Category: Wellness (Page 57 of 116)

Death By Soda?

January 16, 2012 / Staff

Could more than 2,600 deaths a year be prevented by taxing soda?

Some analysts think, yes.

In general, they assume that if the price of soda rises, people will buy less of it. “We assume that 40 percent of the calories saved by forgoing a sugary drink are replaced with other calories,” she says, meaning either calories from drinks such as milk or fruit juice or from food. “So for every 100 calories in soda avoided, only 60 calories are actually lost in the diet.”
This is not the first study to predict that a soda tax would be effective in reducing consumption. Yale University researchers concluded in this report that taxing sugary drinks would lead to economic benefits as well.

Using the funds that come from taxing unhealthy foods could be the answer to a host of health cost issues.

Nutrition, Quality Control, Resources, Wellness

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Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Found in India

January 14, 2012 / Staff

TB that resists antibiotic treatment is causing problems in India.

Over crowded living conditions, poor hygiene, ill-informed medical staff are and over use of antibiotics are fueling the already rampant problem.

The risk of drug resistant disease becoming pandemic is one of the Greatest concerns of the World Health Organization.

The problem of evolving TB drug resistance has been brewing for years. In the early 1990s, multidrug-resistant TB began spreading in New York City, abetted by homelessness, prison outbreaks and HIV. Aggressive identification and treatment of these cases, including the direct observation of patients taking their pills, snuffed out that epidemic.
In 2005, extensively drug-resistant TB — strains untreatable with the three first-line drugs and several second-choice medications — cropped up in the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal, again abetted by HIV, which devastates immune defenses.

Quality Control, Resources, Wellness

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Beware the Lack of Nutrition in Your Breakfast Cereal

January 14, 2012 / Staff

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A quote from a fantastic, in depth article in Harvard Magazine sums it up:

“As far as our hormones and metabolism are concerned, there’s no difference between a bowl of unsweetened corn flakes and a bowl of table sugar. Starch is 100 percent glucose [table sugar is half glucose, half fructose] and our bodies can digest it into sugar instantly.”

Nutrition, Quality Control, Research, Wellness

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And the Healthiest Cities Are…..

January 13, 2012 / Staff

This could get complicated if you’re coupled; it seems that there are cities which are healthy for women and cities which are healthy for men.

Women tend to be healthiest in the South and men in the North and the unhealthiest cities are the same for both and included Memphis, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Detroit, Michigan; St. Louis, Missouri; Jackson, Mississippi; Cleveland, Ohio; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Toledo, Ohio; and Kansas City, Missouri.

Raleigh in North Carolina has been rated the healthiest U.S. city for women, while Burlington, Vermont has earned the same accolade for men, according Men’s and Women’s Health magazines.
Both cities scored top marks in the magazine polls that ranked 100 of the largest U.S. cities in 30 categories ranging from obesity and the amount of time they spent working out to how often they saw their doctor.

Read the whole article here and get the complete list of the healthiest and unhealthiest cities for men and women at www.menshealth.com and www.womenshealthmag.com.

Quality Control, Research, Resources, Wellness

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The Price Society Pays for Diabetes

January 11, 2012 / Staff

The overall cost of diabetes on society is greater than the dollars and cents spent to treat and care for patients.

A new study from researchers at Yale suggests that the disease, which currently affects nearly 8 percent of the U.S. population, could have significant nonmedical costs to society as well.
The study, which appears in the January issue of the policy journal Health Affairs, suggests that young people diagnosed with the disease are more likely to drop out of high school and to forgo or fail to finish college. As a result, they’re likely to earn less than those without diabetes.

Nutrition, Quality Control, Research, Resources, Wellness

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