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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Sign up now to have important CDC information about H1N1 flu and other topics delivered directly to your mobile phone! The CDC launched a three-month text messaging campaign pilot to share important, timely health information directly to users.
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U.S. officials are scrutinizing nutritional claims found on the front of consumer food packaging in an effort to crack down on the use of misleading information. What you see is not always what you get when it comes to “catch phrase” labeling and the actual nutritional value of many food products.
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The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently issued a report that outlines proposed recommendations for improved standards for school-provided meals that offer nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day. The nutritional standards of the National School Lunch Program have not been reviewed for possible update since the 1995 Dietary Guidelines for America standards were set. If adopted, the new guidelines would also apply to the National School Breakfast Program.
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Every year, more than 400,000 Americans die of illnesses related to their smoking, and so do thousands of non-smokers who have been exposed to secondhand smoke—a combination of smoke that comes from the burning end of a cigarette, cigar or pipe and the smoke exhaled by the smoker. Non-smokers who breathe in secondhand smoke take in the same toxic chemicals that smokers do, including more than 50 substances that are known to cause cancer in humans or animals. The more secondhand smoke a person is exposed to, the higher the level of these harmful chemicals in their body. For adults, the health effects of exposure to secondhand smoke include respiratory tract infections, lung cancer, nasal sinus cancer and heart disease.
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Placebos, the ubiquitous sugar pills of old, are usually employed in drug trials to determine the effectiveness of a medication. Comparing the responses of both the medication and a placebo allows for the measurement of the efficacy of the treatment. However, in some cases, the placebo actually can have an effect, as is the case in a recent trial where the placebo actually reduced pain signaling in their spinal cord.
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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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The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is expanding the list of conditions and diseases acknowledged as having a connection to being exposed to Agent Orange. Under the VA’s new proposal, additional medical conditions would have presumptive status, thereby making it easier for those who suffer from these illnesses to qualify for VA benefits.
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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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