Feds Find Wide Variation In Serious Infections Linked To Catheters
Across the country, 1 in 6 hospitals has high rates of one of the most serious kinds of preventable infections — those caused by catheters inserted into large veins, according to new data published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Patients at hospitals in Maryland, Mississippi, Louisiana, Maine and New Hampshire were most [...]
Trans Fats Are Leaving The Food Supply And The Body, Study Finds
Remember trans fats? And the big campaigns to get them out of burgers, fries and all kinds of baked goods? Well, those campaigns seem to have worked. A study out this week has found that the amount of trans-fatty acids in some Americans decreased significantly — 58 percent among white adults between 2000 and 2009. [...]
Tai Chi May Help Parkinson’s Patients Regain Balance
Tai Chi, the Chinese martial art involving slow and rhythmic movement, has been shown to benefit older people by maintaining balance and strength. Now, researchers have found that Tai Chi also helps patients who suffer from Parkinson’s disease. Leona Maricle was diagnosed with Parkinson’s two years ago. At the time, she was teaching math, and [...]
Does Offering Smaller Portions At Restaurants Help People Eat Less?
A server offers you the option to downsize the fried rice side in your Chinese takeout order by half. She tells you that if you accept her offer, you’ll save at least 200 calories. Do you take it? About one-third of diners (out of several hundred) who were given that choice at a Chinese takeout [...]
Skip The Spoon: Babies May Eat Better When They Feed Themselves
Spooning strained peas into a baby is the traditional way to start solid food. But babies might be better off feeding themselves. That’s the surprising result of a new study that compared the food preferences and weight of babies who fed themselves finger food with those who were spoon fed. Both groups of children had [...]
Heartburn Treatments May Lead To Serious Diarrhea
If that case of diarrhea just doesn’t get better, your heartburn drug could be the reason. The Food and Drug Administration just warned doctors and consumers that popular medicines called proton pump inhibitors may raise the risk for chronic diarrhea caused by Clostridium difficile, a bacterium that you’d rather not have colonizing your intestines. The [...]
Teen Pregnancies Hit New Low, But Disparities Remain
Teen pregnancies are at their lowest rate in nearly 40 years, according to the latest data from the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization focused on sexual and reproductive health. The report shows that about 7 percent of U.S. teen girls between the ages of 15 to 19 were pregnant in 2008 — a decline from [...]
Planned Parenthood Still In Cross Hairs
One of the driving forces behind the now-reversed decision to cancel funding to Planned Parenthood has stepped down from her executive position at the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. But the resignation of Karen Handel, an outspoken opponent of the reproductive health group, hasn’t slowed down foes of Planned Parenthood. Even as Handel [...]
Walmart Creates Icon For Food Packages To Encourage Healthy Choices
We’re all for smarter labels. And now Walmart has introduced an easy way for shoppers to quickly identify healthier foods with its new front-of-package Great For You icon. With thousands of choices available, “choosing something healthy can be a daunting task,” Kelly Cheeseman of Walmart Foundation tells The Salt. “And when you factor in price [...]
Controversy Over Stem-Cell Research Keeps Charities On Sidelines
The Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation has been in the news because of its clash with Planned Parenthood Federation of America. But another aspect of Komen’s activities hasn’t received much attention: Komen’s position on research using human embryonic stem cells. Despite raising millions of dollars for breast cancer research, Komen hasn’t funded any [...]
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