Archive for the ‘Fitness Articles’ Category.
July 12, 2011, 9:38 am
After a case of measles was identified last month, state health officials notified the public to be on the look out for symptoms. But no new cases have surfaced, the officials said today.
The case was unusual. The last one in the state was in 2009. And officials at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene feared others were exposed to disease as the infected person traveled from place to place.
And while the state may have dodged a bullet this time, officials want residents to stay alert and get vaccinated if they haven’t been already — most kids are given two sets of shots for measles as part of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
“With measles outbreaks in nearby states, this is hardly the moment to be complacent,” said Frances Phillips, deputy secretary for public health services, in a statement.
Read the full article…
July 11, 2011, 5:15 pm
Conventional wisdom holds you should try to stay out of the hospital in July if at all possible, since thats when new medical residents report for duty.
But while there have been studies looking at the question like one published last year suggesting there are more fatal medication errors in July until now, there hasnt been a major review of the research on the topic.
Researchers at the UCSF School of Medicine looked at 39 published studies and concluded that while there is mixed evidence, our analysis suggests that mortality increases during the changeover months, says co-author John Young, associate program director of the residency training program in the schools department of psychiatry.
Read the full article…
July 10, 2011, 8:53 am
WASHINGTON, D.C. — We’re getting fatter. In 1995, no state had an obesity rate above 20 percent. Now, all but one does. An annual obesity report by two public health groups looked for the first time at state-by-state statistics over the last two decades. The state that has the lowest obesity rate now – Colorado, with 19.8 percent of adults considered obese – would have had the highest rate in 1995. According to an interactive map of growing waistlines in the U.S., 23.2 percent of adults in Washington state are considered obese; 59.5 percent are considered overweight. “When you look at it year by year, the changes are incremental,” says Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the Trust for America’s Health, which writes the annual report with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “When you look at it by a generation you see how we got into this problem.” The study, based on 2010 data, says a dozen states top 30 percent obesity, most of them in the South.
Read the full article…
July 7, 2011, 11:01 pm
Pfizer says it will explore options for its animal-health and nutrition businesses in other words, look to spin off or sell the units. But the company plans to hang on to its established products (generics and branded generics) and consumer-health businesses, which may disappoint investors hoping for more sweeping restructuring plans.
Heres the Dow Jones Newswires story and heres the companys press release.
Pfizer has been weighing the sale of various business units to focus on neuroscience, cardiovascular medicine, oncology, inflammation, immunology and vaccines, and three specialized units for pain, sensory disorders and biosimilars. In April it said it would sell its Capsugel unit for $2.38 billion.
The company said today it will continue to enhance the value of its established products business, given the demand for off-patent drugs in developing economies.
Read the full article…
July 7, 2011, 2:55 pm
Michigan’s adult obesity rate has increased by 77 percent over the past 15 years, making it the 10th fattest state in the nation, according to a report released Thursday.
Michigan’s obesity rate is 30.5 percent, based on 2010 data, up from 17.2 percent in 1995.
Michigan is among 12 other states, mostly in the South, with obesity rates exceeding 30 percent, according to the report F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2011.
This report ranked Michigan 10th fattest in the nation last year and ninth in 2009, according to Glenna DeJong, vice president of educational programs at the Michigan Fitness Foundation.
“We are making a little bit of progress,” DeJong said. “But this brings to light what a problem it is here and we are certainly glad Gov. (Rick) Snyder has this obesity measure on his dashboard.”
Snyder hasn’t announced any major effort to address the state’s obesity issues but is expected to do so in September.
Read the full article…