New information released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics links preterm births and infant mortality rates in the United States. The U.S. ranked 30th out of 31 countries in overall infant mortality rates, showing 6.9 of every 1,000 live births resulted in death, a statistic that is complemented by the fact that 1/8 of the births in the U.S. were preterm, a high rate compared to numbers from European countries.
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It was in June of 2009 that President Obama charged all members of Congress with the task of coming to agreement on proper and forward-thinking health care reform. It was the last week of October before bills were actually introduced to the House and the Senate, as months of fighting between the political parties and struggling with a sometimes misinformed public (and media) delayed the process much longer than anticipated.
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Obesity is still a big problem within our country, and now one of the medications prescribed for children could be a factor in their weight gain. Up to one-third of adolescents and children who took some of the common antipsychotic drugs for the first time became overweight or obese in as little as 11 weeks, which in turn raised their risk for diabetes and heart disease.
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Since New York issued a mandate in 2008 requiring fast food restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus, consumers have become more calorie conscious and are making better meal choices. The city is the first in the U.S. to have issued such a mandate.
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Throughout the summer and autumn months of 2009, as the health care reform debate rages on from the halls of Congress to the homes of many Americans, a key point in the discussions has been the level of waste in the current system that makes it so expensive. The Obama administration has touted reforms as a way of fixing the problems that cause waste, and the subsequent money saved could help pay for said reforms. Now there are facts that back up those statements, coming from an independent study released on Monday, October 26, which verifies that the current result of waste in the U.S. health care system costs the country between $505 billion and $850 billion.
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We all know how important it is to be healthy while you are pregnant, but even more so for women who are obese. Given the high rate of obesity, new guidelines have been issued recommending that the heavier a woman is, the less weight she should gain during pregnancy.
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Over the years, immunization has saved millions of lives and prevented hundreds of millions of cases of disease. Today in the United States, children routinely get vaccines that protect them from 14 diseases, all of which, at one time or another, were a serious threat to our country’s children. For instance, diphtheria used to be one of the most dreaded of childhood diseases, killing more than 10,000 Americans each year, but today’s doctors are likely to never see a single case. And smallpox, which was one of the most devastating diseases the world has ever known, has been eradicated from the Earth thanks to vaccination.
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Although early-stage dementia emerges as a memory disorder that commonly affects the aging mind, the end-stage effects are extensive and the illness is terminal. Based on new research, experts have redefined advanced dementia as fatal failure of the brain.
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You can drastically reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes simply by choosing to reside in a neighborhood that promotes exercise and offers easy access to healthy foods. In fact, people who live in “healthy” neighborhoods that provide safe sidewalks, plentiful parks, and readily accessible fresh fruits and vegetables, along with dependable public transportation, are 38 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people who live in less healthy neighborhoods.
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The issue of whether or not parents should spank their children has been widely debated and continues to provoke strong feelings on both sides. Advocates of spanking view it as an effective form of discipline and maintain that reasonable use of the practice is not harmful to children. Opponents argue that hitting children is not an effective deterrent for bad behavior, but a practice that plants the seeds for later violent behavior. The spanking haggle has a lengthy history in scientific research, and two new studies that suggest children who are spanked have lower IQ’s than those who aren’t is likely to reignite the debate yet again.
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