause of death in 2000, killing 435,000 people, or 18.1 percent of everyone who died."
"But poor diet and physical inactivity caused 400,000 deaths, or 16.6 percent of the total, the report showed -- up from 300,000, or 14 percent of deaths, in 1990."
"An estimated 129.6 million of adult Americans, or 64 percent of the population, are overweight or obese, putting them at higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, some types of cancer and various forms of disability." 3-04
- 03-23-04 Medicare Will Be Broke by 2019 (Bloomberg.com)
"Hospital payments for the elderly under the U.S. Medicare program will exceed income for the first time this year, nine years earlier than anticipated, and the federal program's assets will dry up in 2019, seven years sooner than expected, trustees for the program said." 3-04
- 03-31-04 Mouse Genes to Help in Hunts for Cures (ABC News - Fox)
"The genetic code of the rat joined the growing list of creatures whose DNA has been mapped on Wednesday and experts said it will make the laboratory rat, already beloved by scientists, an even better tool for fighting human disease."
"The rat is only the third species to be sequenced to such a degree, after the completed human genome sequence in April 2003 and the draft mouse genome in December 2002."
"It confirms that the laboratory rat is in fact a good choice for medical research. Almost all human genes associated with diseases have counterparts in the rat genome, the researchers write in this week's issue of the journal Nature." 3-04
- 04-16-04 Schwarzenegger Wins Limitations on Workers Compensation System (Bloomberg.com)
"California lawmakers approved an overhaul of the state workers compensation system, allowing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to fulfill a campaign promise and saving as much as $7 billion for companies such as Costco Wholesale Corp." 4-04
- 06-26-03 Best Disease Prevention Found (Independent)
A new polypill has been invented that is expected to be on the market within two years. "The polypill would contain aspirin to prevent blood clots, a statin to lower cholesterol, three blood-pressure lowering agents at half the standard dose and folic acid to lower homocysteine, which causes furring of the arteries. If given to everyone aged over 55, one in three people would gain from the treatment, surviving for an extra 12 years on average without a heart attack or stroke."
" 'It would be acceptably safe and with widespread use would have a greater impact on the prevention of disease in the Western world than any other single intervention,' the authors say in the BMJ." 6-03
- 09-05-03 Small Children Die from Poverty (WashTimes.com)
"The World Health Organization (WHO) says nearly 11 million children under age 5 die each year from easily preventable and cheaply cured diseases — including pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and complications during the first year of life."
"It costs just 2 cents for a six-month supply of vitamin A supplement, 15 cents for a five-day course of antibiotics to treat pneumonia and $15 to immunize a child against the six main childhood diseases, according to the U.S. Coalition for Child Survival."
"A bed net, treated to kill and repel malarial mosquitoes, costs less than $10."
"The United States spent $1.7 billion on global health, education and population programs in 2001, according to rough calculations based on figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. France was the second-biggest spender, with $1.1 billion in aid, followed by Germany at $1 billion and Japan at nearly $800 million."
" 'The child survival effort has lost its focus,' the Lancet article said, with 'levels of attention and effort directed at preventing the small proportion of child deaths due to AIDS with a new, complex and expensive intervention ... outstripping the efforts to save millions of children every year with a few cents' worth [of basic treatments]. This must change.' "
"The World Health Organization reports that AIDS causes about 3 percent of child deaths. Deaths related to complications during the first month of life — often malnutrition — account for 23 percent, respiratory diseases (largely pneumonia) for 19 percent, diarrhea 13 percent and malaria 9 percent." 9-03
- 10-09-03 Cancer - Striking New Treatment (CBC News)
"A major Canadian-led study has been stopped early because the drug being tested showed "striking" results in preventing breast cancer survivors from having a recurrence."
In the study, women taking letrozole (also known as femara) had half as many recurrences of cancer as those women on a placebo." 10-03
- 11-25-03 Congress Approves Remake of Medicare (Bloomberg.com)
"The U.S. Senate voted 54-44 to approve Medicare's biggest expansion in history, a bill designed to help the elderly pay for medicines and test competition between private and federal health insurance."
"The legislation would help 41 million elderly and disabled Americans pay for prescriptions at pharmacies, expanding sales for drugmakers including Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co." 11-03
- 11-25-03 Setback in War on Hunger (CNN News)
"World hunger is growing again after a steady fall in the first half of the 1990s, according to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization." 11-03
- 11-28-03 More Hungry This Year (CBS News)
"...for the third year in a row, the number of hungry Americans has been rising. The government now says 35 million Americans don't know where their next meal is going to come from, and that number includes 13 million children." 11-03
- 12-01-03 AIDS - World Losing Battle with AIDS (BBC News)
"The American Health Secretary, Tommy Thompson, has warned that the world is losing the fight against Aids."
"Speaking in Zambia on World Aids Day, Mr Thompson called on the international community to intensify its efforts to combat the disease."
"To mark the day, the United Nations unveiled ambitious plans to supply three million HIV sufferers with the drugs they need by the end of 2005."
"An estimated 40 million people are now infected with HIV around the world." 12-03
- 12-01-03 Virtual Colonoscopy as Effective as Traditional Screening (Washington Post - Stein)
"A 'virtual' colonoscopy catches pre-cancerous growths as reliably as the conventional physical exam, offering a less invasive way to avoid one of the top cancer killers, researchers reported today."
"Colon cancer strikes an estimated 105,500 Americans each year and kills more than 57,000, making it the second leading cancer killer after lung cancer. But if caught early, colon cancer is highly curable. As a result, doctors recommend regular colonoscopies." 12-03
- 12-13-03 Colorectal Cancer - Vitamin D Protects Against (CNN News)
"A diet rich in vitamin D appears to protect people from developing potentially cancerous growths in the colon, a study of more than 3,100 veterans found." 12-03
- 12-30-30 USDA Bans "Downer" Cows for Meat (USAToday.com)
"Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman Tuesday announced a list of new restrictions to further enhance the safety of the American beef supply, including a meatpacking ban on the use of sick 'downer' cattle like the one discovered last week with mad cow disease."
"She also announced bans against the use of small intestines and head and spinal tissue from older cattle in the U.S. food chain, as well as changes in slaughterhouse techniques with the aim of preventing accidental contamination of meat with cow nerve tissue. Mad cow disease is spread through such brain and spinal cord tissue." 12-03
- Current Health and Science Issues in Depth (NOW with Bill Moyers)
"When PBS and Bill Moyers launched NOW, it was to illuminate stories that weren't being covered on any other public affairs broadcast, and under Moyers' leadership, NOW has pursued the truth behind the headlines. 'We are continuing to take a thoughtful look at the events shaping our world,' says Moyers, who has received every major broadcast journalisim award including more than 30 Emmy Awards." 12-03
Papers
- AIDS - Guide on the Biology of AIDS (BBC News)
"At least 28 million people worldwide have died from Aids – their bodies' defence systems ravaged by the HIV virus to the point where everyday infections become life-threatening."
"Click through this guide to find out about how HIV attacks and how the drugs fight it." 12-03
- AIDS - Map of the Prevalence of AIDS (BBC News)
Shows where in the world the epidemic is strongest. 12-03
- AIDS - Map of the Speed of Spread of AIDS (BBC News)
Shows where in the world the epidemic is growing the fastest. 12-03
- AIDS - Projections for 2010 - Best Case Scenario (BBC News)
This study "predicted 45 million new infections in poor and middle income countries by 2010 if no improvements were made. But it said that 29 million of those infections could be averted if a set of prevention and care measures from successful projects around the world was implemented immediately". 12-03
- AIDS - Projections for 2010 in Just Four Countries (BBC News)
Shows how many cases of AIDS are predicted by 2010 in Russia, China, Nigeria, and Ethiopia if effective prevention is not in place soon. 12-03
- Amber Alert May Become a National System (CNNTruthOut.org)
Reports efforts by the Senate to develop legislation that makes the Amber Alert a national system. " ''We've had 13 Amber alerts in California in one month,' Feinstein said in unveiling the legislation Tuesday. 'One was a misstep. All other 12 have resulted in the return of the child. Eight were abductions from strangers and four involved family members. Now that's an unparalleled record.' " 9-02
- Best Safety Option for a Car - Electronic Stability Control (CNNMoney)
"Now two studies from Europe and Japan -- where consumers have more widely embraced the systems -- confirm what I've long believed: that stability control may be second only to seat belts in safeguarding drivers and passengers."
"Toyota found that electronic stability control reduced single-vehicle crashes in Japan by a remarkable 35 percent and head-on crashes by 30 percent." 10-03
- Boomers Unprepared for Retirement (CBS News)
"Financial planners strongly suggest having at least 70 percent of your current income saved up for every retirement year you think you'll have."
"It's a lot of saving, but a recent study by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that about 41 percent of workers between the ages of 25 and 64 had any kind of retirement account. And half of those who did had balances of less than $33,000." 10-03
- Diabetes Can Be Prevented With Diet and Moderate Exercise (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)
Researchers have found that moderate exercise (30 minutes a day) and a small loss of weight (5 - 7 percent) can result in a 58 percent reduction in Type 2 diabetes for those who are most at risk. "At least 10 million Americans at high risk for type 2 diabetes can sharply lower their chances of getting the disease with diet and exercise..." Diabetes is a devastating disease that costs over 90 billion dollars a year in health care costs.
- Diabetes Can Be Prevented With Diet and Moderate Exercise (USA Today)
"Those who trimmed their weight by 5% to 7%, dropping an average 10 to 15 pounds, and exercised about 30 minutes a day, reduced their risk of progressing to diabetes within the three-year study period by 58%." Diabetes is a devastating disease that costs over 90 billion dollars a year in health care costs.
- Diet, Exercise, and Cancer (American Cancer Society)
"For the majority of Americans who do not smoke, eating a healthful diet and being physically active are the most important ways to reduce cancer risk. Evidence suggests that one third of the 550,000 cancer deaths that occur in the United States each year are due to unhealthy diet and insufficient physical activity." 1-04
- Editorial - Bush's Prescription Drug Relief Flawed (Detroit Free Press - )
"Several states, including Michigan, have already tried to help senior citizens get prescription drugs by giving them choices among HMO plans through Medicare. The experiments have mostly failed. Yet President George W. Bush is heading into the same blind alley." 1-03
- Electronic Stability Control - Cars That Have It (CNNMoney)
Lists availability of electronic stability control, a safety device arguably more important than air bags, in different car models. 10-03
- Fast Food and TV Triple Obesity Threat (ABC News)
"Whites who eat fast food more than twice a week and also spend at least 2 1/2 hours a day watching television have triple the risk of both obesity and abnormal glucose control, compared to those who eat out once or less and watch no more than an hour and a half of TV."
"The first lie, claimed outright, was that Iraq aided and abetted the Sept. 11 terrorists. There is no evidence at all for this claim."
"The project did turn up one surprise: While a lot of fast food is clearly bad for white people, it seems to make no difference at all for blacks."
"The reason for this is unclear, but the researchers said the data suggest that black people's diets are often just as unhealthy at home as they are at the drive-through window. So a lot of fast food doesn't make matters any worse than they already are." 3-03
- Guide to Losing Fat (ABC News)
Provides a guide to losing fat. Examples of recommendations include eat an apple before each meal, consume at least a daily cup of broccoli (or other source of 600 milligrams of calcium to suppress the hormone calcitrol), avoid pasta and fast food, record all calories per day, and stay within 1,100 calories per day. 1-04
- Health Care - Alternative Cash Program for Home Care (IndependentChoices)
Describes an alternative to institutional care from Medicaid. In the Arkansas state program, cash can go to the person with the medical or personal care needs and the person can actually hire the services that they specifically need. Expenses for this approach has so far shown to be less than for conventional Medicaid care and recipients seem to find the program much more useful. 1-01
- Health Care Costs Jump Higher (ABC News)
"U.S. spending on health care rose to $1.4 trillion in 2001, the biggest percentage increase in 10 years, according to a government report issued on Wednesday."
"The 8.7 percent rise, up from $1.3 trillion in 2000, was fueled by rapidly growing Medicaid, hospital, and prescription drug spending, the report from the Health and Human Services Department said." 1-03
- Hunger in the United States (National Priorities Project)
"Almost 12% of households in the nation experienced food insecurity at some point during 2001. This means that 34 million people, 13 million of whom are children, did not have access to enough food for "active, healthy living" as defined by the federal government." 2-04
- Managed Health Care Reform (Center for Responsive Politics)
Summarizes efforts to reform managed health care and also reveals contributions by special interest groups to Republicans and Democrats. 3-01
- Medicine and the Genome Projects (CNN - Feig)
Summarizes implications of the human genome project, considered a major milestone for medicine. 2-01
- Poverty in the United States (National Priorities Project)
"More than one in ten families, and about 17% of all children, live in poverty in this country. The federal government defines poverty according to income and family size. A family of three with two children is considered 'poor' if they live on less than $14,494." 2-04
- Stem Cells Guide (National Institutes of Health)
Defines basic terms in stem cell research, such as pluripotent and totipotent, and explains why stem cell research is so important for curing some of the most devastating human diseases and deteriorating conditions. 8-01
- Takeout Nation (MSNBC News)
"American families still manage to eat dinner together, they just don't want to cook it. How our busy lives and more sophisticated tastes are transforming the food industry. And why that fancy new kitchen is always so clean." 1-04
Research
- Fitness Research (PE4Life.com)
Provides over a dozen studies on obesity, fitness, and heatlh. 3-02
- Higher Doses of Statin Drugs Yield Excellent Results (iVillage.com)
"The 'miracle' cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins have just become more miraculous."
"New research shows high levels of the drugs given to people who have just been hospitalized with heart attacks or high-risk unstable angina not only prevented future "events" but also saved lives."
"These findings call into question current guidelines on how low low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or the "bad" cholesterol) levels should be."
"But even today, as the editorial points out, only about 11 million people are getting statins when an estimated 36 million should be on them. Worldwide, more than 200 million people meet the criteria for treatment with statins while only 25 million are actually taking the drugs. This is largely a cost issue, Topol states. His editorial points out that in Cleveland, the cost of 10 mg of atorvastatin per day (the recommended starting dose) is $900 per year, while the 80-mg dose costs $1,400 per year. At a collective $12.5 billion, statins are the largest prescription drug expenditure in the United States, he writes." 3-04
- Virus May Fight Bacterial Infections (applesforhealth.com)
Describes a research study that shows promise for fighting Strep throat, pneumonia, and other infections that are normally resistant to antibiotics. The virus is engineered to destroy only one type of bacteria, an effective and possibly healthier solution compared to use of conventional antibiotics. Conventional antibiotics attack useful as well as infectious bacteria. 3-01
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